FFE developing a "charge fault" problem

[michael]

I could in particular understand Chargepoint units shutting off if there is a momentary interruption in the charging process. They might be programmed to view this as an attempt to move the nozzle from one car to another.

I don't use Ford or Clipper Creek so have no knowledge of their behavior. Aerovironment units seem to report a temporary charge fault but usually recover by themselves.

 

[WattsUp]

I could in particular understand Chargepoint units shutting off if there is a momentary interruption in the charging process. They might be programmed to view this as an attempt to move the nozzle from one car to another.

Fwiw, the ChargePoint that I had the fault on (a week ago) simply reported that my car was "charging" at the same time the MFM app was showing a "charge fault" and then a little later "plugged in, waiting to charge".

 

[GladeStorm]

Over the past couple of weeks I've gotten up in the morning to an MFM range estimate that read 1/2 to 2/3's of what it should on 3 different occasions. Updating didn't change anything but when I went out to the car and started it, the GOM gave me a good number (and a recheck of the MFM showed a good number also). Software... wonderful stuff.

 

[hybridbear]

I could in particular understand Chargepoint units shutting off if there is a momentary interruption in the charging process. They might be programmed to view this as an attempt to move the nozzle from one car to another.

Fwiw, the ChargePoint that I had the fault on (a week ago) simply reported that my car was "charging" at the same time the MFM app was showing a "charge fault" and then a little later "plugged in, waiting to charge".

What did the ChargePoint app show for the kW charge rate at this time? Perhaps the car was still accepting some current which is why CP didn't indicate a charge fault.

Also, I've occasionally seen the strange behavior with the GOM starting low & increasing.

 

[hybridbear]

Yesterday afternoon I plugged the FFE in upon arriving home. By the time I got upstairs with the groceries I had a text msg from MFM saying "charge fault". I opened the MFM app on my iPhone and the car status said, "Elektra is at home, charge fault". About 4 hours later I went downstairs to unplug the car & plug it back in for the night to clear the charge fault. As I was heading down I decided to pull up MFM on my phone to see if it still said "charge fault". I got downstairs to the car before MFM updated so I just stood by the car waiting to see what happened. I could hear the car making its usually suite of clunking noises that happen when you wake it up via MFM. Next, our ClipperCreek station made its clunk noise that it was engaging & sending power to the car. The charging light ring lit up (like it does when you unlock the car). MFM subsequently updated to say, "Elektra is at home, plugged in, waiting to charge". Since now it appeared that the car was going to correctly charge, I decided to just leave it alone & see what would happen. Once I got up this morning I logged in to MFM & confirmed that the car had charged correctly overnight.

This is maybe the 5th time we've received the charge fault message upon plugging in during our ~18 months with the FFE. I think I had always gone & unplugged/replugged in the car shortly after receiving the text msg from MFM previously, rather than waiting hours like yesterday. I think in the future I'll try waiting (if possible) to see if the car can resolve its issue by itself.

I'm not sure what could have caused the initial charge fault message. Perhaps something failed in the communication between the EVSE & the car? Perhaps a voltage concern? The voltage at our EVSE in our apartment is usually about 205-207 V according to the SOBDMC in the FFE when not charging (during daytime hours). It usually reports about 204-205 when the car is pulling 29 amps to charge (during the day). I've never checked what the voltage is at 3:00 am when we usually begin charging. Although, considering that it's winter, electricity demand is markedly reduced compared to summer, so I wouldn't expect a very high load anywhere in our building...

Any ideas? It hasn't been a recurring issue, so it's not a major concern, just more of a curiosity.

 

[jmueller065]

Yesterday afternoon I plugged the FFE in upon arriving home. By the time I got upstairs with the groceries I had a text msg from MFM saying "charge fault". I opened the MFM app on my iPhone and the car status said, "Elektra is at home, charge fault". About 4 hours later I went downstairs to unplug the car & plug it back in for the night to clear the charge fault. As I was heading down I decided to pull up MFM on my phone to see if it still said "charge fault". I got downstairs to the car before MFM updated so I just stood by the car waiting to see what happened. I could hear the car making its usually suite of clunking noises that happen when you wake it up via MFM. Next, our ClipperCreek station made its clunk noise that it was engaging & sending power to the car. The charging light ring lit up (like it does when you unlock the car). MFM subsequently updated to say, "Elektra is at home, plugged in, waiting to charge". Since now it appeared that the car was going to correctly charge, I decided to just leave it alone & see what would happen. Once I got up this morning I logged in to MFM & confirmed that the car had charged correctly overnight.

This is maybe the 5th time we've received the charge fault message upon plugging in during our ~18 months with the FFE. I think I had always gone & unplugged/replugged in the car shortly after receiving the text msg from MFM previously, rather than waiting hours like yesterday. I think in the future I'll try waiting (if possible) to see if the car can resolve its issue by itself.

I'm not sure what could have caused the initial charge fault message. Perhaps something failed in the communication between the EVSE & the car? Perhaps a voltage concern? The voltage at our EVSE in our apartment is usually about 205-207 V according to the SOBDMC in the FFE when not charging (during daytime hours). It usually reports about 204-205 when the car is pulling 29 amps to charge (during the day). I've never checked what the voltage is at 3:00 am when we usually begin charging. Although, considering that it's winter, electricity demand is markedly reduced compared to summer, so I wouldn't expect a very high load anywhere in our building...

