FFE 2018, DC Charging - Communication Error, AC Charging is ok

Ford Focus Electric Forum

Help Support Ford Focus Electric Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

ManuelW

New member
Joined
Nov 4, 2024
Messages
2
Location
Austria
Hello everyone, I come from Austria, Burgenland. 🙂
I'm new here and I'm glad I came to this forum. 🙂

I would like to buy an FFE 2018.
I visited such a model (about 650km away from me) and test drove it (up to Vmax 145km/h) (100% - 25% in ~100km).

When I started the CCS charging, the charge station (with screen) shows up with the error message "Communication error".

I tried several other charging stations several times and none of them charged CCS.

Charging with AC at the charging stations works.

On some charging stations with a screen you can see the progress.

Car is recognized
Authentication is carried out,
Loading parameters are transferred,
Cable connection is checked and
at the end...
Charging process is being prepared.


Most of the time the “communication error” occurs (when the car is locked)
during or after “Charging process is being prepared”.

If I leave the car open and plug it in, the communication error often occurs earlier in the process.

Unfortunately I couldn't buy the car because I have a very long travel time without charging CCS.

However, I don't want to give up the car because I really enjoyed driving it (sometimes with tears in my eyes while driving).

The car dealer was unable to successfully diagnose Ford because they were not very familiar with the model.

I would like to try to diagnose and repair the problem myself.

I recently ordered the OBDLink EX USB OBD2 adapter and will use ForScan for this.


Does anyone have any ideas as to what causes this could be?

Kind regards
ManuelW
 
Last edited:
Not sure what info you'll get over CANBus. CCS has a very complex communication protocol and the EVCC isn't likely to be putting detailed error info out on the bus. Perhaps others have seen more.
 
It sounds like a tricky CCS issue. You might start by checking the onboard charger’s firmware with ForScan, as outdated firmware can cause charging errors.
 
Hello.

Thanks for the information.

I have already bought the car and driven home through the towns (750km)
without any problems using only AC charging (4-7kW) 4 times,
which took a total travel time of about 42 hours. :)

I am happy to have managed it on my own.
The approval is currently in progress.

I also read that the protocol is more complex and is only used for CCS charging.
Simpler switching signals are used for AC charging.

I will also look at the firmware of the on-board charger.

I was already able to do something with FORScan.
All self-tests of the modules (the motor's self-test was omitted)
were carried out without errors. :)

The cell voltage of the 86 cells was between 4.010V - 4.029V,
which I think looks good.

I continued to look at the charging values.

I noticed that the value:

Clutch - battery charger: temperature 'A'
"BC_CPLR_TMP_A, °C = 101

Clutch - battery charger: temperature 'B'
"BC_CPLR_TMP_B, °C = 23

are very different, even though no charging cable is plugged in.

Is it possible that the high value for "Clutch - Battery charger: Temperature 'A'" prevents the CCS charging?

Why is the value so high?
Perhaps a contact error in a temperature sensor in the CSS clutch?
Restarting the GFM2 and GFM1 modules did not change the temperature values.

Kind regards

Manuel Wippel :)
 
Last edited:
They use PTC1000 thermistors. Resistance goes up with temperature, so a connection problem for the sensor will read high.

You could read out the resistance from the good one and just set a potentiometer on the other to fake a good reading.
 
Back
Top