MG5 not charging.

[PeteL]

About 10 days ago I planned a journey of some 210 miles return, so 105 each way. Car was at 94% charged, range 256, so plenty 'in the tank'. I put the granny charger on to bring it up overnight to 100%. The charger plug went in fine but 10 seconds later unlocked itself. I tried a few more times over the day, but no more charge accepted. I then went to a local Osprey rapid charger and plugged into 2 of the 3 on site, both claimed the car was fully charged.

Fortunately I have access to other vehicles so not critical for me that the MG works. Over the past week I have used the car for some local journeys and am now at 74% charged with range of 172 miles. I have tried numerous times to use the granny charger but it locks, then 10 seconds later unlocks. I get the purple array on the socket initially but then it unlocks and goes to the white/clear array.

Since then, on 2 of maybe 7 or 8 'starts' the whole dashboard has lit up with what looks like every warning sign appearing. As soon as I move into D, they all go out. The MG ismart app records 'electric power steering warning' fault, but once gone from the screen, the car drives perfectly and tells me 'no faults' on the screen.


A Google search says there is an MG service bulletin saying there is a software update that resolves 'strange charging behaviour above 90% soc' and a second TSI dated Feb 2024 outlining a CCU fault due to charging communication issues and this can cause cluster faults till HV comes on line, which does sound remarkably like my situation.

I'm just wondering if anyone on the forum has experienced similar behaviour and if they found a simple fix before/without involving the dealer? Dealer has a 2 week lead time according to their service dept today.

Vehicle is MG5 LR registered Sept 2024, 6,740 on the clock.

I forgot to say I have tried disconnecting the battery negative several times for upto 30 minutes and no joy there either, so the hard reset makes no difference either.

 

[Everest]

Over the past week I have used the car for some local journeys and am now at 74% charged with range of 172 miles. I have tried numerous times to use the granny charger but it locks, then 10 seconds later unlocks. I get the purple array on the socket initially but then it unlocks and goes to the white/clear array.

IMHO it's worth trying the DC charger again now you're back down to 74% - if only to help pinpoint the issue.

 

[5teep]

I had similar but not the same issue with my older 5SR where it would just refuse to connect/charge 3 times out of 4. Ended up although the car showed about 40% soc it went into HV battery failure and would not start. The error pointed to high resistance in part of the dc charge system but after much time and investigation by the dealer and MG it turned out to be corrosion on the charge port pins. Thay swapped out the port and problem went away.

 

[PeteL]

I thought I would run the car down to below 50% soc and then try the rapid charger again. I just want to leave enough charge in the car to drop it off at the dealer if necessary (15 or so miles away). Their lead time is 2 weeks but if I can leave it with them then there is a chance it may get looked at sooner they told me today.

I did look at the charge port connector pins but they look highly polished so at this stage I discounted them.

 

[kevin ellard]

About 10 days ago I planned a journey of some 210 miles return, so 105 each way. Car was at 94% charged, range 256, so plenty 'in the tank'. I put the granny charger on to bring it up overnight to 100%. The charger plug went in fine but 10 seconds later unlocked itself. I tried a few more times over the day, but no more charge accepted. I then went to a local Osprey rapid charger and plugged into 2 of the 3 on site, both claimed the car was fully charged.

Fortunately I have access to other vehicles so not critical for me that the MG works. Over the past week I have used the car for some local journeys and am now at 74% charged with range of 172 miles. I have tried numerous times to use the granny charger but it locks, then 10 seconds later unlocks. I get the purple array on the socket initially but then it unlocks and goes to the white/clear array.

Since then, on 2 of maybe 7 or 8 'starts' the whole dashboard has lit up with what looks like every warning sign appearing. As soon as I move into D, they all go out. The MG ismart app records 'electric power steering warning' fault, but once gone from the screen, the car drives perfectly and tells me 'no faults' on the screen.


A Google search says there is an MG service bulletin saying there is a software update that resolves 'strange charging behaviour above 90% soc' and a second TSI dated Feb 2024 outlining a CCU fault due to charging communication issues and this can cause cluster faults till HV comes on line, which does sound remarkably like my situation.

I'm just wondering if anyone on the forum has experienced similar behaviour and if they found a simple fix before/without involving the dealer? Dealer has a 2 week lead time according to their service dept today.

Vehicle is MG5 LR registered Sept 2024, 6,740 on the clock.

I'm fairly sure that you are going to need a dealer visit - you've tried a hard reset. If you want to do some more troubleshooting then it would be interesting to see if a DC charge would now work. It would also be interesting to see if V2L was still working because it sounds like the problem is in the AC/DC converter.

