Charge Interruption Mystery Solved!!!

[Geor99]

For over a year, my car would intermittently stop charging at work. A while back I went to the dealer for the service bulletin, but the dealer swore that the car already had the update. Since I did not have the over mileage estimate issue, I believed them.

Yet occasionally at work on the Level 2 charger, the charge would stop and I would need to restart it via the app.

Ive always had a theory that Ive never tested, until today. At work we design, build, and test power supplies. Near the ev charger is our lab, where we are currently testing a 56kw system.

Today, I was walking to the car and I noticed a new unit was being tested. See pic with big power supply in doorway. This pulls a 56kw to test the power supply.

I asked the tester to turn on the big power supply. Before which, I could see the car was charging. The second that he turned on the 56kw power supply, the light on the charger turned off and I received an alert via the app that charging stopped.

He turned off the power supply, I got the car charging again, and I told him to turn back on the power supply.

Same thing- the car stopped charging the moment that he hit the button.

I then did it a 3rd time with the same result. I theorize that the giant 56kw pull on the circuit "dirties" the power to the ev charger enough for the Clarity to stop the charging.

This does not affect Teslas nor a Leaf at work.

Going forward. I will try not to charge during testing hours.

Hopefully you guys can get some useful information from my tests and conclusions today.

 

[JCA]

If this is a 2018 model, I'd maybe try the same or another dealer to make sure SB 18-097 is installed, and press them to prove it by showing you the screens they see and any data from the car. Apparently it doesn't show up in the list of available SBs if they just look up the VIN; you have to specifically claim a charging problem for it to be shown as a solution and get installed. And there's a separate "18-079" SB that might be mistaken for this one being installed.

 

[Geor99]

That is good advice. It was over a year ago when I did go in with a charging problem asking for the update.

I didn't make them prove it, when they said that it already had it.

I thought that since it didn't have the overmileage estimate, that it had received the update; but I may be incorrect.

Mine is a 2018.

 

[MrFixit]

When I bought my car (late 2018), I was aware of all the SB's (thanks to this forum).
I went to the service manager with the list of SB's and asked him to demonstrate to me that these specific SB's were incorporated.

Surprisingly, he was unable to do so... He entered the VIN, and the computer simply stated that everything was "up to date".
There seemed to be no way to obtain any specific details as to which SB's and when they were installed...

I know SB 18-097 is different in that they don't just routinely install it, but they seemed to be unable to demonstrate that even the routine SB's were installed. I have not had any problems, and have no reason to doubt that they were all installed (don't know about 18-097), but this doesn't build much confidence in the system.

 

[JCA]

The good thing is that you can reproduce the issue consistently, so if you can get the SB installed, you'll be able to verify if it solves the issue. It sure sounds like they don't really have a way to see for sure if it's installed so an answer that it "already has the update" is very suspect unless there are other official service records showing a specific date and dealer that installed.

Would also be interesting to measure the voltage droop/surge on the premises when this 56kW supply is switched on/off!

 

[Geor99]

The good thing is that you can reproduce the issue consistently, so if you can get the SB installed, you'll be able to verify if it solves the issue. It sure sounds like they don't really have a way to see for sure if it's installed so an answer that it "already has the update" is very suspect unless there are other official service records showing a specific date and dealer that installed.

Would also be interesting to measure the voltage droop/surge on the premises when this 56kW supply is switched on/off!

I am surrounded by electrical engineers, I am a Mechanical, so I can look into having one measure the voltage drop one day when things are slow. It would be an interesting data point.