eGolf is eDead

[eGolfeGirl]

This morning I plugged in my car to my Siemens level 2 charger and when I checked after 90 minutes I saw the car accepted no charge. I live a few minutes away from a shopping mall that has level 2 chargers I'd used in the past so I went there assuming the problem was with my home charger.

Neither of the chargers at the mall would work with the car either.

So, with 24 miles left in the "tank" I drove my car to VW of Van Nuys to see if they can figure out the problem. Awaiting their diagnosis. I have put 4300 miles on the car since April and there have been no issues whatsoever.

Hopefully this is a simple fix.

Will report back when I know more.

 

[JoulesThief]

This morning I plugged in my car to my Siemens level 2 charger and when I checked after 90 minutes I saw the car accepted no charge. I live a few minutes away from a shopping mall that has level 2 chargers I'd used in the past so I went there assuming the problem was with my home charger.

Neither of the chargers at the mall would work with the car either.

So, with 24 miles left in the "tank" I drove my car to VW of Van Nuys to see if they can figure out the problem. Awaiting their diagnosis. I have put 4300 miles on the car since April and there have been no issues whatsoever.

Hopefully this is a simple fix.

Will report back when I know more.

If VW of Van Nuys can't fix it, send it down the road to Galpin VW at Roscoe and Sepulveda, NW corner of the intersection. If VW gives you the line that it will take 2 weeks to fix the car, to get the parts in from Germany, tell them to get off their ass, and red tag or red dot the request for overnight shipment delivery of the part from Germany... DHL will have the part there the next day, let VW eat the bill for not stocking spares in their 6 warehouses here in the USA, the largest warehouse being just down the road from us in Ontario, CA. I know, I've been there, I've done the tour. There's 24 million people here in So CA, lots of them drive VW's, there should be spares, at a minimum, at least somewhere in the USA.

 

[eGolfeGirl]

Appreciate your advice, thanks.

It's funny I was going to go to Galpin since that's where I purchased the car. During the purchase, the sales manager there tried to close me by sweetening the deal. He offered me two years of free oil changes! Yeah, I told him it's an electric car and it doesn't need oil changes. SMH. Anyway, Galpin is a bit far from me and I was running low on miles with no chance to recharge. So I tried VW of Van Nuys. :|

Curious to see how this goes.

 

[DasCC]

Sounds like what I'm dealing with. http://www.myvwegolf.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=532

keep us updated.

 

[eGolfeGirl]

Are you still waiting for this fix? I'm really pissed cause this car is super new (obviously).

That's what I get for buying a first generation model. Hello, Tesla?

 

[eGolfeGirl]

Just got a call from service. The car is fully charged and ready to go. They found absolutely nothing wrong with it. The three different chargers I tried were at fault and not the car.

And so it begins...

 

[JoulesThief]

Just got a call from service. The car is fully charged and ready to go. They found absolutely nothing wrong with it. The three different chargers I tried were at fault and not the car.

And so it begins...

Take a picture of the job ticket, all the pages, host it on a website like photobucket for free, and post up the images here, so we can see what the ticket says.

Something does not add up, the probability of 3 chargers in a row being bad can't be possible... the odds are too great for that happening. I suspect a loose connection, or something was not locking or communicating properly between the charger and the EVSE.

I make a habit of always turning everything off in the car, and locking the doors after I hook up the J1772 connector plug. That always gets me a charge, so far. Leaving the door unlocked, or something on, makes things questionable... In a VW you always want to turn everything accessories wise, before you turn the main on off switch in the console off. That includes the radio, the fans, the lights, don't leave them in "auto" position, everything. Then lock the doors with the keyfob, after you are plugged in at the port on the RR fender. If you have to, then push the "charge immediately" button, just below the yellow light, that should turn it green.

An adult lifetime of owning VW product has taught me not to take the lazy way or rely or use automation electric features on german cars, be they Audi, or VW product. Turn all consumer electrical devices off...before the ignition, or the on off switch gets turned off, CANBUS systems are phantom electrical suckers on the battery.

 

[DasCC]

Are you still waiting for this fix? I'm really pissed cause this car is super new (obviously).

That's what I get for buying a first generation model. Hello, Tesla?

yup- It'll be until at least next week before I get mine back. parts aren't in stock anywhere nearby.


that's bizarre that your car is all of a sudden fine. Out of curiosity did they charge it with a level 2 or DC?

 

[JoulesThief]

Are you still waiting for this fix? I'm really pissed cause this car is super new (obviously).

That's what I get for buying a first generation model. Hello, Tesla?

yup- It'll be until at least next week before I get mine back. parts aren't in stock anywhere nearby.


that's bizarre that your car is all of a sudden fine. Out of curiosity did they charge it with a level 2 or DC?

I am not aware of any VW dealerships that have DC chargers in SAE /CCS here in Southern California... a few BMW dealerships, perhaps, at 208V and 25Kwh.

 

[eGolfeGirl]

On my way to pick up the car I checked Plugshare and it confirmed that all of the level 2 chargers at the mall are broken. So I apparently tried to use three level two chargers this morning and they were all bad. VW of Van Nuys charged the car, adjusted the tire pressure and also washed it free of charge. Pretty nice service if you ask me.

Now I have to deal with Siemens and make sure the 110 charger works.

 

[JoulesThief]

On my way to pick up the car I checked Plugshare and it confirmed that all of the level 2 chargers at the mall are broken. So I apparently tried to use three level two chargers this morning and they were all bad. VW of Van Nuys charged the car, adjusted the tire pressure and also washed it free of charge. Pretty nice service if you ask me.

Now I have to deal with Siemens and make sure the 110 charger works.

