My MG4 Trophy has stopped charging after returning from its 2 year service

[les37b]

My MG4 came back from its 2 year service with a clean bill of health last week. The vehicle has 8,000 miles on the clock and I generally dont use it too much. Apart from a couple of short journeys of a few miles, I've not used it since, until today when I did a 60 mile trip leaving me at 123 miles and 49% left. So I decided to give it a charge on my trusty (and only used) method using my granny charger, and make use of my free solar to restore the charge just used. This has been a pretty routine activity since I've had it. I usually use a smart plug set to make use of my cheap Octopus cozy tariff, but today I just let it charge.

It started charging, but when I looked at my solar app, I could see it no longer was.

To cut a long story short, every attempt to charge, it would get the green light for about a minute then go out. I checked in case the car may have come back with some schedule in place (it had), but after removing that, then setting a schedule to come on for, then switched the car off so it's coming back on with a fresh start and nothing changes.

I had thought this evening it had starting working again. I'd set things with the smart plug and when I looked, I could see it was charging. Looked a short while later and it had stopped. Tried again and this time it had stopped after a minute as it had been doing. I left it and it started charging again. I expected a repeat (which I'd witnessed a couple of times), but now 15 minutes later and for the first time all day, I still have the green light....... but just gone out after 20 minutes...... and now no further green lights and now appears to have gone to sleep.

Any ideas? I spoke to the MG dealer who did the service, who told me prior to taking in, it had 2 recall updates. Today the dealer says "we didn't do any updates" and this fault that wasn't there before it was taken in, but is now on the first charge since I got back, is nothing to do with us and just a coincidence.

For the record, since I've had it, I've only ever used the granny charger - and not even got a clue how to use public EV chargers (e.g. do I need to register to use one?).

 

[Coulomb]

now 15 minutes later and for the first time all day, I still have the green light....... but just gone out after 20 minutes...... and now no further green lights and now appears to have gone to sleep.

I would not take the led lights going out as proof that it's not charging. Check the app, dash, warm or cold cables, house meter showing background or charging power level, etc.

There are known issues with those charge port lights going dark. When they're on, it seems that you can believe them, but they seem to go black without good reason. Another glitch to remind you it's an MG

 

[Ian Key]

It sounds like the CCU problem which some of the earlier cars suffer with including mine. They stop charging on AC but will on DC.

You will have to go to your dealer who will try a software update which probably won't work. It will have to then go back to the dealer so they can do a charge test and fill out a report for MG who will then authorise the replacement of the CCU.

Depending on how busy your dealer is it could take two or three months and several visits to sort it out meanwhile I hope you have a reasonably priced fast DC charger near you.

 

[les37b]

2 or 3 months! Jesus wept, thats pathetic if its clear and obvious what it is.

Ive never used a DC charger yet and don't intend to, but will do so to see if youre correct.

It’s more annoying since i told the dealer the issue and I could have driven there yesterday and left it with them. Instead they are now closed for Easter, I'm away for 10 days on a cruise and they've booked it in for when I'm back. Instead they played dumb. Would something they did when they serviced have caused this or one of the 2 “recall” updates they said they were installing but now saying they didn’t. That’s disgusting for not doing it if tue…. Or them covering themselves like Bart “I didn’t do it” Simpson.

I'm not impressed. They must be aware of what it's going to be and how long MG take to authorise a fix.

I had intended on trying a friend's fast home charger today. I still will but sounds like it will be in vain.

Luckily, I really don't need the car. I will leave it in their care until it’s fixed. I bought an EV to make use of my free solar electricity, not pay more for “furl” for it using a rip off fast charge facility.

I winder if I can find someone locally who can loan me their granny charger to test, so I can rule out mine being the fault.

 

[DelBoy]

I have had an original MG4, the AC charging was down to a software issue, the DC charging was down to a faulty CCU. Try to find a contactless pay charger (AC then DC) to see if it is both or one charge type. Don't need an app then, you're in London so there should be plenty around. In my opinion it's a software issue, but you will need to do a little investigation yourself before going back to the garage to get them to investigate. It does still have the warranty so it should not be a problem, a replacement CCU back early on took 2 months to source as there were no spares in the UK, I'm guessing that is better now. Good Luck.

 

[les37b]

I have had an original MG4, the AC charging was down to a software issue, the DC charging was down to a faulty CCU. Try to find a contactless pay charger (AC then DC) to see if it both or one charge type, don't need an app then, your in London so there should be plenty around. In my opinion it's a software issue, but you will need to do a little investigation yourself before going back to the garage to get them to investigate. It does still have the warranty so it should not be a problem, a replacement CCU back early on took 2 months to source as there were no spares in the UK, I'm guessing that is better now. Good Luck

What you have suggested is exactly what I intend to do so that on my return from my holiday I leave on in 36 hours, I can show what I’ve found out.

