Motor Fault - consult handbook

[Alb]

Nobody wants their car to fail but if it must, doing it on your own doorstep is always preferable.
Even when it's fixed I dare say this will knock your confidence in doing a similar trip at a later date.

 

[Cocijo]

I don’t fret about breaking down. But if I do It will be the MG dealerships that bother me. Time and time again we see lack of support and virtually nil product knowledge. It’s not good enough.

 

[Prop]

Had a similar motor fault failure with my MG ZS EV in March. 12 volt battery reading on the car dashboard was registering low and would not raise above 12 volts even when ignition was on and I was driving the car. AA guy came out took a voltage reading from the 12 volt battery which was only 10.8 volts. AA guy boosted the 12 volt battery which got the car running again. Did not have to disconnect battery. AA guy then followed me to my local MG dealer where I left the car to be sorted. A week later the dealership contacted me to let me know the car was fixed. Dealer stated that the issue was due to corrosion in the wiring system which lead to the 12 volt system not being able to charge the 12 volt battery correctly. They were not specific as to where the wiring was corroded, it could of been in the drivers door or just forward of this where the wires where corroded. Since the fix thankfully I have had no reoccurrence of the issue. One final note, for several months before the breakdown my wing mirrors gradually failed to fold when locking the car. Since the repair the wing mirrors have folded every time I lock the car. Its possible I had 2 issues and both were fixed, unfortunately the dealer did not seem to want to go into great details as to the exact fix or fixes applied. Could have really done with having a chat to the actual technician that carried out the repair, but to be honest I was just glad to get back to my ZS EV after a week in a skanky loan ice car.

 

[Gomev]

Had a similar motor fault failure with my MG ZS EV in March. 12 volt battery reading on the car dashboard was registering low and would not raise above 12 volts even when ignition was on and I was driving the car. AA guy came out took a voltage reading from the 12 volt battery which was only 10.8 volts. AA guy boosted the 12 volt battery which got the car running again. Did not have to disconnect battery. AA guy then followed me to my local MG dealer where I left the car to be sorted. A week later the dealership contacted me to let me know the car was fixed. Dealer stated that the issue was due to corrosion in the wiring system which lead to the 12 volt system not being able to charge the 12 volt battery correctly. They were not specific as to where the wiring was corroded, it could of been in the drivers door or just forward of this where the wires where corroded. Since the fix thankfully I have had no reoccurrence of the issue. One final note, for several months before the breakdown my wing mirrors gradually failed to fold when locking the car. Since the repair the wing mirrors have folded every time I lock the car. Its possible I had 2 issues and both were fixed, unfortunately the dealer did not seem to want to go into great details as to the exact fix or fixes applied. Could have really done with having a chat to the actual technician that carried out the repair, but to be honest I was just glad to get back to my ZS EV after a week in a skanky loan ice car.

Wasn't there a recall to do the wiring loom in the drivers door on some of the first ZS EVs in the country ?

 

[Dodger]

Wasn't there a recall to do the wiring loom in the drivers door on some of the first ZS EVs in the country ?

Yes, my car was one of them.

 

[Lovemyev]

Wasn't there a recall to do the wiring loom in the drivers door on some of the first ZS EVs in the country ?

You are totally correct.
I think the wiring loom replacement was only required on the early cars.
It was subject to service bulletin released by MG.
The loom was replaced and rerouted as it was found that water ingress had been see in the connection block of a few cars I believe?.
The reroute of the cable was the fix, but the loom was replaced as a mater of caution.
My car arrived at the dealership two weeks before Christmas in 2019.
I held back on registering the car until the 5th Jan 2020.
The wiring loom was replaced when the car was submitted for its first service on the 13th Jan of this year.
This resulted in the car being stranded at the dealership for three days, when it refused to boot up after the wiring loom change went badly wrong and intervention was needed from the MG Tech Team.
The dealership learnt that the key for the car has to be well out of range of the car when the loom is replaced, otherwise when the 12 volt supply is reconnected, the car detects that there is an attempt to break into the car and it continually sounds the alarm and as a result it will not recognise the key fob either !.
The spare key ( luckily left at home ) was needed to communicate again with the car.
The keys then need coding in “Pairs” so both keys had to be done together.
MG Tech had been supplied with the data pack from my car when the dealer completely ran out of ideas on how to restore my car back to normal.
After MG Tech had gone through the data, it advised the dealer to update the BMS software at the same time.
It must of been one of the first private owner cars to receive the update I think !.
My car had never suffered from any of the “Buggy” software updates, but MG Tech made the call to update the car.
I was only notified of these changes when I had a 30 minute conversation with the service manger when I collected the car.
I think they where more than glad to see the back of my car, as it had been blocking off the use of one of their ramps from Friday to Tuesday !.
A short sharp shock for the dealer this one.
Almost six months now after this complete shut down at the dealership and all appears to be fine.
I guess that statement is likely to be the “Kiss Of Death” ?.

