redrocket
Well-Known Member
- First Name
- Joe
- Joined
- Aug 16, 2020
- Threads
- 6
- Messages
- 75
- Reaction score
- 91
- Location
- USA
- Vehicles
- Taycan Turbo, Panamera 4S, Bimmer X3
- Thread starter
- #1
Yesterday I did about a 60 mile trip to a nearby city in my Turbo. Trip went well and the car formed flawlessly on the trip there. On the way home I was going to drive by an EA charging point so decided to use one of their 350 kW chargers at that location and get 30 minutes of free juice. Have used that site before and it worked great. When I pulled in this time I attempted to connect using the Charge America app, but I couldn’t get the charger to start, so I moved over to another charger and had the same problem. I followed screen directions and plugged in/disconnected numerous times but no joy. So I then called Electrify America. This was around 3:30 in the afternoon.
The nice lady at EA had me again do all of the things I had already done, when all a sudden I heard a loud explosion. WTF??? Could have been a gunshot or an extremely loud backfire, but it sounded like it came from the vicinity of the EA transformers. So finally I gave up and decided to drive on. When I got in the car I had a red screen message along the lines of ‘electrical system failure, take to dealer’. I told the EA lady on the phone about it and her response was ‘read about that in the owners manual’. Huh? I told her ‘your equipment just disabled my car’. She said ‘Oh, I’m sorry’. Meanwhile, my 12v battery was rapidly heading south and my wheels were turned at a 45 degree angle. The battery soon failed and the wheels were stuck in that position and you couldn’t put the car in neutral to pull the car on to a flatbed. I’m screwed....
So I then called Porsche roadside assistance which was one of the worst customer support experiences I have ever had. It would take an entire thread to go through that painful experience. I won’t go in to it much, but 4 1/2 hours later a barely adequate flatbed shows up and off we go to the dealer about 15 miles away. But before that, I called my dealer about the problem and they promptly sent the Service Manager with a loaner for me out to the place where I was standed! Now that’s good service! He said he’d wait for the tow and he’d be fine and I could go home, but I said no way, I’ll stay here with you. The loaner was not a Porsche but a brand new Q5. Plus he had a jump box since my 12v battery was now dead. So I hung around with him until 6 pm and I said I needed to go vote before the polls closed but would be back. About an hour later I got back and my favorite Service Advisor was also there. Both he and the service manager got the wheels straight and the car in neutral with the jump box.
So today the Tech plugs in his magic box and he says both 350 amp main battery fuses were blown, and I was told when they blow they sound exactly like what I heard. I’m thinking, no big deal, change the fuses and I’m on my way! Bad news is the fuses are in a control module and it has to come from Germany. No eta on the part yet but maybe we’ll get the eta tomorrow. More bad news, once they have the part they have to drop the entire main battery pack to replace the module. Was told that job would take a day and a half. So at this time no idea when the car will be fixed but at least I have a new Q5 for now. And I suspect PCNA will be going after EA for the repair bill because the diagnosis of the problem is blown fuses from faulty charger. And I imagine this will be a pricey repair.
And to top it all off, by the time the tow truck showed up, we got the car loaded, traveled to the dealer and off loaded the car, and then I drove home, I walked in the door of my house at 11:30.
I wish I had never stopped there......
The nice lady at EA had me again do all of the things I had already done, when all a sudden I heard a loud explosion. WTF??? Could have been a gunshot or an extremely loud backfire, but it sounded like it came from the vicinity of the EA transformers. So finally I gave up and decided to drive on. When I got in the car I had a red screen message along the lines of ‘electrical system failure, take to dealer’. I told the EA lady on the phone about it and her response was ‘read about that in the owners manual’. Huh? I told her ‘your equipment just disabled my car’. She said ‘Oh, I’m sorry’. Meanwhile, my 12v battery was rapidly heading south and my wheels were turned at a 45 degree angle. The battery soon failed and the wheels were stuck in that position and you couldn’t put the car in neutral to pull the car on to a flatbed. I’m screwed....
So I then called Porsche roadside assistance which was one of the worst customer support experiences I have ever had. It would take an entire thread to go through that painful experience. I won’t go in to it much, but 4 1/2 hours later a barely adequate flatbed shows up and off we go to the dealer about 15 miles away. But before that, I called my dealer about the problem and they promptly sent the Service Manager with a loaner for me out to the place where I was standed! Now that’s good service! He said he’d wait for the tow and he’d be fine and I could go home, but I said no way, I’ll stay here with you. The loaner was not a Porsche but a brand new Q5. Plus he had a jump box since my 12v battery was now dead. So I hung around with him until 6 pm and I said I needed to go vote before the polls closed but would be back. About an hour later I got back and my favorite Service Advisor was also there. Both he and the service manager got the wheels straight and the car in neutral with the jump box.
So today the Tech plugs in his magic box and he says both 350 amp main battery fuses were blown, and I was told when they blow they sound exactly like what I heard. I’m thinking, no big deal, change the fuses and I’m on my way! Bad news is the fuses are in a control module and it has to come from Germany. No eta on the part yet but maybe we’ll get the eta tomorrow. More bad news, once they have the part they have to drop the entire main battery pack to replace the module. Was told that job would take a day and a half. So at this time no idea when the car will be fixed but at least I have a new Q5 for now. And I suspect PCNA will be going after EA for the repair bill because the diagnosis of the problem is blown fuses from faulty charger. And I imagine this will be a pricey repair.
And to top it all off, by the time the tow truck showed up, we got the car loaded, traveled to the dealer and off loaded the car, and then I drove home, I walked in the door of my house at 11:30.
I wish I had never stopped there......
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