EV system failure on very new car

[Josie18]

Hi had the PHEV for 4 weeks, it has done 1300 miles and only ever externally charged at home. Went on holiday with car - no access to any external charging points- drove home and parked at supermarket near home to get EV system failure - which we are being charged £85 to remedy as they say it is a non warranty fault - caused by faulty charging - but the car hasn't been charged by any external charger for over a week. We have never used a rapid charging point and don't have a cable to use one either.

Anyone else had the same problems?

Josie

 

[jaapv]

Problems with dealers behaving ridiculously? It appears to be the norm in some countries...

 

[Kesto]

Ridiculous. Talk to consumer protection society

 

[Josie18]

The PHEV is a company car - so my husband can get the money back, but we have been treated as though we were not telling the truth - a car with 1300 miles on it completely dead, had to be 'rescued' by breakdown. We haven't had any external charging for 8 days. We will ask them to run an analytics on the charging history. It isn't a great start to having the car - We are left feeling very under confident about the car. We don't have a car now, offer of replacement vague. It all feels very very poor. We are both professionals and aged over 50, long standing car owners - never known anything like this before!

 

[jaapv]

I would be extremely angry and would be talking to the highest level I could force my way to at the importer. I've never experienced anything like it in a long car life. Even when my wife's Mini 1100 fell to pieces within a year and a half, after consuming a couple of engines well before 20.000 km, BLMC were very apologetic and took it back - and that was in the bad final years.

 

[user 816]

The dealer is not being honest.. if the car gets this problem from incorrect rapid charging (and it can happen) it disables the car there and then at the rapid charger. The fact you were no where near a charger means the dealer is talking rubbish.

Get angry.. get on the phone to Mitsubishi head office..

 

[Josie18]

Thank you for these replies. Can I ask you all something else please?

When the car developed the EV system fault we were parked in a rapid charging bay as we were just curious as to how they worked, only having had the car for 4 weeks. As I said we don't have a charging cable so we were not able to use the rapid charge system we just parked the car in the bay to have a look.

Is there any chance that the PHEV could have been affected by being in close proximity to a rapid charger?

We were really enjoying the PHEV and I like it far more than most of our other cars, hated the Audi - although my P reg BMW was probably still my favourite - I have a mini clubman now - which my son likes and I rarely see!

Thank you
Josie

 

[user 816]

Thank you for these replies. Can I ask you all something else please?

When the car developed the EV system fault we were parked in a rapid charging bay as we were just curious as to how they worked, only having had the car for 4 weeks. As I said we don't have a charging cable so we were not able to use the rapid charge system we just parked the car in the bay to have a look.

Is there any chance that the PHEV could have been affected by being in close proximity to a rapid charger?

We were really enjoying the PHEV and I like it far more than most of our other cars, hated the Audi - although my P reg BMW was probably still my favourite - I have a mini clubman now - which my son likes and I rarely see!

Thank you
Josie

ah the plot takes a turn!

You don't need a cable for a rapid charger, the cable is attached to the charger as its very big and heavy.

Are you sure it was a rapid charger? which supermarket?

I am starting to see why the dealer may have taken their stance if you were recovered from a rapid charge bay.. it certainly COULD look like you played with the charger and caused the fault, especially if the car is indicating that's what happened.

no, being in proximity with the charger can't affect the car.

 

[Josie18]

Well it was ASDA - there was nothing there, just the charging unit at the top of the bay - no wires.

My husband has asked the dealer to print off the error messages and they are saying they can't print off the charging error issues. They are also saying that they can't hand other information over because of issues related to the warranty!

Its a company car - I am just bemused at the experience that we have had. If this was my personal car I would have been much more annoyed.

Thank you for your time

Josie

 

[jaapv]

That is most likely a normal fast charger, no issues there. And the dealer can easily read out the logs - he can even go online to Japan to read out hidden logs. Either they are totally incompetent or they are spinning you a story.
It appaers to me that it is time to start talking through lawyers...

 

[greendwarf]

That is most likely a normal fast charger, no issues there. And the dealer can easily read out the logs - he can even go online to Japan to read out hidden logs. Either they are totally incompetent or they are spinning you a story.
It appaers to me that it is time to start talking through lawyers...

Or Trading Standards - lawyers are likely to be more expensive than the dealer's bill

 

[jaapv]

But the party in the wrong will be liable for the lawyers bill. - and I don't know about the UK, over here many have legal insurance.

 

[anko]

But the party in the wrong will be liable for the lawyers bill. - and I don't know about the UK, over here many have legal insurance.

I do. But they will refuse to help when the damage is "only" £85.

 

[Josie18]

We paid the money and we can claim it back - but we were not happy. However, we just got our new tax code and that made us very happy. It was very frustrating, but I think overall we are happy with the car if we don't have this issue again.

Thank you all for your time

Josie

 

[garywallis]

Hello Josie,

This happened to me four times, and only after long journeys of say 50 miles or so. Eventually the car had to go to the Mitsubishi head office and have the drive battery connectors replaced. (at least that's what the dealer said). The first three times I had the following reasons given to me by the dealer 1. I had removed the cable from a rapid charger too early (even though, like you, I have never used a rapid charger) 2. The transit fuse might have become unseated. The dealer replaced the fuse. 3. No idea why it happened.

I got Mitsubishi customer services involved and they asked me to take the vehicle to a different dealer (now the 4th!) so that they could replicate the fault, which they couldn't. I eventually took the vehicle back. However on discussing this with the 4th dealer, they advised me that if the same thing happened again, to get the car recovered to them so that they could send the on-board computer data directly to Mitsubishi. Apparently, what all the other dealers had done is re-set the on-board computer to get the car started, and by doing so, had cleared historical data that could be analysed by a Mitsubishi expert technician. The other dealers were just keen to get my vehicle out of their premises.

The next long journey that I made, I assumed I was going to break down and prepared myself for this, so when it happened I was not surprised.

You didn't mention if you had used the Mitsubishi Assist service. I have to say, even though each time this happened to me I was extremely frustrated, they were very efficient and arranged for a hire car through Enterprise (£10.00 per day insurance fee + CDW if you take it).

So my advice to you would be.

Contact Mitsubishi customer service to a. Get a refund on the amount that you paid to the dealer and b. Log the incident.
If the same thing happens again, call Mitsubishi Assist, get the car recovered to a dealer with the strict instruction not to re-set the on-board computer and also get in touch with customer service so that they can take over from there.

Hope that the above helps.