L2 charging speed recently dropped 33%

[jgcom]

I do have to say though my dealer experience has been nothing but top and that they're probably one of the best dealers in all of North America because their service has been fantastic

This is heartening to hear. If I knew of a truly great service dealer within a 6-hour drive I might well go there.

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[azerik]

32 amps seems to be the floor that it’s dropping to, and dropping straight to it, if I’m remembering this thread totally. Not 48 then 40, then 32. 48->32 or 40->32. Heat and requesting a ‘lower charge’ isn’t the thing. It’s dropping to a set level. It’s 117+ in my driveway right now. It’s charging no different than when it was 85 weeks ago for me.

 

[kennethjk]

32 amps seems to be the floor that it’s dropping to, and dropping straight to it, if I’m remembering this thread totally. Not 48 then 40, then 32. 48->32 or 40->32. Heat and requesting a ‘lower charge’ isn’t the thing. It’s dropping to a set level. It’s 117+ in my driveway right now. It’s charging no different than when it was 85 weeks ago for me.

I would agree. Mine is always garaged and I only charge overnight.
when charging at 40, it goes up and down to 32 back to 40
when charging at 32 stays constant all night.

wish Ford would say something to to consumers so we don’t guess what is going on.

 

[Shayne]

32 amps seems to be the floor that it’s dropping to, and dropping straight to it, if I’m remembering this thread totally. Not 48 then 40, then 32. 48->32 or 40->32. Heat and requesting a ‘lower charge’ isn’t the thing. It’s dropping to a set level. It’s 117+ in my driveway right now. It’s charging no different than when it was 85 weeks ago for me.

Mine is charging here right now and it is 64F. It started showing 8 KW and a 3:30AM finish and now is at 6 KW with a 6:21AM finish.

 

[azerik]

Here’s my thought, it should be calling ‘loop close’ or something like that, but is calling charge adjust.
probably variable naming snafu

 

[Mach-Lee]

Well, caught something interesting on someone else's car. The derates magically stopped right (minute or two) after heavy rain from a thunderstorm started falling on the car. Nothing was touched. This is data from Sense home energy monitor (ignore the A/C usage):

There were no further derates for the remainder of the charge session (continued for an hour along with the rain). So thinking about what the rain would affect, the most likely thing is it would cool off the charge port and J1772 handle first. The air temp didn't really change much, it actually went up a couple degrees right before the rain started. The ChargePoint EVSE was inside the closed garage with the cable running under the garage door, so it wouldn't have experienced any difference in its temp environment. However the surfaces on the outside of the car and the charge port would have reacted very quickly to the cooling effect of the rain, which was observed. There were no power hits because the car continued charging without interruption. The most likely conclusion I have is that the derates on his car were being caused by an overheating charge port, and the rain cooled down the port enough to stop the thermal derating.

I'll remind folks that currently the only way to monitor AC charge port temps is with FDRS (BC_COUPL_TEMP_A, see here), Car Scanner and other apps have the wrong parameters programmed so you aren't actually seeing the AC port temp. I need to check if FORScan has them correct compared to FDRS.

It's possible the previous version of the charger software didn't monitor and respond to charge port temps properly, or the overheat threshold was lowered, so when the car updated to the current version it reveled preexisting issues with the charge port or J1772 plug (just like the crop of bad HVBJBs that were reveled shortly after the recall software was installed). Lowering the charge rate on the EVSE will mask the problem since it reduces heat generation. However the problem will continue getting worse with time as the connection degrades further, 40A may work for a while, then it won't and you'll have to drop down to 32A, then 24A, etc.

It's certainly possible other cars might have other reasons for the charge rate decrease.

Gentle rain on the charge port may be an interesting experiment for some...

This is going to be a bitch to reproduce at a dealer because they don't have 48A L2 chargers yet.

 

[kennethjk]

I guess the way to try this with my JB 40 amp plug in unit that is in my garage and only charges at night is to spray the charge port area with cold water?

or maybe Ford just screwed something up with their software update, why won’t they say something and if they have, I wish I knew what they said.

 

[Shayne]

I guess the way to try this with my JB 40 amp plug in unit that is in my garage and only charges at night is to spray the charge port area with cold water?

or maybe Ford just screwed something up with their software update, why won’t they say something and if they have, I wish I knew what they said.

Blew my mind a bit as we had a thunder storm last night but I do not have a 48 amp charger. Mine charged from 27% to 80% on a 40 amp charger last night. Start 10 PM (on schedule ?) and finished at 5:16 AM.

