ARB6 now what? - charging with AC causes short circuit

[dropdead]

Had a fun journey over the past month and i want to share it with you guys.

End of juli my taycan 4s ct got the ARB6 pushed OTA and i happily installed it.
I didn't notice any immediate change and was driving happily for a few days.
When I plugged it into my wallbox in the garage the next time everything was fine at first but the next day i noticed that i only charged a few percent (don't remember the exact amount). I was very annoyed and checked the fuses for the dedicated 3 phase circuit and yes the were tripped. Not thinking much of it i put them back in and continued on my day thinking next time it surely will work fine. Spoiler, it didn't.
At this point i was suspecting the wallbox or something with the electrical system of my house since I tested the charging with a DC fast charger at my local supermarket and it worked just fine. As you might guess this sent down a rabbit hole of debugging the wallbox and electrical systems of my house. First I requested a technician from the guys who installed the wallbox to come by and check on it but since it was now august and everybody was on vacation nobody showed up. I opened up the wallbox myself and set it to the lowest possible rate (6A) and made sure there is no obvious problem like broken cables. This at least let me to believe there was nothing wrong with the electrical system of the house and the wallbox must be the problem. I contacted the seller for a replacement but it turns out he was just a scammy dropshipper and denied me any help. I then contacted the manufactor and told them about this, they were at least so kind to help me debug it a bit and suggest there is nothing really wrong but it might be a broken charging cable which they kindly send a replacement. The cable came two days ago, i didn't bother to install it since I in the meantime could charge the car of a friend (bmw mini) without issue and also bricking another 22kw AC charger at a local golf course with my taycan. Oh yea and the tiny charger the comes with the car, that produces the same short circuits as well which i tested way too late.

Knowing all this I contacted my local dealer and told him "hey, my car can't be charged and it short-circuits my power" I got an "Oh my, we haven't heard about that yet". He got me a schedule for monday for them to look at it. My plan is to first blow a few of their fuses before I tell them what I found and ask politely for their boss to talk to me about how the plan on making it right again.

I keep you guys posted.

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[snstevens]

I would be surprised if the OTA did this to your car. Sounds like a failed OBC.

 

[whitex]

Unlikely an OTA caused this. Most likely OBC failure. One thing worth asking, are your 3 phase breakers GFCI (or whatever Ground Fault protection is called in your country)?

 

[whitex]

Oh yea and the tiny charger the comes with the car,

You car came with a tiny charger? What brand? All Porsche mobile (plug-in) EVSE's are tanks (large and heavy) compared to most other brands.

 

[D00notD00d]

From reports here, it seems HV Battery, Air Con and Charging System manufacturing defects are the most common. Less common, brake disc coating failure and rattles/buzzing.
Did I miss anything?

 

[dropdead]

You car came with a tiny charger? What brand? All Porsche mobile (plug-in) EVSE's are tanks (large and heavy) compared to most other brands.

Yes, the porsche mobile charger.

And yes, i would also agree with you that this is just a coincidence and the OBC failed except for the timing and that DC charging still works.

And also yes, i am using a 16A 3 phase breaker for the wallbox, has been working really well since early 2024.

 

[Sace]

Yes, the porsche mobile charger.

And yes, i would also agree with you that this is just a coincidence and the OBC failed except for the timing and that DC charging still works.

And also yes, i am using a 3 phase breaker for the wallbox.

Annoying. Do you have the 22kW OBC?

It makes sense that DC charging works as it does not use the same charge circuit.

 

[whitex]

It makes sense that DC charging works as the it does not use the same charge circuit.

OBC is also involved in DC charging, albeit primarily for communications. When my OBC failed, I couldn't charge AC or DC. The actual error (readable only via PIWIS, so not usually seen by end-user) was that the OBC was unable to measure its internal temperature. That was enough to disable both AC and DC charging.

 

[dropdead]

Annoying. Do you have the 22kW OBC?

It makes sense that DC charging works as the it does not use the same charge circuit.

I actually had no idea that there are different OBCs, i thought this just a module in front of the BMS, same for every car. And ok, i could see DC using a different circuit then AC, must be the case since i would have destroyed a couple of fast-chargers by now or blown up the car if not.

