What did I do wrong? What could I do better? ZS EV Rapid Charging

[JCFlippen]

just charged my car for only the second time ( 1st Instavolt all ok) now Osprey - all seemed ok 94% but after finishing and disconnecting the ZS EV car would not start - no HV and other horror messages long forgotten in the panic that ensued.
MG Assist AA turned up efficiently and could find nothing obvious but did a laptop reset and hey ho off I could go!
The 10mm spanner was tried but car did not reboot afterwards.
All put down to experience as happened only 6 miles from home as I was just getting a feel for rapid charging. 200 mile trip at the weekend - do I risk - all Instavolt chargers on the route?

 

[RichardC]

Away on holiday at the moment and I have used two Instavolt chargers without any problem plus I also used one at home as a practise run.

I would put it down to an unfortunate glitch.

 

[Alb]

Is this "reset" something you could do yourself?

 

[Lovemyev]

This is something owners have seen on other branded makes of rapid chargers as well.
Love to know what causes this strange glitch, considering the rescue services are able to clear the fault so readerly with a diag computer ?????.

 

[Coulomb]

It's probably just clearing diagnostic trouble codes. You could do that with a fairly inexpensive (but not the very cheapest and nastiest) OBD2 dongle, and a free/inexpensive app like Car Scanner Elm OBD2.

 

[JCFlippen]

Is this "reset" something you could do yourself?

Apparently there is not a user reset procedure. I have been advised to get a dealer to carry out a service system check. I will report back in due course.

 

[mj224]

I hada similar problem a couple of months back. I rang my dealers service manager, advice was to swithch all off and wait a minute or so. Worked for me, but no explanation as to why. No problem since. Maybe something just needed to cool off...???

 

[Gomev]

I think this may be about how the charge is ended and cable removed. I have a couple of times ended a charge via an app (Engie/GeniePoint) but the cable hasn't unlocked and I have seen a warning about HV battery disconnected. Usually then in semi panic mode go frantically locking/unlocking car until it releases, which then clears the problem.
Not quite the same but could be related possibly.

 

[Lovemyev]

I very rarely use rapid units, 99.9% of our charging is done from home.
I think in 18 months of ownership and 12,500 miles covered, I have used a rapid only three times.
They have been all BP Pulse ( Polar ) units.
One I used due to an unexpected trip and I needed to add some mileage fast.
This rapid is placed in a hotel car park that is only 2 miles from my home address, via a short cut through a country lane.
The car accepted the charge just fine, but automatically stopped the charge as soon as the car reached 80%.
This has been seen by numerous owners on this units.
It never caused a problem with the car driving away, but something between the unit and the car, cancelled the car at this point.
The next rapid charge I required was almost twelve months latter !.
From another BP Pulse unit in a Holiday Inn car park in Staffordshire.
I just needed a quick “Splash & Dash” due to predicted diversion road works on the way home.
I charged for around 16 minutes only, just to add a few extra miles as safety feature.
As the car reached the 80% mark, I expected it to automatically end the charge again.
So I left it a little longer just to see what would happen, this time it just kept charging as normal.
At 82% I waved my RFID card over the reader and the charge stopped perfectly fine.
I was a little nervous when I pushed the “Start” button, but all was fine !.
The only difference between this year and last year was a different location and that my car had received all of the latest software updates, including the Jan 15th BMS update of course.
Could be pure coincidence, I have no idea.
I do not like to rely on the use of rapid chargers really, I know for some people they don’t have that luxury and we SHOULD be able to depend on them.
I am really lucky that I have the facility of a home charging unit, I am one who takes this for granted a lot of the time.
A hell of a lot more convenient than going to the petrol station.
On trip last week, I popped in to a very busy petrol station to buy a cold drink for my wife.
We I got to the guy on the till, I handed him the drink and offered my card.
He said :- “No fuel ?”.
I replied :- “Not it that mate, it’s electric”.
He replied:- “We don’t get many of them in here”.
I wonder why !!!!! .
I returned to my car laughing my head off, I then pulled out of the petrol station in complete silence listening to all of them noisy ICE cars starting up.
I do NOT miss that anymore

 

[Kithmo]

Before starting the charge, did you switch the car off and wait 10 seconds, as it advises in the manual, or did you just plug it in while it was switched on ?

