Charge error message, "Stopped by System Malfunction"?

Had my brand new Rav4EV for a three days now. Just got my very first error message. Is this a serious issue?

Here's charge history since taken delivery of the car.
Friday Evening: Used OEM L1 EVSE to charge in garage without issue to full(80%) on the first day.(4 hours, Charge immediately). Heard loud Buzz sound when charging(not sure if it's normal or not?).

Saturday afternoon : (Earlier in the day downloaded and registered Entune.) Charged at Public L2 EVSE(Aerovironment) to full at Sherman Oaks Mall without problem(1.5 Hours, Charge immediately). Completely silent during charging(no buzz sound)

Saturday evening : Used OEM L1 EVSE to charge in garage to full without real issue(~5 hours, Charge immediately). Heard loud Buzz, and then after a couple of hours in, I heard some other sound(but can't be sure what that is), but when I get to the garage, I can no longer hear the other sound, just the Buzz.

Sunday evening: Used OEM L1 EVSE to charge in garage (indicated requiring two hours to full), about one hour in, received email notice that Charging was interrupted. When checking it out in the garage, see the charging indicators are "off". when got in the car, the screen showed a message "Stopped by System Malfunction". When I unplugged the J1772 and reinserted it, the Charging resumed and it completed the charge in about another hour to full.


When I looked up the error description in owner's manual, its explanation was "charging was aborted due to system malfunction" and correction procedure is to "contact your Toyota dealer".

I've seen similar error reported as it related to vehicle not finishing their "scheduled charge", I haven't seen reports of this error on a charge immediately scenario. I don't know the software version of my car, but base on it's production date of 8/2014, I am guessing it's among the newest productions and hopefully has latest software on it already.

Since after I remove the J1772 plug and reinserted, the charging resumed and charged to full, I wasn't sure is this issue serious enough for me to bring the car in the dealer for check up? Anyone had similar experience, please advice.


In addition, the Buzzing sound I heard when I charged using OEM L1 EVSE kind of bothers me. Is the buzz to be expected and I should just ignore it? If it's to be expected, why would charge using L2 EVSE(Aeroenvironment) be completely silent and without any Buzzing sound? Kindly share what would be considered the "expected" behavior versus "Abnormal behavior"?

Can't help you with the charging error message, but yes, the RAV4's charging system will often make buzzing and clicking sounds to various degrees, though I don't think it's ever been completely silent (at level 1 or 2). I fully expect you will get to hear it on level 2 charging at some point, as do I and others – see separate thread:

http://www.myrav4ev.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=1019

evsinav said:

Assume normal.

I and others hear the charging noises and had the same concerns. After visiting the dealers and comparing notes in this forum, it has been assumed to be "normal" for this vehicle to have pulsing noises at varying frequencies (even no noise) during charging. My previous Focus Electric and current Model S both do not make this or any pulsing noise, so I was quite worried the first week. I'm at 5500 miles now with no issues.

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Here's someone else mentioning getting "system malfunction" errors while charging (not something I have experienced after almost one year):

http://www.myrav4ev.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=1225&p=14773

miimura said:

I love the car, but I cannot say I've had zero problems.

I have never had a "Check EV System" error or any other fault that made my car undriveable in 15 months and 12,000 miles with the car. However, it has occasionally given me scary sounding error messages like "Charging Stopped Due to System Malfunction". That has happened probably nearly a dozen times, but it only actually stopped or prevented charging once or twice. It's mostly just an irritant and no error codes were stored in the computers.

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Incredulocious said:

Can't help you with the charging error message, but yes, the RAV4's charging system will often make buzzing and clicking sounds to various degrees, though I don't think it's ever been completely silent (at level 1 or 2). I fully expect you will get to hear it on level 2 charging at some point, as do I and others – see separate thread:

http://www.myrav4ev.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=1019

evsinav said:

Assume normal.

I and others hear the charging noises and had the same concerns. After visiting the dealers and comparing notes in this forum, it has been assumed to be "normal" for this vehicle to have pulsing noises at varying frequencies (even no noise) during charging. My previous Focus Electric and current Model S both do not make this or any pulsing noise, so I was quite worried the first week. I'm at 5500 miles now with no issues.

Click to expand...

Here's someone else mentioning getting "system malfunction" errors while charging (not something I have experienced after almost one year):

http://www.myrav4ev.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=1225&p=14773

miimura said:

I love the car, but I cannot say I've had zero problems.

I have never had a "Check EV System" error or any other fault that made my car undriveable in 15 months and 12,000 miles with the car. However, it has occasionally given me scary sounding error messages like "Charging Stopped Due to System Malfunction". That has happened probably nearly a dozen times, but it only actually stopped or prevented charging once or twice. It's mostly just an irritant and no error codes were stored in the computers.

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Thank you for sharing your experience. I don't have my own level 2 evse set up yet but hopefully soon. I will listen to it more carefully. With OEM level 1 evse, the buzzing sound is constantly present during charge. But with my one time level 2 evse charge with aeroenvironment, I was listening for it but really didn't hear any buzzing that time. I'll continue to pay attention for next few days to see if I missed something.

As to the charging error, it only just happened once, so I think I'll wait for further occurrence before I take it in to dealer as having charging terminates prematurely will be a serious concern as I will depend on it's reliable service to make it to work.

Got the "Charging Stopped by System Malfunction" this morning.
Replugging the cord in gave no lights. Had no other issues in the last 5 months and 9000+ miles.
Had enough range to drive to the dealer.

Currently waiting for diagnosis. I'm getting lots of Entune emails with attempts to start charging and charging interruptions.

So the EV is still at the dealer. I can tell from entune that they got the car to charge, but not at the full 40A rate.

Tesla had them download the entire car history and send it to them. Now they are making them disassemble most of the car to check the connection between the charger and the rest of the system to ensure it isn't loose before they replace the onboard charger.

I'm guessing another week of so. Still have a free rental and at least gas is cheap!

So I got the EV back on Friday, ... and it's going back to the dealer today (Tuesday).

It charged fine the first time with immediate charging.
It failed on the 2nd charge with a timer charge.
I tried immediate charging again and it worked.
Last night I setup a timer charge again and nothing happened.
Today immediate charging won't work either.
When plugging the EVSE in the lights blink alternately, but nothing happens.

So I'm guessing it is the ECU gateway. Any other likely sources of failure?
What's the current lead time on a gateway?

I had this with 2496, and they couldn't duplicate it. It's been working fine ever since.

Finally got my car back. They updated the Gateway ECM firmware to EG1400.

It did charge properly last night on timer charge, so here's hoping there are no further issues.

I did get one piece of advice if there are problems with failed charging:

...change the charge instantly setting over to charge later, turn the car off, turn it back on, and switch back to charge instantly again.

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Sounds like this resets the charger back to charge immediately.