Why do you think that the 12V battery is low on charge?
Assuming that car can power up (radio comes on, etc) then a low state of battery health can trigger a series of what appear to be unrelated electrical warnings. What warnings have you got? If there aren't any warnings, it shouldn't stop the traction battery charging, unless its completely dead.

The 12V battery charges any time the traction battery is engaged - so when the car is fully turned on or when charging. Doesn't matter what the traction battery energy level is - so long as it isn't zero.

Charge Place Scotland have very recently migrated its network to a new provider. They are also in the process of installing better monitoring on all of its points.
I haven't been using it in the last few days, but wouldn't surprise me if there have been teething problems.

 

On recovery - make sure that the Renault garage its being taken to can accept it. Chances are the tow truck driver will know anyway.
Some dealers on the Renault website say that they can deal with EVs, but in reality can't (such as the one on Rannoch Drive, Bearsden). On that garage (my closest) they accepted it over the phone, held onto the car for a day, then organised Renault to take it to a different dealership wasting a few days (that issue wasn't electrical).

 

Thanks for the heads up about garages - will make certain they can handle it!

Nothing is now working the it’s totally dead - yesterday I tested the voltage of the battery and it was 4v

Last time I was able to view the traction battery state of charge it was showing 0%. I just hope the BMS is doing it’s thing and keeping it safe - although it’s a leased battery.

So there’s a chance the granny cable wasn’t liked by the car - earth resistance issue or such like?

 

Last time I was able to view the traction battery state of charge it was showing 0%. I just hope the BMS is doing it’s thing and keeping it safe - although it’s a leased battery.

So there’s a chance the granny cable wasn’t liked by the car - earth resistance issue or such like?

Hope that you get it sorted. Sooner the better - nothing the BMS can do to protect the battery once there's no charge there! However, there is a bottom buffer to protect against cell collapse, storing at very low state isn't great but shouldn't be a disaster for a short period. Can you get the car to accept a charge with a battery booster / conditioner on the 12V battery? That would be the quickest way to rescue things a bit if possible.

 

You will get all kinds of issues with a bad 12v battery. Hopefully one you have a better 12v the issues will be resolved.

Cheers.

 

Hi, your first bet is to get a new 12volt battery installed on the vehicle, as this is responsible for powering the instrument cluster.
a lot of Renault Zoe’s I have worked on for some reason don’t like certain chargers and report various issues. Once the new battery is fitted make sure they check the battery is being charged.

Martyn Hetherington
Westmoor mot centre

 

Many thanks all.

Garages are busy and theres a long wait so not racing to get the car collected to sit in a yard for a week or more - so trying to firstly see if I can rescue the 12v battery and get it up to 12.7V to then try to see if the granny charger will work. The resting voltage was sitting at just over 11V - presumably the current draw from the car computer was dragging down the voltage so perhaps its not as gone as I had feared. If the granny charge fails then will revert to the recovery folks to try a working public charger.

I phoned the dealer who sold the car and he was very helpful and also spoke to a service engineer - sounds like whist I was driving from one charger to the next and failing to charge it was having a negative impact on remaining charge on the 12V battery. He didn't think the 12V battery should be a goner and said it wouldn't charge from the traction battery with a very low % remaining - which if you're limping to a safe place to stop to await rescue on a road makes sense.

Does seem to be conflicting opinions about how the algorithms that control the car work!

 

He didn't think the 12V battery should be a goner and said it wouldn't charge from the traction battery with a very low % remaining

This is incorrect. The car will continue to charge the 12v battery even with a low charge level in the main battery. There is something wrong with the car and they are just making up reasons to make it sound normal when it is broken.

Cheers.

 

Just buy a new 12v and fit it, you won’t save a dead 12v, it’s a 20min job then it should charge

 

Reject the car.

 

Can we reject you? Why do I post on Zoe stuff all the time with your negativity, you don’t own one anymore

 

A fully charged 12v battery cleared almost all of the error codes but didn’t allow a charge to start - a tethered charger said it couldn’t communicate with the car. The car showed the cable attached but was red on the dashboard and flashing red at the connector. Alas I didn’t get a chance to use CanZE. Left it with a Renault garage.
Thanks again for opinions advice!

 

Where abouts are you based? We are an independent specialist for EV in Newcastle upon Tyne would be happy to help

 

Thanks once again for folks' opinion. Ok so I have the car back from the local Renault dealership. The service manager said the sparky (formerly known as a mechanic I think) plugged in the diagnostics computer to find that it was totally dead and not talking to the computer so he started to check fuses and relays, he'd noticed a relay not quite in properly (alas I don't know which) so clicked it in and things started to come alive and it accepted a charge. They gave it a full charge, run out, checked out the 12V battery which was "OK" with a bit of a hesitant voice (so yes sounds like the draining has damaged it although not enough to replace it - I note advice above) left it overnight, checked it again to find it ok and have been told to 'keep an eye on it'. They also did a firmware update on the charge module computer although he thinks thats unrelated.

Had a great run to and from work c50 miles and did a wee few % charge to see it its working and all is good.

So makes me wonder why or how a relay had worked its way loose. Shame I don't know which one but I suppose it might be easy to work out possible culprits with a wiring diagram. Knocked during the battery replacement? Just life after 4 years? Or something else amiss?

 

So makes me wonder why or how a relay had worked its way loose.

All I am prompted to wonder is; what the actual reason for all of that was.

... loose relay ... meh ..... I don't really accept people's word for anything these days without corroboration, burnt too many times by trusting people's word.

Get ready for the same fault to repeat itself, now that you have effectively accepted the car.