First impressions and issues on a 2016 SEL

[jonajona]

Just received yesterday the 2016 SEL I had ordered in March. I'm facing a few issues/quirks.

1) When charging (using a JuiceBox), the charging process indicator lights up yellow permanently instead of pulsing green. According to the manual, this is supposed to indicate there is no current, but the car is charging fine, and the JuiceBox also shows current being drawn. Not a big deal, but is that normal?

2) The doors don't shut well. On my other cars, when merely pushing, the door would get enough momentum by itself to shut tightly, but on the e-golf, I really have to push hard to have it shut properly. Is that everyone's experience? Any chance that can be tuned?

3) After more than 24 hours, Car-net still only shows "No data available", both on website and in the app. Is there some magic voodoo to invoke to get things started?

4) (not that there's anything I can do about it, but) Is anybody else bothered/distracted by the heating elements in the windshield? In intense sunlight yesterday, they were really prominent.

Thanks,
Jonathan

 

[RonDawg]

1. If the car is actually charging, that yellow indicator on the charge port is supposed to change to a slowly blinking green. You can also verify this if you open any door and quickly look at the display between the speedo and the regen/power meter; on the lower right corner it will tell you for a few seconds how long charging is estimated to take. If your JuiceBox or other EVSE has the capability, if it's charging it will tell you how many amps/kW's it is drawing; that figure will be very low if in standby mode.

2. It could be an adjustment issue, but VW even touted in its Beetle ads that the car is so weathertight that you often have to crack a window slightly open in order to shut the door. I find the best way to close the door is to gently glide it (don't slam it) shut by using gentle pressure on the door handle.

3. CarNet can be quite fussy, and being a holiday weekend might have something to do with it. Last weekend or the weekend before we all lost CarNet capability as the software was being updated.

4. Yes under certain lighting conditions they do become visible. I've gotten used to them however.

 

[JoulesThief]

There are two buttons on the left side of the charge port. One shows a pump, press that one, the other shows hands of a clock for timed charging. press the button that shows what looks like a fuel pump, just below the yellow light.

That should get you recharging, and the oscillating green light showing.

Welcome to german designed cars. Shut the door by the handle you opened it by, always. Close slowly, then when 6 inches from the door jamb, accelerate the closing of the door along with a firm press to finish completely latching it. That's how you close a car door on a german car. Adapt yourself to the new technique. You'll have much adapting to learn on this new car.

With a german car, you adapt to the car, the car does not adapt to your old habits or ways from your last car. There is a lot of learning to do for you and anyone else who operates your e-Golf.

Read the Owners Manual while sitting in the car and learning how to operate all it's features.

 

[jonajona]

Thanks to you both for your reply.
Re:1), I can confirm that the car is indeed charging: the car's dashboard shows the blinking orange charging sign, the remaining charging time is displayed, and going down; the JuiceBox app shows a 31A draw, which goes to 0 when I press the charging button just below the light, and back up to 31A if press it again. But still with the steady yellow light. When charging is done, the light goes off. If I disconnect and reconnect the EVSE, I then get a steady green light as expected.

 

[JoulesThief]

Thanks to you both for your reply.
Re:1), I can confirm that the car is indeed charging: the car's dashboard shows the blinking orange charging sign, the remaining charging time is displayed, and going down; the JuiceBox app shows a 31A draw, which goes to 0 when I press the charging button just below the light, and back up to 31A if press it again. But still with the steady yellow light. When charging is done, the light goes off. If I disconnect and reconnect the EVSE, I then get a steady green light as expected.

Go with the "steady" green light. It's not really steady, you have to look at it carefully in a dark area, and you'll see it oscillates light to bright green over a 1 or 2 second cycle. You have to look carefully for it.

Drive your car for a few recharge cycles, and get back to us. If the light keeps showing yellow, go to your local VW dealership with your chargepoint card, and charge up on their unit and verify what color light shows on their recharger at your charging port.

 

[jonajona]

I ended up having to bring the car back to get it "re-provisioned" for car-net to work.
Regarding charging with the steady yellow light, I tried using the provided level 1 EVSE, and guess what, it did give me a nice blinking green light while charging.
So my car seems to either not like the Juice Box 40 Pro, or level 2 EVSEs in general (I won't know until I try another brand, and I don't know anyone with a level 2 EVSE, so it could be a while). Note that I can definitely charge the car with the JuiceBox, the only issue is the steady yellow light.

 

[JoulesThief]

deleted

 

[JoulesThief]

I ended up having to bring the car back to get it "re-provisioned" for car-net to work.
Regarding charging with the steady yellow light, I tried using the provided level 1 EVSE, and guess what, it did give me a nice blinking green light while charging.
So my car seems to either not like the Juice Box 40 Pro, or level 2 EVSEs in general (I won't know until I try another brand, and I don't know anyone with a level 2 EVSE, so it could be a while). Note that I can definitely charge the car with the JuiceBox, the only issue is the steady yellow light.

you can answer that question quickly... go back to the VW dealership and recharge at their station and see if the green oscillating light show up as normal.

I own a Juicebox 40 Pro, and have zero problems with mine getting the green light to show. It could be house wiring, the circuit breaker is too small for the length of the wire run, the charger handle, or internal to your car also. Who did your load calcs and circuit breaker install and wiring?

Tinker with the Juicebox Pro app, and adjust the number of amps on the dial down from 30 to something less, say 24, and see if the green light shows up?

Or you could look it up in the owners manual and see what the yellow light actually means.