Outlander 2014 Charging Woes: Seeking Solutions

[elkoenjo]

"Multimeter red, against red jumpstart. Multimeter black in numerous positions on the chassis."

Mine reads 12.6V in OFF and 14.67V in ON.
You have flipped the red plastic cover to get access to the metal contact ?

Hahaha jup, I did.
Did you just measures the metal at the jumpstart?

 

[PHEV07]

Thanks!



Just tested it. But I didn't get any number on my multimeter (well, it stays on 0.00). Startbutton was in orange and blue. Multimeter red, against red jumpstart. Multimeter black in numerous positions on the chassis.

Probably I did something wrong. Settings on the multimeter where the same as testen directly on the battery. (So that variable can be ruled out)

Sounds like you may be using the wrong scale on the meter, or leads placed in the wrong holes.

Can you post a photo of the front of your meter please?

 

[Phev2016]

When Michael8554 says 'red cover' he means only the red cover. Do not touch any bare metal cable covered with Orange as that is hundreds of volts.
Please confirm:
a) You can still drive the car
b) You can charge the car using Granny charger when the car is OFF
c) Your car timer (not you house) is not set to be OFF when you are trying to charge

If these points are correct then your main drive battery is working and it provides power. Your next step is to change your 12V battery because 12.19V is too low and even when switched off it should be at least 12.5 Volts because the main battery charges it.

I strongly recommend you phone a local car parts store who has a replacement battery in stock or can get one for you, confirm they can check your existing battery (it needs a very simple battery tester) and then drive to them, get it checked and buy a new one if their equipment shows it is failing. I think most people in this thread believe the fault is your 12V battery.

 

[elkoenjo]

When Michael8554 says 'red cover' he means only the red cover. Do not touch any bare metal cable covered with Orange as that is hundreds of volts.
Please confirm:
a) You can still drive the car
b) You can charge the car using Granny charger when the car is OFF
c) Your car timer (not you house) is not set to be OFF when you are trying to charge

If these points are correct then your main drive battery is working and it provides power. Your next step is to change your 12V battery because 12.19V is too low and even when switched off it should be at least 12.5 Volts because the main battery charges it.

I strongly recommend you phone a local car parts store who has a replacement battery in stock or can get one for you, confirm they can check your existing battery (it needs a very simple battery tester) and then drive to them, get it checked and buy a new one if their equipment shows it is failing. I think most people in this thread believe the fault is your 12V battery.

Thank you so much for the clear writing. English is not my native language and I'm totally not technical, but with your help I'm confident I'll sort it out.

My answers:
A) yes
B) no. I can only charge with granny when the startbutton is orange.
C) I don't have any timer turned on (see the photos, in dutch)

Tomorrow I'll bring the car to a local garage. The plan is that they read the "errors" of the car. I'll let them know they have to check the 12v battery (it's the original one)

I've contacted also the previous owner (he is a car mechanic, owned the car for 6 years) and stated that he found it not very likely that it would be the 12v battery.

 

[elkoenjo]

Hi all,

It's working (more or less) again. They deleted error code P1AF9 and P1B01. And didn't change the battery.

The car is charging, but still giving the original warning, see photo. Could that be the 12v battery or something else?

 

[Daniel]

For the past two weeks, my 2014 Outlander hasn't been charging. Initially, I received a message for two days saying "the charging cable was disconnected," and the car made a strange clicking noise when connecting. It seemed like the car repeatedly tried to start charging. Since last week, nothing happens when charging at home (3-phase, using an adapter).

Today, I tested charging at a station using Chademo, but it also stopped after about 7 seconds each time. The car displays the error code "Charge interrupted by cable disconnect or power supply failure."

What's most peculiar is that the battery does charge via the granny charger, but only when the car is in "learning mode." However, charging via the Type 1 charger doesn't work in learning mode either, and I receive the same error message.

I've searched the forum but haven't found an answer. Can anyone help diagnose what might be causing these issues?

Disconnect one battery terminal and leave for a while - then reconnect. The onboard computer will reset although you will lose some mileage settings. May make a difference.

 

[Phev2016]

... and check the battery voltage again. 1) After the car has been unused overnight, check it before you switch the car on. 2) After you have used the car for a few miles at least, check the the car again when you get home. If the first reading is below 12.5V the battery is probably slowly failing. If the second reading is below 12.5 volts it is definitely failing.

