Fast Charging Problems: “Electrical system error Service necessary” and “Unable to start charging”

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ron_b

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Well, just to keep folks updated, I am still in fast charging purgatory. I have fully disconnected my dash cam to avoid any possible interactions, and still I am having failures about every other fast charging session. Failure can occur in the first second or the first two minutes or five minutes or at best, 15 minutes.

today I had the 15 minute variety in Solidad California, not exactly the vacation or tourist spot. If you know this Electrify America location. 🤣

I wanted to share another error that I have seen at least four times on Electrify America chargers when having this problem to see if others have seen this error message as well.
Error code: StopReason: ChargerErrorCurrentDifference
I will space out here for searching: “Error code: Stop Reason: Charger Error Current Difference”

Some revision on my diagnostics stated above. When I get the yellow battery symbol and a “Electrical system error Service necessary” then I can turn off the car open the door to get the system to really shut down close the door turn on the car and it will drive. However, I will not be able to start a Charging session either on a fast charger or on a slow charger unless the car sits for 10 minutes with no key near it, and it is in a locked state. If you have a red battery symbol, then the car cannot be put in to drive and will only go into neutral. You must turn off the car and leave it for 30 minutes. I have tested at 20 minutes with no success and had this problem far too many times to explain after the 30 minutes the car has regained it’s composure and can be driven.
Next Porsche service appointment is on January 9, I will let you know how it goes.

Anyone in Electrify America #ElectrifyAm that can give me any technical advice I would be all ears.
just direct message me.

Porsche Taycan Fast Charging Problems: “Electrical system error Service necessary” and “Unable to start charging” DD03112C-5F54-409D-AEAA-659433E85B3D
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Well, just to keep folks updated, I am still in fast charging purgatory. I have fully disconnected my dash cam to avoid any possible interactions, and still I am having failures about every other fast charging session. Failure can occur in the first second or the first two minutes or five minutes or at best, 15 minutes.

today I had the 15 minute variety in Solidad California, not exactly the vacation or tourist spot. If you know this Electrify America location. 🤣

I wanted to share another error that I have seen at least four times on Electrify America chargers when having this problem to see if others have seen this error message as well.
Error code: StopReason: ChargerErrorCurrentDifference
I will space out here for searching: “Error code: Stop Reason: Charger Error Current Difference”

Some revision on my diagnostics stated above. When I get the yellow battery symbol and a “Electrical system error Service necessary” then I can turn off the car open the door to get the system to really shut down close the door turn on the car and it will drive. However, I will not be able to start a Charging session either on a fast charger or on a slow charger unless the car sits for 10 minutes with no key near it, and it is in a locked state. If you have a red battery symbol, then the car cannot be put in to drive and will only go into neutral. You must turn off the car and leave it for 30 minutes. I have tested at 20 minutes with no success and had this problem far too many times to explain after the 30 minutes the car has regained it’s composure and can be driven.
Next Porsche service appointment is on January 9, I will let you know how it goes.

Anyone in Electrify America #ElectrifyAm that can give me any technical advice I would be all ears.
just direct message me.

DD03112C-5F54-409D-AEAA-659433E85B3D.jpeg
Sounds like you are having some internal electronics issues. It seems resetting the system (which is what keeping the car off does) solves your problem temporarily. This could be caused by a bad charger unit itself, bad BMS (Battery Management System, which is part of the battery unfortunately), or maybe it's a wiring harness issue (broken/bent/missing ground pin for example - causing communications errors, which might explain the Current Difference Error you see). I don't envy you as this can be hard to diagnose by dealerships. I once almost lemoned a Lexus once due to a bent ground pin - the dealer replaced almost all computers trying to fix a problem in 2 rounds of repairs, and on the third visit they kept it for over a week, got a plane ticket for some engineer from Japan to come over, only to call him off while he was already at the airport because their top technician actually found the bent ground pin in one of the wiring harness connectors.
 

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There are reports on social media that the newest EA charging stations - the ones with a single cable - are disabling some vehicles during charging. Since you have not said the problem occurs on certain EA stations, I doubt this applies to your situation, but I thought I would share it.
Thanks for the updates. Good luck on resolution.
 