 

[dropdead]

OBC is also involved in DC charging, albeit primarily for communications. When my OBC failed, I couldn't charge AC or DC. The actual error (readable only via PIWIS, so not usually seen by end-user) was that the OBC was unable to measure its internal temperature. That was enough to disable both AC and DC charging.

Interesting, but for you it was just disabled or did it blow the breakers as well when you tried to charge?

 

[whitex]

Interesting, but for you it was just disabled or did it blow the breakers as well when you tried to charge?

The car showed an error whenever I plugged in any AC or DC source (tries different brands of EVSEs, one public DC charger). IIRC, the error was something like "Charging not possible" and a red light around the port button. It makes sense once I scanned for errors, the OBC was unable to read its own internal temperature, so no charging could be safely allowed. No blown fuses/breakers.

 

[D00notD00d]

Breakers can break.
Initially mine was unreliable and was replaced. No problems since.

 

[Gino]

Had a fun journey over the past month and i want to share it with you guys.

End of juli my taycan 4s ct got the ARB6 pushed OTA and i happily installed it.
I didn't notice any immediate change and was driving happily for a few days.
When I plugged it into my wallbox in the garage the next time everything was fine at first but the next day i noticed that i only charged a few percent (don't remember the exact amount). I was very annoyed and checked the fuses for the dedicated 3 phase circuit and yes the were tripped. Not thinking much of it i put them back in and continued on my day thinking next time it surely will work fine. Spoiler, it didn't.
At this point i was suspecting the wallbox or something with the electrical system of my house since I tested the charging with a DC fast charger at my local supermarket and it worked just fine. As you might guess this sent down a rabbit hole of debugging the wallbox and electrical systems of my house. First I requested a technician from the guys who installed the wallbox to come by and check on it but since it was now august and everybody was on vacation nobody showed up. I opened up the wallbox myself and set it to the lowest possible rate (6A) and made sure there is no obvious problem like broken cables. This at least let me to believe there was nothing wrong with the electrical system of the house and the wallbox must be the problem. I contacted the seller for a replacement but it turns out he was just a scammy dropshipper and denied me any help. I then contacted the manufactor and told them about this, they were at least so kind to help me debug it a bit and suggest there is nothing really wrong but it might be a broken charging cable which they kindly send a replacement. The cable came two days ago, i didn't bother to install it since I in the meantime could charge the car of a friend (bmw mini) without issue and also bricking another 22kw AC charger at a local golf course with my taycan. Oh yea and the tiny charger the comes with the car, that produces the same short circuits as well which i tested way too late.

Knowing all this I contacted my local dealer and told him "hey, my car can't be charged and it short-circuits my power" I got an "Oh my, we haven't heard about that yet". He got me a schedule for monday for them to look at it. My plan is to first blow a few of their fuses before I tell them what I found and ask politely for their boss to talk to me about how the plan on making it right again.

I keep you guys posted.

The car showed an error whenever I plugged in any AC or DC source (tries different brands of EVSEs, one public DC charger). IIRC, the error was something like "Charging not possible" and a red light around the port button. It makes sense once I scanned for errors, the OBC was unable to read its own internal temperature, so no charging could be safely allowed. No blown fuses/breakers.

