MG4 not charging

I also have a charging problem with my MG4 LR

Car 1250 miles, just under 1 year old (3rd May 2023). I noticed a couple of times recently (last few months) the car didn't appear to have charged. I assumed I had made a mistake, as these were just small top up charges. Before that the car worked flawlessly for big and top up charges. The 1st service came due and I went to charge it for the 70 mile round trip, it was at 60% and it wouldn't charge properly. For the 1 or 2 min it will stay connected, it does put charge into the traction battery.

It would start charging on the 7.2kW Rolec wall box, then after a couple of minutes or a bit less, stop charging. I tried:
  • Neighbours wall box (pod point), won't charge my MG4, my neighbour has an MG4 EV LR Trophy
  • My old BMW Granny charger
  • MG Granny charger
  • Limiting to lower charge amperage
  • Locking unlocking, resetting..ensuring timed charge wasn't on etc.. etc..nothing worked it will not charge
Before the software update at the first service I would get the odd yellow HV battery symbol sometimes, but it would almost immediately clear. 12V battery is fine (I also always put it on charge for a small top up and drive on short journeys regularly)

Got it to the dealer for the 1st service, software update done, I told em about the charging problems and could they try it. Instead I got the car back with the, were sure it will charge OK now we have done the update, if not contact us. Worryingly the car had shown no fault codes relating to charging, or anything else!

Got home, battery on about 54%, plugged it in and 2min later, it stopped charging, won't charge on either of the 2 granny chargers (MG and BMW I have either. The unhelpful message on the infotainment screen when it stops now is "charging stopped, no abnormal cause" This would lead me to believe it's still not logging any fault codes and the car is just stopping the charge for some reason. If I keep trying and restart the charge, doing that constantly might get a few% in after some hours.

I managed to get it back to the dealers (there's only me in my house and one car), where it's awaiting diagnostics (scheduled for Friday). I managed to get a friend to drive a 70 mile round trip to pick me up from the dealer. My car is effectively as useful as house brick, it can't be termed a car because it's not usable.

Obviously they tried the old wall box faulty, not compatible whatever, but that's simply BS as I tried everything above, it clearly isn't my wall box and my neighbours MG4 charges perfectly on it. I don't have a courtesy car and I am not sure when and if I can get one (this is the dealer I bought it from). I also don't have a huge amount of confidence that it will be solved quickly, but I live in hope.

It's not great when you pay 29K for a car (cash) and within 1 year, it becomes unusable, especially as you do it to get reliability and peace of mind for the warranty period. Loan cars are only if you're lucky it seems and MG UK couldn't care less. I feel like I have more comeback when purchasing a fridge.
 
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Welcome to the forum, Dave. I could wish you were joining without a problem to relate, but hopefully it's something that can and will be fixed.

Is your car one of the ones without a rear wiper? These seem to be the ones prone to this charging issue that is eventually fixed by replacing the CCU, and it sounds very like the symptoms. Have a read through the thread where this problem was first identified.

Issue with AC charging/New CCU fitted (Phase One SE LR)

Edit: Originally, I thought I had an issue with my Zappi not being able to charge the car, but after testing other AC charging points (cutting out after fifteen minutes or less) and contacting the dealer, I eventually found out it was an issue with the car, namely the charge control unit, which...
www.mgevs.com www.mgevs.com
 
DavecUK said:
I also have a charging problem with my MG4 LR

Car 1250 miles, just under 1 year old (3rd May 2023). I noticed a couple of times recently (last few months) the car didn't appear to have charged. I assumed I had made a mistake, as these were just small top up charges. Before that the car worked flawlessly for big and top up charges. The 1st service came due and I went to charge it for the 70 mile round trip, it was at 60% and it wouldn't charge properly. For the 1 or 2m it will stay connected, it does put charge into the traction battery.

It would start charging on the 7.2kW Rolec wall box, then after a couple of minutes or a bit less, stop charging. I tried:
  • Neighbours wall box (pod point), won't charge my MG4, my neighbour has an MG4 EV LR Trophy
  • My old BMW Granny charger
  • MG Granny charger
  • Limiting to lower charge amperage
  • Locking unlocking, resetting..ensuring timed charge wasn't on etc.. etc..nothing worked it will not charge
Before the software update at the first service I would get the odd yellow HV battery symbol sometimes, but it would almost immediately clear. 12V battery is fine (I also always put it on charge for a small top up and drive on short journeys regularly)

Got it to the dealer for the 1st service, software update done, I told em about the charging problems and could they try it. Instead I got the car back with the, were sure it will charge OK now we have done the update, if not contact us. Worryingly the car had shown no fault codes relating to charging, or anything else!