Do you think it likely they did something during the service? I’m very suspicious of the fact it was supposed to be having 2 software recalls updates, which after I suggested this was what must have caused the problem, they are saying they didn’t do any software updates so couldn’t possibly be down to them.

If they didn’t install these recall updates, it begs the question why not and why didn’t they tell me. It’s effectively a day off work to take the car into them, so I’m not impressed I have to take it in for a diagnostics and potentially have several visits to get fixed. I will just leave in their care if that is the case.

 

[Martinonline]

I'm sorry to hear if your problems and a failed CCU may be the issue. But please can you add to your information.

Is your car a Trophy LR (64kWh) or ER (77kWh)? I believe the CCU issue referenced above was for the LR.

Some posters have reported the car setting a low charge level by itself. Others have said that cancelling a schedule in the car was overriden by the app reinstating it.

MG granny chargers have indicators lights that show fault conditions, does yours? (I once had an over current trip.)

Can you try reducing the current drawn during charging in the car?

My Tesco supermarket have Podpoint AC EVSEs which give a free number of minutes charging before you need to pay via its app.

Finally, @Coulomb posted about the inadvisability of controlling granny charging using a smart plug which mechanically interrupts the current rather than a car-controlled schedule. Please search for 'Granny charging using a Smart Plug'.

 

[les37b]

I'm sorry to hear if your problems and a failed CCU may be the issue. But please can you add to your information.

Is your car a Trophy LR (64kWh) or ER (77kWh)? I believe the CCU issue referenced above was for the LR.

Some posters have reported the car setting a low charge level by itself. Others have said that cancelling a schedule in the car was overriden by the app reinstating it.

MG granny chargers have indicators lights that show fault conditions, does yours? (I once had an over current trip.)

Can you try reducing the current drawn during charging in the car?

My Tesco supermarket have Podpoint AC EVSEs which give a free number of minutes charging before you need to pay via its app.

Finally, @Coulomb posted about the inadvisability of controlling granny charging using a smart plug which mechanically interrupts the current rather than a car-controlled schedule. Please search for 'Granny charging using a Smart Plug'.

It’s the 64kWh LR version trophy.

I’m actually not using the app to control. (I use Home Assistant and the MG plug in . You can only have one or the other to bind.

To eliminate that being the cause, I switched off Home Assistant and tried without any schedule and with a schedule set by the car itself. (I did mention there was a schedule set inside the car, but both removed that and set my own. The problem persists.)

I have checked and the car hadn’t reinstated any schedule, so should simply be a case of plugging in and charge. That indeed is how it’s worked but only for a minute. It then has another go, which stays on for about 10 or 15 minutes before stopping and make no further attempts unless I withdraw and reinsert.

I hear what you say re smart plug and will read the thread, but these tests have been done with the plug running without the smart plug, so it’s not the reason for the issue and has been eliminated.

The status of the charger lights is red for powered and green when charging. I’ve seen the light remain green even though the car has stopped accepting a charge and stays on. It’s never had the orange “fault” light on.

The app on my phone unbound itself 6 months ago and I’ve just had all the info displayed within home assistant.

Because I have solar, I have live info of current being drawn and can see when the car is charging or not. So effectively I have three sources plus visual light on the car to see if it’s charging.

I’ve no way I can see that I’m able to lower the current that I can see. I think I might disable HA and go back to the app. I was hoping that it was able to schedule but it’s not able to, so a bit pointless. It does display a lot of info though. I will upload a screenshot if interested.

I will search out and try a DC charge point. I’m fairly confident from the info gathered it will charge and will do so just to check. It’s not going to be my solution. I’ve lived with just using the granny charger since I’ve had it and even caused to not bother with a home EV charge point; I can simply do without.

 

[DixieTGS]

I checked in case the car may have come back with some schedule in place (it had)

The above suggests that some software glitch happened recently, regardless of whether there is a CCU fault or not.

Adding a bit of detail to a point made by @Martinonline , the charge limit showing in the in car settings may show 100%, but internally it may be different e.g 30 or 50%. Setting a new limit, say 80% seems to make it behave again, should this be your issue.

Doing a disconnect of the earth lead on the battery for 10 minutes may reset other relevant settings - search on the forum for how to reset the steering and windows first if you go down this route.

 

[Martinonline]

Thanks for the reply. The question about LR vs ER arose because your profile says ER.

On the car's battery management screen you can set the charging current and battery level.

@Coulomb's concern is not with the smart plug but the long term effects of interrupting the high currents within the car's AC to DC Converter rather than a controlled reduction of the current by the car's BMS.

I know nothing about Home Assistant so will leave that to others.

