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In reply to: ZOE completely dead… any ideas?
This is complete rubbish.
I use mny Zoe mostly on week days (typical second car for communting in the city) and rarely drive longer than 15 minutes in a row. If they were right, my Zoe would be dead on a monthly base.
And rememeber my words: replace a one time flattened 12 V lead acid battery, it will save you a lot of nerves.
Regards
UmbiIn reply to: ZOE completely dead… any ideas?
Update: Total shambles on getting the car sorted. Marshalls in MK have had the car since Wed lunchtime. On Wed they didn’t look at it at all. On Thursday they decided the 12V battery was dead and put it on a trickle charge.
They’ve just called me (Friday pm) and said the fault with the car was….. the 12V battery was flat. Wow – how impressed am I?
After having assured me they’ve done a health check on the battery and it’s OK (i.e. doesn’t need replacing), their summary of the fault was that we weren’t using the car enough to keep the 12V battery charged and that’s why it’s gone flat.
When I pointed out we’ve done 2K miles in 4 months and that we use the car every day, apparently if we mostly do short journeys that may not be enough to keep the 12V battery charged and that it might have been somewhat discharged when we bought it from the dealer, contributing to it’s eventual demise.
So, when I said in normal operation we had not used the car sufficiently to keep the 12V battery charged, what was going to stop it going flat again, he said now that they’d charged it up it should be fine.
I basically said I think that’s complete rubbish and they should seek further advice from Renault UK. From my perspective, they’ve had the car since 1pm Wed and all they’ve managed to achieve in 2.5 days is trickle charge the 12V battery.
Further, they are keeping the car in because they are waiting on some fittings to complete a recall job (something to do with the rear spoiler/brake light. They will email tech services on Monday and let me know what they say. He also said I could always take it to another dealer for a 2nd opinion if I wanted.
<speechless>
In reply to: Charging Issues?
Had this “Battery Charging Impossible” again today,but the concerning thing is that when I visit other charge points in the area,no charger will work, and the Zoe still displays the same warning?
Last time this happened I had to reboot and use the single phase 32A home charger to clear the fault,I am not home yet!In reply to: ZOE completely dead… any ideas?
My wife has a Mercedes A class and Heynes recommends turning the side lights on before reconnecting the battery to minimise any voltage spikes on the electronics which can cause fault codes to occur. As the Zoe has LED side lights it’s probably worth connecting a 12V 5W side light bulb across the battery terminals with crocodile clips before you connect the battery up.
In reply to: ZOE completely dead… any ideas?
If you want to charge the 12V battery of the Zoe I’d always completely disconnect it from the Zoe electrical system. Then it should be safe to charge it with an external charger.
And you should never connect/touch with the charger leads to any metal part of the car…just to be sure
Hope, your dealer gets the car back to life and your wife doen’t loose her Zoe confidence…
Regards
UmbiIn reply to: Charging Issues?
Yes, we have had the (£2000) charging unit replaced and still have problems. A few days ago my wife arrived at local shopping centre with little charge. She knew that there are free charging points in this centre (one rapid and several fast chargers). None of these would work initially with ‘Battery charging impossible’ message appearing. Eventually whilst my wife was organising breakdown rescue (half an hour later), charging started. I don’t think that Renault have got to the bottom of this one yet.
Hello, you’ll re-call I had three issues: a) orange spanner lit up with ‘check brake lights’ message. b) only starting the on second push of the start button with the electronic stability warning light momentarily flashing up on the first attempt. c) battery not charging any longer at ‘source London’ points although it was fine before. I booked the car into Renault Enfield on Monday for a diagnostic check. THey said they had found faults but couldn’t be specific and said they’d need it for a few days. I have it booked in provisionally for this Friday….BUT suddenly last evening I started it and the first two faults have disappeared and it’s back to normal. Wow! How come , I ask myself……I am yet to try charging again in London but I’ll do that tomorrow……weird isn’t it?
In reply to: Charging Issues?
so just an update – the BPC has been changed in my car to the new updated version.
the car seems to be ok for now – not really had the same issue at any rapid charge points. but the other day my car charged up overnight but in the mornning the same Battery charging Impossible message was displayed in the car. after i started the car and plugged it back in to charge the message cleared it self…
strange and i cannot therefore confirm that the problem is solved yet!
In reply to: ZOE completely dead… any ideas?
The Zoe might be fitted with a deep discharge battery rather than a traction battery. Traction batteries have thick plates inside them so that they can the 1 – 1.5KW required to turn an ICE engine over without the generated heat buckling the plates inside the batteries. Deep discharge batteries have more thinner plates per cell often with sintered surfaces to allow them to be last longer when they are repeatedly discharged a long way, by long way I mean 50% capacity. Discharging below this point reduces the life significantly.
If Zoe is fitted with a Deep discharge battery then this is the reason why they say don’t use it to jump start another car. Connecting a flat lead acid battery to a charged battery can result in huge currents flowing for a short duration, this might cause a dip in the voltage which could upset Zoe’s computers. You can also get voltage spikes when disconnecting high current loads which can damage electronics. Renault might be being cautious but its a punt with a costly repair if the charger is damaged.
In reply to: ZOE completely dead… any ideas?
So, my wife has arranged for the car to be recovered this morning – they said she’d have to go with the car to the dealer (she can’t because of work) – plan B is to bring it to the house (I’m working at home today). They have asked me to ‘plug it in’ and if it’s still dead they will arrange to take it to my local dealer.
Regarding charging the 12V battery, I wonder why Renault places restrictions on it in the handbook – I’m thinking that if you put a 12V charger on (or boost from another vehicle) it may give the illusion that the car is working, i.e. HV kicks in, but you’ve actually go no power for lights etc and the result may be erratic if you drove off.
When the car arrives here, I can disconnect the 12V battery and put in on an Optimate charger to see what happens – I’m assuming that plugging the car in via the charging port will do nothing, but am willing to be proved wrong!
Still leaves the question as to why this has happened. I’m particularly concerned that the car was locked when she left it and unlocked when she came back – that seems to indicate that if the 12V battery goes flat, the car defaults to unlocked – not great if you’ve left it at the airport or somewhere security is important.
I’ll let you know what happens.
