Electrical system failure: Stop!

[f1geek]

True, it would be nice to know the resolution. It sounds like several types of issues can trigger a full shutdown.

 

[Clanch]

I'm still waiting for the QTM team from VW to come out inspect wife's e-golf. I spoke to Volkswagen corporate, who have been very understanding that I want them to buy the car back. They're waiting for the report from QTM team. Volkswagen corporate explained that the process will take some time. The dealer gave me a 2019 Volkswagen Tiguan as my loaner. I need to return it and pick up a new loaner from them this weekend. They said it's time to turn the car back in to Volkswagen. The dealer stated the battery packed will need to be removed from the vehicle. VW corporate stated that is done a different location. Rumor has it that is Oxnard California. This could take months. But as long as I'm treated fairly, and not lied to, and I have a nice loner to drive I'll be patient.

 

[JoulesThief]

I'm still waiting for the QTM team from VW to come out inspect wife's e-golf. I spoke to Volkswagen corporate, who have been very understanding that I want them to buy the car back. They're waiting for the report from QTM team. Volkswagen corporate explained that the process will take some time. The dealer gave me a 2019 Volkswagen Tiguan as my loaner. I need to return it and pick up a new loaner from them this weekend. They said it's time to turn the car back in to Volkswagen. The dealer stated the battery packed will need to be removed from the vehicle. VW corporate stated that is done a different location. Rumor has it that is Oxnard California. This could take months. But as long as I'm treated fairly, and not lied to, and I have a nice loner to drive I'll be patient.

Oxnard is their R&D department.

What will probably happen is they will fly out a team of 2 specialists that will drop your battery, do the R&R and reinstall at your local dealership They will probably need to coordinate with VW's parts supply warehouse in Ontario, CA to ship and have on hand a new replacement battery to do the swap. The failed battery in your car will end up at the Oxnard facility where R&D can do a failure analysis on why your battery crapped out. It's even possible that VW has to ship out a new battery from the Motherland in Germany to the Ontario warehouse facility, then to your dealership for the repair, since they might not keep spare battery's in inventory here in the USA.

 

[Clanch]

VW has ordered, Master battery controller 12 way. Part number 5QE 915 599 AH. Battery pack must be removed from the car. Battery pack has eight of these. Still waiting for parts, battery pack cover, bunch of one use only bolts, stickers, glue, primer, applicator. What I do find interesting, all the parts depots in the US have a couple 12 way master controllers in them??? Part must be shipped by ground only due to the high voltage. I cannot say enough how well the Volkswagen dealer has been treating us, and how well Volkswagen corporate has been following up on this problem. Still want them to take the car back. 900 miles on a car to have the whole battery pack removed and repaired is inexcusable.

 

[f1geek]

Thank you for the update! When I perform a search for this part, it comes up as "Battery", which agrees with the "high voltage" designation for shipping. But, you have more information that I do about this part. I believe the battery cells are bundled in modules with different numbers of cells. Maybe this is a module? That would explain the high voltage. Best of luck returning the car.

 

[Clanch]

Volkswagen today agreed to take the car back, or cash offer for me to keep it and they will repair it. I doubt Volkswagen will agree to the amount of money I would want for me to keep the vehicle. Volkswagen corporate, and the dealership has been outstanding and dealing with this problem. I truly did enjoy the car, and will buy another Volkswagen again.

 

[shelton]

Just had this happen to my 2018 eGolf - had it since December 2018 and has about 5k miles on it. Charger was flashing, I opened the doors and it showed the Electrical System Failure warning. The next morning I went out to see if that was still happening and the car is just totally dead - dash won't even light up to show the error message and can't even unlock the trunk.

Having it towed to the dealer (Edmonds, WA) via VW roadside assistance now. I'll update this thread once I find out what the situation is to provide some more data points.

 

[f1geek]

Hmmm. Since your trunk doesn't open and there are no lights, this sounds like a bad 12 V battery. There could be other issues, too, since I find it hard to believe the 12 V battery would die so fast (maybe it was not getting charged due to DC -DC converter issues or high voltage pack issues). Best of luck and thanks for the update.

When you say "charger" was flashing, what exactly did you observe?

 

[shelton]

Yeah, was wondering the same about the trunk. Oddly, even when the car was at first giving the electrical system errors on the dash it wouldn't lock/unlock.

The factory wall charger was flashing back and forth between red and green lights (don't have it handy to remember what each correspond to, unfortunately). The normally green or yellow light next to the charging port on the car was completely off.

 

[f1geek]

The charging light flashing may not be related to your other problems.

I see two conditions that cause a red and green light to flash:

1. If the ambient temperature is below +113 °F (+45 °C) and the charging cable is not in direct sunlight, have charging cable checked by a qualified electrical specialist. Go to an authorized Volkswagen dealer or authorized Volkswagen Service Facility for assistance.

2. The cable is connected to the power grid, but the ground connection is missing or the live wire and system ground do not comply with NEMA standards. The high-voltage battery is not being charged. Connect charging cable to a correctly installed 110 Volt outlet.

Good luck!

 

[shelton]

Just got a call that my car is ready. All I know so far is that my battery was “defective” and they replaced it under warranty. The person on the phone didn’t know much more, will ask for more details when I pick it up tomorrow.

 

[f1geek]

Defective 12 V battery? Was it a Varta?

 

[somethingcool]

Must have been the 12v, no way they replaced the HV battery in 3 days.

 

[shelton]

Just picked it up (was delayed due to the fires) and it was indeed the 12V they replaced. One cell inside was defective, he said.

 

[f1geek]

What was the brand of the defective 12 V battery? New 12 V battery? thanks!

 

[shelton]

I don't know the make of the one that was replaced, unfortunately - didn't think to check it before it was towed, and it's not on the paperwork. New one is a Varta.

 

[cnc]

Another 2019 e-Golf battery pack failure with the same "Stop!" message. It's at the dealer now with a battery balancing issue, with the pack to be rebuilt by an engineer who is not on-site. The dealer has been friendly and helpful, but no ETA. They haven't even ordered parts yet, and tomorrow is day 10 of this vehicle being in the shop since 2019, after another electrical issue last year.

Edit - just for posterity, this car was literally never fast charged.

 

[f1geek]

Sorry to hear about your troubles. Do you know the mV difference between the cell with the highest voltage and the cell with the lowest voltage? How many cells are bad?

 

[cnc]

Hey f1geek,

Those are very good questions, and I'm not sure of the answer to either of them. No issues with the dealer or even VW necessarily. They're certainly spending resources to address the issue.

I'm mostly concerned at this point about repair timelines, and whether "fixed" really means fixed. Now that I've had this happen, I'm uncovering a number of these issues with 2019s (something like 8-10 in total) reported across the Internet, including at least one person who had this repair done and then had other parts of the battery fall out of compliance a few months later. I love the car, but this has unfortunately introduced a real confidence issue in my vehicle and 2019 eGolfs in general.

 

[f1geek]

Thanks for the update. I wonder if this issue has to do with cell manufacturing location? The Samsung SDI cells were supplied from Hungary and I believe China as well. Maybe one of the sites produced less than high quality cells? At least VW is taking care of it for you, albeit slowly. I am keeping an eye on the cells delta voltage in my car's pack and right now it's 10 mV. I wonder what the threshold is to trigger a system error.