louv

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You know your Taycan has a 12v battery, right? Do you know where it is? Do you what to do if it goes completely dead?

UPDATE July 30, 2020: tl;dr? Jump to Reply #297 for the Fixes to this problem.



I do. Now. I didn’t pay much attention to it until yesterday morning. I mean, I knew it was there... somewhere. Probably.

Go grab a cup of coffee... aw, hell, you are probably stuck at home, Sheltered in Place, so go grab a beer... and come along for a new (but hopefully NOT epic) adventure.

Two days ago I finally had a crew out to the house to install a new Charging Station in my driveway. I started that process last November, but by the time the electricians could schedule it, the ground had frozen (remember: Maine) and the couldn't trench my driveway. "We'll come do it after the spring thaw." Well, now I have a ChargePoint Flex, capable of charging at 50A (the Taycan can only handle 40A, or 9.6kW), I fired it up, connected it to my WiFi, name it, set it to know that it was connected to a 50A breaker, and therefore limit itself to 40A.

I connected up to the car, and set up my Profiles and Timers. My location-aware Profile creatively named "Home" was set to have a minimum charge of 50%, and preferred charging times of 10PM to 5AM. I set up a Timer, Target charge of 90%, 7 days a week, departure time of 3AM, no climate control. All went as expected. The car was at 40% when first plugged in at 4PM. It immediately charged it self to 50%, then stopped charging, as expected. Then at 10PM it started charging... slowed down a couple hours later, and then picked up again and finished charging at 3AM at the requested 90%. Odd that it charged and stopped and charged again... but whatever, the end result was As Requested.

That's the setup. Most of that is PROBABLY all coincidental to what comes next. I am not implying any connection, just setting the stage.

The next morning, yesterday, I wake up and check the iPhone app at about 7:30am: the car is nicely charged as requested.

At 9:51am, my phone rings from an unknown number. I answer, and it's the Porsche Connect Security Team. "There's a problem with your car." "What's the problem?" "First you need to answer your two security questions..." <redacted> "<laughter> Yup, that's right. OK, either your car was broken into or there a problem with the battery." "Uh... those are really different things. OK, I'm out at the car now. No problems. No windows broken, no damage." "OK, well, have a good day, Call us back if you have any questions."

At this point I notice the car hasn't automatically unlocked. Odd. I grab the remote from my pocket and press the unlock button. No joy. I think maybe it's the remote. I read in the "Good To Know" Manual, to place the key near the upper right corner of the rear window and press unlock. Nope. Nothing.

I look at the Porsche Connect App now... It looks like this:

Porsche Taycan Don Breaks His Taycan - The Saga of the 12v Battery 52BFD3FE-984B-4C5E-A0EA-B1E12E48EA74


OK, let's try the Emergency key.
1) Pull it out of the remote.
2) Lift the driver's door handle, look underneath
3) Insert key, and turn.
Door unlocks and opens.

Car is still dead. No dash lights. Nothing. Press Start button. Nothing.

OK. This is all I know how to do. Time to call Roadside Assistance. And get my car towed.

Before the car can be towed, I have to unplug from my Charging Station. Hmmm. The car is locked. The car won't let go of the charger plug. There *must* be an emergency release somewhere. Back to the "Good To Know" app, to read the manual.

To Remove the Charging Stations' plug from the car:
1) Open the front door, on the side where you are plugged in.
2) Look for a round button at the top of the front body panel.
3) Pull on that knob, which is connected to a cord, which will release the lock on the charging station plug.

Porsche Taycan Don Breaks His Taycan - The Saga of the 12v Battery 2A398399-3B6A-44F8-8D28-BF9541F2D9D6
Porsche Taycan Don Breaks His Taycan - The Saga of the 12v Battery 7FC94BA9-DCA7-44A0-A373-A493ABE9437F
Porsche Taycan Don Breaks His Taycan - The Saga of the 12v Battery 48CBC351-AE1E-48FD-8F4C-4FD6E4411C0D


Tow truck arrives 20 minutes later. But, since the car is completely powerless, it can't be put into neutral. And he says, "I don't have dollies in this truck, and there's no way I'm going to drag that beautiful car up onto the truck." So, he goes away.

