MY MG4 Crashed itself Is it Software related? Suggestions please

[JDPlays]

So I'll start with this forum has been invaluable and I've been reading bits and pieces for the last 6 months thank you to every members hard work out there!

Now the back story, bought a MG4 Excite (this is the BASE model in Australia and has the 51 kWh battery in Feb 2025, knowing it was a 2024 Model.
Was overall pleased with the car, I love diving a EV but have had constant ongoing problems with the Lane Keeping Assist along with the Head On Collision Detection, including a number of emergency breaking incidents without another car on the road anywhere near us at the time!

It has gone back for software updates in May 2025 to 'fix the problem"
I was told the software had been updated and they had re-calibrated the camera system so it should be fine. Car was much better to drive less false positives with the collision system, but the Lane Keeping Assist was still a little aggressive

Then in November the App - NOT THE CAR reported a break system fault, and another alert about the front right tyre status was abnormal

The dealer couldn't look at it till Jan 6th

After picking up the car on Jan 8th they told us that the camera mount was replaced (its a tiny bit of flimsy plastic his words not mine) and they had updated ALL the software, along with going through all the recalibration steps and now the car should work perfectly! and if we had any issues we should contact them back and they will book it in for a extended amount of time and do a live technical check with MG Australia

On the way home someone pulled out right in front of us and the Head On Collision Detection system did NOTHING, and we have seen it react to a car that's slowing down 20m in front of us!
We called the dealership the second we got through the door and they said they would talk to MG Technical and get back to us with a plan moving forward

2 Weeks later on the 22nd of Jan the cars Lane Keeping Assistant Dragged the wheel to the right harder than it ever has before, clipping a medium strip island beating up both of the right rims, and also bending the whole front right suspension & steering arms.

Now the interesting bit, The software i have on the car since they updated it in May is
MOU Version

SWI131-29958-1100R05

- Which is believe is the version the car originally shipped with in Australia
MCU Version

-125.1.3.0

- thats NEGATIVE version 125

I have attached images of the versions from the car system, along with version numbers from inside the engineering menu again Big thank you to everyone on the forum for working this stuff out and posting it!



So I wanted to ask as I've never heard of a NEGATIVE version number, and as far as I can tell there is no -125.13.0 version of MCU for the MG4 in any variant, what are the chances that someone loaded the wrong software on the car for possibly a completely unrelated car, and this has caused the Lane Keeping Assist to go nuts and drag us into the medium strip?

If you have ANY suggestions of what i should do next PLEASE post them!

I have reached out to MG Australia via their live support - Didn't answer my question, their phone line - Either always engaged OR have sat on hold for 3h+ and never been answered, and also email to get not even a automated response!

The Dealership wants to wash their hands of the whole thing and have me file a insurance claim, which is going to rise my premiums by quite a lot i imagine, for a fault that not my own, so I'm here asking for any suggestions someone else might have.

 

[T1 Terry]

First, I would keep all the information you have gathered from the vehicle to yourself, save complications in the preliminary stages.
Personally, I'd contact your state version of Fair Trading via email and CC in your dealership and MG Australia and your insurance company explaining what has happened and will they be willing to take up the case as you feel this vehicle is unsafe to drive and MG do not seem to be able to fix it.

I would be looking for a replacement new car, MG have already had it in twice and couldn't fix it, it is dangerous now to the point it has cause vehicle damage and you were fortunate that there was something there to stop a potential head of crash .......

I have a very low odometer reading 2024 MG4, I bought in South Australia at a salvage auction, it was deemed a Stat write-off because it had taken out a white post with the right front corner of the car.
This means it must have crossed to the other side of the road, and left a core sample of the white post in the threaded hole that is meant to take the emergency towing eye attachment, so it wasn't a low speed crash.
It folded the bumper support panel into the tyre, bent the lower control arm to a 90* bend, popping the lower ball joint apart, and folded the right hand front guard back to the driver's door. Both front airbags were deployed, the seatbelts locked with the vehicle immobilised, internal audible warning and dash flashing to get out of the vehicle, along with the 4 way flashers going ...... the MG4 knew it was a serious crash ....

If this had happened on a section of road where there was an oncoming car, or truck, it might not have just been the car written off.

T1 Terry

 

[ReintjeWA]

Sounds like the 22nd of Jan was an instance of Emergency Lane Keep, not just the lane keep assistant. The assistant tries to keep you between the lines, beeping at you when too close to a line, and tugging the wheel a bit. The Emergency Lane Keep yanks the wheel hard because it believes you are about to leave the road, it is a noticeably more intense intervention.

I would expect MG to argue the car can't run itself off the road if you have a proper grip of the steering wheel. While they can't proof that you didn't hold it properly, unfortunately it will also be hard for you to proof that you did. Is there any (dashcam) footage of the incident? Perhaps a passenger willing to do a statutory declaration of the events?

I also wonder if the dealership just turned down the head on collision warning sensitivity to hopefully stop the false positives.

I doubt you can load the wrong software into the car, I'd expect it to simply not work if you did. Sort of like putting diesel in a petrol engine.

 

[siteguru]

Bear in mind that the Excite (SE over here) does not have separate LKA and ELK - it's all one system. (i.e. it appears as Lane Keep Assist in the menus; there is no separate ELK setting as I believe there is in the Trophy spec, or whatever it is called over there).

