2016 SEL stalled on freeway

[wkuballa]

I took over the lease for an eGolf 2016 SEL (midnight blue, 3year lease, 15.000 miles/year) in Aug-2016 with about 10.500 miles. I have over 9.000 miles since. I general, I am very happy with the car. However, I was recently driving on a freeway when the car stalled. Fortunately, this happened on a Sunday so traffic was light and it was no problem to maneuver the car into the shoulder lane. After a few turn off/on attempts, the car showed "ready" and I was able to drive again. Since it was about time for the 20k miles service, I drove the car to the VW dealership for the service and I explained that the car stalled. After 10 days in the repair shop, I picked up my car today. The text below is copied from the invoice and shows the repair they had done (all covered by warranty, including a rental car while my car was in the shop):

EGOLF , TECH(S):829
GUEST REPORTS ERROR MESSAGE ON DASH 12 VOLT BATTERY
NOT CHARGING AND CAR STALLED ... CHECK AND ADVISE
CUSTOMER STATES ERROR MESSAGE ON DASH AND 12 VOLT BATTERY
NOT CHARGING AND VEHICLE STALLED WHILE DRIVING. HOOKED UP
ODIS AND CHECKED FOR FAULT CODES P180100 GENERATOR
ELECTRICAL ERROR AND POC0100 DRIVE MOTOR "A" CURRENT HIGH.
HOOKED UP VAS 6161 BATTERY TESTER AND TESTED BATTERY-
GOOD-RECHARGE TEST CODE: 5F424DQl-SO6AV54JA. HOOKED UP
INCHARGE 940 AND CHARGED BATTERY FOR 40 MINUTES. RECHECKED
AND TESTED BATTERY WITH VAS 6161 BATTERY TESTER-GOOD
BATTERY TEST CODE: 4R724DQl-SDZAUK52C. PERFORMED GUIDED
FAULT FINDING AND CHECKED FOR TECHNICAL SERVICE BULLETINS.
AFTER FULLY CHARGING 12 VOLT BATTERY. RECHECKED AND ROAD
TESTED VEHICLE AND DID NOT NOTICE ANYTHING ABNORMAL.
PERFORMED GFF LINALTERNATOR TEST-ELECTRICAL GENERATOR TEST.
THE EXCITIATION CURRENT SHOWS NOT 0K. CALLED TECHLINE
CASE #SX-120114 AND STATED THE GENERATOR TEST WAS
INCONCLUSIVE. PRODUCT SUPPORT AND FACTORY ARE ADVISING TO
REPLACE THE HIGH-VOLTAGE WIRING SET FOR THE E-MACHINE FOR
POSSIBLE INTERNAL SHORT. ATTACHED PHOTOS T0 TECHLINE OF THE
CABLE SET ROUTING THAT IS IN THE VEHICLE. WAS ALSO ADVISED
(CONTINUE STORY ON CORRECTION LINE ............. )
TO REPLACE THE JXl POWER CONVERTER AND JX1 SEAL KIT FOR
INTERNALLY MALFUNCTIONING CAUSING NOT TO CHARGE THE 12 VOLT
BATTERY CORRECTLY. HOOKED UP ODIS AND DE-ENERGIZED HIGH-
VOLTAGE SYSTEM. PERFORMED GUIDED FUNCTION-FILLING
REFRIGERANT CIRCUIT AND HOOKED UP A/C MACHINE AND RECOVERED
FREON FROM A/C SYSTEM. AS PER INSTRUCTED BY TECHLINE.
REMOVED JXl COVER AND PAINTED AND CHECKED TORQUE FOR CABLES
FROM JXl TO E-MACHINE WITH 20NM 0F TORQUE OK. REMOVED AND
REPLACED JXl POWER CONVERTER AND SEAL KIT. REMOVED RIGHT
FRONT WHEEL AND INNER FENDER LINER. REMOVED A/C COMPRESSOR
AND DRIVE MOTOR COVER TO ACCESS DRIVE MOTOR HIGH-VOLTAGE
HARNESS. REMOVED AND REPLACED WIRE HARNESS AND REINSTALLED
DRIVE MOTOR COVER AND REPLACED GASKET. REINSTALLED A/C
COMRESSOR. INNER FENDER LINER AND WHEEL. HOOKED UP ODIS
AND RECONNECTED HIGH.VOLTAGE SYSTEM OK. VACUUMED AND CHARGED
950 GRAMS OF FREON AND TOPPED OFF COOLANT RESEVOIR AND BLED
COOLING SYSTEM. PERFORMED CODING FOR J841 ELECTRIC DRIVE
CONTROL MODULE. ROAD TESTED VEHICLE AND RECHECKED FOR FAULT
N0 DTC'S OK.///JX1 VC-BPV 0R BOSCH ..... JXl SEAL KIT-K21....
DRIVE MOTOR HIGH-VOLTAGE HARNESS VC-SZS

’ARTS ------ QTY---FP-NUMBER --------------- DESCRIPTION -------------------- UNIT PRICE-
1 12E-998-152-A REPAIR KIT
1 50E-97l-013-A WIRING SET
1 SQE-907-070-H ELECTRONIC
5 N-106-531-01 SCREW
8 N-105-464-03 TORX SCREW
21 N-910-327-02 SCREW
1 0EA-901-112-B GASKET

I am not sure what to think about it. On one side I am happy they found and fixed the problem, on the other side this is a pretty extensive repair and that is a bit unsettling. Does anybody else have had a similar experience?


Regards,
Werner

 

[miimura]

Yes, a number of people have had the JX1 module replaced after a loss of driving power. It's impossible to put a number on the total (or percentage) based on reports from the forum. Hopefully VW is learning about the failure modes of the power electronics in these cars so that they can build more reliable ones in the future.

