Erratic charging

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A2Golf

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Joined
Mar 19, 2019
Messages
2
Just got a 2016 EGolf SE (Basic) and I am charging on a 120 V charger. Strangely it charges for a while, between 1 and 2 hours, then stops charging. It can be restarted by pushing the charge button by the plug, to go for another little while.

I bought it from a used car dealer out of state and had it shipped to MI. I had the car for a week and is possible I am doing something wrong or not having a proper setting. I looked in the manual and looked through the settings and could not find out any reference to this. Perhaps there is a problem with the onboard charger and I need to take to a dealer. The car warranty still has a few months left.
 
Please be more specific. "Button by the plug" can mean the button at the charge inlet on the vehicle, it could be a button on the granny cable near the 120V outlet plug, or maybe a GFCI receptacle button. Which one are you referring to? Also, please try a L2 charging station to verify the car will charge at 3.6 kW or 7.2 kW, depending on whether your car has the DCFC package (7.2 kW with the DCFC package).
 
I may have the same or a similar problem. The car charges for some time (sometimes just a few minutes, sometimes between 1 or 2 hours) and then stops charging. It happens only occasionally and I have not observed some pattern. At first I thought the car may be falling into "scheduled charging" and I have not set any charging schedule in the car. I then made sure that the "charge immediate" button next to the charge cable plug-in is lit whenever I plug in the charging cable. However, the behavior did not change. I am using an eMotorWorks JuiceBox which is set to charge between 23:00 and 07:00 (21:00 and 14:00 on weekends).

This odd behavior happens only with my new "2019 eGolf SEL prem". I had a "2016 eGolf SE" before for about three years and never had this problem.

Any ideas what could cause this problem?
 
wkuballa said:
I had a "2016 eGolf SE" before for about three years and never had this problem.

Did your 2016 SE have the fast charging option? If not, it would have only been charging at 15 amps, and could be the JuiceBox has problems beyond that. I'd try a public L2 charger overnight just to see what happens.
 
Questions for A2Golf & wkuballa:

~ Are you using the AC charger that comes with your e-Golf?

~ Are you connected to a 15amp GFI outlet?

~ Are there any other appliances or items connected the that specific circuit while you are charging?

~ Is the car & the cable for that matter exposed to direct sunlight?

Please advise.
 
I believe that the JuiceBox can limit the kWh sent to the car during a charging session. It appears in the JuiceBox app as a given number of miles on the dial in the vehicle charging session that you can set.

Can you check in the app to make sure that this is set to the maximum, that is, that the white part of the dial for the charging session is dragged all the way clockwise to the maximum? See this video on the JB web site for a demo of what I’m talking about: https://docs.juice.net/Videos/AppWalkthrough.html

If it’s not set to the max, it will only charge to a certain point and then stop.
 
Finally discovered the issue. I was using the 110V charger that comes with the car, but I bought a 240V one and no problems. I checked with the 120V again in another outlet and the problem is no longer. Obviously I did not check the wall outlet. Happened it was old and was not making good contact. A simple problem that I should have solved right away.

As I am getting familiar with the car, I am sure some more things will pop up. I love the car and is a suitable replacement to my 20 yr old faithful VWGolf that it replaced

Thanks for the answers
 
Yeah, chargers are gonna be pickier than normal when it comes out outlets. At a minimum, make sure the outlet is properly grounded, and if outdoors, passes a GFCI test. You can find little tester like this for about $10 at your local hardware store. Definitely a worthwhile investment to save troubleshooting time later on.

Not a bad idea to get a cheap little multimeter and verify the voltage is between 115-125 also.
 
I am using the same charging station I have been using with my eGolf 2016 for three years. It is an eMotorWerks JuiceBox connected to a dedicated circuit with 40 (or 50?) amps. I am using a J1772 cable to connect the car. It charges typically with 7.1kW. The 2016 eGolf never failed to charge at the programmed time (23:00 to 07:00 weekdays, and 21:00 to 14:00 weekends). Last night the same thing. The JuiceBox changed to "charging" at 21:00, but the car did not charge. I tried the car to get charging using CarNet. It took three attempts. Only after the third attempt pressing the "CHARGE" button the car started to charge. It looks like the car does not notice when the JuiceBox goes into charging mode.
 
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