 

[T1 Terry]

I doubt anyone would be strong enough, or if it even possible, to over power the worm drive motor that drives the steering rack .... as a test, try turning the steering without ready mode being active, or without the 12v battery connected, that is where the power comes from to drive that steering motor ....
One of the things that really scare me about drive by wire, if that torque sensor in the steering rack connection to the steering column and steering wheel fails, unless you can stop, you are going when the MG decides it wants to go, you are just along for the ride.
Same with the brakes and the throttle, even the park brake or direction selector .... it's all driven by electrical signals .....

T1 Terry

 

[Kithmo]

I doubt anyone would be strong enough, or if it even possible, to over power the worm drive motor that drives the steering rack .... as a test, try turning the steering without ready mode being active, or without the 12v battery connected, that is where the power comes from to drive that steering motor ....
One of the things that really scare me about drive by wire, if that torque sensor in the steering rack connection to the steering column and steering wheel fails, unless you can stop, you are going when the MG decides it wants to go, you are just along for the ride.
Same with the brakes and the throttle, even the park brake or direction selector .... it's all driven by electrical signals .....

T1 Terry

But the LKA steering the car should cancel if you try to overcome it.
Funnily enough, before mine had the new LKA recall update, I could have sworn it was pulling toward the right rather than steering away from the line and I also had some near misses with central bollards due to this.

 

[ReintjeWA]

I doubt anyone would be strong enough, or if it even possible, to over power the worm drive motor that drives the steering rack .... as a test, try turning the steering without ready mode being active, or without the 12v battery connected, that is where the power comes from to drive that steering motor ....
One of the things that really scare me about drive by wire, if that torque sensor in the steering rack connection to the steering column and steering wheel fails, unless you can stop, you are going when the MG decides it wants to go, you are just along for the ride.
Same with the brakes and the throttle, even the park brake or direction selector .... it's all driven by electrical signals .....

T1 Terry

The thing that I find a little worrying is that when I have cruise control active and let go of the steering wheel, I get a gentle warning to hold the wheel, then a louder warning to do the same, and after that it cancels the lane keep assist, but keeps the emergency function active, as well as the cruise control. So I just end up bouncing between the lines but still doing say 110 km/h. So if I faint or what not, does the car just ping-pong in its lane until I come up to a slower vehicle, or worse until one line disappears and I careen off the road.

I haven’t had the guts to test it for a longer period to see if the car just keeps bouncing me between the lines, but it definitely did a few bounces before I decided enough was enough and grabbed the wheel again.

Bear in mind that the Excite (SE over here) does not have separate LKA and ELK - it's all one system. (i.e. it appears as Lane Keep Assist in the menus; there is no separate ELK setting as I believe there is in the Trophy spec, or whatever it is called over there).

That’s a good point, I’m fairly sure it is the same here, as in, the excite/SE has the one system.

But does the car always respond with the same force? Or does it sometimes jerk the wheel more aggressively?

 

[siteguru]

Since mine had the SC077 update then the LKA force has been no more than a gentle nudge ... before it the steering action was way more forceful.

 

[JDPlays]

Thanks Terry I thought fair trading would be the next step, but your right with all the issues I don't think i want it fixed anymore, but a full replacement sounds like the way to go!

I didn't know there was a ELK! The things you learn!

The head on detection system settings have not been changed by the dealership, in fact i doubt the have done anything, after a lot more reading it seems this dealership has a LOT of issue with after sales service outright!

I have downloaded the full logs from the car via the engineering menu, and it seems that there are logs from a time before the car knew the time and date, these should of all been cleared as part of the pre-delivery inspection. I'm hoping to find some way to look at the SIPS/VDS data and see if there is actually a lot more going on beneath the surface

And if anyone wants to know about these logs, they are mostly readable english, with a fair bit of deciphering but they log your GPS position every 5 seconds, your speed and direction of the steering every 0.5 seconds as well as log that SAIC has a way to track your charge state, and a number of other variables form the car, most of which are not turned on.
But also has a LOT of errors through the logs, because of either SAIC not subscribing to the data, or because systems just don't work well together.

 

[jamakr4]

Thanks Terry I thought fair trading would be the next step, but your right with all the issues I don't think i want it fixed anymore, but a full replacement sounds like the way to go!

I didn't know there was a ELK! The things you learn!

The head on detection system settings have not been changed by the dealership, in fact i doubt the have done anything, after a lot more reading it seems this dealership has a LOT of issue with after sales service outright!

I have downloaded the full logs from the car via the engineering menu, and it seems that there are logs from a time before the car knew the time and date, these should of all been cleared as part of the pre-delivery inspection. I'm hoping to find some way to look at the SIPS/VDS data and see if there is actually a lot more going on beneath the surface

And if anyone wants to know about these logs, they are mostly readable english, with a fair bit of deciphering but they log your GPS position every 5 seconds, your speed and direction of the steering every 0.5 seconds as well as log that SAIC has a way to track your charge state, and a number of other variables form the car, most of which are not turned on.
But also has a LOT of errors through the logs, because of either SAIC not subscribing to the data, or because systems just don't work well together.

I would do a check in SIPS to see if everything is really up to date - In Germany we have a lot of dealers that tell you that your MG is completely updated and what not but in reality it's absolutely not. This to me sounds like a software issue - so if you are willing to invest some time into learning how SIPS works and how to update, I think it's an easy fix.

I even know a story where someone got charged for an update the dealer hasn't even done. Totally ridiculous if you ask me..