 

[JoulesThief]

To the OP:

You are operating cutting edge new technology when you drive an electric car. This puts you in the category of being a pilot in a plane or an astronaut in a space ship. You are a test dummy. A beta tester. As a result of this, you need to operate your e-Golf like a fighter pilot, you need to pay attention, keep sharp, watch the gauges, know what's going on, and ALWAYS have a back up plan if something goes wrong like loss of power. That means keeping on your toes, because **** happens, and stuff can and does go wrong regularly.

Modify your thought process and driving habits and patterns, until a few generations of electric cars have been out, and been debugged with all the parts and vendors of supplied parts. There's a steep learning curve here when you are an early adopter. Be smart about it.

Do NOT assume your electric car is like any other appliance type car was that you've owned and driven in the past, because it is not.

 

[Farallon5]

Internal short in the HV wiring harness would be a serious problem on any EV. Hopefully just a fluke that it originally passed factory QC and then the actual failure only occurred after some miles/vibration/moisture had a chance to expose the problem. That would have been a very expensive repair out of warranty.

 

[wkuballa]

I agree that mass-produced electric cars are fairly new, but the technology is not.
Electric cars have been produced on and off as early as 1880. The electric Toyota Prius started 1990.
However, in my opinion, mass production of electric cars started at about 2008, when Tesla started its Roadster.
In general, an electric car is way less complex than an ICE car.
An electric car does not have a fuel system with fuel pumps and injection systems,
nor does it have an ignition system, or an exhaust system with its catalytic converter,
or a starter, or a clutch, or a torque converter, or a 6-gear automatic transmission system.....
If I had to "guesstimate", I would say an electric car has only 10% of the moving parts an ICE car has.
An electric car has a battery, some electronics and a motor - that's it. The batteries used in cars
are certainly based on new technology, but the rest has been in use for a long time. Germany started
to use electric locomotives since 1950. These locomotives have an energy source which provides electric
energy, then they have some electronics and they have electric motors. Reliable semiconductors to switch high
voltages at high amperage are around for decades. And these locomotives do also energy recuperation, i.e., they
feed electric energy back into the net when braking.
The technology of electric cars is not that much different. Maybe VW should take a look at the German train system.....

 

[miimura]

You should also file a safety complaint with NHTSA. Please make selections carefully so that it is attributed to the e-Golf and not the ICE Golf and also include as much information about the repair as possible.

https://www-odi.nhtsa.dot.gov/VehicleComplaint/

 

[theEGolfer]

I want to report that I faced a similar complete loss of power and vehicle shutdown with an "Electrical System" error while driving, thankfully on a neighborhood street last week. Its a 2016 SE with quick charger leased barely 3 weeks earlier and had just 330 miles on it when this happened. The vehicle has been in the VW dealer's shop in the Bay Area for 8 days now and the only thing they have been able to come up with is that there is "probably a issue" with the shifter assembly which they want to replace, but do not have in stock at least till end of this week.

I wanted to see if there are others facing this (now seemingly quiet frequent) electrical issue with 2016/2015 e-Golfs.
Did anybody hear back from VW with a real solution to these (or similar) problems.
Has VW been cooperative in replacing such vehicles... and finally, what's the guarantee that the replacement will not have such serious safety issues?

 

[JoulesThief]

I want to report that I faced a similar complete loss of power and vehicle shutdown with an "Electrical System" error while driving, thankfully on a neighborhood street last week. Its a 2016 SE with quick charger leased barely 3 weeks earlier and had just 330 miles on it when this happened. The vehicle has been in the VW dealer's shop in the Bay Area for 8 days now and the only thing they have been able to come up with is that there is "probably a issue" with the shifter assembly which they want to replace, but do not have in stock at least till end of this week.

I wanted to see if there are others facing this (now seemingly quiet frequent) electrical issue with 2016/2015 e-Golfs.
Did anybody hear back from VW with a real solution to these (or similar) problems.
Has VW been cooperative in replacing such vehicles... and finally, what's the guarantee that the replacement will not have such serious safety issues?

Where did you get the idea that this is a " now seemingly quite frequent" issue? :roll:

 

[vetaldj]

Same thing here. I have it for almost 2.5 years and yesterday car stalled while driving 40 mph on local road. My wife was behind the wheel. Luckily nobody hit her. She stated that car started to shake and behave weird when she got message of fault battery and it stalled.

After minute or two she was able to start it again but same symptoms hit her in next minute or two of driving. She parked it and i came by and tow it to the dealer. Will see what they said about this...

 

[vetaldj]

Got word from the dealer - they can't find the issue, waiting for VW engineers to come and check it out.

I wonder, since I have about 6 month left on my lease, can it be good reason to get out of my lease earlier?

 

[miimura]

Got word from the dealer - they can't find the issue, waiting for VW engineers to come and check it out.

I wonder, since I have about 6 month left on my lease, can it be good reason to get out of my lease earlier?

If they can't fix it in 30 days you should ask for an early exit from the lease without penalty. Make sure you have an open case with VW America Customer Service so that somebody is tracking the status of your car. That also starts the clock so you can make this kind of early exit demand from corporate.

 

[forbin404]

Got word from the dealer - they can't find the issue, waiting for VW engineers to come and check it out.

I wonder, since I have about 6 month left on my lease, can it be good reason to get out of my lease earlier?

Only if it is a lemon.
Lease's are almost impossible to get out of.

 

[egolf2017toronto]

Very unfortunate technical issue indeed. Keep us posted on the resolution.