Charging fault when using mains charger

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SteveHackett

New member
Joined
Dec 5, 2022
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1
I’ve been searching for posts on this forum and others regarding charging faults and there are quite a few. A frequent issue seems to be the Outlander’s internal charging and maybe problems with the error-handling system. My model is 2015 and I have had it for 5 years. There was a problem with charging after a long run which the local dealer failed to identify after three attempts, so it went to Mitsubishi HQ under warranty. I have no faith in my local dealer’s service dept, so have been doing the routine servicing myself.

Since buying the car, I have been charging at home with the supplied Yazaki mains charger, although I charge at work using the Type 1/Type 2 cable. This is because we also have a Leaf with a dedicated V2G charger and our house electrics cannot support two 7kW devices. We also have a POD Point which is wired via a changeover switch with the Indra V2G charger.

Over the last three years, the mains charger has sometimes gone into an error mode (red fault light on) when first plugging in, but after switching the mains off and then back on, it would start charging normally. This has been happening more frequently, so I checked the plug and car socket and noticed it was a bit dirty (probably due to leaf debris). I decided to clean both connections using a brake-cleaner aerosol and blowing dry with compressed air. After this, the fault mode became permanent.

First I tried connecting the Outlander charger to the Leaf and it started charging correctly. Then I connected the Leaf mains charger to the Outlander and it also went into error mode. Finally, I switched the POD Point on and connected this to the Outlander. It charged up normally.

On reading the technical spec for Type 1 charging, I understand that one of the small pins (the Control Pilot) will signal a fatal error if there is a current flow to the Protective Earth pin. There are also various resistors wired into the charge connector plug and the vehicle socket, so anything altering the resistance (like dirt) could cause an error mode. But why does this not cause the POD Point to trip out?

Has anyone else encountered this problem – and hopefully fixed it?
 
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