12v oopsie…. Left car plugged into an EVSE that was itself unplugged

[fkyct]

Need to run it much longer than 15 minutes to make up for the battery drain.

Thanks.

I drove it for over an hour the following day. I checked the battery with car scanner after it was parked and the LVB was at 99% after that drive.

I did get another Powertrain Fault notice on Ford pass today. Dealer is scheduled to deliver a loaner and pick up my Lightning in 2 days.

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[MadMatt]

So I am as well wondering why having the car plugged into a unpowered charger would cause this?

As already mentioned, wouldn’t setting my L2 in a 7-8 hour delay cause the same effect? Keeping some systems on while waiting to start charging and draining the 12v in the meantime?

you would think this is addressed in the programming somehow?

 

[Maquis]

So I am as well wondering why having the car plugged into a unpowered charger would cause this?

As already mentioned, wouldn’t setting my L2 in a 7-8 hour delay cause the same effect? Keeping some systems on while waiting to start charging and draining the 12v in the meantime?

you would think this is addressed in the programming somehow?

If the delay is programmed into the EVSE, the car doesn’t even know it’s there. When the EVSE sends voltage to the car, it starts charging.

 

[MadMatt]

If the delay is programmed into the EVSE, the car doesn’t even know it’s there. When the EVSE sends voltage to the car, it starts charging.

I wouldn’t say it doesn’t know.

the ford app clearly says “charging paused” at the top.

 

[kevin1024]

There’s nothing in an unpowered EVSE to drain the battery. People who use the schedule in the EVSE for charging have this situation all the time.

That isn't my experience at all. Had my car plugged in to the Ford mobile power code when the GFCI tripped. Didn't know about that ... around 9 that night I also got the low battery alert.

In my case I went out to investigate and figured it out, but while I was looking it was clear the car was cycling trying to engage the charger. Simply unplugging the charger stopped all the issues.

So in my experience a charger fault CAN cause this problem.

 

[Maquis]

That isn't my experience at all. Had my car plugged in to the Ford mobile power code when the GFCI tripped. Didn't know about that ... around 9 that night I also got the low battery alert.

In my case I went out to investigate and figured it out, but while I was looking it was clear the car was cycling trying to engage the charger. Simply unplugging the charger stopped all the issues.

So in my experience a charger fault CAN cause this problem.

When the GFCI tripped, the charger was unpowered. Unplugging it did nothing.

 

[kevin1024]

And your point is? Because whether you want to believe it or not, pulling the evse from the car absolutely stopped the loop, and let the 12V battery be alone.

You are welcome to your opinion, of course.

 

[MadMatt]

Is there some sort of physical switch inside the vehicle’s charge port that when depressed it tells the vehicle “you’re connected! Try to charge!”

hence keeping some systems alive and draining the 12v

I have no idea, just curious!

on that note I am gonna try seeing how the 12v reacts to being plugged into a charger that’s been set to delay start. The ford app reports “charging paused”.

I’ll check 12v %, plug car in with a long delay, like at least 8 hours. Then check the 12v again 6-7 hours later.

normally it shouldn’t drop more then 2-3%.

 

[kevin1024]

Is there some sort of physical switch inside the vehicle’s charge port that when depressed it tells the vehicle “you’re connected! Try to charge!”

hence keeping some systems alive and draining the 12v

I have no idea, just curious!

I'd be lying if I said I knew ... but there are some things we can deduce:
1) The car knows when the evse is connected, at least normally, and attempts to initiate a charge
2) My experience, and I think the one here, is that if the EVSE fails for some reason, the car can go in to a loop attempting to re-initiate a charge
3) Generally, if you pull the level 2 plug while it is charging, the car notices (as evidenced by the blue ring)
The car clearly knows quite a lot about the EVSE port, but whether it gets that through a physical switch or the presence/absence of some communication, etc ... I don't know.

 

[Tosh]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAE_J1772

according to this wiki page, 2 of the 5 pins in the connector are signal lines (pre-insertion, post-insertion) so it looks to me as though there is a handshake occurring between the car and the EVSE

 

[tonytaylor53]

This has happened to me three times since I got the car 8 months ago. Twice it was the exact generator scenario as OP with my Grizzl-e 48. Most recently it happened when a breaker tripped on a dual/shared Zerova AX48 airport parking charger.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAE_J1772#/media/File:J1772_signaling_circuit.svg

I believe the car keeps the onboard charger and associated modules awake any time it sees the Proximity Pilot. It should probably time out. Maybe newer software does, but I haven't gotten any updates since it was built in 08/24.

 

[kevin1024]

This has happened to me three times since I got the car 8 months ago. Twice it was the exact generator scenario as OP with my Grizzl-e 48. Most recently it happened when a breaker tripped on a dual/shared Zerova AX48 airport parking charger.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAE_J1772#/media/File:J1772_signaling_circuit.svg

I believe the car keeps the onboard charger and associated modules awake any time it sees the Proximity Pilot. It should probably time out. Maybe newer software does, but I haven't gotten any updates since it was built in 08/24.

It does ... but only if it still needs to charge. My very uneducated guess on this is that the engineers figured an interruption to charging that wasn't negotiated should not cause a full disconnect and power down if the CCS is still connected.
I had this happen when I was using the mobile charger ... it faulted and I got that message. Interestingly, with the Ford Charger Pro it shows "Charging Fault" if there's a power loss, and then auto resumes. Hasn't lost power long enough to test the power drain theory.

 

[Ahlarict]

This has happened to me three times since I got the car 8 months ago. Twice it was the exact generator scenario as OP with my Grizzl-e 48. Most recently it happened when a breaker tripped on a dual/shared Zerova AX48 airport parking charger.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAE_J1772#/media/File:J1772_signaling_circuit.svg

I believe the car keeps the onboard charger and associated modules awake any time it sees the Proximity Pilot. It should probably time out. Maybe newer software does, but I haven't gotten any updates since it was built in 08/24.

Nice to know I’m not crazy, but sorry to hear it’s caught you out three times! I can totally see how something like this could initially slip through the QA and testing process, but I am disappointed that in 4yrs of production, they haven’t fixed it yet…. FWIW, my car was a mid 2024 build and finally got its first OTA this week, so…. Maybe there’s hope?

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