Disconnecting charger cable of Kona while being charged? Simple answer?

I remember when I first got the car I freaked out because I couldn't interrupt a charge and unlock the cable. Turned out I was just rushing things. If you listen there is a whole sequence of clicks and servos that happens before it finally unlocks itself.

Good luck.

 

Ran the experiment, with the car charging while the car was locked.

Each “test” assumes I have pressed the key fob unlock button two times.

After each “test”, I re-lock the car via the key fob.

First test: done while looking at the instrument panel, the amount of energy flowing (4.7 kW indicated) did NOT throttle down at any time.

Second test: done while looking at the charge port, the green ring would go dark for about half a second, then glow green for about a second, and this pattern would repeat for a few times. No white ring.

Third test: after the two unlock pushes and within 15 seconds: with the ring glowing green I simply pushed the release trigger and pulled out the plug. No white ring, no sounds of servos, etc.

My conclusion: for the very rare instance that I must interrupt a charging session and remove the charge cord, I will work with a locked car, press the unlock button on the fob two times and then immediately push the release trigger and remove the charge cord. I will not wait for any changes to the colour of the ring around the charge port.

 

The scientific method in action!

 

Although, it's not entirely clear what the initial problem was since it now works as expected.

On the J1772 plug the release lever disconnects the PP connection to the car which is merely a resistor value (to ground) that indicates the current capacity of the cable, see the table below. Not that I've ever witnessed this but I expect that PP disconnection drops the charge current to 0.5 and the receptacle will then unlock the plug. On Type 2 plugs there is no 'trigger' button so the car has to assume you may want want to pull the plug and will automatically drop the charge rate and unlock the port for the full 15 seconds.

The green ring indicates a charge session is 'in progress' and that's maintained until the plug is actually removed, breaking the CP connection. That's so if you don't remove the plug the session will continue without reauthorisation in the case of a public AC charger. The white ring indicates no session.

 

Have someone look at the dash when you squeeze that trigger before pulling the plug. It would be good to understand if the charge rate drops at that point rather than waiting until the plug is pulled.

The CP rather than PP pin is the one that's shorter and loss of that signal will certainly terminate the charge session. But, the specification (at least for Type 2 which is based on J1772) is that it must happen within 100 ms. But that's longer than it actually takes between the loss of CP and disconnecting the power pins and is intended as a last resort. Hyundai (Mobis actually) must have designed this to unload the power pins before disconnection and I suspect the trigger does this function.

 

Next time we are in a position to do so, I will have my wife monitor the kW number on the dash while I do the routine up front with the plug. I will report the findings.

 

Formal test completed today: after pressing the unlock button on the key fob two times, and within 15 seconds of same, when my wife pushed on the trigger of the plug, the power immediately throttled to 0.5 kW.

Thanks for all the tips.

 

So my home charger cannot be disconnected. I have tried every combination of single and double clicking the fob and the door handles. I have used blue link to stop and start the charge (which works successfully, but will not allow the plug to be pulled out.). I have also tried pulling the latch under the hood. The cable will still not come out. It seems to be stuck. Maybe it was inserted incorrectly? I inserted it myself and didn’t notice any weirdness going in.

Does anyone have any suggestions on how to fix this? It’s going to be hard to drive to the dealer with a plug attached…

 

It might well have overheated and welded itself to the socket. Since you tried all the reasonable solutions you might have to consider it as a possibility. I hope I'm wrong.

 

Can't guess the year but I'm assuming a 2024 which should have temperature monitoring of the port.

No doubt you've tried pushing it in while pulling the orange release knob?

 

There was a service bulletin about a charger overheating software fix on the Ionic 5 and 6 that they also performed on my '24 Kona just this week during my 1st scheduled service interval. So I'm wondering if it also affected the Kona?

 

Thanks for the feedback and suggestions - yes I’ve tried everything listed above. The overheating issue sounds bad - mine is a 2022 - so not sure if there is a fix there. I’m planning on letting it sit overnight, and then giving all the fixes another try in the morning. Then I’ll call my dealer. I’ll call them even if it magically fixes itself overnight and see what they think.

 

I just wanted to bring my story up to date. I had brought the car to my dealer. They checked it over and were able to somewhat replicate the issue. They also found some error codes that they sent to Hyundai and told me to come back in 2 days. So I went in again today. Hyundai had asked them to run additional tests and after sending those results, they agreed to replace the part. It is being sent out and will hopefully arrive next Tuesday. As my battery was getting low, the dealer hooked me up to their level 3 charger to get me to 80%. Initially neither I or the service associate could unattach the plug, but then a 2nd guy came out and unattached it right away! ‍
Anyway - they seem to be looking after me, so I am pretty happy so far. I am not going to chance charging it myself until the part is replaced, but I luckily have a 2nd vehicle.

 

Thanks for the update. Once it's all over it would be great to known if the problem was just a tight fit or the electrically-operated latch failed to release.

 

I just wanted to complete my charger disconnection story. I took it into my dealer and they fixed it for free. They replaced the whole charger port assembly. They indicated that the issue was with the electrical latch not releasing as it should - not a bent latch or something like that. Anyways, as far as I am concerned, the problem was handled well - so a big thank you to Hyundai and my dealer (Langley Hyundai)

 

Thankfully it had fixed itself overnight before bringing it in initially. I don’t know what I would have done otherwise.