MG4 Essence scheduled charging woes

[huntc]

Hi there,

We have the MG4 Essence as it is known here in Australia.

We have been experiencing intermittent charging issues where the EV charger controls the schedule. The car is plugged in at around 6pm and the EV charger recognises this. Charging doesn't start though as the charger's schedule delivers power only between 12 midnight and 6am. The charger activates at 12 midnight but the MG4 doesn't always take the power and charge. Sometimes it does. Sometimes it doesn't.

There is no charging schedule declared from within the MG4 itself.

I'm quite confident that the problem is not with the EV charger or its 10m cable. We actually manufacture the charger and I wrote a lot of the firmware. The charger is also going through some tough approvals and has been used with many EVs. The scheduling problem isn't exhibited with my other EV either; a BYD Seal Premium.

I have an appointment with my MG dealer, but I suspect that my scenario will be a relatively new one to them; hence my posting here.

Any thoughts? The problem is quite annoying as the car is driven about 600km per week, and so the nightly charging is required. Thanks.

 

[Coulomb]

The charger activates at 12 midnight but the MG4 doesn't always take the power and charge. Sometimes it does. Sometimes it doesn't. ...

Any thoughts?

How these cars do or don't sleep, or wake from sleep, seems dodgy to me. Early ZS Mark 1s would not wake at all when the EVSE powered up in the middle of the night.

There should be a circuit in the EVCC ECU (I think that's the right one, overseeing charges) that monitors for mains presence at the charge port. This needs to be low power (using all CMOS parts for example) and should have a mechanism that wakes up another part of the EVCC, or another ECU, and that should reliably initiate the charge.

I get the impression that around the time of COVID with drastic parts shortages, that some sub par EVCC (or other modules) were pressed into service. Or the parts they used were sub-par. Hence many times that ECU has to be replaced to get charging to work reliably. I get the feeling that a lot of these dodgy ECUs found their way into production.

Perhaps chase up some other threads on this with exact ECU part numbers; maybe the best ones are in the ZS forum, I forget. Then get out the mirror on a stick and check your part number.

It's a bit of a long shot, but might be worth it. You might be able to point to an MG document that says that ECUs in a certain part number range can be replaced under warranty if the customer is having problems.

 

[Coulomb]

I'm quite confident that the problem is not with the EV charger or its 10m cable. We actually manufacture the charger and I wrote a lot of the firmware.

Respect! ?

 

[huntc]

Thanks so much for the reply. I will indeed follow your advice and check the ECU part number. I will also report back anything that my local service centre comes back with. The service centre is booked for the end of Nov.

 

[huntc]

I took the MG4 to the service and they now updated the firmware on the Car's charge port, so I guess we'll see. Charged last night fine - but in fact, the charging has been well behaved since originally writing this post.

I'll report more in a couple of weeks.

 

[MelanieMoxon]

I took the MG4 to the service and they now updated the firmware on the Car's charge port, so I guess we'll see. Charged last night fine - but in fact, the charging has been well behaved since originally writing this post.

I'll report more in a couple of weeks.

The MG4 will do that. I have five pages (A5) of notes for each glitch that pops up on the screen. Sometimes it will go months without a problem and then you will get a load of them in a row.

My drivers door keyless entry button hasn't worked properly for most of the year, then suddenly its working fine (which means it won't get fixed at service time it will just be "no fault found").

 

[richbaseley1]

I took the MG4 to the service and they now updated the firmware on the Car's charge port, so I guess we'll see. Charged last night fine - but in fact, the charging has been well behaved since originally writing this post.

I'll report more in a couple of weeks.

Is this issue fixed now from the software update ?

 

[huntc]

So far so good... Charging has been reliable. I hope that statement doesn't jinx anything!