At the car's first service you should have had SCUK001. Most say this results in changes to the ACC. This service you should have had SC077 which makes LKA gentler. Neither should have touched the BMS module. You need to contact MG to find out whether your car has had these Serviced Campaigns.

Finally, I agree with @DixieTGS, try the negative terminal disconnect. See the Wiki for info after you've done it and waited 10 mins

 

[les37b]

Thanks for the reply. The question about LR vs ER arose because your profile says ER.

On the car's battery management screen you can set the charging current and battery level.

@Coulomb's concern is not with the smart plug but the long term effects of interrupting the high currents within the car's AC to DC Converter rather than a controlled reduction of the current by the car's BMS.

I know nothing about Home Assistant so will leave that to others.

At the car's first service you should have had SCUK001. Most say this results in changes to the ACC. This service you should have had SC077 which makes LKA gentler. Neither should have touched the BMS module. You need to contact MG to find out whether your car has had these Serviced Campaigns.

Finally, I agree with @DixieTGS, try the negative terminal disconnect. See the Wiki for info after you've done it and waited 10 mins

OK, I'd not spotted the profile thing. Have amended. Thats the problem when using a phone and your eyes cant read very small print! lol... Thats my excuse anyway.

OK Amps was set to Auto - I just changed it to 6A and have used the car to set a schedule. It behaved as it has been. I tried 16A and 8A, both did the same thing. I used the SOC % bar from 60 to 100% it made no difference. I set below my current SOC and correctly, it didn't start charging.

I disabled Home assistant. No changes. I did try to bind my phone again. When I did before, I did it over the phone with MG. The app instructions say there is a bind function in the infosystem, but I'm buggered if I can see it.

I'm fairly sure those 2 service updates you listed were the ones they said when it was booked it, it would get, but as stated they claim they never did them despite being on the job sheet to do. I'm very unimpressed with this showroom not doing as asked previously too.

I've looked at nearby charge points (seeing if I could see the KWH costs)... most seem to be 5KWH which I assume would mean they are AC chargers?

Is it safe to do this disconnect? I did start to look at the details the wiki said about steering etc and not convinced I should be tinkering - but will do with a little hand holding. What exactly does it do? Is it like a PC hard reboot clearing the cache?

 

[siteguru]

You DO NOT need to bind your phone ... simply login in to the app using the same login details you use with Home Assistant. (A car is bound to an account, not a device).

 

[les37b]

You DO NOT need to bind your phone ... simply login in to the app using the same login details you use with Home Assistant. (A car is bound to an account, not a device).

I am logged in on the iphone MG app and its asking me to bind it. Its not possible to bind two devices. If you are logged in with Home assistant it wont let you log in with th phone app. Its one or the other, not both.

I've disabled HA, so I am able now to log in to the app, but its telling me I need to bind it. That's what I had to do when I originally got the car.

Below is my log in to the app. I only have one log in and that is it.

 

[SteveMSJ]

I am logged in on the iphone MG app and its asking me to bind it. Its not possible to bind two devices. If you are logged in with Home assistant it wont let you log in with th phone app. Its one or the other, not both.

You can set up more than one secondary account, so have the app and Home Assistant integration active at the same time.
The car is bound to the main account only.

 

[les37b]

I'm obviously doing something wrong here.

That screenshot above is inside my account. I have no settings there until (It says) my car needs to bind. Sorry to be a pain - what am I doing wrong?

 

[wattmatters]

Perhaps your plug-in charging unit is faulty. Have you tried a different one?

 

[les37b]

Perhaps your plug-in charging unit is faulty. Have you tried a different one?

Unfortunately I don't have a spare one to try or know anyone else with an MG4.

 

[DelBoy]

What you have suggested is exactly what I intend to do so that on my return from my holiday I leave on in 36 hours, I can show what I’ve found out.

Do you think it likely they did something during the service? I’m very suspicious of the fact it was supposed to be having 2 software recalls updates, which after I suggested this was what must have caused the problem, they are saying they didn’t do any software updates so couldn’t possibly be down to them.

If they didn’t install these recall updates, it begs the question why not and why didn’t they tell me. It’s effectively a day off work to take the car into them, so I’m not impressed I have to take it in for a diagnostics and potentially have several visits to get fixed. I will just leave in their care if that is the case.

Possibly, but the software issue I had was quite a long time ago and I would have thought that this was beaten out of the software glitch system a long time ago, who knows but luckily the warranty will cover it

 

[les37b]

Quick update.

I tried a friends granny charger and got the same results as mine..... Then I used a DC charger and put 6% in without a problem (apart from annoyance it wasn't the free electricity from solar that usually goes in!) lol

 

[siteguru]

If you can use/borrow a Type 2 lead and test on a public AC charge point*, and that also doesn't work properly, then that points to a CCU failure.

* or use someone's tethered home charge point for 30 minutes.