 

[Alb]

Hope you touched wood at least

 

[AbuG]

Hope it all works out.
The coutersy car is that part of out AA MGassist service or does it need to be paid for separately?

 

[mykg]

Hope it all works out.
The coutersy car is that part of out AA MGassist service or does it need to be paid for separately?

It's part of the MG assistance.

 

[Blootoof]

I've just experienced a problem which has caused me to call MG assistance. A Motor Fault was displayed on the dashboard in red. It also says consult handbook. The handbook says switch OFF and contact an authorised MG repairer. As I mentioned I have contacted MG assistance and I am currently awaiting recovery. Anyone had any experience of this fault.


View attachment 3392

So I had 8 major fault lights coming on one after another and it said consult handbook etc etc . If I turned off the car it would clear it. no actual problems with the car - and intermittent faults so the garage couldn’t recreate them

 

[Blootoof]

After placing the MG assistance call at around 4:20PM the recovery guy showed up at about 9:20PM with the sun going down. We were given an ETA of 5:35PM initially, but this was very annoyingly pushed out each time I called back. We're actually on holiday in Dorset and stopped on a quiet country lane about a 1.5 miles from Cerne Abbas, so not exactly in a built up area.

The fault first happened and I pressed ok and several other failure/warning messages appeared one after another. The whole instrument panel was flashing various warning icons like a Christmas Tree. I eventually stopped after a few seconds and tried the reboot (off/on). The problem seemed to clear, but came back again after driving for a few seconds further. I stopped again further up the road in a convenient safe place off the road. Each time I switched the car on, the Motor Fault plus all the other array of failure/warning messages ocurred straight away. There was also an occasional strange clicking noise coming from the dashboard area (frequency of about 10 or 20 seconds - difficult to say).

At this point I called MG assistance as it looked like this was a permanent problem and too dangerous/risky to drive any further. I'm pretty sure the car would move but I didn't want to create more problems by driving it in this condition.

Whilst waiting for almost 5 hours I did switch the car on a couple of times, but the fault remained the same. I probably did not switch it on during the last 3 to 4 hours. However each time I opened a car door and the parking lights (LED on dashboard) illumnated I could hear the clicking noise again which gave me the impression that the problem was still occurring. The parking icon goes off after a short while and the parking LED on the parking brake switch goes off a short while after that. When both these red indicators goes off the clicking noise was never heard. Almost like opening the door causes an awakening of the electrical system and then it goes back to sleep. I really don't know but I had lot's of time to evaluate the situation.

So, at 9:20PM the recovery guy arrives and I explain the problem and showed him the pictures I had of the failure/warning conditions. I guess you all know what happens next?

I switch the car on and no failure/warning conditions. I drive several yards as a short test and no problem. As we are about 20 minutes from our holiday base he agrees to follow me back and if it fails again I will pull over. Anyway we thankfully made it back and I now need to find an authorised MG repairer in the Dorset/Somerset area to investigate and fix my issue. I'll make a few phone calls but as it's Bank Holiday Monday I don't hold out too much hope today.

The car is being charged up this morning but I haven't driven it further than a few yards to the charging position.

I had this problem - exactly the same / but as soon as I turned off the car the computer reset and it disappeared / strange question - but do you have any metalwork in you / I have plates and screws in my ankle and we finally decided that this was the problem as it didn’t happen for anyone in the garage and only when I was in the car but not always ..

 

[mykg]

I had this problem - exactly the same / but as soon as I turned off the car the computer reset and it disappeared / strange question - but do you have any metalwork in you / I have plates and screws in my ankle and we finally decided that this was the problem as it didn’t happen for anyone in the garage and only when I was in the car but not always ..

Hi, thanks for your feedback with regards to your recent experience. I don't have any metal plates.

Did you take any photographs of the failure/warning events that you saw on your dashboard?
Have you only seen the problem on one occurrence, or has it occurred on multiple occasions?
Did you notice what the 12V battery level was at the time of the failure?

