Charging stops before 80%

I am finding a problem with charging stopping early, when set to charge to 80%. I have set the car timer to charge to 80% in a wide window of time. I plug in the Blink set to charge immediately and charging does start okay. But after a couple of hours I find the car not charging (lights not blinking). I can restart charging by manually removing and inserting the charge connector or by hitting the start charge button on the website. What is odd is that it is seems to stop at fixed percentages of charge. I have observed it stopping at 33%, 50%, and 67%. Has anyone encounted this issue?

Check the Blink thread in the EVSE category, I believe that there was talk about the Blink charger stopping at random (could be wrong, though )

-Matt

Update:

This problem doesn't seem to happen when charging with the trickle charger. I spoke to the Blink customer service and they informed me that they are aware of this problem and are working on a fix. They did not know when the fix will be ready but when available, the fix will be implemented via a software update of the Blink.

Hi I just purchased my new leaf three days ago in Bellevue WA. Have charged it 3 times so far, car set to charge to 80% on a timer from 6:00 AM to 5:50 AM.. I notice that it always seems to stop charging, like you, before the 80% charge is completed, and I have to go into the carwings/nissan iPhone application and restart (manually) to get it to complete the charge cycle.

I notice this thread is old, and one user said that they called Blink who said a patch fix was on its way? Did that ever happen? Are you still experiencing this issue? Thanks!

bi306b said:

Hi I just purchased my new leaf three days ago in Bellevue WA. Have charged it 3 times so far, car set to charge to 80% on a timer from 6:00 AM to 5:50 AM.. I notice that it always seems to stop charging, like you, before the 80% charge is completed, and I have to go into the carwings/nissan iPhone application and restart (manually) to get it to complete the charge cycle.

I notice this thread is old, and one user said that they called Blink who said a patch fix was on its way? Did that ever happen? Are you still experiencing this issue? Thanks!

Click to expand...

At what state of charge did it stop charging?

In answer to the original post, I have a very similar problem but no Blink charger. Mine is an Aerovironment but my problem occurs with the trickle charger as well - so therefor the problem is with the car not the charger. When I plug in my car (trickle) it will tell me it will take (as an example) 10 hours to charge fuly. 3 hours later it emails me that it is fully charged to 12 of 12 bars and I can now go (example only) 35 miles. It obviously did not charge fully in such a short time. I go out and unplug and replug the cable from the nose, and now it says 4 bars and 35 miles. (Please nobody tell me the mileage number is unreliable and variable - I know far more about that than you). It's not always 4 bars - it may stop at any number of bars or it may charge without a problem. It is an intermittent problem but it craps out more than 1/2 the time.
So in summary, it stops charging early and lies about the state of charge of the battery. If I am not alert it will strand me on the highway. It's with the Palmdale Nissan dealer now waiting for the field rep or Nissan engineer or whoever to come see it. This after 2 trips to and 6 months of run around and unreturned calls from the Mission Hills dealer, who is worse than worthless.

BTW, the discrete levels of charge are all fractions of the 12 bars - 1/12, 2/12, 3/12, etc.

So I am interested in how your similar problem turned out. I hope you are still posting. Also interested in anyone else who has a problem like mine.

R

rhyde83 said:

When I plug in my car (trickle) it will tell me it will take (as an example) 10 hours to charge fuly. 3 hours later it emails me that it is fully charged to 12 of 12 bars and I can now go (example only) 35 miles. It obviously did not charge fully in such a short time. I go out and unplug and replug the cable from the nose, and now it says 4 bars and 35 miles. (Please nobody tell me the mileage number is unreliable and variable - I know far more about that than you). It's not always 4 bars - it may stop at any number of bars or it may charge without a problem. It is an intermittent problem but it craps out more than 1/2 the time.

So in summary, it stops charging early and lies about the state of charge of the battery. If I am not alert it will strand me on the highway. It's with the Palmdale Nissan dealer now waiting for the field rep or Nissan engineer or whoever to come see it. This after 2 trips to and 6 months of run around and unreturned calls from the Mission Hills dealer, who is worse than worthless.

Click to expand...

Are you checking the charge status via the Carwings website (or phone app) or by starting the car and checking the dashboard? The Carwings website and phone apps are extremely inaccurate, however the latest service bulletin is supposed to resolve the problem.

If you are checking by starting the car and checking the dashboard, when you come out to unplug the car are any of the Leaf's blue lights still on and blinking? If not, I would verify that all your charging timers are turned off in case they are causing the issue.