 

[Lovemyev]

Before starting the charge, did you switch the car off and wait 10 seconds, as it advises in the manual, or did you just plug it in while it was switched on ?

Good question @Kithmo .
Let me think ???.
On the first occasion ( last year ) I left the car to use the toilet facilities first, returned to the car and commenced the charge, the car was powered completely down and had been for about five minutes.
On the second occasion ( this year ) I arrived at the charger, powered down and then did a bit of “faffing” about getting out my RFID card and then, I had to go into the hotel to register my number plate with them, then I returned to the car and plugged in.
There must have been about a five minute delay between pulling up, shutting down and then plugging in the car.
This does bring me to a question that somebody may be able to answer please.
As my rapid charger use is very small, can the car be in the fully booted facility when receiving a charge in order to see the range increasing on the GOM ?.
Thanks in advance of your replies !.

 

[Chrispydoc]

I didn't know about that....

 

[Gomev]

Good question @Kithmo .
Let me think ???.
On the first occasion ( last year ) I left the car to use the toilet facilities first, returned to the car and commenced the charge, the car was powered completely down and had been for about five minutes.
On the second occasion ( this year ) I arrived at the charger, powered down and then did a bit of “faffing” about getting out my RFID card and then, I had to go into the hotel to register my number plate with them, then I returned to the car and plugged in.
There must have been about a five minute delay between pulling up, shutting down and then plugging in the car.
This does bring me to a question that somebody may be able to answer please.
As my rapid charger use is very small, can the car be in the fully booted facility when receiving a charge in order to see the range increasing on the GOM ?.
Thanks in advance of your replies !.

Yes it can be in ready state while rapid charging to see the GOM and the little white blobs on the fuel gauge, or indeed any other state. You will only see SOC while it is off though for a period of time.
The footbrake trick doesn't always work on mine so I cycle through to off/aux/off phase to re-see it.
I don't rapid charge often, but when down to about 20% use the free one down the road to do the heavy work and finish off at home on the 7kW.

 

[Tonych]

just charged my car for only the second time ( 1st Instavolt all ok) now Osprey - all seemed ok 94% but after finishing and disconnecting the ZS EV car would not start - no HV and other horror messages long forgotten in the panic that ensued.
MG Assist AA turned up efficiently and could find nothing obvious but did a laptop reset and hey ho off I could go!
The 10mm spanner was tried but car did not reboot afterwards.
All put down to experience as happened only 6 miles from home as I was just getting a feel for rapid charging. 200 mile trip at the weekend - do I risk - all Instavolt chargers on the route?

That's disappointing. I have had similar moments and havent had to use the 10mm spanner - I have adopted a couple of things to try. Firstly - the car can be "switched on" while it is charging - but you cant then unplug and move with it in that state. I suggest try to switch off, disconnect and then switch on again making sure your foot is on the brake. Do this slowly to allow the car to catch up - if in doubt switch it off and start again - usually works for me

 

[Tonych]

