Larry_in_Seattle
Well-known member
If this thread exists elsewhere, please feel free to move this to the appropriate place. I couldn't find one. I am an out-of-CA owner, so this is a really important topic for me!
Wednesday night, I set my car for extended charge (BTW, I never use timer based charging) knowing I had a long trip ahead on Thursday. Battery was low with maybe 25 miles range showing. About 30-40 minutes later I get an email from Entune telling me that charging was interrupted. I was up to about 39 miles on the GOM and sure enough, the charger had stopped working. My Ecotality (Blink) charger has been working flawlessly with the RAV 4 since day 1 (beginning of May), but I unplugged it from the car, waited 10 minutes or so, and plugged it back in. Charging started again and I went to bed.
Upon waking on Thursday morning I see that at 1 AM I got another email telling me that charging was interrupted. I had something like 46 minutes of charging before it shut off again, and only 77 miles of range showing. "Check EV system" warning is also lit. At that point I bailed on the RAV4 for the day and took the Jetta. I also decided to use my JESLA as I was "Sure" it was an EVSE problem. I left fully expecting to have a fully charged car upon my return in the evening. However, after my morning meetings I checked email and discovered that charging was interrupted and quit once again. Range shows 103 miles on this 'extended' charge, and says charging time is 30 minutes at 240V. Now I'm pretty sure that it is the car's charger that is causing the problem as how likely would it be that 2 different EVSE's were bad at exactly the same time.
I called Carson Toyota and spoke with Sean in the service department. He wasn't aware of others with this specific problem but said others HAD experienced charging problems using non-Toyota approved EVSE's. I've had zero problems with either Blink or JESLA up until this time. He suggested 'rebooting' the system by turning the car on and off 5 or 6 times and see if that would clear up the problem. (I forgot to ask whether that meant in rapid succession or spaced over time.)
Here's what I did when I got home, and the results:
1. Turned on car, Check EV Sytsem message lit.
2. Turned off car immediately, and tried again less than a minute later. Same warning but drove car for 10 minutes or so before turning off.
3. Turned car ON again about 1 minute after turning off. Check EV Warning still on.
4. 45 minutes later, turned on the car and NO EV warning light. Tried 3 times in a row. Each time no warning. Let's try charging again!
5. Plugged in again to charge up to 100% extended charge. Entune message says "Charge Completed", GOM says 119 miles. Turned on car. No warning lights.
3. Friday morning (today): Started up with no EV System warnings, drove to my appointments for the day with no repeat of the error message.
QUESTIONS:
1. Anyone else experience this kind of problem?
2. Is it being overly optimistic to believe that simply cycling the power a few times cleared the error code and that everything is now fine?
I wish I could simply take it to my local Toyota dealer or Tesla dealer, but as of now that isn't an option.
Your thoughts or experiences?
Wednesday night, I set my car for extended charge (BTW, I never use timer based charging) knowing I had a long trip ahead on Thursday. Battery was low with maybe 25 miles range showing. About 30-40 minutes later I get an email from Entune telling me that charging was interrupted. I was up to about 39 miles on the GOM and sure enough, the charger had stopped working. My Ecotality (Blink) charger has been working flawlessly with the RAV 4 since day 1 (beginning of May), but I unplugged it from the car, waited 10 minutes or so, and plugged it back in. Charging started again and I went to bed.
Upon waking on Thursday morning I see that at 1 AM I got another email telling me that charging was interrupted. I had something like 46 minutes of charging before it shut off again, and only 77 miles of range showing. "Check EV system" warning is also lit. At that point I bailed on the RAV4 for the day and took the Jetta. I also decided to use my JESLA as I was "Sure" it was an EVSE problem. I left fully expecting to have a fully charged car upon my return in the evening. However, after my morning meetings I checked email and discovered that charging was interrupted and quit once again. Range shows 103 miles on this 'extended' charge, and says charging time is 30 minutes at 240V. Now I'm pretty sure that it is the car's charger that is causing the problem as how likely would it be that 2 different EVSE's were bad at exactly the same time.
I called Carson Toyota and spoke with Sean in the service department. He wasn't aware of others with this specific problem but said others HAD experienced charging problems using non-Toyota approved EVSE's. I've had zero problems with either Blink or JESLA up until this time. He suggested 'rebooting' the system by turning the car on and off 5 or 6 times and see if that would clear up the problem. (I forgot to ask whether that meant in rapid succession or spaced over time.)
Here's what I did when I got home, and the results:
1. Turned on car, Check EV Sytsem message lit.
2. Turned off car immediately, and tried again less than a minute later. Same warning but drove car for 10 minutes or so before turning off.
3. Turned car ON again about 1 minute after turning off. Check EV Warning still on.
4. 45 minutes later, turned on the car and NO EV warning light. Tried 3 times in a row. Each time no warning. Let's try charging again!
5. Plugged in again to charge up to 100% extended charge. Entune message says "Charge Completed", GOM says 119 miles. Turned on car. No warning lights.
3. Friday morning (today): Started up with no EV System warnings, drove to my appointments for the day with no repeat of the error message.
QUESTIONS:
1. Anyone else experience this kind of problem?
2. Is it being overly optimistic to believe that simply cycling the power a few times cleared the error code and that everything is now fine?
I wish I could simply take it to my local Toyota dealer or Tesla dealer, but as of now that isn't an option.
Your thoughts or experiences?