Scheduled charging problem with 2016 e-Golf SE

[TwoCarsAWeek]

Just installed a Clipper Creek HCS-40P EVSE last month.
Tried to use scheduled charging but that did not charge.
Took the car into the VW Dublin service last Friday, and they were able to recreate the issue with their own charger overnight.
I provided them information on TSB 2040470 but they claimed it only applies to the 2015 e-Golf.

They are keeping the car and waiting for VW to respond and instruct them.

 

[miimura]

Just be glad they can reproduce it on their charging station.

 

[TwoCarsAWeek]

The "solution" provided by VW factory is to set the "Maximum Battery Charge Level" to 20% for the charge location managment! (One would think Maximum means Maximum!). The local service tech said that works on my car while in their shop even though he agreed that he would have never guessed it.

I am skeptical on the "fix" but tried it out at home with my HCS-40P. As my expectation, it did not charge according to my delayed charging.

Now I have raised a case with Clipper Creek, and their support tech offered to send a new HCS-40P out to me even though they don't think the issue is on their end. He also indicated the previous problems have been primarily with the 2015 e-Golf and only one report against a 2016 e-Golf. He provided configuration settings that have been useful with other e-Golf customer.

I called my dealer again and they asked me to talk to VW Customer Care to make sure the settings is right.

The saga continues...

 

[forbin404]

That's not right,

I have a 2016 SE and mine is set to 100, in fact I accidentally set it to 50 and it stopped at 50.

 

[TwoCarsAWeek]

Yes, you are correct about the Max Battery Charge Level. After one more trip to the dealer, they reversed course as expected. Now claimed that Max Battery Charge Level should be set high, like 100%.

However now they said to avoid using "Off Peak" setting or keep the duration within the same day, i.e. 12:01 am - 7 am, instead of 11 pm - 7 am (as one may expect that it can be done)

The second advise is to try the mobile factory EVSE.

I did the 110v once, and the scheduled charging was successful.
The next day, with all the same settings, scheduled charging with the HCS-40P did not work.

Back to square one, reported the latest to Clipper Creek; the support tech have been super helpful and knowledgeable about the problem. Can't say the same with VW on helpfulness nor knowledge.

My suspicion is that my 2016 SE charging module is flaky.

 

[JoulesThief]

As a suggestion, if you can swing it, the VW dealership Master Technicians in and around San Jose, are probably the best at resolving these problems. You might have your local Dublin Tech get ahold of an E-Golf master tech at Sunnyvale VW, or even Dirito Bros in Walnut Creek, as both of these dealerships have top notch techs on e-Golf servicing.

 

[Sptgolf]

I have the same car and charger and haven't had any problems. I charge nightly at midnight and have done so for about a year and 10,000 miles. Did you set the schedule on the Infotainment system versus car net? I would set it on the car itself. Also, most times I have to either put my charger in twice, or hit the unlock button on my keys to 'wake up' the charging port to make sure it goes blink blink blink after I insert the charger. Once it goes blink blink blink it is golden. If you open the door after it has calculated the charging time, then it resets and will start charging right away. Also, make sure your min charge is set very low.

 

[TwoCarsAWeek]

Hi Sptgolf, does your 2016 SE has the stock charger or the "fast" charger? I have the stock charger, which only adds about 11 miles per hour with a L2 EVSE.

I also do not understand "BlinkBlinkBlink". I have setup on my car, using the CarNet Mobile app, all no differences. When I plug my EVSE in, the green status LED blinks 10 or so times every 3-4 seconds, and then shuts off, including the "schedule charge" button light. When that happens, it also shuts off the power relay in the EVSE, I hear a loud click from the HCS-40P after the egolf LEDs all shuts off.

VW Dublin Service and the VW Customer care have looked at this multiple times telling me to try this, try that, and nothing has worked. They are either totally incompetent or following the diesel-gate way to cheat out of doing anything to fix my car. Based on my research and what I have heard from the Clipper Creek support guy, I am 99% sure that my eGolf has a bad charging module (or firmware that has a bug)!

VW is just refusing to admit it.

I was quite happy with the eGolf, but now I have really poor view of VW and their commitment to make things right for their customers.

I would like to see pictures of your settings and a video of the LEDs at the charging point when you plug in for scheduled charging. TIA.

 

[forbin404]

Hi Sptgolf, does your 2016 SE has the stock charger or the "fast" charger? I have the stock charger, which only adds about 11 miles per hour with a L2 EVSE.

I also do not understand "BlinkBlinkBlink". I have setup on my car, using the CarNet Mobile app, all no differences. When I plug my EVSE in, the green status LED blinks 10 or so times every 3-4 seconds, and then shuts off, including the "schedule charge" button light. When that happens, it also shuts off the power relay in the EVSE, I hear a loud click from the HCS-40P after the egolf LEDs all shuts off.

