PHEV Inoperable

Our PHEV becomes inoperable for so many hours if we make a mistake of driving it when it is still plugged-in or when the lights are on for few minutes while being charged even after we removed the charging cable on both examples. Has anyone had the same problem?

Err, you shouldn't be able to drive it with the charge cable still in. It won't go into ready mode. Are you sure you're not getting it stuck on the power-on-but-not-ready mode? If you try to put it into drive with the charger still enabled, unplug it, turn everything off, then try to turn it back on again.

As for the lights, are you draining the 12v auxillary battery?

Yes it was a mistake as I mentioned to try to put to drive or reverse the car while being charged. But my biggest worry is it locks the vehicle overnight at one time. It locks means the dashboard won't turn off but the engine won't start as well. So I'm stuck couldn't do anything even the road side service mechanic arrived and couldn't fix the problem.

I've had it not respond to the power button after something like that. But holding it down for a few seconds seems to power it all the way off, then you can just power it back on after you take the charger out. Don't forget to be holding down the brake when you hit the power button.

Thanks, I did all what you have mentioned but it did not helped at all. Even the Road Side Service mechanic that came to help didnt get it going.

Quote possibly a fault in your software then. The behavior is obviously not normal.

Thank you for your feedback.

Mitsubishi provide their own roadside assist with the PHEV in AUS.

Would think this was a global thing as well. You have another roadside assist scheme, not familiar with the particulars of the PHEV? Lucky you were at home.

I have had the immobilizer operate when driving on a previous PHEV. May be a service required problem. There are many differences in the way the PHEV operates to a normal car and you may just need to learn some new procedures.

When you run down the 12v aux battery too far, you can see things like that happening. I have been able to run down the 12v aux battery so far (while working on my car with the 'ignition' on, but Ready light off) that I was no longer able to turn off the ignition. Illuminated ring around the power button could not be turned off. No matter how hard I tried / how long I pushed it. Nor could I lock he car. Could not even open the electric trunk to get to my jump start cables either. I think you wouldn't even be able to recharge the drive battery from the grid as the OBC ECU would not be functional.

Could it be you have an alarm system or GPS tracking device installed that takes too much from the 12v battery?

A general word of advice: when the car needs being worked on for a long period of time with the ignition on, make sure the Ready light is on. Then the 12v battery is constantly being topped up from the 300v drive battery.

This is an unknown problem. Contact your dealer.

Interesting. I accidentally pressed the on button whilst still plugged in a few weeks ago. I can't remember the exact sequence of events and whether it was difficult to turn off or back on, but I know I struggled for a couple of minutes to get the car to do anything. I think I actually had to unplug it, plug it back in and unplug it again before it would work, but it was certainly a couple of minutes rather than the next morning!
Cheers
H

I had the car for 7 months now. I had the same experience with you few months ago.

We bought our PHEV about 6 weeks ago and have had 3 instances where it refused to select a gear, or shut down.
Mitsubishi seems to have no idea.
Any clues?

Webby and Hypermiller where about are you? I'm in New Zealand.

It shouldn't shut down for hours -fortunately mine didn't ever-, but we must consider that this is a big computer on wheels, and even the most sophisticated computer can go into a spinning ball or blue screen on unexpected input.
When- not if- that happens the car may take up to a couple of minutes to reset itself.

jaapv said:

This is an unknown problem. Contact your dealer.

Click to expand...

Haha, now that's exactly the line any device with chips in it will spell out for you when "a problem is detected". :lol:

Jeffsantaines, located in Melbourne, Australia.

First time this happened to the Mrs was about 20 minutes. Second time was about 10 minutes.

The one time I've seen it was more like 3-5 minutes. Nothing like overnight, and we haven't called out the roadside assist yet. Definitely next time. 3 times in 6 weeks is a little too often to shrug off.

Ok, an update, just happened again after not happening for months. Car refused to select drive. I noticed the following:
1. Engine warning lamp was on.
2. Auxilluary battery warning lamp was on.
3. Brake pedal was wooden - apparently no hydraulics while this state persisted.
After about 5 minutes I was able to switch it off and start over.
Still no clue as to what is triggering this issue. Contacting Mitsubishi.

Ready light?

The time my car refused to start the battery on the Cobra immobilizer Driver Card was flat. Took me a while to figure it out and do the emergency pin entry.