 

[PeteL]

I don't have a V2L adaptor and it's not something I have need for so I would end up carrying around more unnecessary weight. Next step is try the rapid charger again when I have done a few miles I think. Thanks for the contributions everyone.

 

[Mark A]

About 10 days ago I planned a journey of some 210 miles return, so 105 each way. Car was at 94% charged, range 256, so plenty 'in the tank'. I put the granny charger on to bring it up overnight to 100%. The charger plug went in fine but 10 seconds later unlocked itself. I tried a few more times over the day, but no more charge accepted. I then went to a local Osprey rapid charger and plugged into 2 of the 3 on site, both claimed the car was fully charged.

Fortunately I have access to other vehicles so not critical for me that the MG works. Over the past week I have used the car for some local journeys and am now at 74% charged with range of 172 miles. I have tried numerous times to use the granny charger but it locks, then 10 seconds later unlocks. I get the purple array on the socket initially but then it unlocks and goes to the white/clear array.

Since then, on 2 of maybe 7 or 8 'starts' the whole dashboard has lit up with what looks like every warning sign appearing. As soon as I move into D, they all go out. The MG ismart app records 'electric power steering warning' fault, but once gone from the screen, the car drives perfectly and tells me 'no faults' on the screen.


A Google search says there is an MG service bulletin saying there is a software update that resolves 'strange charging behaviour above 90% soc' and a second TSI dated Feb 2024 outlining a CCU fault due to charging communication issues and this can cause cluster faults till HV comes on line, which does sound remarkably like my situation.

I'm just wondering if anyone on the forum has experienced similar behaviour and if they found a simple fix before/without involving the dealer? Dealer has a 2 week lead time according to their service dept today.

Vehicle is MG5 LR registered Sept 2024, 6,740 on the clock.

I forgot to say I have tried disconnecting the battery negative several times for upto 30 minutes and no joy there either, so the hard reset makes no difference either.

Yes I'm experiencing the same thing. At 71% and shows 'Charging done' on the inside screen. Also MG5 LR .... Registered Dec 22‘
17360 miles on clock.

 

[PeteL]

Update, I have just dropped the car off at closest MG dealer, together with a page of notes about what I have noted.
First thing to say is I had to fill in a 2 page questionnaire for MG that is all about charging issues, I asked if MG had other questionnaires about other faults and was told no, only charging issues. The questions were not particularly well formulated, for example 'procedure used when charging' - well I plug it into an outside 13amp socket or I follow the screen instructions if a commercial charger. It also asked about ambient air temp which I thought might be relevant given recent hot weather.
However, one interesting change, prior to dropping the car off today, I popped into the closest Osprey charger station last night and plugged the car in (same charger that would not charge previously). The charger worked but incoming power was painfully slow. Car at this stage 40% charged. The 50 kWh charger put in 1.23kw in 10 mins. On returning home I plugged granny charger in again but nothing happened. All this documented for the dealer.

After reading my notes the female receptionist asked me if had any thoughts on the problem (I was very surprised to be asked this) and I said I had wondered if the charge controller was faulty to which she replied, yes, I think that will need to be looked at!

Car is with dealer until fixed and they have a 2 week backlog so I will report back when car is returned. Receptionist told me I will get a full report on what they find/do.

Mark A, has a dealer looked at your car yet?

 

[Mark A]

Update, I have just dropped the car off at closest MG dealer, together with a page of notes about what I have noted.
First thing to say is I had to fill in a 2 page questionnaire for MG that is all about charging issues, I asked if MG had other questionnaires about other faults and was told no, only charging issues. The questions were not particularly well formulated, for example 'procedure used when charging' - well I plug it into an outside 13amp socket or I follow the screen instructions if a commercial charger. It also asked about ambient air temp which I thought might be relevant given recent hot weather.
However, one interesting change, prior to dropping the car off today, I popped into the closest Osprey charger station last night and plugged the car in (same charger that would not charge previously). The charger worked but incoming power was painfully slow. Car at this stage 40% charged. The 50 kWh charger put in 1.23kw in 10 mins. On returning home I plugged granny charger in again but nothing happened. All this documented for the dealer.

After reading my notes the female receptionist asked me if had any thoughts on the problem (I was very surprised to be asked this) and I said I had wondered if the charge controller was faulty to which she replied, yes, I think that will need to be looked at!

Car is with dealer until fixed and they have a 2 week backlog so I will report back when car is returned. Receptionist told me I will get a full report on what they find/do.

Mark A, has a dealer looked at your car yet?

I've got to wait until 22nd July to see the dealer with the earliest availability (Derby) which is a joke in itself.