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i recently had that failure show up on my car when attempting to drive from my level 2 charger at my house. I did read on here to lock the car for 30 mins and step away and i did that and came back out and i was able to use the car. However, the icon does show up in the lower dash for 3-5 seconds on the lower left hand side when u turn on the car and then goes away. It is at the dealer now going over a diagnostic review. I will let u know if they find anything. It seems to me a recent update may have caused it. Will report back once i hear back from dealer.
 
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Can you let us know which fuse locations they used?
I’m very sorry for the late reply, I have not been keeping up with the forum lately. Here is a photo showing the two connections they used. They were both unpopulated, the bottom one is the continuous power as I recall.
As I stated in my most recent post, I have the camera disconnected completely now just to take out any possible interactions, causing my charging woes.
Porsche Taycan Fast Charging Problems: “Electrical system error Service necessary” and “Unable to start charging” BF2E1FED-861D-41C2-B413-84950571E54A
 


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I’m very sorry for the late reply, I have not been keeping up with the forum lately. Here is a photo showing the two connections they used. They were both unpopulated, the bottom one is the continuous power as I recall.
As I stated in my most recent post, I have the camera disconnected completely now just to take out any possible interactions, causing my charging woes.
BF2E1FED-861D-41C2-B413-84950571E54A.jpeg
Many thanks
 
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There are reports on social media that the newest EA charging stations - the ones with a single cable - are disabling some vehicles during charging. Since you have not said the problem occurs on certain EA stations, I doubt this applies to your situation, but I thought I would share it.
Thanks for the updates. Good luck on resolution.
I seem to be able to re-create this problem on virtually all types of their chargers, I have not done a good job of getting photos of the name plates yet, but I do know exactly which charger locations and units have been giving me problems as I have recorded every session since purchasing the vehicle. I have provided that information to Porsche service. I’m not sure that I’ve even been to one of the new stations, the latest station I’ve been to is in Atascadero and it went online with the older hardware.
Thanks for suggestions though and warm regards.
 
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i recently had that failure show up on my car when attempting to drive from my level 2 charger at my house. I did read on here to lock the car for 30 mins and step away and i did that and came back out and i was able to use the car. However, the icon does show up in the lower dash for 3-5 seconds on the lower left hand side when u turn on the car and then goes away. It is at the dealer now going over a diagnostic review. I will let u know if they find anything. It seems to me a recent update may have caused it. Will report back once i hear back from dealer.
Just an FYI, when the car can move but will not charge. I have seen consistently that if I leave the car locked for only 10 minutes the charging problem clears. The only time I needed to leave it for 30 minutes was when the car cannot move, and will only go into neutral.
 


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Went in the second time for the charging problem on Jan 9th, I have heard they have ordered a new charge controller. Also a new camera controller as I had issues with the parking surround cameras sometimes not starting up recently. 10 days without my baby😢. But they did give me a nice Macan it’s ok for a change, But I miss my Stealth.
 
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I think they have isolated and corrected the problem with my latest service. Just got the car back on January 27th, took it for a 400 mile trip on Friday/Saturday with three fast charges and no issues. Did two more fast charges and then I am on a second longer trip with two fast charges. I have had charging speeds up to 267 kW and have seen no issues other than with the Porsche app not able to activate the new charging stations. That problem I have reported to Porsche North America.
I will attach an excerpt from my service record in case it’s helpful for others, as well as a screenshot of the fast charging.
Porsche Taycan Fast Charging Problems: “Electrical system error Service necessary” and “Unable to start charging” 22FF7141-C744-4BF2-A879-272AE3EEB25A
Porsche Taycan Fast Charging Problems: “Electrical system error Service necessary” and “Unable to start charging” 86D681CE-40CF-4F35-A0E9-D5F2B908B723
 

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@ron_b Thanks for the detailed updates. Hopes this resolves the charging problems your Taycan has had for the past 3 months.
I am curious about the "HV booster" device that was replaced. Having to drain and refill coolant seems to imply the booster is involved with/related to cooling. Any idea whether the booster is essentially part of the cooling/heating system (that affects the electrical system), or primarily an electrical component?
 