Got home, battery on about 54%, plugged it in and 2m later, it stopped charging, won't charge on either of the 2 granny chargers (MG and BMW I have either. The unhelpful message on the infotainment screen when it stops now is "charging stopped, no abnormal cause" This would lead me to believe it's still not logging any fault codes and the car is just stopping the charge for some reason. If I keep trying and restart the charge, doing that constantly might get a few% in after some hours.

I managed to get it back to the dealers (there's only me in my house and one car), where it's awaiting diagnostics (scheduled for Friday). I managed to get a friend to drive a 70 mile round trip to pick me up from the dealer. My car is effectively as useful as house brick, it can't be termed a car because it's not usable.

Obviously they tried the old wall box faulty, not compatible whatever, but that's simply BS as I tried everything above, it clearly isn't my wall box and my neighbours MG4 charges perfectly on it. I don't have a courtesy car and I am not sure when and if I can get one (this is the dealer I bought it from). I also don't have a huge amount of confidence that it will be solved quickly, but I live in hope.

It's not great when you pay 29K for a car (cash) and within 1 year, it becomes unusable, especially as you do it to get reliability and peace of mind for the warranty period. Loan cars are only if you're lucky it seems and MG UK couldn't care less. I feel like I have more comeback when purchasing a fridge.
Click to expand...
Yes, sounds very much like you need a replacement CCU. The good news is they are readily available in the UK, it is just a matter of pushing your dealer to get MG to authorise the replacement, then it should be fixed. Usually DC charging still works, and so with that when this happened to me I was able to get by with public charging and not need a courtesy car.

Nobody likes have a major problem with their new car, but EV tech is still maturing and several makers have had CCU issues recently, not just MG.
 
Rolfe said:
Welcome to the forum, Dave. I could wish you were joining without a problem to relate, but hopefully it's something that can and will be fixed.

Is your car one of the ones without a rear wiper? These seem to be the ones prone to this charging issue that is eventually fixed by replacing the CCU, and it sounds very like the symptoms. Have a read through the thread where this problem was first identified.

Issue with AC charging/New CCU fitted (Phase One SE LR)

Edit: Originally, I thought I had an issue with my Zappi not being able to charge the car, but after testing other AC charging points (cutting out after fifteen minutes or less) and contacting the dealer, I eventually found out it was an issue with the car, namely the charge control unit, which...
www.mgevs.com www.mgevs.com
Click to expand...
Mine does not have a rear wiper
 
I think you have the CCU issue. Lots of information in the linked thread. A lot of people have had it and I'm getting a bit suspicious that all MY22 LR cars are going to get it.

As @tsedge says, the good news is that it has happened to so many people that the required part is now readily available and it should be a fairly straightforward fix once your dealer catches on to what is going on.
 

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I'm right in the middle of having this specific issue fixed. My car went in on Monday this week and had the software updated (which cured a few unrelated issues, so I was pleased about that)!

Unfortunately, it did not fix the issue. The dealer ordered a new CCU on Monday. They rang today to tell me it has arrived and I'm booked in next Thursday for them to fit it.

Apart from the issue itself, getting it resolved has (so far) been very easy.
 
benflugel said:
I'm right in the middle of having this specific issue fixed. My car went in on Monday this week and had the software updated (which cured a few unrelated issues, so I was pleased about that)!

Unfortunately, it did not fix the issue. The dealer ordered a new CCU on Monday. They rang today to tell me it has arrived and I'm booked in next Thursday for them to fit it.

Apart from the issue itself, getting it resolved has (so far) been very easy.
Click to expand...
Exactly the same initial experience as me, service, software update, said it would all be good... it wasn't. However had they tried for just 3 minutes to charge it, as I requested, it would have saved me a lot of trouble.

Mine will have its diagnostics done tomorrow, I have sent them some information I learned from this forum, so fingers crossed, after tomorrow they can order parts and then fit them as quickly as you have experienced.

My main difficulty is because the dealer is a 72 mile round trip from me, with very poor public transport links from where I live to them. So bad that it would cost the same to get an Uber as to try and get there by public transport e.g. £60 ish.

I do have a local dealer 7 miles from me in Slyfield Industrial Estate Guildford....Richmond MG, which was my nominated service plan dealership.... but that's a whole other story, for another time.
 
I had a similar issue with mine. Not as far in distance as yours but I have a pukka MG dealer 4 miles from my house. They are not part of the Octopus salary sacrifice "fleet assist" network, the closest there being 20 miles each way.