I very rarely use rapid units, 99.9% of our charging is done from home.
I think in 18 months of ownership and 12,500 miles covered, I have used a rapid only three times.
They have been all BP Pulse ( Polar ) units.
One I used due to an unexpected trip and I needed to add some mileage fast.
This rapid is placed in a hotel car park that is only 2 miles from my home address, via a short cut through a country lane.
The car accepted the charge just fine, but automatically stopped the charge as soon as the car reached 80%.
This has been seen by numerous owners on this units.
It never caused a problem with the car driving away, but something between the unit and the car, cancelled the car at this point.
The next rapid charge I required was almost twelve months latter !.
From another BP Pulse unit in a Holiday Inn car park in Staffordshire.
I just needed a quick “Splash & Dash” due to predicted diversion road works on the way home.
I charged for around 16 minutes only, just to add a few extra miles as safety feature.
As the car reached the 80% mark, I expected it to automatically end the charge again.
So I left it a little longer just to see what would happen, this time it just kept charging as normal.
At 82% I waved my RFID card over the reader and the charge stopped perfectly fine.
I was a little nervous when I pushed the “Start” button, but all was fine !.
The only difference between this year and last year was a different location and that my car had received all of the latest software updates, including the Jan 15th BMS update of course.
Could be pure coincidence, I have no idea.
I do not like to rely on the use of rapid chargers really, I know for some people they don’t have that luxury and we SHOULD be able to depend on them.
I am really lucky that I have the facility of a home charging unit, I am one who takes this for granted a lot of the time.
A hell of a lot more convenient than going to the petrol station.
On trip last week, I popped in to a very busy petrol station to buy a cold drink for my wife.
We I got to the guy on the till, I handed him the drink and offered my card.
He said :- “No fuel ?”.
I replied :- “Not it that mate, it’s electric”.
He replied:- “We don’t get many of them in here”.
I wonder why !!!!! .
I returned to my car laughing my head off, I then pulled out of the petrol station in complete silence listening to all of them noisy ICE cars starting up.
I do NOT miss that anymore

I dont have a home charger so all my charging is on rapids or street based fast chargers. I've never had a switch off at 80% - but do see the charging rate dip around 85%. Never had any rapid (probably used 80 of them) cancel the charge or create a problem with the car

 

[Tonych]

Good question @Kithmo .
Let me think ???.
On the first occasion ( last year ) I left the car to use the toilet facilities first, returned to the car and commenced the charge, the car was powered completely down and had been for about five minutes.
On the second occasion ( this year ) I arrived at the charger, powered down and then did a bit of “faffing” about getting out my RFID card and then, I had to go into the hotel to register my number plate with them, then I returned to the car and plugged in.
There must have been about a five minute delay between pulling up, shutting down and then plugging in the car.
This does bring me to a question that somebody may be able to answer please.
As my rapid charger use is very small, can the car be in the fully booted facility when receiving a charge in order to see the range increasing on the GOM ?.
Thanks in advance of your replies !.

Without thinking about it I always switch off, plug in and connect and then usually without touching the brake pedal switch the car on to see the rate of charge. This seems to work well and not cause problems.

 

[Les burrows]

Good question @Kithmo .
Let me think ???.
On the first occasion ( last year ) I left the car to use the toilet facilities first, returned to the car and commenced the charge, the car was powered completely down and had been for about five minutes.
On the second occasion ( this year ) I arrived at the charger, powered down and then did a bit of “faffing” about getting out my RFID card and then, I had to go into the hotel to register my number plate with them, then I returned to the car and plugged in.
There must have been about a five minute delay between pulling up, shutting down and then plugging in the car.
This does bring me to a question that somebody may be able to answer please.
As my rapid charger use is very small, can the car be in the fully booted facility when receiving a charge in order to see the range increasing on the GOM ?.
Thanks in advance of your replies !.

Hand book for the MG5 says you must not switch on while charging

 

[Tonych]

Hand book for the MG5 says you must not switch on while charging

I'm not sure it is "switched on" - if you switch off to connect when you press start it's an auxiliary state I believe. As someone said above you can cycle thro 2 states to see charging rate and state of charge

 

[Les burrows]

Yeh had a problem with my last posting picture would not load think you have it now strange one this has in other postings you see people saying if you want to use the radio or heater you need to have the car fully switched on when parked or charging to avoid running down the 12 volt battery on my MG5 while charging
You can see the state of charge by opening a door or the tailgate but not the gom
Les

 

[Kithmo]

Hand book for the MG5 says you must not switch on while charging

It says the same in the MG ZS manual.