New owner

[Deleted member 13624]

Hey All,

I purchased a 2nd hand MG4 SE with 8k miles on it from a MG Dealer.

The dealership moved me into the car very quickly from the outside the car was in pristine condition as you would expect for not even a year old and 8K miles.

Now I'm in the vehicle I noticed scratches on all the interior trim.

I noticed the driver seatbelt bolted on the wrong way (twisted).

There's suspicious stains on the fabric.

I keep getting alerts about tyre pressure even though they read accurate.

Whoever had the car prior did not look after it, the garage did not disclose any of it nor did they give me chance to inspect it.

I've called and they were very apologetic and want to talk Monday

Fingers crossed they sort. Annoying that for 2.5k more I could have had a new one but it would have been in white and not the grey which is what this one is

Other than that it drives sooooo good !!!

 

[Jomarkh]

Have you seen the V5 to see who it was registered to and was it a business?
At least it should be sorted out if you got it from a MG dealer.
Happy motoring.

 

[siteguru]

V5s don't show who was the previous keeper now, and haven't for quite some time. (Data protection).

 

[Deleted member 13624]

So the garage sorted the majority of the issues replaced some trim and the seatbelt all good.

I asked for a battery heth check and they gave me this...

Less than a year old motor and 8k miles, is this good or not!?

 

[Jomarkh]

That does seem to have lost a bit, probably it has been charged to 100% daily or left at a high SOC.

 

[siteguru]

Which battery pack is that? Anecdotally the LFP pack loses a few % of SoH in the first year and then settles down.

 

[Deleted member 13624]

That does seem to have lost a bit, probably it has been charged to 100% daily or left at a high SOC.

Which battery pack is that? Anecdotally the LFP pack loses a few % of SoH in the first year and then settles down.

It's off a MG4 SE Standard Range.

I love the car but I drove it 74 miles in 20 degrees Celsius with eco mode and went from 100% to 40%

Purchased the car 2nd hand from an MG Garage and it was clear from the interior the previous owner didn't look after the car. Garage sorted those issues out, interior is nicer now, just unhappy with the range.

I'm within the first 30 days of my purchase I'm hoping they will sort it out for me, one way or another.

 

[Jomarkh]

When you charge it to100% how long does it still draw current for while it balances the battery?

 

[Deleted member 13624]

When you charge it to100% how long does it still draw current for while it balances the battery?

Not sure, I've charged it to 100% once in the few weeks I had it. Usually try to stick to 70% / 75%

I left it trickle charring post 100% before a longer journey to which I noticed it just ticked down from 100% to 40% quite quickly.

Kindest,

 

[Rolfe]

It's off a MG4 SE Standard Range.

I love the car but I drove it 74 miles in 20 degrees Celsius with eco mode and went from 100% to 40%

Purchased the car 2nd hand from an MG Garage and it was clear from the interior the previous owner didn't look after the car. Garage sorted those issues out, interior is nicer now, just unhappy with the range.

I'm within the first 30 days of my purchase I'm hoping they will sort it out for me, one way or another.

The SR battery is supposed to be OK with charging to 100% and being left at 100%, so much so that MG doesn't give SR owners the option of choosing to charge to 80% in the app. I think the option has been entirely removed, but even when it appeared to be there the car would simply ignore the app and run on to 100% regardless. Now I get the arguments that it may still be better for the battery not to do that, but the fact that MG tells us to do it and removes the option for easily charging to a lower SoC suggests that an SR which is a year old and has only done 8,000 miles should still be fine.

My SR is only three months old and has done under 3,000 miles, but it's doing a hell of a lot better than yours. Again at 20C I know that if I drive to Glasgow, just under 50 miles and generally downhill, I will get there on 75% charge. That is in normal mode, not eco, and using the aircon if I feel like it. Coming back is generally uphill and I'll be back on 47%, give or take not a lot. That's a round trip of 100 miles by my reckoning, or maybe 96 miles by the car's reckoning.

I get it that the SR battery is said to lose a few % in the first year then settle down, but there's a big difference between using 60% of the battery to do 74 miles in eco mode, and using 53% of the battery to do nearly 100 miles in normal mode. Something not right here I think. If my car is only doing 74 miles on 60% of the battery at 20C this time next year I'm not going to be that happy.

 

[Deleted member 13624]

The SR battery is supposed to be OK with charging to 100% and being left at 100%, so much so that MG doesn't give SR owners the option of choosing to charge to 80% in the app. I think the option has been entirely removed, but even when it appeared to be there the car would simply ignore the app and run on to 100% regardless. Now I get the arguments that it may still be better for the battery not to do that, but the fact that MG tells us to do it and removes the option for easily charging to a lower SoC suggests that an SR which is a year old and has only done 8,000 miles should still be fine.

My SR is only three months old and has done under 3,000 miles, but it's doing a hell of a lot better than yours. Again at 20C I know that if I drive to Glasgow, just under 50 miles and generally downhill, I will get there on 75% charge. That is in normal mode, not eco, and using the aircon if I feel like it. Coming back is generally uphill and I'll be back on 47%, give or take not a lot. That's a round trip of 100 miles by my reckoning, or maybe 96 miles by the car's reckoning.

I get it that the SR battery is said to lose a few % in the first year then settle down, but there's a big difference between using 60% of the battery to do 74 miles in eco mode, and using 53% of the battery to do nearly 100 miles in normal mode. Something not right here I think. If my car is only doing 74 miles on 60% of the battery at 20C this time next year I'm not going to be that happy.