What you are describing is normal for Delayed Charging. The light on the bottom is lit, the green LED is pulsating and when you lock the doors, all the lights go off (EXCEPT for the Drivers Display)

If this is what you see then you might look into your Delayed Charging settings.
The 3 settings you need to see are
Min
Max
Charging Profile

 

[Sptgolf]

Mine is the stock charger not DC Fast charge. What I said as blink blink blink is exactly what you describe. Once the clock light is lit on the charging port, you plug the charger in. You hear the HCS40 clunk as it starts sending power. It blinks for a while as it calculates the charge time then shuts off and you hear a clunk on the hcs 40p. Everthing is off at that time. Then it wakes up at midnight to charge without fail. Are you saying yours doesn't wake up? What charge profiles did you set? What's your min and max set to? It may be just not programmed correctly as it sounds like you are plugging in correctly and getting it to blink. Sometimes when I plug in, it starts charging immediately. If that happens, I take it out, press the clock button again, and put it back in, and then it starts blinking. Once it's blinking, i know it's good and the delayed charging is in the process of setting.

 

[Sptgolf]

These settings work for me. I drive about 60 miles per day, plug in when I come home for work, and it's ready in the morning. It wakes up and charges at 12:00 am to about 4:00 or 5:00am.

Battery: On
Max Charging Current: Max
Minimum Battery 0%
Maximum Battery 100%

Timer 1 On All days 8 am departure
Night Rate timer On
Night rate Start 12:00 AM
Night Rate End 5:00 AM

 

[TwoCarsAWeek]

my settings are:

Minimum level: 20%
Charging Locations/Profile (actually set up by VW CustomerCare remotely since they did not believe I did mine correctly!):
- Maximum: 100%
- Offpeak: on
- Offpeak Start: 12:30 am
- Offpeak End: 7 am
(The car apparently cannot handle Offpeak Start by the night before.)

Yes, I don't believe the eGolf wakes up and turn on the Clipper Creek relay to charge the car in the middle of the night.

However, it does work with the factory mobile Delphi 110V EVSE! And the dealer keeps saying it works with the Bosch L2 also.

VW CustomerCare and dealership have so far given me the run-around, with no knowledge on how to diagnose the problem!

 

[JoulesThief]

The 2015's have a known problem with the Clipper Creek 40. They have to change out to a newer updated part to fix the problem. Is your car a 908XXX or lower serial number?

Please read this and see if it applies to your year and model e-Golf, specifically 2015's. http://www.myvwegolf.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=829


I see that your e-Golf is a 2016, but I would like to leave this post up for others in the event they have a 2015 e-Golf with similar delayed charging problems, so the info doesn't get lost on a Clipper Creek EVSE not doing Delayed charging.

 

[TwoCarsAWeek]

I bought my 2016 SE at the end of October 2015.
My serial number is 902xxx.

I have researched that topic you mentioned beforehand and even provided that information to the service department and the VW Customer Care when I opened the case with them initially.

I told them maybe my early 2016 model car got some of the left-over parts from the 2015 build.

After 2 trips to the dealer and 2 months of wrangling with Customer Care, they were obviously not using the information I provided them. The dealer's solution from VW Techline is all bogus and wrong solution. The Customer Care kept telling me to try this, try that.

Finally, a couple days ago, Customer Care called me back to indicate my problem is the charging module in the car! What genius! However they are checking with my local dealer to get the part in stock. Still haven't heard back on scheduling with the dealer. (If my car really cannot charge at all because of the charging module, then it would be completely dead as a door nail until they can get the replacement part!)

My conclusion so far, I initially thought eGolf is a decent EV, albeit the SE has a very wimpy charging module. However given this experience, VW service and Customer Care are totally incompetent. And VW knows nothing about software!

Clipper Creek, on the other hand, has superior customer service and has been very cooperative since day one even though they were pretty sure there was nothing wrong with my HCS-40p.

Lesson learned: VW is stuck in the Model T days. Time to buy Model S/3, built by a company led by a leader that knows software is the future of cars. Buy American! Buy Tesla!

 

[TwoCarsAWeek]

Final update:
After 3 visits to the dealer, and 2.5 months of interaction with VW Customer Care, with the replacement of the charging module as I told them since day one, the delayed charging is finally working on my 2016 eGolf SE with stock charger (low-line, 3.6kw/hr) with HCS-40P!!!

Summarizing:
1) my early 2016 eGolf SE (serial no around 902xxx, took procession Oct 2015)
2) delayed charging with Clipper Creek HCS-40P DID NOT work

Solution:
1) replace J966 charging module with 2017 version and update to current software, Techline case#EE-136492

Hope no one else has to go thru the hassle I did. (PM me if you need to reference my Customer Care case no. for similar problem.)

 

[JoulesThief]

Thank you Two Cars a Week for posting that important information up. Hopefully very few people have to go through what you did.