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Yes @Tooney I am also somewhat confused about what this high-voltage booster is as it sounds like it’s simply the 400 V to 800 V DC converter to deal with low-voltage chargers, whereas all of my problems have happened on high voltage chargers. But admittedly, all charging would end up going through that unit and being switched accordingly. But if it were that I agree that that would not also include the change in coolant, I assume that diagnostics showed that other upgrades were needed that are not clearly specified from what I can read, I will let you know if I hear any more information.

I have had 10 fast charging sessions now and never a problem, I feel confident on long road trips again. Just need to get some new tires soon. 49k miles and will be into my 3rd full set. EVs and performance cars chew through tires, and when you buy the combination I guess it’s inevitable.:cool:
 

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@ron_b Thanks for the detailed updates. Hopes this resolves the charging problems your Taycan has had for the past 3 months.
I am curious about the "HV booster" device that was replaced. Having to drain and refill coolant seems to imply the booster is involved with/related to cooling. Any idea whether the booster is essentially part of the cooling/heating system (that affects the electrical system), or primarily an electrical component?
The HV booster is primarily to boost 400V to 800V for charging, and two versions are available, 50KW and 150KW. HOWEVER, the HV booster also happens to be in the path between the battery and the DC-DC converter, so if it's faulty, it can cause DC-DC issues (which provides 400V, 48V and 12V). Having to drain coolant doesn't mean something is involved with charging, simply that it needs a lot of cooling. For example, the drive motors, nothing to do with charging, but are in the coolant loop.
 
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Yes @Tooney I am also somewhat confused about what this high-voltage booster is as it sounds like it’s simply the 400 V to 800 V DC converter to deal with low-voltage chargers, whereas all of my problems have happened on high voltage chargers. But admittedly, all charging would end up going through that unit and being switched accordingly. But if it were that I agree that that would not also include the change in coolant, I assume that diagnostics showed that other upgrades were needed that are not clearly specified from what I can read, I will let you know if I hear any more information.

I have had 10 fast charging sessions now and never a problem, I feel confident on long road trips again. Just need to get some new tires soon. 49k miles and will be into my 3rd full set. EVs and performance cars chew through tires, and when you buy the combination I guess it’s inevitable.:cool:
Today I’ve had the exact same issue you reported Ron. I have a 2022 rwd 2000 miles on it. Just got the software update done and my first attempt at EA DC charging: “authorising” took longer than usual and then a message popped up “can not initiate charging”. Second attempt seemed to work initially, less than a minute into charging it stopped and i got the same error message you got. Tried 3 different chargers at the same location and was not able to initiate the charge. (Or stops shortly after starting to charge). I will try again tomorrow but you said they isolated your issue, can share more detail by any chance? Also did this happen to yours after the software update as well? (Btw i dont have a camera or anything installed). Never had an issue before the update.
 

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Today I’ve had the exact same issue you reported Ron. I have a 2022 rwd 2000 miles on it. Just got the software update done and my first attempt at EA DC charging: “authorising” took longer than usual and then a message popped up “can not initiate charging”. Second attempt seemed to work initially, less than a minute into charging it stopped and i got the same error message you got. Tried 3 different chargers at the same location and was not able to initiate the charge. (Or stops shortly after starting to charge). I will try again tomorrow but you said they isolated your issue, can share more detail by any chance? Also did this happen to yours after the software update as well? (Btw i dont have a camera or anything installed). Never had an issue before the update.
Adding a data point - brand new 2023 TTCT, I saw "waiting for the car to start charging" message on EA and "unable to initiate charging" inside the car twice in ~30 sessions, all in the first week of ownership. Both times, replugging-in, first time to a different plug and second time to the very same plug, started and completed the charge as expected. I also saw one Rivian which I think experienced a similar issue, they re-plugged in and kept on going (saw them at the next EA charger along I90, so it must have worked too).

The messaging "can not initiate charging", was it in the car or on EA cabinet screen? What was the other one?
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