Over-revving MG3 Hybrid+ engine

[viptr]

Review: MG3 Hybrid tested, big change for top-selling small car

This is the first new MG3 hatchback in more than a decade – and it’s available with the option of hybrid power. It replaces the previous MG3 which has been the top-selling city-car in Australia for the past four years in a row – and the biggest-selling car from China in this class.

eftm.com

Yes.

Hello everyone hope everyone good.Fast 2 questions.

1.So anyone from UK here ? Is this update already live ?.

2.Notice in my MG when you put foot all the way to the ground on acceleration pedal the gearbox is getting confused with gear change,it goes to max revs and you have to take the foot off so he can change the gear.

3.Anyone got a problem with handbrake? When you get in into the car in the morning when you put Drive or Reverse u got that weird noise like the brakes are stuck and then the clunky sound when brake is released.

Thanks.

Hello friend. I am from Greece. I dont know about the update. I will find out when my car is fixed. I will get it to the dealer to search for updates and I will get back to report.

2. I didnt have this problem with mine or I havent noticed it. I dont know. As long as I have battery charged everything looks ok. The problems I find all the time is when battery is drained on highway. It cant manage to hold 100kph or 60mph on an uphill and the gearbox changes gears like crazy. For 10 secs the engine revs like crazy and then nothing.. With full throttle and the car just losses speed gradually. It doesnt know what to do and the car "jumps" from 80kw to 40kw . I think it tries to charge the battery and it doesnt use the full power of the thermal engine.

3. Yes it happens almost every morning. I think this is because we dont use brakes so much like normal car drivers and the brake pads stuck on disks. I ve noticed it more when humidity is high so I believe this causes the problem. In my old car after washing it the next morning it was like the brakes where going to brake..

 

[Bober]

Yes.

Hello friend. I am from Greece. I dont know about the update. I will find out when my car is fixed. I will get it to the dealer to search for updates and I will get back to report.

2. I didnt have this problem with mine or I havent noticed it. I dont know. As long as I have battery charged everything looks ok. The problems I find all the time is when battery is drained on highway. It cant manage to hold 100kph or 60mph on an uphill and the gearbox changes gears like crazy. For 10 secs the engine revs like crazy and then nothing.. With full throttle and the car just losses speed gradually. It doesnt know what to do and the car "jumps" from 80kw to 40kw . I think it tries to charge the battery and it doesnt use the full power of the thermal engine.

3. Yes it happens almost every morning. I think this is because we dont use brakes so much like normal car drivers and the brake pads stuck on disks. I ve noticed it more when humidity is high so I believe this causes the problem. In my old car after washing it the next morning it was like the brakes where going to brake..

Ok cool keep the update if you gona find out about the update.

As far as the speed reduction I think personally it's very dangerous and should be fixed ASAP. Don't know what the policy is, but am assuming you can return the car to the dealer for not feeling safe to drive.

Maybe someone on the forum with better knowledge can let us know what the process is.

Thanks

 

[DMeine]

As this topic is cross-cutting – the ZS Hybrid has the same problem but is 200-300kg heavier and therefore loses power more quickly – I’d like to share my experience here. I’ll get my update tomorrow, but I’ve already had a very critical situation when overtaking on a level road. A truck with a trailer and a car were driving in front of me. When I overtook, the oncoming vehicle was so far away that overtaking shouldn’t have been a problem, so I started to overtake, first past the truck, which was so close to the car that getting in between was out of the question, so I had to overtake the car as well, and the oncoming vehicle was already close, when then the power dropped drastically at the level of the car and I only just managed to overtake the car too. It was a close call and there would have been a head-on collision. It is very worrying that something like this can happen and without a permanently displayed battery charge level indicator it is simply a risk when overtaking and you have a 50% chance of either succeeding or causing an accident because of the lack of power.

 

[Bober]

As this topic is cross-cutting – the ZS Hybrid has the same problem but is 200-300kg heavier and therefore loses power more quickly – I’d like to share my experience here. I’ll get my update tomorrow, but I’ve already had a very critical situation when overtaking on a level road. A truck with a trailer and a car were driving in front of me. When I overtook, the oncoming vehicle was so far away that overtaking shouldn’t have been a problem, so I started to overtake, first past the truck, which was so close to the car that getting in between was out of the question, so I had to overtake the car as well, and the oncoming vehicle was already close, when then the power dropped drastically at the level of the car and I only just managed to overtake the car too. It was a close call and there would have been a head-on collision. It is very worrying that something like this can happen and without a permanently displayed battery charge level indicator it is simply a risk when overtaking and you have a 50% chance of either succeeding or causing an accident because of the lack of power.

