L2 Charging keeps trying to charge after 100% reached

[quincy]

I just started having an issue with my level 2 charging at home. I get notified when charging starts and stops and everything has been more or less working normally for the last 2 year. 2 days again I started seeing notifications every 2-8 minutes that the car was trying to initiate a charge even though the battery is at 100%. It must be some kind of on board charger error or loose connection. We have 2 electric cars so I swapped charger and the error followed the egolf. So it's not the charging device causing the problem. I also tried changing max charge to 90% and min is at 30%. This didn't resolve anything.
My dealer here in town is pretty terrible, so I suspect the will try to tell me not to worry about it. (That's what the told me about the stiff horn that takes 20 lbs of pressure to honk)
I would appreciate any suggestions on diagnosing this and of how to escalate this is the local dealer won't repair it.
Thanks in advance for any suggestions!

 

[f1geek]

What if you turn off the notifications? Maybe this is a notification software problem, not a car hardware problem? I have never received notifications so I am blissfully unaware of this type of issue.

 

[quincy]

The notifications are from my Juicebox charger. It lets me know whenever charging stops and starts. In this case that notification lets me know that something is wrong with the onboard charger since it is constantly trying to charge even though the battery is fully charged. This is at the very least a lot of stress on the charger. I can hear the relay clicking every time the golf asks it to start charging...a few hundred time a day.

 

[f1geek]

Do you get notifications from the jukebox when you set a lower charge limit, say 80% or 90%? Why not try charging your car to a lower limit using the granny cable and see what happens?

 

[quincy]

Adjusting the charge settings, disabling schedule, or resetting all settings did not resolve it. I can try the level one charger, but it is a little more difficult to monitor how often it is re-triggering. Is there a customer support line for these kind of malfunctions?

 

[f1geek]

If, as you suspect, the on board charger continues to ask for more energy, then if you set the charge limit to 90% using the granny cable and hit 90% before you go to sleep (can check state of charge by looking at dashboard and/or using OBD dongle), then if the charger continues to pull more power during the night, you should see a significant increase in state of charge by the time you wake up.

The on board charger is under warranty for 5 years/60,000 miles in the USA, I believe (but you should check your car's manual), so take it to the dealer, but it would probably help to have some evidence (maybe photo evidence) and not let them brush you off. This is another reason why using the included L1 cable is key as then everything becomes VW's responsibility.

 

[quincy]

Interesting idea. I will try it. I think the amount of charge it pulls each time it calls for a charge must be minimal though. It appears that is sends a charge request to my juicebox and then immediately sends a battery full notifications. What I am seeing is hundreds of little short charging spikes. Going to try the factory charger now.

 

[tsar721]

If you look at the user reports in the Enel X portal (https://home.juice.net/Reports/Sessions), what does it show? If I leave my e-Golf plugged in to my JuiceBox 40 overnight, there are a number of short 45 second entries after the initial charging session has ended where no additional charge is added:

Account Unit Time start Time end Charging Time kWh
- JuiceBox 40 9/7/2021 11:55:52 AM 9/7/2021 11:56:37 AM 00:00:45 0.0000
- JuiceBox 40 9/7/2021 11:55:04 AM 9/7/2021 11:55:48 AM 00:00:44 0.0000
- JuiceBox 40 9/7/2021 8:39:30 AM 9/7/2021 8:40:15 AM 00:00:45 0.0000
- JuiceBox 40 9/7/2021 8:38:38 AM 9/7/2021 8:39:26 AM 00:00:48 0.0000
- JuiceBox 40 9/7/2021 3:39:53 AM 9/7/2021 3:40:38 AM 00:00:45 0.0000
- JuiceBox 40 9/7/2021 3:39:04 AM 9/7/2021 3:39:49 AM 00:00:45 0.0000
- JuiceBox 40 9/6/2021 10:40:34 PM 9/7/2021 1:04:37 AM 02:24:03 16.6280
Total: 02:28:35 16.6280

I haven't looked into what's triggering the additional sessions, but I suspect that it may be CarNet checking in with the e-Golf.

 

[quincy]

Yes, your log looks like a normally functioning golf. There are groups of checking state, charging and finishing. This happens every few hours depending on your Golf settings. My log shows the car trying to charge every 8 minutes endlessly. As the cycle happens the status light on the charger port of the golf turns solid green for maybe 30 seconds and then turns off completely, then after a few minutes the car goes into initiate charging mode again and then stops trying to charge. The light turns solid green again for 30 seconds and it does the whole cycle again. Cleary the on board charger is glitching. I'm also pretty sure the vw service center will try to tell me that it's nothing to worry about.