Any ideas? It hasn't been a recurring issue, so it's not a major concern, just more of a curiosity.

I get that about once every other month. I've discovered that you can clear it by simply doing two updates in the MFM app--I don't even go out to the car anymore, just update twice and move on with my day. (Basically just hit update until the car says Charging or Waiting to Charge.)

 

[sefs]

The FFE charger is surprisingly fault tolerant to the incoming voltage and frequency, so I don't think that is the issue. Do you have anything you could pull codes with from the charger (SODBM)?

 

[hybridbear]

I get that about once every other month. I've discovered that you can clear it by simply doing two updates in the MFM app--I don't even go out to the car anymore, just update twice and move on with my day. (Basically just hit update until the car says Charging or Waiting to Charge.)

Interesting! Next time that happens I will try doing two updates to MFM right away. When I went down to the car in the evening I did a 2nd MFM update which resulted in the "waiting to charge" message. Thanks!

 

[hybridbear]

The FFE charger is surprisingly fault tolerant to the incoming voltage and frequency, so I don't think that is the issue. Do you have anything you could pull codes with from the charger (SODBM)?

I haven't checked for codes with FORScan, but I can.

 

[sefs]

The FFE charger is surprisingly fault tolerant to the incoming voltage and frequency, so I don't think that is the issue. Do you have anything you could pull codes with from the charger (SODBM)?

I haven't checked for codes with FORScan, but I can.

Check for the persistent codes now, and if it faults again, check the ongoing codes before you restart the car again.

 

[WattsUp]

I get that about once every other month. I've discovered that you can clear it by simply doing two updates in the MFM app--I don't even go out to the car anymore, just update twice and move on with my day. (Basically just hit update until the car says Charging or Waiting to Charge.)

Interesting! Next time that happens I will try doing two updates to MFM right away. When I went down to the car in the evening I did a 2nd MFM update which resulted in the "waiting to charge" message. Thanks!

Whenever I had the charge faults, it would simply not clear until the connection was physically unplugged and replugged. I know I did numerous updates on the MFM app and this never "triggered" the problem to fix itself. I even tried temporarily switching between "Value Charge" and "Charge Now" settings. This too had no effect on the fault.

I did sometimes see the status switch to "Waiting to charge", but the car would just remain in that state, and not charge.

 

[jmueller065]

Whenever I had the charge faults, it would simply not clear until the connection was physically unplugged and replugged. I know I did numerous updates on the MFM app and this never "triggered" the problem to fix itself. I even tried temporarily switching between "Value Charge" and "Charge Now" settings. This too had no effect on the fault.

I did sometimes see the status switch to "Waiting to charge", but the car would just remain in that state, and not charge.

Wow. So far (knock on wood) I've never had a "hard" fault like that. My car has behaved as I described since day one: I'd plug in, get a charge fault pretty quickly (sometimes my phone would beep as I'm walking away from the car), press update twice...fault cleared.

 

[hybridbear]

Whenever I had the charge faults, it would simply not clear until the connection was physically unplugged and replugged. I know I did numerous updates on the MFM app and this never "triggered" the problem to fix itself. I even tried temporarily switching between "Value Charge" and "Charge Now" settings. This too had no effect on the fault.

I did sometimes see the status switch to "Waiting to charge", but the car would just remain in that state, and not charge.

This is what I would expect when you have the "charge fault" message. In the past I had always received the text msg so quickly that I could immediately unplug & plug in the car again to clear it. This time I decided to wait & the charge fault fixed itself.

WattsUp - how often do you get the charge fault message? It's very rare for us.

 

[jmueller065]

You guys had to bring this up! LOL

Sure enough: I get home, plug in, am walking to the mailbox...beep.. charge fault. Hit update twice while I'm standing next to the car..Waiting to charge.

 

[WattsUp]

WattsUp - how often do you get the charge fault message? It's very rare for us.

It is pretty rare for me at the moment, but was more common earlier this summer (temperatures in the 80s and 90s) and also when I was using the Ford Level 1 unit a lot.

Two things have changed since then... the weather is much cooler now and I am usually using Level 2 stations instead of the Ford unit.

Possibly related, I think something is wrong with one of the temperature sensors in my FFE and I should probably have it checked. I also see other weird (possibly temperature related) behaviors more and more lately, like the GOM starting out really low (even on a full charge) and then slowly increasing to normal after I start the car and/or check it with MFM. My car has also sent me lots of warnings about "severely limited" performance due to cold temperatures (strangely, this occurred more in the summer, even on 90-degree days). I live in CA, so the temperatures are never THAT cold.

 

[sefs]

WattsUp - how often do you get the charge fault message? It's very rare for us.

It is pretty rare for me at the moment, but was more common earlier this summer (temperatures in the 80s and 90s) and also when I was using the Ford Level 1 unit a lot.

Two things have changed since then... the weather is much cooler now and I am usually using Level 2 stations instead of the Ford unit.

Possibly related, I think something is wrong with one of the temperature sensors in my FFE and I should probably have it checked. I also see other weird (possibly temperature related) behaviors more and more lately, like the GOM starting out really low (even on a full charge) and then slowly increasing to normal after I start the car and/or check it with MFM. My car has also sent me lots of warnings about "severely limited" performance due to cold temperatures (strangely, this occurred more in the summer, even on 90-degree days). I live in CA, so the temperatures are never THAT cold.

That's definitely a faulty temperature sensor. You'd have to check all the reporting modules to figure out which one.