Yep makes me laugh that no MG dealer is sending any letters to customers letting them know about it.I think in this situation they need to make a fix ASAP or recall the cars and give customers money back.

 

[bing]

Hi
Regarding this software fix............
Just found this on Drive.com, dated yesterday. Sorry if already posted.
Seems they're focusing on the ZS whilst leaving 3 owners to wait.

 

[Radar]

MG ZS HYBRID+ Gets Fix to Hybrid System, MG3 Hybrid Fix Also Confirmed (carsauce.com)

 

[viptr]

Still waiting for my car parts… 2.5 months and counting. Unbelievable, MG. No one has a clue about the delivery time or about the updates for power loss. I seriously regret choosing this car. The dealer is clueless because they have no feedback from MG about anything. MG ignores all my emails—this is a complete nightmare. Absolute joke.

 

[FromParis]

Hi
The fact is that they should write to all the owners from MG3 Hybrid to ZS Hybrid+ and have to engage a global communication.
People have to be really careful when they overtake or drive on special conditions requiring a high level of power.

So ...
1) no description in the user manual for that kind of situation
2) no warning messages or "critical status" messages for the moment the engine loses his power or just before it starts losing ...
3) MG is now very aware of the situations and that happens worldwide.
4) they should communicate and apply some fixes (software update) as soon as possible...
5) if no real fix exists... they should recall all the cars sold so far and stop selling before someone get injured or killed in any accident.. and that is really annoying that people can be in danger today if they are not aware of the faulty engine/power behavior.

 

[Stuart Wright]

I have changed the title of this thread to reflect the issue.
Which is discussed here

 

[JackONeill]

While I had concerns about going downhill as you said, going uphill should not be any problem. Petrol engine is over 100HP in this car, why would it struggle to climb any hill?

I couldn't really believe it until I noticed it today after we went to Austria. You have no power in one fell swoop and can drive a maximum of 40-50 km/h (uphill). The combustion engine then goes into generator mode and is at 4300 rpm so that the electric motor can deliver 35kW max power. Really not a nice experience.

 

[DMeine]

@JackONeill
And then try to overtake or even worse if it happens while you are overtaking.

 

[evor]

Hi
Regarding this software fix............
Just found this on Drive.com, dated yesterday. Sorry if already posted.
Seems they're focusing on the ZS whilst leaving 3 owners to wait.

This really takes the urine, MG3 has had these problems since released the update should have been worked on long before ZS was released.

 

[Mark Torre]

Thanks, the video was interesting but a shame there couldn’t have been a representative from MG! My dealer still insists high revving is normal (mines in the up to 6k bracket) and now refuses to look again so I’m just stuck…

 

[Golfandpizza]

I love my MG3 Hybrid+ and think it is a great car. Today, though, I witnessed the "hill climbing" issue for the first time and honestly, it was very scary.

Here is what happened:
Driving back from Italy to Germany, we drove through Austria. For a short while, the streets would have very steep hills. After driving them for only few minutes with roughly 60 km/h, the battery was empty and the car nearly died on the latest hill. Even when hitting the gas pedal fully, the car would only go ~ 28 km/h. I had the battery charging status displayed on the screen and saw that the battery was empty and the car had to put all power into charging the battery so we could move forward.

Before this day, I was unaware of this issue, but reading through this thread, I now notice this is a known problem and rises huge security concerns on my side. Today, we (me and my pregnant wife !!) were very lucky that the road was kind of empty, giving us enough room and time to use one of the emergency gaps at the side of the road and stop for a short moment and think how we can climb that road.

Eventually, we stopped the car for ~ 1 minute and then continued. We just climbed that street with 25-30 km/h and after 2 more minutes, we were finally on top of that hill and the battery could charge again. Needless to say, that while this happened, the car would make very loud noises.

Recuperation was on level 1. I always thought this would be the right level for going upwards.

Is there anything I can do while driving to handle these situations in a better way? E.g. use another recuperation level or driving in another mode than "Normal" when the battery is already empty?



@DMeine Greetings, I think I actually live nearby waving

 

[JackONeill]

I love my MG3 Hybrid+ and think it is a great car. Today, though, I witnessed the "hill climbing" issue for the first time and honestly, it was very scary.

Here is what happened:
Driving back from Italy to Germany, we drove through Austria. For a short while, the streets would have very steep hills. After driving them for only few minutes with roughly 60 km/h, the battery was empty and the car nearly died on the latest hill. Even when hitting the gas pedal fully, the car would only go ~ 28 km/h. I had the battery charging status displayed on the screen and saw that the battery was empty and the car had to put all power into charging the battery so we could move forward.