My car has been with the dealer since Friday 4th June but they haven't seen the problem when they've checked it out of Friday, Saturday morning and today Monday. I have asked if the event logging system has shown what actually happened when I experienced the problems on Sunday 30th May, Monday 31st May and Tuesday 1st June, but the information I am getting back is a bit vague. I'm not sure if the failure events (Motor Fault etc..) have not been logged in the event logging system or they are just not conclusive. Personally I would like to see the output of the event logs that are recorded for the last 2 weeks, which should include all the issues the car complained about a week ago.

 

[Blootoof]

Hi, thanks for your feedback with regards to your recent experience. I don't have any metal plates.

Did you take any photographs of the failure/warning events that you saw on your dashboard?
Have you only seen the problem on one occurrence, or has it occurred on multiple occasions?
Did you notice what the 12V battery level was at the time of the failure?

My car has been with the dealer since Friday 4th June but they haven't seen the problem when they've checked it out of Friday, Saturday morning and today Monday. I have asked if the event logging system has shown what actually happened when I experienced the problems on Sunday 30th May, Monday 31st May and Tuesday 1st June, but the information I am getting back is a bit vague. I'm not sure if the failure events (Motor Fault etc..) have not been logged in the event logging system or they are just not conclusive. Personally I would like to see the output of the event logs that are recorded for the last 2 weeks, which should include all the issues the car complained about a week ago.

It was an intermittent fault and unfortunately it never happened to the guys in the mg garage - they couldn’t replicate it - but it happened numerous times and in three different EV MGs

 

[Blootoof]

It was an intermittent fault and unfortunately it never happened to the guys in the mg garage - they couldn’t replicate it - but it happened numerous times and in three different EV MGs

And yes I took photos - some examples

 

[mykg]

It was an intermittent fault and unfortunately it never happened to the guys in the mg garage - they couldn’t replicate it - but it happened numerous times and in three different EV MGs

Just for clarification. You experienced this failure in three completely different MG ZS EV's? That's so weird. How did you get access to three different MG ZS EV's? Were they courtesy cars?

 

[mykg]

And yes I took photos - some examples

Thanks for providing the photographs. I'm presuming that these are just a small sample of the failures/warnings. I didn't see one that showed the "Motor Fault". What is interesting is that the 12V indicator looks very healthy.

Did the MG dealership give you any information as to what the car's event logs showed? With intermittent issue like these I feel that is so important to be able to record the problem events and to therefore troubleshoot the situation effectively.

 

[CDR]

Hi, thanks for your feedback with regards to your recent experience. I don't have any metal plates.

Did you take any photographs of the failure/warning events that you saw on your dashboard?
Have you only seen the problem on one occurrence, or has it occurred on multiple occasions?
Did you notice what the 12V battery level was at the time of the failure?

My car has been with the dealer since Friday 4th June but they haven't seen the problem when they've checked it out of Friday, Saturday morning and today Monday. I have asked if the event logging system has shown what actually happened when I experienced the problems on Sunday 30th May, Monday 31st May and Tuesday 1st June, but the information I am getting back is a bit vague. I'm not sure if the failure events (Motor Fault etc..) have not been logged in the event logging system or they are just not conclusive. Personally I would like to see the output of the event logs that are recorded for the last 2 weeks, which should include all the issues the car complained about a week ago.

Hi, did you get the car back and has the fault been seen by the dealership?

 

[mykg]

Hi, did you get the car back and has the fault been seen by the dealership

The dealership still have my car and are in contact with "MG Technical" to help resolve the issue. Fortunately the fault has occurred whilst at the dealership so they have experienced the problem first hand. The problem took a few days to show itself, but I'm glad they could actually see it in the fault condition. I picked up a courtesy car yesterday.
From what I'm being told the array of faults/warnings which occur when it exhibits the problem are not recorded in the "fault logs", which is a big worry for me. How are technicians expected to resolve intermittent issues without the fault logging evidence to work with.

 

[CDR]

The dealership still have my car and are in contact with "MG Technical" to help resolve the issue. Fortunately the fault has occurred whilst at the dealership so they have experienced the problem first hand. The problem took a few days to show itself, but I'm glad they could actually see it in the fault condition. I picked up a courtesy car yesterday.
From what I'm being told the array of faults/warnings which occur when it exhibits the problem are not recorded in the "fault logs", which is a big worry for me. How are technicians expected to resolve intermittent issues without the fault logging evidence to work with.

Gosh, well at least it reproduced the fault. I hope they get to the bottom of it soon.

 

[mykg]

Just thought I would provide an update with my problem. Unfortunately the issue still exists and the problem has not been fixed. I don't really have any details, but it's very frustrating that it's taking so long to resolve. Not great.