Mg M5 EV heater issues

Well, a trip to the dealers seems to have had a happy ending (stop sniggering at the back).
The story related to me was that the car was put on the diagnostic computer and a fault code (no detail) was present. The guy did a series of checks and found nothing except that one of the connectors didn't seem to be properly home (I wonder if that means not click locked). Connector reseated and fault code went away.
All covered under warranty, thank goodness.
I did get a ZS loaner while the techies were firkling. Quite nice, though I'd swear there wasn't quite as much grunt as with my 5.
 
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Chris Harry said:
Hi, its a 72 plate with the fake roof rack.

My wife did say if you lasted the winter why get it fixed..lol

But a couple of times I've actually had to scrap the inside.. not good.

I have checked all controll knobs, nothing seems to work,,,, i bet its me ??!!
Click to expand...
Is it really fake? The manual on my 71 plate model was updated by the dealer on its service to give it a 50kg weight limit so ok for a bike rack or canoe ?
 
Fluffykins said:
Well, a trip to the dealers seems to have had a happy ending (stop sniggering at the back).
Click to expand...
Well, it kinda looks like the happy ending was a misplaced sentiment. We're back to fan running ok but no heat. Due in at the dealers again on Dec 4th.
Heated seats help a bit but they don't keep the sticky out bits - hands and arms, legs and feet - warm.
 
Fluffykins said:
Well, it kinda looks like the happy ending was a misplaced sentiment. We're back to fan running ok but no heat. Due in at the dealers again on Dec 4th.
Heated seats help a bit but they don't keep the sticky out bits - hands and arms. legs and feet - warm.
Click to expand...
So here's a thing.

Jumped in the car and switched on as usual. Heater controls were already set on, to push at least some air onto the screen. A/C was on and temperature set to "Hi", above any numeric value.

I wasn't expecting anything more than cold air to blow the fogging away but I realised the car was - wait for it - warming up!

And I hadn't touched the heating or Aircon controls.

I'll leave the appointment at the dealers in place for now (December 4th), as they'll do the service and MOT at the same time but I know from bitter experience from my past life in a site services role, that intermittent faults are a bugger.
 
Since the heaters miraculous recovery it worked perfectly. Up to today. Naturally it was 90 miles into a long run down from Norfolk to W Sussex. Got there but b***** cold.

Dealer can't look at it till Mid January, so its booked in for then.

I'll be pointing him at another thread I found on here, which seems to have a lot of fingers pointing at the PTC heater itself. Car heating has stopped working

Ruddy thing.
 
Well, a few days later it was blowing cold again and has stayed that way since.
It's getting <redacted> dangerous now, as it's so much colder these days, plus the air is more humid, meaning the windscreen mists up in a trice.
Grasping at straws, I emailed Cleevely EV to see if they can offer any suggestions from their experience , which I can pass on.
Personally I still suspect the PTC itself, with a small amount of suspicion for the HV switching devices on the output of the control unit.
We'll see.
I hope.
 
Well after a VERY uncomfortable week or three, I dropped the car off at the dealers. Fortunately the heater continued misbehaving itself, so there was a solid fault to work on. I had a call this afternoon to say the dealer agrees it's probably the PTC heater itself that is the culprit. The part is showing as available and has been ordered. Hopefully I should have the car back later this week, so we'll see how it goes.
 
workwithtoby said:
Is there enough coolant in the system?
Click to expand...
The heating is via an electric element. It's a positive temperature coefficient (PTC) device, the resistance of which increases as it gets hot, making it self-regulating and able to cope with changing airflow as the fan speed is wound up and down. Based on a quick and dirty calc using the dashboard figure for HV battery current draw at rest (350-400V, 8A) the heater can chuck out maybe 3kW or thereabouts.
 
emmrecs said:
I realise I am not by any means an expert on the mechanics of cars, but I have to ask what coolant level has to do with a car heater which is powered by electricity??? o_Oo_O
Click to expand...
my error, I assumed the coolant circuit through the radiator would be involved in heat recovery to pass heat to to the cabin extracted from battery and motor cooling.

This appears to be more advanced tech than our lovely MGs are fitted with though.
 
workwithtoby said:
my error, I assumed the coolant circuit through the radiator would be involved in heat recovery to pass heat to to the cabin extracted from battery and motor cooling.

This appears to be more advanced tech than our lovely MGs are fitted with though.
Click to expand...
Not necessarily, using a ‘coolant’ to transport heat from the PTC to a blower via a heat exchanger is quite common in ‘low cost’ EVs,
 
Fluffykins said:
I had a call this afternoon to say the dealer agrees it's probably the PTC heater itself that is the culprit. The part is showing as available and has been ordered.
Click to expand...
Dealer rang this afternoon. New PTC has arrived and --- it's the wrong part, which doesn't fit.
As far as I understand it, MG documentation says the original part number had been superceded, so the dealer ordered the "new" part number. It appears the documentation is out of sync with reality.
A new, new part is on order with delivery anticipated shortly.
We'll see.
In the meantime I've got a 73 plate ZS loaner, which is quite nice (though there is a question over the navigation - see Satnav not updating position), Infotainment is otherwise quite nice though and nowhere as lethargic as in the 5. Range doesn't seem quite as good as my 5, and the amount of sheer grunt seems less, which would come as a relief to the front tyres of those drivers with a heavy fight foot
Nice enough though.
 
Well. Hopefully this is the final update.

As noted above, we were able to get the car to the local dealer for a look at, with the intermittent fault active and seem to have a resolution. The dealer says it was a failing/failed PTC heater and has now got the right mart and changed it out, all under warranty. So far (emphasis in case fate is a bit hard of hearing: so far) it seems to be all OK.

The dealer is hanging on to the failed part in case MG want it to have a look at, where it's an unusual (he says) fault. That's a shame as my inner electronics test engineer (I was one a good few years back) wants to start prodding with a multimeter. Ah well.

TTFN

Fluff.
 

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