Near disaster, but is it charger(s) or car? (UPDATE: it's the car)

bushmg

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bushmg,

I assume these were the EA chargers over by Carswell? If so, glad yo hear about this now. I'm supposed to get my Taycan 4S in about two weeks from Autobahn. And I had planned to go over and check those chargers out.

We're in Cresson every weekend, so I'll look for a fellow Taycan owner when we go into Ft. Worth!

Toby
Yessir, those are the ones. Bob Hall was the one that helped me out to finally get the charger working there at Sam's Club. Hope that you enjoy your 4S! If I see you, I'll smile and wave.
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daveo4EV

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a postive diagnose is a good thing - cause if they replace it and they are right it's fixed - if they replace it and it doesn't work they will do something else and get another positive diagnosis - but simple problem like broken hardware are often great, cause it will fix the problem

I'd be unconcerned and this is why we have warranties - cars a complex and not everything is always perfect.
 
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dnanian

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More info. Still waiting for the part, but I had to drive up to Portland again, and on the way back I stopped at an EVgo charger just to see how a real charge session would go.

Since EVgo's chargers are 400V, and I'd briefly charged at two before, I figured it would go OK.

And it did, for about 15 minutes. After that, I received a weird "Charging error" from the Porsche Connect app, and the entire EVgo charger shut off. It was totally dead...although the app still had me connected and charging.

EVgo wasn't able to contact the charger to determine what happened, but was able to stop my session.

But I'm a bit afraid that whatever charging problem I'm having with 800V chargers is also happening, in a different way, with 400V Fast DC chargers.

It's certainly weird.
 

epirali

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More info. Still waiting for the part, but I had to drive up to Portland again, and on the way back I stopped at an EVgo charger just to see how a real charge session would go.

Since EVgo's chargers are 400V, and I'd briefly charged at two before, I figured it would go OK.

And it did, for about 15 minutes. After that, I received a weird "Charging error" from the Porsche Connect app, and the entire EVgo charger shut off. It was totally dead...although the app still had me connected and charging.

EVgo wasn't able to contact the charger to determine what happened, but was able to stop my session.

But I'm a bit afraid that whatever charging problem I'm having with 800V chargers is also happening, in a different way, with 400V Fast DC chargers.

It's certainly weird.
That doesn’t make sense. The charging station is the supply source, even if the car does something “wrong” it should simply shut off the power and throw an error. The car can’t “kill” the charging station. This sounds like a typical charging station fault to me. The unit seems to have failed.
 

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That doesn’t make sense. The charging station is the supply source, even if the car does something “wrong” it should simply shut off the power and throw an error. The car can’t “kill” the charging station. This sounds like a typical charging station fault to me. The unit seems to have failed.
I'm pretty sure I "killed" a charging station in Canada. The whole gas station complex went dark RIGHT after my charging session started. I think there was a wiring fault. Not really my car's fault. Probably any car would have caused it.
 


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dnanian

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The charging station is the supply source, even if the car does something “wrong” it should simply shut off the power and throw an error.
I don't disagree. Although this charger had been used successfully a number of times, based on the Plugshare/EVgo logs. It's certainly possible that it was just a charger fault.

But given the history of the charging issues, it's curious. And...

I'm pretty sure I "killed" a charging station in Canada.
...I remember when you had this happen, Lou, and it jumped to mind when the charger completely died. It's like it blew a fuse, which sounded suspiciously similar.
 

epirali

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I don't disagree. Although this charger had been used successfully a number of times, based on the Plugshare/EVgo logs. It's certainly possible that it was just a charger fault.

But given the history of the charging issues, it's curious. And...

...I remember when you had this happen, Lou, and it jumped to mind when the charger completely died. It's like it blew a fuse, which sounded suspiciously similar.
What was the charging station max rating? Keep in mind there are few cars that pull more then 50 KW right now, so a fault may not trigger until the car puts greater demands.
 
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dnanian

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What was the charging station max rating?
It was the 50kW "CLAYTON" EVgo charger in Portland. Note that, according to the EVgo app, it's still "under repair" after the weekend's "adventure".
 


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dnanian

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For another little follow-up, I received a call last night from Electrify America. They indicated that they had done a thorough investigation of the problem, a crew had been out to the Auburn, MA chargers, and they had "fixed the problem".

I asked what the problem actually was, and they, unfortunately, didn't know. Which wasn't a good sign. I asked what could have been fixed if I was failing at every charger, and they tried to check the other chargers, but they were under maintenance as well.

So, I drove out to Auburn to test the "fix".

As you might guess, no change. Because it's the car. It has to be.
 

epirali

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For another little follow-up, I received a call last night from Electrify America. They indicated that they had done a thorough investigation of the problem, a crew had been out to the Auburn, MA chargers, and they had "fixed the problem".

I asked what the problem actually was, and they, unfortunately, didn't know. Which wasn't a good sign. I asked what could have been fixed if I was failing at every charger, and they tried to check the other chargers, but they were under maintenance as well.

So, I drove out to Auburn to test the "fix".

As you might guess, no change. Because it's the car. It has to be.
it may be the car, but I have had MANY experiences like that with EA, where they “fix” something but they don’t. And keep in mind I have 2 different cars that I test at EA, and they are not both broken.

this includes the EA headquarters itself FYI.
 
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dnanian

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it may be the car, but I have had MANY experiences like that with EA, where they “fix” something but they don’t. And keep in mind I have 2 different cars that I test at EA, and they are not both broken.
Understood. But I have literally checked every charger around here, every individual unit, every connection on those units, and they are all failing for me. @louv subsequently went to one of those chargers (Seabrook, NH) and he was able to charge. I went back to it over the weekend and it still fails for me. So I'm pretty sure there's something wrong with my car.

Won't know until the HV Booster actually comes in and gets replaced.
 
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dnanian

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So, HV Booster surgery, which sounds like it was difficult and very time consuming (thanks to Kevin, the tech at Westwood Porsche, who had to wear the mask and gown), was successful. The car can now charge at EV stations.

A few more little things to fix when the parts come in, but I'm glad that the major fix was successful. Still hard to believe the car made it out of basic post-build testing with 800V charging...but there you go. Maybe they'll add another test now that they've had a verified off-the-line failure.

All's well that ends well!

Porsche Taycan Near disaster, but is it charger(s) or car? (UPDATE: it's the car) UNADJUSTEDNONRAW_thumb_6321
 
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dnanian

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Ummmmm... interesting perspective on the photo. Any context you can share?
Well, Taycan meaning "Spirited Young Horse", I figured it was appropriate.

What you don't see is the sheer number of toy horses - this is a place in Lincoln, MA that we call "Ponyhenge":

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/ponyhenge

I've really been tempted to build a large Trojan Pony as a continuation of the running joke here, but I wouldn't want to burden the landowners with the structure... :)
 

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Well, Taycan meaning "Spirited Young Horse", I figured it was appropriate.

What you don't see is the sheer number of toy horses - this is a place in Lincoln, MA that we call "Ponyhenge":

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/ponyhenge

I've really been tempted to build a large Trojan Pony as a continuation of the running joke here, but I wouldn't want to burden the landowners with the structure... :)
Good one
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