Charging Problems

[geoffshep69]

Having some problems with my Rolec charger last night, so just wondering if anyone has experienced anything similar ?

Plugged it in to charge, it did the usual ‘clunk’ and seemed OK, but after about 5-10 seconds it clunked off. Tried again several times, but each occasion was the same – starts charging normally and red charging light comes on, then it starts flashing and disconnects the charger. On some of the occasions it tripped the switch on the charger unit, and on one occasion it also tripped the separate circuit switch for the charger on my main circuit board in the house.

When I set off this morning I had one bar of battery but that soon disappaeared. Normally when there are no bars it doesn’t take long for the first bar to light up again, but that hadn’t happened after 5 minutes or so of driving, so I pressed the ‘Charge’ button and after a minute or so the first bar appeared, and by the time I got to work I had 2 bars.

Any thoughts as to whether this might be a charger problem or a car problem ? Never thought to try it with the charger that came with the car (still in the boot unopened) but will try that when I go home tonight. Had assumed it was the charger, but the ‘no bars’ experience in the car this morning makes me think its more likely that is the problem ?

Will try the other charger tonight and see what happens, but if that doesn’t work either it looks like a visit to the dealer is required.

 

[elm70]

I'm using only the charger that come with the car .. never had any issue so far.

Yes ... try to see if you have the same problem using the car charger ... then you will know exactly if the problem is the Rolec or your PHEV ... I would bet it is a Rolec issue ... the PHEV on board charger should be bullet proof

 

[tweedie]

well, could be the cable as well, so if you try a different charger but same cable, you will be misled that its the rolec at fault. Best try with a different cable too. Come to think of it, have you tried the charger that came with the car (ie, with your home socket version - like the uk 3 pin plug)

If its doing the same with the charger that come with the car, then its probably more likely the car is at fault I would have thought.

 

[geoffshep69]

well, could be the cable as well, so if you try a different charger but same cable, you will be misled that its the rolec at fault. Best try with a different cable too. Come to think of it, have you tried the charger that came with the car (ie, with your home socket version - like the uk 3 pin plug)

If its doing the same with the charger that come with the car, then its probably more likely the car is at fault I would have thought.

Yes, that's what I planned to do. The Rolec has a tethered cable, so I'll try it with the charger and cable that came with the car (which I have never used before) and see what happens.

 

[Dusz]

It might be worthwhile switching the Rolec off with the isolator for say a minute and then turning it back on. Seems to work on other items with digital electronics.

 

[geoffshep69]

Hhhhmmmm.....drove home last night and was convinced it was a problem with the car. Running on EV, down to the last bar of battery, no sign of the usual cycle of the ICE kicking in to provide charge. The last bar disappeared leaving a completely empty guage, but still no sign of the ICE until I pressed the Charge button. Even with the Charge button pressed, it didn't seem to be operating the way it normally does when on Charge.

Got home, tried the Rolec, no joy. Clunked on, clunked off, tripped the switch in the charge point.

Just to be sure, I decided to try the charger cable that came with the car. Unwrapped it, plugged it in, and to my surprise all seemed fine. Left it for 45 minutes, went for a drive and started off with a few bars of battery. When it got down to the last bar, it went into the usual cycle with the ICE operating to keep it at one bar of charge.

Thought it might be fixed, so came home and gave the Rolec one more try. Didnt even clunk on this time, just flashed for a bit, then went off and tripped all the electrics in the house. Plugged in the normal cable all all seemed fine again.

So it looks like the Rolec is the problem and I'll need to get the installer back. I'm confused by the car's behaviour though, if the Rolec is faulty could it somehow have confused or screwed up the electronics and the brain in the car ? Even if it wasn't charging, why would the car not go into the usual cycle once the battery is depleted ?

 

[greendwarf]

Hhhhmmmm.....drove home last night and was convinced it was a problem with the car. Running on EV, down to the last bar of battery, no sign of the usual cycle of the ICE kicking in to provide charge. The last bar disappeared leaving a completely empty guage, but still no sign of the ICE until I pressed the Charge button.

Don't understand this. If battery was empty what was powering the car?

 

[maby]

...

So it looks like the Rolec is the problem and I'll need to get the installer back. I'm confused by the car's behaviour though, if the Rolec is faulty could it somehow have confused or screwed up the electronics and the brain in the car ? Even if it wasn't charging, why would the car not go into the usual cycle once the battery is depleted ?

There's no difference in function between the Rolec and the charging cable supplied with the car - neither actually charges the battery, they are just control boxes that tell the charger built into the car how much current it can draw.

 

[geoffshep69]

Hhhhmmmm.....drove home last night and was convinced it was a problem with the car. Running on EV, down to the last bar of battery, no sign of the usual cycle of the ICE kicking in to provide charge. The last bar disappeared leaving a completely empty guage, but still no sign of the ICE until I pressed the Charge button.

Don't understand this. If battery was empty what was powering the car?