90 KW x (0.8-0.27) / 7.25 hrs = 6.6 KW/h

32 amp x 240 V = 7.7 KW

Efficiency 6.6/7.7 = 85%

Which is in line inline with the Dyna test results efficiency of 101.2 KW Recharge Event Energy for 88 KW into the battery. Not a heat or rain problem here as it started charging at 64 F and finished at 64F (15C). If that is a too hot an ambient temp for this car then why did it work for 2.5 years then after an update started doing this? same result as before. It is charging at 32 amps now. Same problem with 40 amp chargers and should be no problem for service to reproduce this as it is consistent now a number of times. I will hook up the OBD2 sometime and see what it may say. At least it is charging and could be worse.

Agree installing something like this and saying nothing about it for weeks/month is borderline ignorant. As my out of the box posted noted above they are having hardware failures due to over heating and this is their answer. Sneak it in maybe people will not notice it is taking 3 hours longer . And if they do who cares.

 

[Maquis]

Well, caught something interesting on someone else's car. The derates magically stopped right (minute or two) after heavy rain from a thunderstorm started falling on the car. Nothing was touched. This is data from Sense home energy monitor (ignore the A/C usage):

There were no further derates for the remainder of the charge session (continued for an hour along with the rain). So thinking about what the rain would affect, the most likely thing is it would cool off the charge port and J1772 handle first. The air temp didn't really change much, it actually went up a couple degrees right before the rain started. The ChargePoint EVSE was inside the closed garage with the cable running under the garage door, so it wouldn't have experienced any difference in its temp environment. However the surfaces on the outside of the car and the charge port would have reacted very quickly to the cooling effect of the rain, which was observed. There were no power hits because the car continued charging without interruption. The most likely conclusion I have is that the derates on his car were being caused by an overheating charge port, and the rain cooled down the port enough to stop the thermal derating.

I'll remind folks that currently the only way to monitor AC charge port temps is with FDRS (BC_COUPL_TEMP_A, see here), Car Scanner and other apps have the wrong parameters programmed so you aren't actually seeing the AC port temp. I need to check if FORScan has them correct compared to FDRS.

It's possible the previous version of the charger software didn't monitor and respond to charge port temps properly, or the overheat threshold was lowered, so when the car updated to the current version it reveled preexisting issues with the charge port or J1772 plug (just like the crop of bad HVBJBs that were reveled shortly after the recall software was installed). Lowering the charge rate on the EVSE will mask the problem since it reduces heat generation. However the problem will continue getting worse with time as the connection degrades further, 40A may work for a while, then it won't and you'll have to drop down to 32A, then 24A, etc.

It's certainly possible other cars might have other reasons for the charge rate decrease.

Gentle rain on the charge port may be an interesting experiment for some...

This is going to be a bitch to reproduce at a dealer because they don't have 48A L2 chargers yet.

Easy to test. When I get home next weekend, I’ll hook up the car, and if it’s charging slow, I’ll dump a bucket of cold water on the charge port!

 

[kennethjk]

Easy to test. When I get home next weekend, I’ll hook up the car, and if it’s charging slow, I’ll dump a bucket of cold water on the charge port!

You got it, I heard Ford might put that in their manual as an approved procedure.

 

[Mach-Lee]

Easy to test. When I get home next weekend, I’ll hook up the car, and if it’s charging slow, I’ll dump a bucket of cold water on the charge port!

You said it, not me…

Bucket ≠ gentle rain

 

[Maquis]

You said it, not me…

Bucket ≠ gentle rain

I’ll have to see if I can find my old sprinkling can. ?

 

[jgcom]

You said it, not me…

Bucket ≠ gentle rain

Perhaps I'll try my floor fan, suitably mounted to blast the relevant area. This is the kind used after floods to deep-dry carpets. (Yes, I live in Louisiana, ha ha.)

 

[azerik]

Perhaps I'll try my floor fan, suitably mounted to blast the relevant area. This is the kind used after floods to deep-dry carpets. (Yes, I live in Louisiana, ha ha.)

That. I have a box fan in the attic I could go get, but it's 145 up there currently.. lol. LOVE Phoenix.
BUT I have a 120 mm computer fan I'm going to put on there right now.

Edit: USB fan isn't enough, so enter the leaf blower on it's lowest setting with professional mount kit.

It's supposedly 143 in my garage according to the WallConnector (wrong by about 50 degrees, good job Tesla) And the air isn't enough so far to curb it from cycling down. It's actually maybe 95 in there. And this is about 70 cfm at the charge port with the DC door open. Nothing is acutally even warm, I think the sensor in the DC port is being used and is in the back side deep in there. The lower cycle was about 30% shorter, maybe it needs more time, I'll leave it running for 30 to 60 min. (current 64%SOC)
Note my cooling fan isnt running except for a couple seconds right before it cycles down.

 

[azerik]

Well that does the job.. Now just need to charge up that battery before charging the battery.

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