Only charging at 2.4 KwH

[JeffRay]

So after experiencing low charging at two of my regular charging spots, I brought the car into the dealer early this morning. By the service advisors text, they did not look at it today. Wonder if they have anyone in house that know our car. BTW, this dealer is owned by MB. Through the Android app, I was able to see that dealer's charging was feeding only 2.2 KwH.

Standby for some laughs and giggles.

I am okay with slow resolution as forum members have posted their wait times to resolve motor and other issues that have to go to MB central.

 

[JeffRay]

Lovely that our forum is being coopted by others, isn't it?

Anyway, back to our stuff. So the dealer has had my car for two days. Only action on Day one was them plugging car in to charge. It charged only at 2.2 KwH, i.e. really slowly. Day two was a douse. I get a call from my service advisor asking me to explain what was wrong as the car charged up. I had advised him when I saw him, it was charging but only at a fraction of its listed 6.6 kwH rate. I calmly explained it to him again. Not sure he understood the problem. I offered to talk directly to the technician if unclear. We will see what happens on Day three+. This is what I expected so I am calm about it given their inexperience with electrics.

Driving my wife's wagon for now. At least I don't have to find nightly parking on the street while car is in the shop. In cold weather which saps range and without lack of overnight garage charging, I can't tolerate charging at 2.4 KwH.

If they can't resolve on their own, plan to escalate to Service Manager and Sales Manager but that is in my back pocket for now.

 

[JeffRay]

Service advisor called me today to say they solved the problem and found a new one. He reported that there are driver controls on the instrument panel that allows us to throttle back charging input. I said, "really?" but did not offer any details. I said fine but show me what not to do so I know in future. He said sure. That being agreed, I asked that they top up the car so we all can see the car receiving juice at the rated 6.6 KwH rate. This has not been done today. Thanks to the app, I will get an alert when they start and monitor. Worst case, I make them show me when I pick up car.

Not having any clue how we would throttle charging down using controls on the steering wheel to maneuver around the instrument panel, I am going into this dubious but can be convinced if they show me. Anyone know about this feature?

Last, he informed me that I needed a new front grill MB logo as mine was gone. Did not notice this but I do park on the street overnight and someone could have knocked it off. I know they photograph every car coming in and out and do a walkaround and will ask them to show me it did not happen in the shop. Strange.

 

[JeffRay]

Picked up my car today. Service Advisor said the technician indicated that I had throttled down the charging input. I don't remember doing that and would not know how. Service Advisor showed me in the instrument display under Settings and E-Cell, one can choose input settings, Maximum, 13A, 10A, and 8A. Since I never knew that was there, I am still suspicious of the car automatically throttled down, perhaps when I left it plugged into an outdoor outlet at work for a couple of days in the cold and rain when I was traveling.

Good to know that the controls are there even though most of you lucky ones with home garage chargers can control it on the charger itself it sounds like. Service Advisor said he was told that slow charging overnight was better for the battery than fast charging at Maximum. I don't know if that is true but I have no choice but to select Maximum as I usually top up for up to 5 hours when parked at a commercial charger near work.

We will see if the issue comes back, which would indicate a faulty car which is causing the computer to throttle down.

 

[barsaec]

Jeff,

Thanks for the posts, very informative. I’m one of the lucky ones with a 40amp home charger.

 

[JeffRay]

See my other post today about discovering my car had gone from 78% to 0% overnight while parked on street.

At any rate, EvAccess says I am only charging at 3.5 KwH. So my only conclusion after consulting with wtzouris off line is that there is a problem with the car. Will bring it to the shop Friday and see what is up!

 

[JeffRay]

After a full charge after 0% incident at 3.5 kWh, I brought it into dealer today to see what they were getting on a battery that was at 75%. They are able to charge at 5.8 kWh. So I am going to monitor charging activity before getting too excited.

Still plan to have dealer do full battery check at some point soon.