Octopus, to their credit, arranged with MG UK for my car to be seen at my local garage, including a courtesy car.

And my local MG garage are absolutely brilliant too, so I'm really chuffed.
 
I had an update from the dealer yesterday....after the diagnostic done on Friday 3rd may. MG have authorised the warranty work, so now it's just waiting for parts to arrive...not sure how long that will take? It's quite a problem not having a car where I live. I hope that I can get my car back in a week or so.
 
They called me today, my MG4 is ready, so not too bad considering there was a bank holiday in there. The parts seem to come fairly quickly once MG authorised the warranty repair. So a big thumbs up for Palmers MG of Hemel Hempstead in getting it turned around reasonably rapidly.

I would like to see MG UK be a little more proactive in sorting out things which they know are an issue and giving dealers a parts holding for known issues like this one.

On a different note, I would like to see a law change...in with a car in warranty (possibly under a certain age), a courtesy car must be provided after 7 days if the car is not usable because of a fault, or a hire car if a courtesy car isn't available. Now people might say dealers are private businesses and they would suffer etc..but manufacturers could make up that money. It would give us:
  • More reliable cars (as dealers would pressure manufacturers, so would costs)
  • Better and more proactive service from manufacturer and dealer
  • Something consumers deserve, as at the moment they have less rights than when ordering a £100 item from Amazon
  • Dealers resourcing service and repair departments properly
  • More mechanics being trained
New cars are incredibly expensive things and I don't think we have sufficient consumer protections.
 
ozzz said:
My car did a weird no charge thing at a fast charger. I closed all windows lock the doors and it started to charge. I did this twice hopefully your problem is simple.
Click to expand...
Mine has done this as well and I did the same and it started working.
 
I’m still waiting on my car being fixed. They have said the CPU unit they previously replaced is still ok and therefore their technical have advised them to replace the charging port, which requires lowered the battery, apparently a big job. I’m waiting to hear this week if that’s been successful. Apart from 3 days in April when they gave us the car back, but it only charged four times before failing again, we've been without our MG since the start of February, so coming up to 4 months! The MG garage has now had the car longer than we have. We do have a petrol hire car courtesy of Octopus Electric Vehicles who are the ones we have leased from. But 4 months of petrol prices, rather than 7.5p/kWh prices are certainly eating into our budget, let alone extra pollution. We do about 1500 miles a month.
 
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NickT said:
I’m still waiting on my car being fixed. They have said the CPU unit they previously replaced is still ok and therefore their technical have advised them to replace the charging port, which requires lowered the battery, apparently a big job. I’m waiting to hear this week if that’s been successful. Apart from 3 days in April when they gave us the car back, but it only charged four times before failing again, we've been without our MG since the start of February, so coming up to 4 months! The MG garage has now had the car longer than we have. We do have a petrol hire car courtesy of Octopus Electric Vehicles who are the ones we have leased from. But 4 months of petrol prices, rather than 7.5p kWh prices are certainly eating into our budget, let alone extra pollution. We do about 1500 miles a month.
Click to expand...
It's not a great experience is it. Charging port was their go to for mine first too (after software updates).

The cost of the CCU seems to be the issue for MG, they want to exhaust everything else first.

Let us know how you get on. But know that there is a fix, and the parts are available, you just have to let them play the "naff the customer off" game first.
 
NickT said:
I’m still waiting on my car being fixed. They have said the CPU unit they previously replaced is still ok and therefore their technical have advised them to replace the charging port, which requires lowered the battery, apparently a big job. I’m waiting to hear this week if that’s been successful. Apart from 3 days in April when they gave us the car back, but it only charged four times before failing again, we've been without our MG since the start of February, so coming up to 4 months! The MG garage has now had the car longer than we have. We do have a petrol hire car courtesy of Octopus Electric Vehicles who are the ones we have leased from. But 4 months of petrol prices, rather than 7.5p kWh prices are certainly eating into our budget, let alone extra pollution. We do about 1500 miles a month.
Click to expand...
Not good enough dealers have to be better
 
benflugel said:
The cost of the CCU seems to be the issue for MG, they want to exhaust everything else first.
Click to expand...

I very much doubt the CCU cost is a major concern. It probably costs MG much less than you think

ozzz said:
Not good enough dealers have to be better
Click to expand...

As I said before, there needs to be a law change to protect consumers and improve dealer and manufacturer quality. e.g. In the first 3 years of ownership, if the car is not usable for more than 7 days, a courtesy car must be provided, if none are available, then a hire car is provided.

This needs to be made consumer law.
 
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