Thanks for the reply.

Hard to know what the car went through in that previous ownership, wish I did. It's odd how the functionality is not there to set the charge limit, it's software feature after all.

Told the garage I'm not happy, had I known about this prior to sale I would have opted for a new one. I purchased the vehicle, cash, for ownership long term and it's not a great start.

I've seen others who have taken them in for service and SOH is 100% after a year or so. I think I might just be unlucky in that whoever had this before me just didn't care for the battery. I think not charging to 100% all the time and not leaving it sat with 100% in it all make sense regardless...

Frustrating but perhaps the long range SE is better suited for me, from new.

 

[Rolfe]

The SR is a great car, and I charge it to 100% and leave it like that for a day or two quite often, because that's what MG tell us to do. The LPF batteries are reputed to be extremely resilient and long-lasting. I see this "only charge to 80%" thing with the SR a bit like, no, you need to eat seven items of fruit and vegetables every day, and actually these should be mostly vegetables. Sure, in an ideal world, and maybe you'll live an average of a fortnight longer, who knows?

If your driving requirements are best suited to the LR then definitely get that, but the SR battery is more robust and longer lasting and easier to care for - it really doesn't worry so much about being fully charged - that I think it's the better choice if you'd seldom need the extra range. And you can feel smug about it not having any cobalt in it.

I think there is a problem with the particular battery you've got, and I think it might not have been the way it was treated, because I struggle to think what you can do to an SR to do that to it in a year.

 

[Deleted member 13624]

The SR is a great car, and I charge it to 100% and leave it like that for a day or two quite often, because that's what MG tell us to do. The LPF batteries are reputed to be extremely resilient and long-lasting. I see this "only charge to 80%" thing with the SR a bit like, no, you need to eat seven items of fruit and vegetables every day, and actually these should be mostly vegetables. Sure, in an ideal world, and maybe you'll live an average of a fortnight longer, who knows?

If your driving requirements are best suited to the LR then definitely get that, but the SR battery is more robust and longer lasting and easier to care for - it really doesn't worry so much about being fully charged - that I think it's the better choice if you'd seldom need the extra range. And you can feel smug about it not having any cobalt in it.

I think there is a problem with the particular battery you've got, and I think it might not have been the way it was treated, because I struggle to think what you can do to an SR to do that to it in a year.

Thanks for the reply.

Yes I would be inclined to agree but it seems to be a topic there are mixed opinions on.

The multimedia entertainment system does contradict the advice in that the charge screen does suggest (even on the SE standard range) to maintain a 80% SOC and charge to 100% for long journeys. If it didn't matter why is it there on the screen? They modified the software for all the versions of the mg4 but they but left this advice there?

I'm not sure what else could have happened to the battery other than the cycles/way it was charged and treated before I purchased it.

Hopefully the garage can offer a solution.

 

[Rolfe]

Why is it there on the screen? Because the software hasn't been modified, I guess. In the app it still says the same thing, but you can't set it. (Previously you could set it, but then the car ignored it.) I asked my dealer about 80% versus 100% and he said MG just tell us to whack it up to 100% every time.

 

[Deleted member 13624]

Why is it there on the screen? Because the software hasn't been modified, I guess. In the app it still says the same thing, but you can't set it. (Previously you could set it, but then the car ignored it.) I asked my dealer about 80% versus 100% and he said MG just tell us to whack it up to 100% every time.

Bottom line, no one knows without certainty. I take what the garage says with a pinch of salt.

The software is modified to support the different models, hence we have no 360 camera, long range features, etc... But they left this message and tooltip... Just saying...

I still charge 75% right now as I believe this will help, plus, no harm done for me by doing so even if it doesn't do anything.

I do believe that my car with 8k miles 2nd hand has a poor SOH due to the battery not being looked after but time will tell...

Have a good evening!

 

[Rolfe]

Who knows. But there are an awful lot of MG4 SR cars out there, and only a tiny fraction of their owners are reading this forum or boning up on YouTube videos. Most of them will be doing what MG and their dealers tell them to do, with no idea there is any school of though that says this isn't the best practice. Half the MG4 owners on the forum are doing what MG says as well.

One thing I don't know about only taking an SR to 80% regularly is balancing. I have read that the SR needs to balance more frequently than the LR, and I don't know if it balances at 80% or how effectively. I do know that my car takes half an hour to balance after reaching 100% every time. What I don't know is how often the SR needs to do that, and what happens if this isn't done.

How are you getting the car to stop at 80%, and is it actually balancing when it gets there?

 

[Susanna]

If your HV battery is LFP, you should ideally charge it to 100% once a week. If this wasn’t done by the previous owner, or if it was mainly rapid charged, the cells might be out of balance. No harm will come to it being charged regularly to 100%. It’s just the NMC batteries that don’t like being regularly charged and left at 100%.

 

[Rolfe]

I tend only to charge once a week anyway, because that's how my mileage goes. Sometimes twice. I let it go to 100% and balance. It seems happy enough, even though I often do the first chunk on a rapid charger then bring it home and finish charging on the granny.

That's a point. Maybe what this battery really wants is to be taken to 100% and allowed to balance a few times.

 

[Susanna]

As far as I am aware, the batteries only balance after they have been charged to 100%

 

[siteguru]

As far as I am aware, the batteries only balance after they have been charged to 100%

People have shown balancing happening at any target SoC (75%, 80% etc.) ... whether that's a full balance is open to question, but a balancing charge (~20W) does happen at other target SoC.