I have been using my AC 120V Porsche charger for 7 months exclusively and all of a sudden the charging would stop with the error message “charging not possible”. I unplugged the charger from my Taycan and then unplugged it from the wall to reset it. After I plugged it back in it began charging. I sat in the car for 30 minutes and it charged with no issues but the moment I left my garage & closed the garage door the charging stopped with the same message “charging not possible”.
My voltage was 115V at the outlet which was low but still in spec.
It turned out my garage door opener is on the same 120V circuit and the surge/noise from the garage door opener motor degraded the electronics in my Porsche Charger over the past 7 months of continuous use (36 hours/week) which caused it to fail.
I brought it to my dealer who tested my Taycan on their DC & AC chargers as well as my charger but could not get it to fail.
They finally were able to verify my 120V AC charger was bad.
They ordered a replacement for me but it’s on back order so I bought a backup 120V charger from Lectron which worked perfectly. Opening/closing the garage door had no effect on the charging but as soon as I plugged the Porsche charger back in it started charging but immediately failed the moment I opened or closed the garage door.
I installed a Genie garage door opener surge protector to stop the garage door motor from sending surges & noise on the circuit to insure I had clean power to the Porsche 120V charger. The 120V Porsche chargers works perfectly again with the surge protector. The control logic in the charger has been degraded by the electric noise and inductive load surges from my opener.
It has been working perfectly for the last month now with the surge protector but if I remove the surge protector the charger fails the moment I open or close the door.
I would check to make sure you don’t have any noise or surges on your AC line which could degrade the Porsche charger’s control logic.
The Lectron charger works with or without the surge protector so it is definitely the Porsche charger that has become sensitive to the combination of low voltage, noise & inductive surges. It doesn’t matter if you are using 220V AC instead of 120V AC if you have dirty power. It can degrade and corrupt the control electronics.
Make sure your 220V supply is clean and see if your charger works again like mine did.
I expect the new charger I get will not be as sensitive to the dirty power which I believe degraded it from constant use over 6 months but with the surge protector it should work perfectly for a very long time.
Porsche’s 120V charger should not require a dedicated clean line since it should be able to be plugged in anywhere in a 120V outlet capable of at least 10A steady state supply like at a hotel but if their is other equipment on the same line like pumps, motors, etc., which generate noise, voltage spikes & surges then the charger should be able to handle it. Mine didn’t after 6 months.
It never hurts to insure you have clean power…

 

[dropdead]

I have been using my AC 120V Porsche charger for 7 months exclusively and all of a sudden the charging would stop with the error message “charging not possible”. I unplugged the charger from my Taycan and then unplugged it from the wall to reset it. After I plugged it back in it began charging. I sat in the car for 30 minutes and it charged with no issues but the moment I left my garage & closed the garage door the charging stopped with the same message “charging not possible”.
My voltage was 115V at the outlet which was low but still in spec.
It turned out my garage door opener is on the same 120V circuit and the surge/noise from the garage door opener motor degraded the electronics in my Porsche Charger over the past 7 months of continuous use (36 hours/week) which caused it to fail.
I brought it to my dealer who tested my Taycan on their DC & AC chargers as well as my charger but could not get it to fail.
They finally were able to verify my 120V AC charger was bad.
They ordered a replacement for me but it’s on back order so I bought a backup 120V charger from Lectron which worked perfectly. Opening/closing the garage door had no effect on the charging but as soon as I plugged the Porsche charger back in it started charging but immediately failed the moment I opened or closed the garage door.
I installed a Genie garage door opener surge protector to stop the garage door motor from sending surges & noise on the circuit to insure I had clean power to the Porsche 120V charger. The 120V Porsche chargers works perfectly again with the surge protector. The control logic in the charger has been degraded by the electric noise and inductive load surges from my opener.
It has been working perfectly for the last month now with the surge protector but if I remove the surge protector the charger fails the moment I open or close the door.
I would check to make sure you don’t have any noise or surges on your AC line which could degrade the Porsche charger’s control logic.
The Lectron charger works with or without the surge protector so it is definitely the Porsche charger that has become sensitive to the combination of low voltage, noise & inductive surges. It doesn’t matter if you are using 220V AC instead of 120V AC if you have dirty power. It can degrade and corrupt the control electronics.
Make sure your 220V supply is clean and see if your charger works again like mine did.
I expect the new charger I get will not be as sensitive to the dirty power which I believe degraded it from constant use over 6 months but with the surge protector it should work perfectly for a very long time.
Porsche’s 120V charger should not require a dedicated clean line since it should be able to be plugged in anywhere in a 120V outlet capable of at least 10A steady state supply like at a hotel but if their is other equipment on the same line like pumps, motors, etc., which generate noise, voltage spikes & surges then the charger should be able to handle it. Mine didn’t after 6 months.
It never hurts to insure you have clean power…

Yea that sounds like the kind of stuff EV owners need to go through...Sadly for me I invested 10k euro from the beginning in a complete new wiring of the house including a dedicated 3 phase circuit for the charger...the power is as clean is it gets here in germany.

 

[Gino]

Yea that sounds like the kind of stuff EV owners need to go through...Sadly for me I invested 10k euro from the beginning in a complete new wiring of the house including a dedicated 3 phase circuit for the charger...the power is as clean is it gets here in germany.

I’m just happy it was just the 120V Porsche AC charger logic that got degraded instead of somehow damaging the charging electronics in the Taycan.

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