Plugged in Not Charging - At 3 Minutes

[KennyCaphill]

As I posted in an earlier thread, my 2021 Premium Mach E has been having charging issues, specifically the "Plugged in Not Charging" situation. In short, I know this has to be on the Mach E side of things because we use the same Grizzl-E charger for the F150 Lightning in the house and my Mach E only started doing this about a month ago.

I plug it in, and in a few minutes I get the Ford Pass notice that it's plugged in and not charging and I get the Amber flashing ring. I have to go unplug and replug in for it to charge.

However, I have recently noticed that the Amber ring and notice come up at exactly 3 minutes into my initial charge/plug in. I have been standing next to the car the last few times and as soon as the Ford Pass app (and stopwatch) registers 3 minutes of being plugged in, the car stops. Last night, I replugged in, it started charging but it went to 100% charge even though the car registered it was charging at home and I have that set to 90%.

My dealer hasn't been helpful on this so any ideas you all may have would be appreciated. I'm thinking it's a software issue because it only started doing this after I got the last update (not PowerUp...the service one before that...sorry, I can't recall the # of the update)

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[Mach-Lee]

Does the ring turn blue after plugging in or not?

 

[KennyCaphill]

Does the ring turn blue after plugging in or not?

Yes. Stays blue until the 3 minute mark then goes to amber

 

[Mach-Lee]

Yes. Stays blue until the 3 minute mark then goes to amber

And what happens if you unplug the Grizzl-E and use the Ford Mobile charger instead (240V plug)? If yours is bad, maybe you could try the one that came with the Lightning. If that doesn't work, then I want you to try charging the Mach-E off the Lightning (use the Lightning charger with the yellow band on the cord + adapter).

 

[ChasingCoral]

And what happens if you unplug the Grizzl-E and use the Ford Mobile charger instead (240V plug)? If yours is bad, maybe you could try the one that came with the Lightning. If that doesn't work, then I want you to try charging the Mach-E off the Lightning (use the Lightning charger with the yellow band on the cord + adapter).

One thing @Mach-Lee is pointing to is diagnosing if it is really the car. Find a free L2 charger somewhere nearby. See if you get the same result there. You could also find someone else in town with an L2 charger and try theirs. This will help identify if it is a problem with the car or perhaps and interaction between your car and that particular charger (brand/model or individual unit).

 

[KennyCaphill]

And what happens if you unplug the Grizzl-E and use the Ford Mobile charger instead (240V plug)? If yours is bad, maybe you could try the one that came with the Lightning. If that doesn't work, then I want you to try charging the Mach-E off the Lightning (use the Lightning charger with the yellow band on the cord + adapter).

I unplugged the Grizzl-E and plugged in the 240V Ford Mobile and it charged just fine, albeit slower than the Grizzl-E.

Plugged the Grizzl-E back in and plugged it into the car and that seemed to have no issue as well. Maybe the Grizzl-E just needed to be unplugged and back in?

I don’t know a damn thing about electricity but I can quote you hundreds of different IRS regulations as it pertains to health insurance! UGH!

 

[Mach-Lee]

I unplugged the Grizzl-E and plugged in the 240V Ford Mobile and it charged just fine, albeit slower than the Grizzl-E.

Plugged the Grizzl-E back in and plugged it into the car and that seemed to have no issue as well. Maybe the Grizzl-E just needed to be unplugged and back in?

I don’t know a damn thing about electricity but I can quote you hundreds of different IRS regulations as it pertains to health insurance! UGH!

So I'm thinking there could be an issue with some of the Grizzl-E's. It seems like sometimes the 12V power supply in them malfunctions, and as a result it outputs a low pilot voltage or frequency that is out of J1772 specification. As a result the Mach-E will not charge off of it. Based on your result, it seems power cycling the Grizzl-E or giving it a rest period allows the 12V power supply to start working again.

I believe a recent software update may have tweaked the thresholds of the pilot voltage the car will accept before charging, which is why it stopped working in the past month or two. The F150 may still have more generous charging thresholds which is why it still worked, until it is eventually updated too. I did some testing on the pilot voltage thresholds the Mach-E would accept with the latest SOBDM software, and they were still very generous, far exceeding the J1772 specifications by a factor of almost 2x. I was only able to reproduce the "plugged in not charging" situation when I was deliberately messing with the J1772 pilot signal to make it unstable.

In the end, I think your Grizzl-E may be going bad. If it happens again, call United Chargers and ask for a replacement.

 

[kdryden99]

I unplugged the Grizzl-E and plugged in the 240V Ford Mobile and it charged just fine, albeit slower than the Grizzl-E.

Plugged the Grizzl-E back in and plugged it into the car and that seemed to have no issue as well. Maybe the Grizzl-E just needed to be unplugged and back in?

I don’t know a damn thing about electricity but I can quote you hundreds of different IRS regulations as it pertains to health insurance! UGH!

Please follow here. https://www.macheforum.com/site/thr...-recently-dropped-33.28779/page-9#post-661018
There is another discussion going on here and it is not only affecting Grizzlies, juiceboxes as well like mine. I would go as far to say it doesn't matter which EVSE you use but those of us who have smart EVSE'S can monitor the issue and those of use who have 48 amp are affected the most since the car refuses to charge unless you drop the current level. Everyone else using a dumb EVSE can't monitor the charging speed so they wouldn't know if they're affected or not

 

[Mach-Lee]

Please follow here. https://www.macheforum.com/site/thr...-recently-dropped-33.28779/page-9#post-661018
There is another discussion going on here and it is not only affecting Grizzlies, juiceboxes as well like mine. I would go as far to say it doesn't matter which EVSE you use but those of us who have smart EVSE'S can monitor the issue and those of use who have 48 amp are affected the most since the car refuses to charge unless you drop the current level. Everyone else using a dumb EVSE can't monitor the charging speed so they wouldn't know if they're affected or not

FWIW I think the "Plugged in not charging" and "Charge rate dropped" issues are separate. I think the first one is caused by the EVSE, and the second one is caused by faulty charger/powertrain software.

 

[kdryden99]

FWIW I think the "Plugged in not charging" and "Charge rate dropped" issues are separate. I think the first one is caused by the EVSE, and the second one is caused by faulty charger/powertrain software.

not necessarily mine was doing that until i lowered the current below the max current of 48 amps. See the chart

Like I said previously i couldn't even get the car to charge until i lowered the current. Once i did that it started charging but got the sawtooth pattern. The peaks in the cart are my unplug and replug after seeing the plugged in not charging message.

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