DarkStar said:

rhyde83 said:

When I plug in my car (trickle) it will tell me it will take (as an example) 10 hours to charge fuly. 3 hours later it emails me that it is fully charged to 12 of 12 bars and I can now go (example only) 35 miles. It obviously did not charge fully in such a short time. I go out and unplug and replug the cable from the nose, and now it says 4 bars and 35 miles. (Please nobody tell me the mileage number is unreliable and variable - I know far more about that than you). It's not always 4 bars - it may stop at any number of bars or it may charge without a problem. It is an intermittent problem but it craps out more than 1/2 the time.

So in summary, it stops charging early and lies about the state of charge of the battery. If I am not alert it will strand me on the highway. It's with the Palmdale Nissan dealer now waiting for the field rep or Nissan engineer or whoever to come see it. This after 2 trips to and 6 months of run around and unreturned calls from the Mission Hills dealer, who is worse than worthless.

Click to expand...

Are you checking the charge status via the Carwings website (or phone app) or by starting the car and checking the dashboard? The Carwings website and phone apps are extremely inaccurate, however the latest service bulletin is supposed to resolve the problem.

If you are checking by starting the car and checking the dashboard, when you come out to unplug the car are any of the Leaf's blue lights still on and blinking? If not, I would verify that all your charging timers are turned off in case they are causing the issue.

Click to expand...

+1

rhyde83 said:

In answer to the original post, I have a very similar problem but no Blink charger. Mine is an Aerovironment but my problem occurs with the trickle charger as well - so therefor the problem is with the car not the charger.

Click to expand...

Have you checked to see if the "Fault" light is lit on the trickle charger? I'm having a similar issue with my Schneider charger stopping charging, but it is because my LEAF has way too much ground fault current, and it is tripping the GFI in the Scneider unit.

Or, your EVSE is way too sensitive to "Ground Fault" (usually an
unbalanced Hot-minus-Hot current, not actual Ground-current).

Or, a combination of both.

Or, you might have a "very noisy" charger.

Thanks to those who replied. I am checking the dash not Carwings, although same story applies if you use carwings. Fault lite on trickle charger does not come on. No problem with ground faults - car misbehaves on 3 different 120AC outlets and on my home Aerovironment charger.

Now the real news -- Car is still at the dealer and engineeers have come from the east coast and diagnosed it. They have found bad cells in the battery pack and I am waiting to hear back to see how it will be fixed. Antelope Valley, CA dealer has been very responsive so far.

But hurry please, It's 6 days so far and my loaner is burning too much $5 gas!!

Wow! This will be the first report of bad cells I've heard of so far. Get as much info as you can! Hopefully how many were replaced, and if there were any DTC's (Trouble codes), ask for a list!

I can confirm (on cars with good cells!) the older firmware charges to a "real" SOC of exactly 80% when it's set for such. The Stored watt-hours on my car last time I looked were 18400 or 230 "Gids" at this point.

-Phil

Situation still in flux. My Leaf is STILL at AV Nissan. So far they report a missing ground screw at cells 41 and 42 inside the battery pack and a replacement is on order. So the cells themselves may not be bad after all. However, they also say the engineers from Japan believe something else may also be wrong. Car in the shop for 11 days now but at least they are doing something.

Wish me luck,
R

I guess I owe everyone the final word on my problem. First, kudos to Antelope Valley Nissan who did not quit on a tricky problem until it was fixed for good.

Turns out there was a missing contact screw inside the main battery compartment. Each cell has 3 connections +,-, and ground. The screw to tighten the ground contact was missing on cell 21 which caused an intermittant connection and confused the charging system and caused it to shut down prematurely. They discovered the problem by connecting a laptop to the car and driving it over bumpy roads. They observed voltage spikes on the cell near the problem.

It's been charging fine for 2 weeks now and I am sure it is fixed. It seems I am the only one in the world with this problem so far, but if it happens to you perhaps this information will help.

R

Ingineer said:

Wow! This will be the first report of bad cells I've heard of so far. Get as much info as you can! Hopefully how many were replaced, and if there were any DTC's (Trouble codes), ask for a list!

I can confirm (on cars with good cells!) the older firmware charges to a "real" SOC of exactly 80% when it's set for such. The Stored watt-hours on my car last time I looked were 18400 or 230 "Gids" at this point.

-Phil

Click to expand...

It makes sense that 230 is 80%. I once managed to charge to 288 on a DC QC. 230*1.25=287.5...