charging dead, no health report diagnostics

Discussion in 'Kia Niro' started by CR EV, Nov 14, 2019.

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  1. CR EV

    CR EV Active Member

    Charging on my week-old Niro EV appears dead. If I plug in the trickle charger (don't have my level 2 installed yet), all lights on the charger appear good (vehicle icon in blue, charge battery icon blinking green), but the car does not show that it is charging (dash green lights not on and red charge light on dash showing), and in a couple minutes, the charger shows vehicle in green and no charge symbol. I have no scheduling set for charging and have hit the switch in the vehicle that would turn off any accidental reserved charging. Plan at this point is to head to the Kia dealer in the AM and see if there are any different results with a different charger (level 2 available there). If not, well, there is the warranty.

    When I access the Kia app, I see that the vehicle health report shows no diagnostic issues...which seems a little strange since there seems to be one.

    Does anyone have any insight into the health report/diagnostics? Would be nice if I could run some diagnostics and get some insight.

    Update: after about an hour, I thought, what the heck, try the Kia app again and see if it would work (as opposed to the several attempts before)...so now it reports that I am charging and the lights on the car are flashing appropriately so good, but not really...I don't want unreliability in this. Again, insights appreciated.
     
    Last edited: Nov 15, 2019
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  3. CanuckTom

    CanuckTom Member

    This sounds very peculiar. My only suggestion is to change the max charge setting in the charge settings portion of the cars infotainment system. I believe you can select between 3 settings of "max", "medium" or "low" which change the amount of power the car will pull from the charger.

    The only reason I can see this might work is if the trickle charger is sensing that the outlet doesn't have enough power to supply the "max" power and this is what the car is asking for.

    Other than this, I would certainly return to the dealer for advice.

    Best of luck and let us know if you find a solution.

    Cheers!
    Tom
     
  4. CR EV

    CR EV Active Member

    Update to the update: On closer examination, the lights reveal something strange. The red plug light on the dash is on at the same time as the green flashing light that indicates charging. On the trickle charger, only the charging light shows, not the plug, car, 12a, etc. Insights would be appreciated. Thanks! charging with fault (2).jpg charging icon only (2).jpg
     
  5. CanuckTom

    CanuckTom Member

    I haven't had my car for a few weeks due to a collision, so my memory is a bit foggy, but this all looks normal to me. Your car is charging and at the level I would expect from the 120 v charger.

    The red light with the plug icon is on whenever there is a charging plug attached from my memory so this is normal as well. Also the lights on the dashboard "green" should be flashing from the right side of the vehicle to the left and at this state of charge the two right ones should be solid with the left one flashing, indicating that the car is charging the top 33% of the battery.
     
  6. CR EV

    CR EV Active Member

    Page 5 of the features and functions guide says in regards to the plug icon, "When charging, the green indicator turns on. When charging errors, the red indicator turns on". Mine is red. The big manual covers the charging indicator (plug icon) a couple time in pages 30-37. These references do not specify anything in terms of color, just that if the icon is not showing, the car isn't charging. It is possible that the features and functions guide is in error and that the plug icon is always red when charging.

    More feedback from the community, please!
     
    Last edited: Nov 15, 2019
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  8. I plugged in our Niro this afternoon, and the plug icon turned red. Charging didn’t start, because I have it set for non-peak charging times. When charging started later, the plug icon is still red. So, I think perhaps that the icon just indicates that the car is plugged in. Haven’t checked if it is still on and red after charging is finished - it is still charging.
     
  9. marshall

    marshall Well-Known Member

    Have you tried unplugging your charger, technically called an EVSE, at the house wall outlet and then plugging it back in to see if the red icon turns to green?

    Have you tried connecting your charger to a wall outlet located somewhere else besides your home?



    It was also suggested that you try lowering the charge setting to a lower amperage on the charger control box ( page 34 of your manual), did you?
     
    Last edited: Nov 16, 2019
  10. Charging is complete this morning, and with the car still plugged in, the plug icon is off. Other than the icon not turning green as indicated in the manual, all other indicators were as expected and the car is charged.
     
  11. CR EV

    CR EV Active Member

    I have tried a couple outlets at my home...no difference. I have not tried at another site. Next time I plug in, I will change the amps and see if that makes a difference.

    Are you confirming that the plug-in icon on the dash should be green, not red? That has been an issue in this thread. Thanks, much appreciated.
     
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  13. marshall

    marshall Well-Known Member

    That's what the car manual says on page 24.

    On my plugin Sonata, the indicator is green when charging correctly and red when there is an issue. The two or three times this has happened to me, I just unplugged at the wall outlet and plugged it back in again. This cleared the fault and the charging indicator turned green.
     
  14. As an experiment, I plugged in to my level 2 charger and the plug icon comes on red. Cancel the scheduled charging, charging starts and icon is still red and car is charging with green dashboard light flashing. I cycled power on the EVSE, and the car went back to charging with red icon. Unplugged and charging stops, icon goes out.

    So, either there is an issue with charging with my car that doesn’t seem to effect actual charging, and doesn’t generate an error anywhere else, or there is an error in the documentation. Next time I’m at the dealer, maybe I’ll ask them about it - have them try one of their cars and see what it does.
     
  15. CR EV

    CR EV Active Member

    I'm thinking the same, my license plates should be coming in soon and will visit the dealer at that time. After the glitch noted in my first post, my car charges fine with the icon showing in red. Changing the amps makes no difference (but thanks for the suggestion above). I have posted a detailed case to Kia via the 'contact us' link. Will share results when I get a response...
     
  16. CR EV

    CR EV Active Member

    Got the following from KIA via the owner portal:

    <<I did reach out to one of our specialists and it appears that the red icon is fine and your vehicle will still charge. There is no reason for it not to. The red is a slightly slower charge and takes longer but it will still charge your vehicle.
    Sincerely,
    Kia Motors America>>
     
  17. Took my Niro into dealer service dept today to look into the red/not green charging icon. Everything on the car tested ok, and they confirmed the same behavior with another Niro EV on their lot. Their conclusion is the manual is incorrect - they are sending this info to Kia.
     
  18. Did you resolve your problem? What did you learn?
     
  19. CR EV

    CR EV Active Member

    The initial non-charging is anomalous, has not been an issue since; no explanation comes to mind. The 'issue' with the red light charge indicator, not green as indicated in the manual seems to be either a manual error or ??? since charge is not effected and both level 1 and level 2 chargers both at home and at the dealership yield the same icon...this is true on other dealership Niro EV's as well. My dealership and others in this thread think it is a non-issue.
     
  20. Thank you for the update. As a new owner and seeing that not that many of these are on the road, I was a touch concerned.
     

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