Yellow battery gauge

[Rolfe]

Mine has only ever done it about three times. I think it's pretty random. It's a nothing-burger, but it would be nice if they would fix it.

 

[Tight Git]

I thought the latest thinking was that this shows that the 12volt battery is being charged by the traction battery.

I had it yesterday on the way out for a walk but was normal when coming home

 

[Rolfe]

I don't think so. I'm still of the opinion that the gauge is supposed to turn amber when you're getting a bit low, and red when you really ought to find a charger pretty damn soon. That's how it works in other MG cars, and indeed in some MG4s. But in most MG4s this never happens, except the amber colour randomly comes out to play sometimes because it's feeling neglected.

 

[Martinonline]

When my Trophy dropped below 20% the car told me to charge it. (On power up; I do not have a welcome message.) When it got to 10% the level was still green.

 

[Rolfe]

I thought my SE SR started to nag somewhere about 15%, but yes, same thing. When I got to 4% the level had gone amber, but there wasn't much left to see by then.

 

[RP67]

Ok, my theory just busted. It couldn't be anything than random appearance...

 

[dsimpkins]

Yes, happened to me this morning. Resetting the infotainment by holding down the home button sorted it.

 

[Rolfe]

Ignore it and it will go away.

 

[dsimpkins]

Did it again tonight. Surely not temp related?

 

[MSvirus]

Did it again tonight. Surely not temp related?

As I have been driving my car in constant minus degrees since I got it (0 to -30C), I have never seen any other colour of that indicator than green, so I guess not it is temp related then.

 

[siteguru]

Did it again tonight. Surely not temp related?

Mine has stayed green, even though the temp when I came home 30 mins ago was about -5C.

 

[Rolfe]

Bizarrely, mine seemed to be behaving sort of correctly this evening. I'm running the battery down to start my <10% to 100% battery health charge tomorrow afternoon, and this evening the charge was down to 12%. (I miscalculated a bit, I have to do 29 miles tomorrow, so I'm putting a bit more in now.) Anyway, the SoC gauge in the car went amber! I checked, and it was ALL THREE of the in-car displays - the central home screen, the central charging screen and the driver's screen. Not the app though.

I have no idea what has prompted this. I'd have expected amber a bit higher than 12%, but it's a start. Tomorrow afternoon I'll have to run it down past 12% to under 10% again, so I'll keep a look out and see what happens.

 

[stevegus]

Its totally random and will go back to green next time you power up the vehicle

 

[Rolfe]

Well, it will anyway, because it's on charge. I've always had it at high SoC before, except once when I went right down to 4%. It will be interesting to see what it does when I run it down again tomorrow. I don't go that low very often.

I don't think I ever saw it amber on the driver's screen though. Unless I just didn't notice.

 

[Rolfe]

Update, because this is interesting. It did do it again, but not until (I think) 10% this time. (Might have been 11%.) Once again all three gauges were amber - driver's screen, main infotainment screen and charging screen on the central screen. Also, when I started the charge and locked the car, the charging indicator on the driver's screen was again amber.

When I've had the random amber on the main infotainment screen I don't remember the driver's screen doing it as well. I do remember it being amber when I went down to 4% once before, but there was so little of the gauge left I don't know if it was on the driver's screen or not.

This isn't entirely random, at these very low SoC levels, although it's not totally consistent either. It does seem to be coming on as a warning, just not as high as you'd expect - assuming that there should be a red zone below it. I believe I have seen red on some videos of charging trials with the MG4. Has anyone here seen the indicator red, at any SoC?

 

[DougT]

I've got an MG4 Excite in Australia which I understand is a SE in UK. I'd always been told that the displays in Tesla's etc have been known to change colour and get pixelated with heat problems, generally by leaving the screen in direct sunlight. So when I park my MG4 I generally put up sun visors to ensure there is no sunlight on the back of the display. Today I parked in the shade so didn't bother with the sun visors, but I was away longer than I envisaged so that when I returned to the car it had been in full sunlight for an hour or so. As soon as I started it, the battery display % bar on the large display was orange. The car was at 87% charge. This is the first time this had happened, and I can tell you that the back of the display was so hot I couldn't put my hand on it. Later that day after the car had cooled down in the garage it returned to the 'normal' green bar.
Outside ambient temperature was a moderate 28 degrees Celsius at the time it got into the sun.
So my feeling is that an extreme heat may also affect the MG4 display and I'm going to be more cautious and always use my visors.

 

[Rolfe]

OK, I got a chance to check today. Caliban's central screen SoC indicator went amber at 85% charge, just randomly. The driver's screen was still green, as was the indicator on the central screen in the charging window. Only the home screen was affected.

This is in contrast to when he really meant it a week or two ago, when all three screens (and also the SoC bar on the central screen that shows up when the car is on charge and locked so that's four) were all amber.

 

[siteguru]

Mine went amber this afternoon at 9% SoC ... somewhat expected. Maybe my latest updates have sorted this?

 

[Rolfe]

I haven't had the updates and mine went amber at 12% the other week, then at 11-10% the following day. Although I only noticed the amber at 4% last spring, and in the summer when I went down to 9% it was still green.

Odd.

 

[tsedge]

Mine went amber this afternoon at 9% SoC ... somewhat expected. Maybe my latest updates have sorted this?

If they haven't, let me know and I'll organise a class for the MG software developers on how to write an IF statement.