TrakM8 mileage tracker screwed up my ZS?

[seasidersrus27]

Our MK1 ZS EV has been incredibly reliable. We mostly use it as a local runaround with only the occasional longer trip so our mileage is pretty low. I was tempted by the idea of an annual insurance policy which was based on mileage driven. It required me to put a TrakM8 unit in the OBD port which then reads car data to the insurance company. As an upside I was told it would read location in the event of the car being stolen. It duly arrived, I fitted it (30 second job) and the tracker company confirmed it was working normally. The first couple of days seemed fine. Then I noticed a fault coming up for the pedestrian alert sound. The next morning the car was dead. No power to any part of the car. I called out the AA who eventually disconnected the 12v battery and reconnected it and it seemed to restore the car to life. Thinking maybe I had a dud battery I decided to get the car checked out at my local MG dealer (Brown & Gammons of Baldock, who are brilliant btw). The next morning, I got in the car, a few warnings flashed up and then same thing, it died. Only this time I was completely locked in the non responsive car! Thankfully I had my phone and got advice how to exit via the rear hatchback using the "escape" switch. Again a battery reset and I was able to get to the dealer. To cut a long story short, the 12v battery was fine but there was a list of electrics fault codes like "War and Peace". Removing the tracker completely cured the car of its faults and it has been fine since. It seemed that this OBD tracker had indeed screwed up my ZS. Beware!

 

[Lovemyev]

Our MK1 ZS EV has been incredibly reliable. We mostly use it as a local runaround with only the occasional longer trip so our mileage is pretty low. I was tempted by the idea of an annual insurance policy which was based on mileage driven. It required me to put a TrakM8 unit in the OBD port which then reads car data to the insurance company. As an upside I was told it would read location in the event of the car being stolen. It duly arrived, I fitted it (30 second job) and the tracker company confirmed it was working normally. The first couple of days seemed fine. Then I noticed a fault coming up for the pedestrian alert sound. The next morning the car was dead. No power to any part of the car. I called out the AA who eventually disconnected the 12v battery and reconnected it and it seemed to restore the car to life. Thinking maybe I had a dud battery I decided to get the car checked out at my local MG dealer (Brown & Gammons of Baldock, who are brilliant btw). The next morning, I got in the car, a few warnings flashed up and then same thing, it died. Only this time I was completely locked in the non responsive car! Thankfully I had my phone and got advice how to exit via the rear hatchback using the "escape" switch. Again a battery reset and I was able to get to the dealer. To cut a long story short, the 12v battery was fine but there was a list of electrics fault codes like "War and Peace". Removing the tracker completely cured the car of its faults and it has been fine since. It seemed that this OBD tracker had indeed screwed up my ZS. Beware!

It obviously does NOT like that TrakM8 device being plugged into the the OBD port at all !.
Is it drawing power when the car is powered down then ?.
It must be, given its name ( TrakM8 ) in order for the insurance to track it, if it was stolen.
That tracker it’s a constant parasitic drain on that 12 volt battery surely ?.
As the 12 volt battery becomes depleted, it will throw up loads of fault codes on the dash.
I would disconnect that unit and fully charge your 12 volt battery and then see if the car returns to normal.
Because you are a low mileage user, it could be that your 12 volt battery was just about holding its own in regards to its SOC on a day to day basis.
Now you have added the tracker, it is unable to deal with the extra demands placed on it.
You may have to consider purchasing a new 12 volt battery, but then this kills off any savings you have made on reducing your premium maybe ????.

 

[Kithmo]

When you say it was a 30 second job to install I assume it was plugged in to the OBD2 port, I am very reluctant to leave anything plugged in the the OBD2 port for fear of hacking and the fact that it's permanently live. The device will be a constant drain on the 12v and if you don't use the car every day, I'd guess it could drag the 12v down to a level where it may not start.

 

[seasidersrus27]

It obviously does NOT like that TrakM8 device being plugged into the the OBD port at all !.
Is it drawing power when the car is powered down then ?.
It must be, given its name ( TrakM8 ) in order for the insurance to track it, if it was stolen.
That tracker it’s a constant parasitic drain on that 12 volt battery surely ?.
As the 12 volt battery becomes depleted, it will throw up loads of fault codes on the dash.
I would disconnect that unit and fully charge your 12 volt battery and then see if the car returns to normal.
Because you are a low mileage user, it could be that your 12 volt battery was just about holding its own in regards to its SOC on a day to day basis.
Now you have added the tracker, it is unable to deal with the extra demands placed on it.
You may have to consider purchasing a new 12 volt battery, but then this kills off any savings you have made on reducing your premium maybe ????.

Yes you could be right. I'm no expert but the dealer said it was preventing the car from "going to sleep" so that would fit with it being live & parasitic on the 12v battery. 12v Battery was at 84% "health" when they tested it. The insurance company said they could remote modify the data collection to only take a mileage reading periodically so that might be a fix. But I didn't want to take the risk and cancelled the policy.

 

[seasidersrus27]

When you say it was a 30 second job to install I assume it was plugged in to the OBD2 port, I am very reluctant to leave anything plugged in the the OBD2 port for fear of hacking and the fact that it's permanently live. The device will be a constant drain on the 12v and if you don't use the car every day, I'd guess it could drag the 12v down to a level where it may not start.

Yes just plugs into OBD2 port. I take the point about possible contribution from a weaker battery but it did start when I disconnected and reconnected the battery, so its maybe a combination of things to do with both the drain and the way it interacted with the car? Bottom line I didn't think it was worth the hassle!

 

[Lovemyev]

I'm no expert but the dealer said it was preventing the car from "going to sleep" so that would fit with it being live & parasitic on the 12v battery.

Well ........... You would expect the dealer to be able to tie the battery going flat, with the fact that they knew it was not falling to sleep then ???.
It's a bit like, turning the lights on, walk away and then asking WHY the battery has gone flat surly.
Or asking the questions they already know the answers too - DOOH !.

 

[ShirLow]

Thanks for sharing I was considering similar thing but don’t think I will now.