Before this day, I was unaware of this issue, but reading through this thread, I now notice this is a known problem and rises huge security concerns on my side. Today, we (me and my pregnant wife !!) were very lucky that the road was kind of empty, giving us enough room and time to use one of the emergency gaps at the side of the road and stop for a short moment and think how we can climb that road.

Eventually, we stopped the car for ~ 1 minute and then continued. We just climbed that street with 25-30 km/h and after 2 more minutes, we were finally on top of that hill and the battery could charge again. Needless to say, that while this happened, the car would make very loud noises.

Recuperation was on level 1. I always thought this would be the right level for going upwards.

Is there anything I can do while driving to handle these situations in a better way? E.g. use another recuperation level or driving in another mode than "Normal" when the battery is already empty?



@DMeine Greetings, I think I actually live nearby waving

Hi there,
Interestingly (or rather, alarmingly), I had the exact same experience in Austria. Steep uphill road, battery drained quickly, and the car suddenly struggled massively, barely managing to crawl uphill at around 25–30 km/h with the gas pedal floored. It felt extremely unsafe, and like you, I was lucky the road wasn’t too busy at the time.

Unfortunately, there’s nothing you can really do in that moment to improve the situation. The issue isn’t related to recuperation, that only affects how energy is recovered during braking or coasting, not how the car handles under load going uphill. So switching recuperation levels won’t help.

This is a design limitation of the hybrid+ system, and once the battery is empty, the combustion engine seems unable to provide enough power on its own in certain scenarios.

The best thing to do is to report this directly to your MG dealership. This isn’t something the driver can prevent or resolve, and considering the potential safety risks, the manufacturer needs to address this properly.

 

[evor]

And still no fix. Been promising for a long time now and for some this is as dangerous and was also highlighted in reviews same as zs Hybrid yet they already have one rolled out.

 

[johnbristol1966]

Regarding the uphill climb, I experienced this a couple of weeks ago travelling to South Devon. After driving down the M5 I continued up the long steep and fast (3 lane) hill at the end where the road splits to go to Cornwall or Devon. Towards the top of the hill the car started to kick back while doing about 55mph and the speedo started to drop a little bit. I noticed the batteries were showing very low. I've read somewhere that the car seems to prioritise charging a low battery rather than providing power for driving. As already mentioned a 1.5L engine should cope with this hill easily. The problem cleared the moment I got to the top, and hasn't happened again. My car is going in for some work on my Sat Nav (A long standing issue detailed in another thread) and also to sort the 360 camera, which they made unusable when they changed the whole centre screen to try and sort the Sat Nav! I've made them aware of the hill climb issue so they can raise it with MG. I think a software update is needed to stop automatic priority of charging the batteries and forgetting you are trying to climb a hill!

 

[salty]

I've read somewhere that the car seems to prioritise charging a low battery rather than providing power for driving. I think a software update is needed to stop automatic priority of charging the batteries and forgetting you are trying to climb a hill!

Agree.

 

[Raquel Barros Silva]

Eu moro em uma área muito montanhosa, outro dia alguém parou na minha frente subindo a rodovia, eu coloquei meu pé no chão para ultrapassar e nada aconteceu, exceto o aumento das rotações. É perigoso, mas não consigo fazer com que o revendedor reconheça o problema!

Exatamente, tenho tido o mesmo problema. Na rodovia, plana, acelerei para entrar na pista de aceleração e o carro não respondeu, apenas aumentou as RPMs, mas a velocidade não mudou, quase sofri um acidente, o caminhão que vinha atrás não esperava que eu não acelerasse. É um grande risco e problema. Não estamos falando de inclinações ou baixas temperaturas externas.

 

[Raquel Barros Silva]

Levei o meu de volta ao revendedor, armado com isso e eles ainda negam que haja um problema. Ainda acho que há um segundo problema que causa confusão, parte desse problema é "normal" para híbridos, mas o meu também é incrivelmente barulhento e sempre parece que está na marcha errada - enquanto isso acontece. Claro, o revendedor nunca consegue experimentar uma viagem prolongada! Eu gostaria que MG apenas entrasse em contato com os proprietários e admitisse o problema! Estou muito perto de vender, pois realmente não há prazer em dirigir agora!

Exatamente, tenho tido o mesmo problema. Na rodovia, plana, acelerei para entrar na pista de aceleração e o carro não respondeu, apenas aumentou as RPMs, mas a velocidade não mudou, quase sofri um acidente, o caminhão que vinha atrás não esperava que eu não acelerasse. É um grande risco e problema. Não estamos falando de inclinações ou baixas temperaturas externas.