I call my local dealership's service department. They send out their head technician to my house.

Since the Tech is coming from his house, where he'd been sheltering in place, he had to go to the shop, get some tools, and then drive to my house, I know I have some time. So I read further into "Good To Know".

I discover instructions for applying power to the 12v system, so that the Frunk can be opened (and then the 12v Battery can be accessed directly). I go in the house, grab a spare 12v battery, and some charger clips and go back outside.

To Apply 12v Power to the car, when the car's 12v Battery is dead:
1) Open the fuse panel (to the left of the driver's side footwell)
2) Find the Red 12v Positive Terminal, and pull it out about 1/2 inch.
3) From your spare 12v Battery, Attach 12v Positive to that terminal.
4) From your spare 12v battery, attach negative to the hinge of the car. (bare metal)

At this point, I hear relays switching on and off... kinda like it was trying to connect, something was failing, and then it would try again. After 10 seconds of that, I disconnected. Never mind. I don't know what's really wrong, so I'm just going to stop.

Porsche Taycan Don Breaks His Taycan - The Saga of the 12v Battery 6919D523-2FDB-4486-9E62-63B45E8B0DFC
Porsche Taycan Don Breaks His Taycan - The Saga of the 12v Battery 932DCB1C-0AD8-482C-8398-B5BDE64A6C61
Porsche Taycan Don Breaks His Taycan - The Saga of the 12v Battery CB7F26BF-0DEB-4054-9C3C-A521432A4426
Porsche Taycan Don Breaks His Taycan - The Saga of the 12v Battery B6440604-1FB6-4786-A62A-4C07B28A3D5B



Soon after, the technician arrives.

He connects a bigger batter to the same places. And tries to turn on the car. No joy. We wait a few minutes. Still nothing.

Porsche Taycan Don Breaks His Taycan - The Saga of the 12v Battery 6C9CA70C-D0F5-452F-8C3B-F3E5A3E074DD


Then he says he needs their Lithium Ion Battery Charger. So a quick, 10 minute run back to the shop, he grabs the big charger. Meanwhile, I run a 100 foot extension cord so he can plug in the charger.

When he returns, and attaches the big charger, the car wakes up enough that we can pop the hood. Now we have access to the actual 12v Lithium battery, so the charger can do a better (read: faster) jobber-charging the 12v Battery.

Porsche Taycan Don Breaks His Taycan - The Saga of the 12v Battery 4BB6ABE6-AD00-41CC-8339-17B331DA347D
Porsche Taycan Don Breaks His Taycan - The Saga of the 12v Battery 0F40E166-38C7-4061-9A2D-09B60CA25E77
Porsche Taycan Don Breaks His Taycan - The Saga of the 12v Battery 6CE2072F-5AF1-4AAC-82DE-70D50EE7E1A9



After charging for about 5 minutes, the valiant Technician attached their diagnostic computer to the ODB-II connector, and collects some diagnostic data from the car.

We let it charge, and download data for another 10 minutes or so, and now everything seems fine.

We remove the brick from under the front wheel. (in case we needed to put it in neutral... I didn't want the car rolling downhill into the street). And he drives the car back to the Dealership, leaving me with a nice silver Cayenne loaner.

Later that day they asked for more details on the charging sessions, to try and analyze what happened when. I was able to send charge session logs from ChargePoint, and via security camera footage, identify exactly when the battery went dead. (the charge port blinking light turned red, and the went out)

That's where this chapter ends.
Stay tuned for more adventures in "Don Breaks His Taycan" (again).

Porsche Taycan Don Breaks His Taycan - The Saga of the 12v Battery A7CAC624-235C-4054-94E5-A96244FE493F
 
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KensingtonPark

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This is pretty consistent with every electric and electric hybrid car that I have ever owned (Chevy Volt, Volvo XC90, Tesla Model S). Something about these cars creates some kind of unanticipated issue with the 12V battery. It was different every time, and I didn't get very enlightening explanations about any one of them.
 
