Total Loss of Power

SickShifty

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Jun 18, 2023
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Location
Essex
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MG4 SE SR
Hi All, long time lurker although i've just had an experience I feel is worthy of sharing.

Just to preface, this happened a few days ago and the car is running again.

I drive home from work and plug-in (like I've done almost every day since having the car), as soon as the charger is inserted my experience begins... The car has a TOTAL loss of power, I'm talking the car is now a massive paperweight, I couldn't even lock it. Sitting in the seat did nothing, no buttons worked, I couldn't remove the charger, even the app had deregistered.

I'm blocking my wife's car on the drive who will need to run errands with my 4yo son in the morning so I'm thinking I'm cooked! Time to have a tinker and see what I can do before committing to a call-out that will no doubt send me into a stressful nightmare.

I climb in the boot through the back seats (I couldn't open the boot) and pull the emergency release for the charger, to check this off my list of potential issues. It wasn't. the car is still completely dead with no sign of life.

I open the bonnet to check for any obvious disconnections, although the car was stationary when it died, maybe something came loose. I pop open the plastic cover over the positive terminal of the 12V battery and BOOM, the car springs back to life!.. Although this is not the end.

Sitting in the driver seat, the car greets me with a swath of bings and bongs. I can drive it, but there are no systems that have booted successfully, no traction control, stabilization and all the rest, maybe 10+ systems failed. I hastily swap mine and my wife's car on the drive so at least we can get on with our Saturday without issue.

I powered off the car and left it until morning to deal with it then. Next day got in the car and I'm still met with the same MG melody as the night before with no systems working. I took it for a very sketchy and ice like drive around the block to see if the would clear any errors and kick things into action. Upon returning I powered down the car and started it again and everything was working again, aside from the usual tire pressure low alerts that I can never seem to stop in the winter. Things have been fine thus far and I can even charge as normal (albeit with some hesitation). The positive lead on the battery seems ok so i'm still at a loss of what caused this.

I did contact MG who said to just monitor it (as expected). I'll be handing the car back in June mostly due to the many niggles I have with it and lack of OTA updates.

Apologies for the long post but I hope this will assist someone one day.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
I pop open the plastic cover over the positive terminal of the 12V battery and BOOM, the car springs back to life!
Did you notice if the terminal was loose? That seems to be a moderately common issue. Disturbing the plastic cover of the positive terminal may have temporarily fixed the car, but after the 53rd bump, it may fail again if not tightened.
 
I would be very surprised if the OP didn't tighten the terminal after realising it was loose..............?
The OP says he looked at it and it seemed OK, so maybe he didn't ... but I agree; if I'd been in that situation I would have made a point of checking and tightening both battery leads.
 

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