Car won't charge / Onboard Charger Failure

TonyWilliams · **Posted:** Mon May 14, 2018 3:33 pm

There’s no recall on the charger. It is covered by the 5 year / 60,000 month powertrain warranty.

If your 2012-2014 Toyota RAV4 EV is outside those parameters, you need to buy the Toyota Platinum used car extended warranty (VSA). You can buy this for up to 5 years / 60,000 more miles.

Expect to pay $2000 to $2500 for the warranty. The Toyota dealer in Bozeman, Montana seems to be a good source to buy this warranty.

alflash · **Posted:** Sun Jul 01, 2018 9:16 pm

RAV4EV a '13 has a fully discharged high-voltage battery, but charging (by different devices) is impossible and not ON/Flash of Indicate Lamps..
On Electric Vehicle Charger Cable read Flash-code 3 *
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oGVIqqbSxtU
No "Check EV System" message, Car have current DTC only in ABC/VSC/TRAK (U0293).
Please, let me know, as I can solved Problem?

Update. Video lack of charging on another Car and for example charging a serviceable Car shown in https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pJ0xDz-5mAM ,
One of the reasons for the lack of charging is shown in
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jMHu2x7RC_I

califteacher · **Posted:** Tue Sep 04, 2018 6:41 pm

Sadly, at 42,000 miles, my wife and I are joining the chorus of those having charging issues. Last night, our 2014 Rav4EV would not accept a charge--the two charging lights would both blink after about 30 seconds, with a warning message on the dash. After about 4-5 tries, the car finally accepted a full charge, which will get me to the dealer tomorrow, 54 miles away.

We had our original 12-volt battery changed a couple of weeks ago, while the dealership was replacing the front axle, but I don't know that the battery exchange would have any effect on the charging function. After dealing with the axle issue, it is pretty discouraging to now have charging issues, but that seems to be the price of driving this "rolling science experiment." We did purchase the 10-year, 125,000 mile extended warranty, so we're ready for the long haul.

hokiematt · **Posted:** Thu Sep 06, 2018 9:57 pm

califteacher wrote:

Sadly, at 42,000 miles, my wife and I are joining the chorus of those having charging issues. Last night, our 2014 Rav4EV would not accept a charge--the two charging lights would both blink after about 30 seconds, with a warning message on the dash. After about 4-5 tries, the car finally accepted a full charge, which will get me to the dealer tomorrow, 54 miles away.

Sorry to hear about your charging issues. Could you ask your dealer to check for fault codes/history on the Tesla diagnostics connector and share the results here? It might help shed some light on these failures that have been popping up.

TonyWilliams · **Posted:** Sat Sep 08, 2018 6:11 pm

If this is not under warranty, we can beat the dealer price for an onboard charger repair.

$4800 at the dealer

$3000 at our shop in San Marcos, California.

teaguecl · **Joined:** Sat Feb 01, 2014 5:22 am **Posts:** 8

Does anyone know what the buzzing sound is the car makes while charging? Mine has always done it (presumably they all do), I figured it was a pump running battery coolant or something. The reason I ask is that mine is behaving different today than it has the previous 4 years. Rather than just buzzing continuously during charging, it is not buzzing for ~3 seconds, then whatever it is turns off for ~3 seconds, and this continues forever. The car seems to be charging, but the on/off sound is way more annoying than the continuous buzz was. Has anyone who has had a charger fail had the same symptoms?
I should mention that this didn't happen out of thin air. I just got my car back from a motor + battery replacement, and this is the first time I've plugged it in since that work was done.

smkettner · **Joined:** Mon Feb 24, 2014 8:51 pm **Posts:** 610

Mine did the intermittent buzzing for what seemed like the first few months when I bought it new.
Then the buzzing stopped except maybe a couple times.

I call normal and wait to see how it goes.

dstjohn99 · **Posted:** Mon Apr 08, 2019 3:25 pm

Yeah mine does that too. I noticed it this morning. 2014, 65,000 miles

prakash · **Joined:** Fri Feb 22, 2019 8:38 am **Posts:** 2

After 5 years of relatively minor problems, I've had a string of troubles in the last 6 months with my 2012 RAV4, 36000 miles. It started with replacing the 12V battery at Tustin Toyota. Later that day, the Check EV light started to come on, leading to intermittent charging problems. After two months, Tustin Toyota decided it was the onboard charger. However, replacing the onboard charger didn't solve the charging issue, and despite Tony's best efforts, he was not able to figure out the problem. Last week, the power steering failed; luckily I had just pulled off the freeway. The car is with Carson Toyota, waiting for diagnosis. If anyone has experienced similar issues, and can provide guidance, that would be much appreciated. Are these all connected? or just a bad string of isolated problems? If I hadn't just spent many thousands of $$, I would call it quits now. Might need to in any case, given this is my only car.

TonyWilliams · **Posted:** Wed Apr 17, 2019 7:11 am

Despite my bravado that we could repair any RAV4 EV, this one has been a challenge bigger than us.

In the car mentioned above, we performed the following troubleshooting:

1) replaced onboard vehicle charger (OBVC)

2) replaced gateway ECU

3) replaced main traction battery

4) re-wired the J1772 pilot wire

I’m out of ideas.

Tony Williams
Quick Charge Power LLC
1780-104 La Costa Meadows Drive
San Marcos, California 92078 USA
TonyWilliams@QuickChargePower.com
www.QuickChargePower.com
Twitter: QCPower
1-844-EV-PARTS
1-844-387-2787
1-760-798-0342 Office
Hours M-F, 9-5 Pacific Time

Online Forum for the 2012 Rav4 EV

Toyota Rav4 EV Forum

Car won't charge / Onboard Charger Failure