In the future, if your Siemens 30 amp unit is not working ( and they do break), always try testing to charge with your 120V Delpi 1.3Kwh unit in the trunk, to see if it doesn't charge also, before running off to the dealership. You should have asked to test the Dephi unit at the VW dealership while you were there, to see with your own two eyes that your car is not broken.

Perhaps you wish to modify your Title, since your eGolf is not dead, perhaps your Siemans 30 amp EVSE is dead, or you tripped the circuit breaker, or who knows what is the problem, but the problem is not your e-Golf charging system.

 

[eGolfeGirl]

Now that someone else figured it out it's easy to say what I should have done. Truth is I was in a rush and didn't have the time to run a thorough test of the 110 charger. Plus, three different failed Level 2 chargers in one day is a pretty big dose of bad luck.

VW of Van Nuys was very cool about the whole thing and like I said they even washed my car for me for free.

I'll try the 110 charger tonight to see if it works.

 

[JoulesThief]

Now that someone else figured it out it's easy to say what I should have done. Truth is I was in a rush and didn't have the time to run a thorough test of the 110 charger. Plus, three different failed Level 2 chargers in one day is a pretty big dose of bad luck.

VW of Van Nuys was very cool about the whole thing and like I said they even washed my car for me for free.

I'll try the 110 charger tonight to see if it works.

VW dealerships in So Cal, actually any of them that use LADWP, are not supposed to be washing cars due to the water shortage /drought. I know Galpin skips it, Parkway VW skips it and Antelope Valley VW skips car washes now, due to drought conditions and waste of water.

Even Timmons VW skipped washing my new e-golf SEL on Oct 6th before taking delivery, due to the water shortage. Having a car painted in black, they forever look dirty, all the time.

 

[eGolfeGirl]

Just got off the phone with Siemens. I have a Siemens VC30GRYU Level 2 charger and one of the reasons I bought it is because it had a delay where I could set the car to automatically charge later at night when rates are lowest. Unfortunately that's never worked.

Dan, the tech at Siemens immediately asked me if my car was an eGolf. Apparently there is a known flaw that VW is all too familiar with and when you set the Siemens charger on delay, even though it's plugged in properly, the eGolf goes into a "sleep mode" and after two hours it will not accept a charge. This is according to the Siemens tech who spoke with me today.

That explains why the delay function has never worked on my eGolf. Am I the only person to report this issue here?

Regarding the other problem they're still in diagnostic mode. Doing a hard reset on the charger tonight and I will test the 110 that came with the car to make sure my on board charger actually works.

So according to the Siemens guy, there is a known flaw with the eGolf and Siemens delay charging. Just add that to the list.

To be continued...

 

[DasCC]

Just got off the phone with Siemens. I have a Siemens VC30GRYU Level 2 charger and one of the reasons I bought it is because it had a delay where I could set the car to automatically charge later at night when rates are lowest. Unfortunately that's never worked.

Dan, the tech at Siemens immediately asked me if my car was an eGolf. Apparently there is a known flaw that VW is all too familiar with and when you set the Siemens charger on delay, even though it's plugged in properly, the eGolf goes into a "sleep mode" and after two hours it will not accept a charge. This is according to the Siemens tech who spoke with me today.

That explains why the delay function has never worked on my eGolf. Am I the only person to report this issue here?

Regarding the other problem they're still in diagnostic mode. Doing a hard reset on the charger tonight and I will test the 110 that came with the car to make sure my on board charger actually works.

So according to the Siemens guy, there is a known flaw with the eGolf and Siemens delay charging. Just add that to the list.

To be continued...

good to know as I picked up the Siemens unit.... are you able to program delayed charging via Carnet?

 

[eGolfeGirl]

Based on all of the problems I've read regarding CarNet I've never even activated it. Seems to be more annoying than it's worth...for me anyway.

When I was picking up my car from VW the service tech asked if I had been using CarNet, perhaps thinking that could have been part of the problem. It wasn't. Tonight I'm trying the Delphi to make sure the onboard charger is working. Siemens is having me run some tests as well and they had me do a reboot of their unit.

Siemens and also VW are completely aware of the issues with the Golf and delayed charging. If you want to use the delay function you'll either need to find a charger that has proven that it works with it or wait for VW to issue a fix for the problem.

Cause that's going to happen really soon.

 

[jack8trades]

... That explains why the delay function has never worked on my eGolf. Am I the only person to report this issue here? ...

It's too bad the search feature here considers "delayed charging," to be too common of a query.

• EVSE "Chargers" with delay of start feature
  Chargepoint Home charger do delayed charging without carnet

Looking through the Owners and Technical Discussions forums will turn up many more threads, most concerning use of car-net delayed charging, but they touch on your subject as well.

 

[eGolfeGirl]

Okay my onboard charger is fine as VW of Van Nuys had reported. My Delphi works. It's the Siemens versicharge and it's under warranty so they will be replacing it. However the delayed charging will not work until VW issues a fix for that.

 

[JoulesThief]

Okay my onboard charger is fine as VW of Van Nuys had reported. My Delphi works. It's the Siemens versicharge and it's under warranty so they will be replacing it. However the delayed charging will not work until VW issues a fix for that.

In the interim, you won't need delayed charging with the Delphi, it's lucky to add 5 or 6 miles of travel per hour of charging, so will probably be plugged in all the time, full time, to keep your car charged up.

 

[eGolfeGirl]

Final entry in this matter. The Siemens versicharge I purchased was indeed broken and Siemens customer service was nothing short of EXCEPTIONAL. I purchased the unit in May and once I outlined the issue they sent me a brand new charger and a box in which to return the broken one on their dime. HIGHLY RECOMMEND buying from this company. Even though the first unit crapped out they handled the exchange exceptionally well and with the highest level of professionalism and customer service I've received in years. I'm a loyal customer now.