 

[elkoenjo]

... and check the battery voltage again. 1) After the car has been unused overnight, check it before you switch the car on. 2) After you have used the car for a few miles at least, check the the car again when you get home. If the first reading is below 12.5V the battery is probably slowly failing. If the second reading is below 12.5 volts it is definitely failing.

Yes will do! Do you still think the battery is the cause of the error?

 

[Ecological]

Easiest solution is to replace the 12.5 volt battery. Cheap as chips.

 

[elkoenjo]

Easiest solution is to replace the 12.5 volt battery. Cheap as chips.

In Netherlands the battery is around 95 euros. Around 50 bags of chips

 

[Phev2016]

You will be surprised to know that if your battery is 12.3V then it is only about 75% charged and also will not have capacity to hold a stable voltage of between 12.4 and 12.7V. It will not have ability to provide enough current in Amps when demanded by the car so the voltage will drop, then raise, then drop then raise, then drop then raise. This will cause errors (like yours for example) in the ECUs and can upset the ECUs. Much cheaper to change a battery than to replace an ECU.

 

[DaveL59]

A couple things re the 12v aux battery. The voltage you're reading should be enough to fire up the main electrics, however an original battery from 2014 is quite likely to be weak, especially if it has been run flat at any time during its long life. A weak battery will sag under load and the voltage drops off quickly, which could then result in the main contactors disengaging as they are energised.

I recently replaced my original 12v aux on a 2019 car because it was reading 12.0-12.4v a lot of the time when parked up, fitting an Optima yellow top deep cycle AGM in its place. I also fitted an extra USB outlet which has a voltmeter so I can now see the 12v aux voltage if I power up to ACC. This often shows 12.0-12.2v if the car has been standing for a number of days, 4+ days. Once the car is powered to Ready this jumps to 14.4v when the car starts to charge the 12v aux and declines back toward 13.6v as the battery charges to full. After a run the battery will show 12.4-12.6v, same after it's been hooked up to the granny charger for 3 hours or so. Funny tho that after cycling the original thru a couple regen cycles on my Ctek charger it seems to be showing a stable full charge voltage so it likely would've been fine for another couple years, but I don't like to take chances and also carry a 12v lithium jumpstart pack in the boot.

Despite the WiFi equipped cars doing a daily top-up charge of the 12v aux, it doesn't charge for very long so won't keep the aux battery at full charge over time. I expect this is because the loss supporting the media-ICE, alarm and whatever else is kept powered exceeds the very short daily top-up charge time (10 mins ish).

Bottom line, your battery is old and is likely aging out (they all do), so while it may show >12v off load, you really need to get it load tested or obtain a battery load tester to determine its actual health. Quite likely it has one or more weak cell and that's all it needs to start causing issues under load.

I recently replaced a load of 12v 18AH AGM batteries in my UPSs which were 7-8 years old. All were working fine tho once off the charge circuit many showed a drop in voltage to 12.3-4v. These have had to hold up the working load several times over those years, sometimes for more than an hour so they've been worked hard in those moments. I may be able to find alternate use for some of them but I won't be expecting the same performance as when they were new as I know their on-load capacity will have been significantly reduced.

 

[Ecological]

In Netherlands the battery is around 95 euros. Around 50 bags of chips

If you shopped around eg on the internet, you might be able to get it for E60

 

[Phev2016]

@elkoenjo . So what did you do finally and have we helped you solve your problem?

 

[elkoenjo]

Meanwhile, I've been driving for a little over a week to my satisfaction, and the warning has not reappeared. It even seems that I've gained significantly more electric range, although that could also be due to the favorable weather conditions.

I haven't measured the battery yet. I find it a bothersome task to access it, and finishing my studies took priority. In the coming weeks, I will find time to measure and report back. In the meantime, I'm calmly searching for a good battery. I do have a question about this: Is it advisable to go for top brands (like Varta or similar), or are B and C brands also fine?

Thank you for all the advice.

 

[Phev2016]

Almost any battery should have a 2 year warranty minimum so if you intend to keep the car for only a short time that should be fine for up to 5 years realistically, especially as our cars do not use heavy loads for starting in winter. If you want to keep it for longer a premium battery will have a longer warranty and probably last 8-10 years. I suspect that you have the original battery and at 10 years old it is probably not maintaining full charge consistently so voltage can drop, especially if the weather is cooler.