[h8ten]

Asking in here first as it is an Ampera I have and the folk in here are knowledgeable. It looks like I might have a problem with my public charger cable. Monday, I went to collect the car at night and found that it had not completed charging but it was over the time expected. Whilst waiting on it finishing I hear the car give the single toot for charging immediately, I thought maybe the power had been interrupted as it continued and there was no 'Charging Interrupted' message to tell me this in the car. Tuesday charging near work and I came back to the car with no light on the dash and the chargepoint light red but when I got into the car it was fully charged (just over 4 hours). That night back to the same public chargepoint but used the other socket. After 4 hours it only had only drawn 8kW, came home and plugged in and fully charged next morning. Wednesday near work as soon as I plugged into the other socket on the chargpoint it went red. Moved to another point and car charged up fully but no dash light again. Friday night and the car took less than 1kw in four hours. It has charged up at home fine and the dash light is flashing as expected.
Questions are:-
Could the type 2 to type 1 cable be damaged (there is no sign of anything externally but a while back it was yanked out of the car socket by a driver reversing)?
Can it be repaired by a competent domestic electrician (i.e. no circuitry inside)?

 

[jens.bergbom]

Sorry for asking, but have you tried the cable in multiple charging stations to make sure that the station is not the faulty part?



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[HandyAndy]

There is a tiny bit of circuitry inside, you'll find a series resistor in the CP signal line I think. Different values are used to indicate whether the cable is capable of handling 13, 20, or 32A. (20 and 32 values will be used for 3.3 & 7kW EVSEs like Rolecs, and I assume 13A on the 13A granny chargers).

My own 32A cable (car actually only ever draws 14A max) seems a tiny bit sensitive to how I plug it in to the car's socket, so I always try to put it in straight as gently as poss. That signal-line makes contact after the power pins have connected up, so it's got shorter pins, or the socket's shorter, so less length of brass to connect.

Would be worth having a sparky check your cable, i.e. measure pin-to-pin resistance along length of the cable while jiggling it about where it goes into the connectors. Repairs might need a serious cable-clamp tool & specialist knowledge, but do-able if you have the bits. Chop a foot off the cable, and re-do the faulty end. Not a standard diy job though.

I guess the dashboard light might go out if the public charger has determined that "charging has finished so it's going to turn itself off". The car usually complains if you unplug the charger end while charging is in progress, but I don't know if it's still fussy after charging's done. Would make sense not to complain of that situation when you think about it, as it will usually mean the owner's returned from shopping, sees car it fully charged from the meter display etc, pays for leccy, and takes cable out, then walks over to car, unplugs that & drives off. At home I always plug the car end in last, and unplug car end first.

 

[h8ten]

Sorry for asking, but have you tried the cable in multiple charging stations to make sure that the station is not the faulty part?



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Two sockets on two occasions on one charger and one socket at a different location.

 

[h8ten]

@HandyAndy I thought I had read somewhere about a something over and above cables and pins in the plugs. Just thought do you know if there is there a microswitch or something like that in the type 1 plug?

I was always told to plug into the car first and unplug it last when public charging (I once had a trapped cable and was told this could have been the reason). The dash light has always stayed on flashing for me once charging has completed at the charge points I have used and that is what I thought was unusual when I came back to the car and the fact that one post went red when I arrived back at the car and the other socket on the same post went red when I plugged in the following day.

I'm currently asking around in the Scottish EV Drivers FB page for anyone local to borrow their cable to see if it is my cable.

 

[proddick]

I had a problem with my cable on a few charging points and it was a few years old. Decided to clean the pins with Maplin contact cleaner and didn't get the problem again. No Maplin any longer but perhaps the cleaner below from CPC would help?

https://cpc.farnell.com/pro-power-chemicals/ppc110/contact-cleaner-200ml-aerosol/dp/SA01891

 

[h8ten]

Worth a try.

 

[HughF]

You'll need to unplug from podpoints car-end first so the podpoint can unlock the solenoid on the type2 socket...