Not had a questionnaire like you (as yet).. I'll keep you posted

 

[MickeySw]

I've got to wait until 22nd July to see the dealer with the earliest availability (Derby) which is a joke in itself.

Not had a questionnaire like you (as yet).. I'll keep you posted

Have you tried a hard reset yet? (disconnect the 12V aux negativ terminal aux for 5min, then reconnect, start the car and move the steering full left/right to clear the errors)..

 

[MickeySw]

Mark A, has a dealer looked at your car yet?

Forgive me for asking, there isn’t a AC charge limit set?

 

[PeteL]

MickeySw you are dead right. Dealer phoned me 4 hours after dropping the car off to tell me it was charging properly and I could collect it. I'm not sure how it happened as I didn't know it was even possible, but dealer explained that some people use it to ensure car does not fully charge on a rapid charger. I'm currently away so will collect it Saturday.

The only thing I can think of is that the app was updated just over a month ago as I had to log in again and discovered quite a number of changes to the screens. I scrolled through a number of them out of curiosity and I wonder if I accidentally swiped the screen on battery charge settings as I certainly did not knowingly change from 100 to 40% (that's what dealer said it was set on).

Nothing else to add other than it being a salutary lesson especially as I considered myself pretty knowledgeable with cars until now.

MickeySw - what made you think of this being the fault?

When I pick the car up I want to see if this setting can be changed via the infotainment screen in the car, I suspect it can but could find no mention of it in the 284 page owners manual. I'm not saying it isn't there but in over an hour of flicking through I could not find it mentioned.

Incidentally the 2 wk backlog turned into 4 hours with car left with the dealer, I'm lucky I have other transport I can use so could just leave it, as I know garages have lots of downtime waiting for parts - they keep very little stock these days, this info may be useful to others.

 

[MickeySw]

I certainly did not knowingly change from 100 to 40% (that's what dealer said it was set on). MickeySw - what made you think of this being the fault?

There have been other reports of this happening randomly.

but dealer explained that some people use it to ensure car does not fully charge on a rapid charger

Don’t think so, these limits only apply when AC charging, they are ignored during a rapid charging session.

 

[PeteL]

I spoke to MG Customer Care in Longbridge yesterday to explain I knew of others with MG5's having similar problems with the charge limit randomly going to 40% and how the new app might appear to be a common factor. He admitted 'there had been some issues' with it. He advised I unbind the car and app and reinstall the app. To do this I need to email them a copy of the V5 as the owner cannot unbind it (so what happens when you sell the car I wonder?). They do the unbinding and I relink everything as I did originally.

I'm just off to the dealer to collect my car and will ask if they can do the unbinding, but it's a Saturday so who knows which personnel are around.

Given there is another similar thread on here this might be useful info for others.

 

[MickeySw]

He advised I unbind the car and app and reinstall the app.

That’s a load of nonsense imho, you can reinstall the app without ‘unbinding’ it. But if the problem is indeed caused by a bug in the latest iSmart version then re-installing is hardly going to fix it?.

 

[google1901]

Not sure if this helps/hinders, but I switched phone & had to load all apps including iSmart. I noticed default charge setting was 'health mode (80%)' which is my normal setting. Was this read back from the car or (using the App for the 1st time) it defaults to this value?

 

[PeteL]

Ok this is a screenshot of the app from earlier today after collecting the car from the dealer yesterday.

It was charged on granny charger to 100% overnight and 100 % with range of 275 miles appears on the dash screen currently (car not used since charging). I freely admit I don't understand what the 80 and 40 % figures mean. I have not knowingly set either. If I set both to 100% and press confirm the next time I open the app I am back to 80 and 40%.

The dealer has said they will contact MG to have the unbinding done over the air and will phone me to confirm it has been done. My current thinking is I'm not confident the app is consistent so I don't plan to reinstall it. I can do everything on the infotainment screen that the app does without forever wondering if the ismart app is going to mess me around at the most inconvenient time in the most inconvenient place.

 

[MickeySw]

I freely admit I don't understand what the 80 and 40 % figures mean. I have not knowingly set either. If I set both to 100% and press confirm the next time I open the app I am back to 80 and 40%.

A SoC limit of 80% (default setting) just means that the car only AC charges if the actual value is below 80%. If it’s set to 40% and you plug it in when the dash reads 75%, charging stops after 10s or so..

The other important settings is a charge schedule, if it’s set, the car won’t AC charge outside of it (Charge reserved message).

Having to change the settings a few times before they actually ‘stick’ isn’t unusual. What’s actually happening in the background is that a change request is sent from the app to the server (wherever that is located), then transmitted to the car, acknowledgement sent back to the server and forwarded to the app…