I guess it was using the last reserves in the battery, and if I hadn't pressed the 'Charge' button then it would have entered turtle mode forcing me to limp home ?

 

[geoffshep69]

...

So it looks like the Rolec is the problem and I'll need to get the installer back. I'm confused by the car's behaviour though, if the Rolec is faulty could it somehow have confused or screwed up the electronics and the brain in the car ? Even if it wasn't charging, why would the car not go into the usual cycle once the battery is depleted ?

There's no difference in function between the Rolec and the charging cable supplied with the car - neither actually charges the battery, they are just control boxes that tell the charger built into the car how much current it can draw.

OK, but the normal cable seems to allow the battery to charge and the battery to behave normally, but the Rolec doesn't allow any charging of the battery ? Doesnt that point to a fault with my Rolec charge unit ?

 

[jaapv]

Hhhhmmmm.....drove home last night and was convinced it was a problem with the car. Running on EV, down to the last bar of battery, no sign of the usual cycle of the ICE kicking in to provide charge. The last bar disappeared leaving a completely empty guage, but still no sign of the ICE until I pressed the Charge button.

Don't understand this. If battery was empty what was powering the car?

I guess it was using the last reserves in the battery, and if I hadn't pressed the 'Charge' button then it would have entered turtle mode forcing me to limp home ?

No, it wouldn't. The car is not as stupid as that. It will keep the level of the battery at the minimum of 28% needed to operate properly automatically. Your experience just proves that the car had not yet reached that level yet. In fact, if you drive below 30Mph, the car will continue in EV mode for up to 5 miles after indicating "empty" before the ICE kicks in.
Turtle mode will only occur if power demand exceeds the amount that the car can provide for an extended period of time.
In fact, once it has reached this point it will ignore the charge and save buttons.

 

[anko]

In fact, if you drive below 30Mph, the car will continue in EV mode for up to 5 miles after indicating "empty" before the ICE kicks in.
Turtle mode will only occur if power demand exceeds the amount that the car can provide for an extended period of time.

These parameters also depend on whether the ICE has already had a chance to warm up. It seems the car knows ICE power is available immediately when needed and it does not need to anticipate by pre starting the ICE.

BTW: in my opinion, 30 MPH is a bit pessimistic and 5 miles is a bit optimistic.

 

[jaapv]

In fact, if you drive below 30Mph, the car will continue in EV mode for up to 5 miles after indicating "empty" before the ICE kicks in.
Turtle mode will only occur if power demand exceeds the amount that the car can provide for an extended period of time.

These parameters also depend on whether the ICE has already had a chance to warm up. It seems the car knows ICE power is available immediately when needed and it does not need to anticipate by pre starting the ICE.

BTW: in my opinion, 30 MPH is a bit pessimistic and 5 miles is a bit optimistic.

Possibly. 30 Mph is what mine really does - I come from an 80 Kmh. road into a 50 kmh area with my car to enter our town and it regularly goes into -.-- just at the speed limit. I have often had to do a quick acceleration overtaking or otherwise before, so indeed a warm ICE. I can drive 3 miles to my house and it won't start the ICE, The other 2 miles are an estimate, I should try it out one day.

 

[geoffshep69]

I know that the car is designed to ensure that the battery never falls below the pre-determined level, but on mine I have never seen it behave as it did the other day. Having a completely empty battery guage (which I know means that the battery still has c.30% remaining) only ever appears very occasionally, and it always results in the ICE starting.

The other night I was driving on dual carriageway at 60mph, the guage was completely empty and the ICE didnt fire up even though it was in that state for at least a minute and still just showed that it was running on EV. Surely that is abnormal ? It definitely is for my car, I drive that route every working day and I can guarantee it has never behaved like that before.

It was only when I pressed the Charge button that the ICE came on. I accept that if I had driven a bit further the ICE may have kicked in, but I didnt want to take that chance.

 

[jaapv]

Before the car goes into turtle mode (a quite rare occurrence) it will display a "low power" warning with no noticeable drop in performance (yet).

 

[geoffshep69]

Before the car goes into turtle mode (a quite rare occurrence) it will display a "low power" warning with no noticeable drop in performance (yet).

So it may well be that my car wasn't yet about to go into turtle mode, but it was definitely behaving strangely, and it only started after the problem with the charger.

I've done a 900+ mile round trip to London and never seen the battery guage go completely empty - the ICE cycles on and off to maintain a single bar of battery so seeing it completely empty while driving at speed on dual carriageway was worrying.

Still seems to me that the charger has caused a problem with the car, it surely cannot just be coincidence that my car behaves like it has never done before immediately after an issue with the charger ?

 

[vickers7893]

I thought I had a problem with my 16amp. fixed Polar Charger but it turned out to be the cable at fault.
The Tech. Guys at Polar were very helpful and explained that to check the charge unit, its power needed to be be turned off at source, allowed to rest for some time and then to reboot the computer in the Charger for a prescribed cycle.
Could this be the problem?
Big John

GX3+
MY16
Orient Red
Called "Sparky"