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louv

louv

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was your car not driven for a long time due to shelter in place?
Yes and no. I had just driven it last week. Twice to the Animal Shelter and once to get groceries. But it has been mostly just sitting for the past month. Which shouldn’t really be a problem. Theoretically.
 
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louv

louv

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This is pretty consistent with every electric and electric hybrid car that I have ever owned (Chevy Volt, Volvo XC90, Tesla Model S). Something about these cars creates some kind of unanticipated issue with the 12V battery. It was different every time, and I didn't get very enlightening explanations about any one of them.
Yup. My ex-wife’s Model S went through three 12v batteries in two years.
 
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r553

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Sorry to hear about this. From reading about the Taycan the 800 V battery valiantly tries to keep the 12 V battery charged. My guess is something in the low-voltage energy management went south. I look forward to the debrief. I'll be keeping my car outside too.

For good luck do you have a whole house surge protector in the electrical panel that feeds the charge point?
 
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louv

louv

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Sorry to hear about this. From reading about the Taycan the 800 V battery valiantly tries to keep the 12 V battery charged. My guess is something in the low-voltage energy management went south. I look forward to the debrief. I'll be keeping my car outside too.

For good luck do you have a whole house surge protector in the electrical panel that feeds the charge point?
Yes, that would be my assumption as well.

I am mildly amused when there’s 90kWh of juice... sitting... waiting... unusable... because little brother 12v LiFePO4 battery isn’t charging.

I do not have a whole house surge protector. Maybe someday.
 


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Wow, the same thing happened to my Taycan a couple weeks ago. I left my car plugged into the charger for a couple days (I swear I turned it off) and I went to unlock it. Nothing. I had to go through the same steps as @louv to charge the car enough to pop the front trunk and then jump start the car.

Word of advice: leave your car unlocked in your garage. If my car was locked out would have been a pain to get it unlocked.
 
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louv

louv

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Wow, the same thing happened to my Taycan a couple weeks ago. I left my car plugged into the charger for a couple days (I swear I turned it off) and I went to unlock it. Nothing. I had to go through the same steps as @louv to charge the car enough to pop the front trunk and then jump start the car.

Word of advice: leave your car unlocked in your garage. If my car was locked out would have been a pain to get it unlocked.
Interesting. Did the dealership look at the car? What did they conclude?
 

EVOG

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Interesting. Did the dealership look at the car? What did they conclude?
They sent out their delivery specialist since most of them hadn't had training on the car and didn't know how to jump it. I actually found a video about the 911 having a fuse box under the steering wheel and told the delivery specialist about it when he got to my home. I popped off the panel and we connected the battery charger that I had. I don't think they looked into the issue any further after leaving my house.
 
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louv

louv

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They sent out their delivery specialist since most of them hadn't had training on the car and didn't know how to jump it. I actually found a video about the 911 having a fuse box under the steering wheel and told the delivery specialist about it when he got to my home. I popped off the panel and we connected the battery charger that I had. I don't think they looked into the issue any further after leaving my house.
Seems like something that they would want to investigate and understand. Call Me crazy.
 

ron_b

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Seems like something that they would want to investigate and understand. Call Me crazy.
I would assume that it's the virus that prevents them from being overly inquisitive. Trust that your diagnosis will be of use to @EVOG.
 

Brassfactory

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Also, the first time a battery fails isn’t interesting. Second time with so few vehicles is a little more so.

Kinda like the big garage fire. If there’s been a second one that would have been real news.
 
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louv

louv

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Also, the first time a battery fails isn’t interesting. Second time with so few vehicles is a little more so.

Kinda like the big garage fire. If there’s been a second one that would have been real news.
Yes and no. There are random events and there are signs of an underlying problem that could be disastrous if not addressed quickly.

Having spent a career tracking down the latter, I’m aturally biased towards that conclusion.

But you are right, we now have two very similar cases. Time for someone to get worried. (That’s assuming the right people were notified about the first issue)

I’m glad no other garages caught fire and then burned any more Taycans. :)
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