Egolf charger new 9/12/2021 11:50:46 AM 9/12/2021 11:51:33 AM 00:00:47 0.0000
- Egolf charger new 9/12/2021 11:43:07 AM 9/12/2021 11:43:54 AM 00:00:47 0.0000
- Egolf charger new 9/12/2021 11:35:10 AM 9/12/2021 11:35:57 AM 00:00:47 0.0000
- Egolf charger new 9/12/2021 11:27:12 AM 9/12/2021 11:27:59 AM 00:00:47 0.0000
- Egolf charger new 9/12/2021 11:19:14 AM 9/12/2021 11:20:01 AM 00:00:47 0.0000
- Egolf charger new 9/12/2021 11:03:44 AM 9/12/2021 11:04:31 AM 00:00:47 0.0000
- Egolf charger new 9/12/2021 10:56:19 AM 9/12/2021 10:57:06 AM 00:00:47 0.0000
- Egolf charger new 9/12/2021 10:47:53 AM 9/12/2021 10:49:09 AM 00:01:16 0.0000
- Egolf charger new 9/12/2021 10:47:03 AM 9/12/2021 10:47:50 AM 00:00:47 0.0000
- Egolf charger new 9/12/2021 9:19:54 AM 9/12/2021 10:27:39 AM 01:07:45 5.7480
- Egolf charger new 9/12/2021 8:28:47 AM 9/12/2021 8:29:34 AM 00:00:47 0.0000
- Egolf charger new 9/12/2021 8:20:50 AM 9/12/2021 8:21:37 AM 00:00:47 0.0000
- Egolf charger new 9/12/2021 8:12:52 AM 9/12/2021 8:13:39 AM 00:00:47 0.0000
- Egolf charger new 9/12/2021 8:12:41 AM 9/12/2021 8:12:44 AM 00:00:03 0.0000
- Egolf charger new 9/12/2021 8:04:14 AM 9/12/2021 8:05:01 AM 00:00:47 0.0000
- Egolf charger new 9/12/2021 7:56:17 AM 9/12/2021 7:57:05 AM 00:00:48 0.0000
- Egolf charger new 9/12/2021 7:48:20 AM 9/12/2021 7:49:07 AM 00:00:47 0.0000
- Egolf charger new 9/12/2021 7:40:20 AM 9/12/2021 7:41:07 AM 00:00:47 0.0000
- Egolf charger new 9/12/2021 7:32:22 AM 9/12/2021 7:33:09 AM 00:00:47 0.0000
- Egolf charger new 9/12/2021 7:24:24 AM 9/12/2021 7:25:12 AM 00:00:48

 

[quincy]

I have made 4 trips to my local Volkswagen service center to repair this issue. There are a couple of fault codes that have come up. Not sure what the initial code was, but the replaced the charging port and cable that connects to the battery and had me pick up the car. It still had the same symptoms so I took it back.

They said is had fault code P33E3. They did a software update and said it was fixed. I watched it on the charger at the dealer for 10 minutes and it seemed ok.

I took it home and the noticed the same behavior intermittently. I plugged in an odb scanner and the the error code "Permanent code u0111 Lost communication with battery energy control module "A""

I'm not sure how to best handle this. I have a regional VW case manager overseeing the case and putting pressure on the local VW to fix it, but I think they are at a loss. They keep sending it back hoping that it is resolved. I don't know why they don't keep it charging and see if the codes come back before sending it back to me.

Any ideas folks?

 

[f1geek]

Nice that you got an expensive new charge port but clearly your car didn't need it. Sorry you've had to make so many trips to the dealer. The error code sounds to me like a bad connection or ground wire somewhere in your car. Maybe take a very close look at all of the electrical connections related to the on board charger? Do you see any connectors that look damaged or loose or see any ground (brown in color) wires that are not secure?

I would continue to complain to the regional VW manager. Does the dealer that serviced your car sell ID.4s? If not, maybe you need to take it to a dealer that does as I would hope an ID.4 dealer has technicians who are better trained than those at pure ICE sellers.

 

[quincy]

I don't see any visible issues. They sell ID4's, but the service rep who was overseeing the repair told me that they don't really know how to service EV's yet and that it will probably be years before they are trained. Apparently they consult with VW headquarters and headquarters tells them what to do next. It sounds to me like the onboard charger needs to be replaced. I am asking them if they can give me a replacement vehicle.

 

[f1geek]

Ok. I wonder if it is a bad on board charger, bad communication cable or bad CPU? This will certainly require a technician with EV expertise to diagnose.

 

[quincy]

That sounds correct. I assumed they were going to replace the onboard charger initially, but the just did the cables.

 

[f1geek]

And is the repeated charging requests problem gone?