Intermittent non-charging issue

[fbt12]

2017 i3 REx with a few options turned on (e.g. HSOC)
Purchase in October 2019 and bought/installed a JuiceBox 40 Pro from Costco in November 2020.
Car is set to charge immediately.
JuiceBox software is configured for 12 midnight to 3pm local charging.


3 random times since i owned it, i would wake up with no additional charge. Tried unplugging/plugging, disconnect Juicebox from power, and (from my account config) deleting Juicebox and re-adding it. No help. The first 2 times i was able to work with JuiceBox support to get the charging back up again. No clear source of problem.

These were 2 times were random and after engaging JuiceBox, we were able to get the car to charge again. Both times did not net a reason for failure.

Couple days ago, woke up with no overnight charging. This time, Juicebox support claims that the Juicebox is ready to charge but the car would not accept. We tried a few things with the Juicebox (e.g. removing power, changing config to remove TOU charging).

Then i climbed in to start the car to double check the car was set to charge immediately. Nothing changed and it was set correctly. As i closed the door, i heard a "click" that sounded like the car was starting to charge. It was. Juicebox confirmed that everything looked normal on their end.

So.....has anyone else experienced this? Was the starting the car and turning it off the same as a Control-Alt-Delete on my old Windows 3.1 system? Schedule an appointment with SF BMW a couple days later. I had been charging the car fine with the Juicebox for a couple of days before bringing it in.

SF BMW said that their only test was to plug in their "charger" and if it worked. 1 hour labor charge please. I (mistakenly) assumed that they would at least hook it up to their computer to see if the car's computer logged any errors. Nope. So i took the car home. Plugged in the JuiceBox and it started charging normally.

Thoughts?

 

[agzand]

Does the fault happen when battery charge level is low, like less than 40-50%?

I have a similar problem when charge level is low. I have a 20 amp charger only, but I believe the problem is due to voltage drop in the EVSE circuit (could be a rusted or bad connection somewhere). I believe i3 draws the power that charger makes available. If voltage drops since the car draws the same power, the current will go up and the charger will throw an overcurrent fault. If your charger measures the voltage you can look for this problem.

 

[fbt12]

Hi agzand ---

This last charging issue happened when the battery was over 50% charged. Cannot remember the battery charge level for the other incidents.

FBT

 

[agzand]

Eitherway it could be the low voltage issue. If voltage is too low it could happen at any charge level. Of course this is just one explanation and there could be other issues.

 

[frictioncircle]

fbt12 –

Any chance you have a Dostar J1772 plug handle (the part that gets inserted into the i3's charging port)?

I charge with an OpenEVSE which has a Dostar handle. If you drop the handle it on a hard surface (which I've done by accident) the handle's release lever pivot pin can get bent which (for me) resulted in my i3 not charging.

This link solved my problem, hopefully it solves yours, too!

https://support-emobility.enelx.com/hc/en-us/articles/216111858-J1772-Proximity-Switch-Fix

 

[cdnji]

@OP, I have a ChargePoint EVSE wired directly to a circuit breaker. Similar issue happens 1-2 times per year. Before, resetting the breaker helped. But the most recent occurence, resetting the breaker did not fix the issue. I started to panic because it occured 1 month after the 4 year warranty expired. Good thing the mall near our place had a free L2 charger. Took my i3 there and it charged fine. So I figure it's my EVSE's fault.

Since resetting the breaker is not working, I went through all the options in the companion app and found a factory reset option. I selected that, waited for the EVSE to light up and re-did all the initial setup. It's working fine again.

 

[fbt12]

Thanx for all suggestions.

Check by Juicebox Dostar article and my own handle. Not a match at this time.

Everything is fine for now.

 

[Arian2324]

Can someone please help me also, I have a issue that when I’m charging the vehicle the light is green and when I unplug the charger and start the car it says charging malfunction, I just replaced the small battery Too
There is no check engine light or any thing but car show no range and vehicle won’t move but the shifter works

 

[LawryFreeman]

I experience intermittent charging issues for around 18 months. The car would start to charge and then stop with the 'unable to charge' message reminaing on th dashboard with no futher useful info. Over a 12 month period, I had BMW assist look at the car at least twice and the charging company EO mini hub (via Octopus energy) come out a validate the charging point from our household consumer unit to the end of the cable. BMW could not find the issue and to a large extent pushed the blame towards the charging provider. The charging provider, checked everything and then subsequently pushed the blame back to the i3, stating that '...many customers have charging problems with i3's, it could be a firmware issue'.

None of the above was helpful from our perspective, as a customer you're stuck in crack between 2 suppliers, neither of which wants to own the issue. Over the extended period of time and many engineers trying to resolved the issue we had just had enough. Paying £40K for a brand new electric car that was supposed to be a foot into the future, it ended being a nightmare to live with - give me a conventionally powered vehicle any day of the week.

Anyway, we got to the root of the issue. Essentially, you need to change the 'current settings' in the i3 vehicle setup to draw current at a 'reduced' level rather than 'max'. This is particularly important if you're charging the car from a starting point of less than half charge and if charging in the daytime when there are likely to be other demands on your houeholds electrics. This solution has worked for us, it was extremely difficult to diagnose and none of the BMW or Charging point engineers could advise us with this solution. In a sentence, for a typical household electrical system, if attempting to charge from a low residual starting point with the i3 settings set to 'Max', you will have surge issues from time to time which will trip your charging point.