Wife Drove Off While Plugged IN!

Grrrrrrrrrrrrr!

This morning, my wife took the iMiEV. Except that she didn't unplug it first.

Nope.
DID NOT unplug the car. Drove down the driveway anyways.

At least she realized that something wasn't right and STOPPED, rather than just leaving completely.

The upside is that the car looks OK. The J1772 port looks undamaged. Pieces of the plastic pin covers from the charging cord were still in the charge port, but those came out easy.

The Plug on the the Level 2 charger is broken. The charger was NOT yanked off the wall.
Money has been tight lately, so I've appreciated the gas savings of the car, but I don't have another $500 handy for a new L2 charger, or even $100 for a new connector.

I did get a broken Chevy Volt Level 1 charger from a friend a while back, which I fixed. I might just take that back apart and transplant the end connector.

Our Level 2 Charging Station is a GE WattStation. I know that when the car is done charging, the contractor in the EVSE opens up, but there should still be signal to the communications pins to the car that says "Hey, you are plugged in, you can't drive away!" Seems like something didn't work in the safety communications system.

Mostly just terribly frustrated at somebody else braking my stuff!!!

Grrr indeed! My first impulse is to blame the WattStation, as my car won't start while plugged into our SPX EVSE or Blink (though it will roll if shifted out of Park, which has allowed a few other owners' broken inlets).

I have a spare J1772 cordset, PM or call if you want it shipped over.

Ben, I suspect your wife rolled down the driveway before turning the car ON - not the first on this forum to have that happen. Hey, not to worry, she's driving a BEV! I have a spare J1772 plug and cord which I'll be happy to give to you for free - PM me.

Somebody did that at the local clipper creek at the mall and it looked worse. i checked it over an all looked intact, plugged it in and it worked. Yours would likely work too, just no latch to hold it, etc. Okay to vent and get it out of your system here on the forum, she didn't intend to do that and feels badly also...

After my wife got back home, I played around with the car a little.

The charge port seems OK. I could plug in my Level 1 charger, and it would charge.

I also took a look at exactly what the car would do with the charging cord plugged in, whether or not it has power.

Even if you have a J1772 cord plugged in, but no power to it, you STILL can't start the car.

As JoeS mentioned, yes, I think what happened is that my driveway is slightly downhill, and the car was pointed face out.

I believe that my wife didn't hold the key in the start position long enough, and did NOT put it in READY mode. She THOUGHT the car was on, put it in drive (which is essentially neutral on an electric car when the motor isn't doing anything!) and ROLLED forward down-hill until she heard/felt the crunch of the cable, at which time she hit the brakes, put it in park, and turned the key off.

Offers of cables and plugs are greatly appreciated. Thanks guys.

Yeah they missed the boat with that "safety" feature. The shifter should be locked in park if you are plugged in . . . power or not. Then it can't roll away!

Aerowhatt

Hey Ben,
On 22 April I sent you a PM with some of my contact details, and you still have not picked it up. If you'd like that J1772 cable I need to know where to send it.

Note to everyone: please enable you Board Preferences (under User Control Panel) to send you an email notification whenever someone sends you a PM. There are five PMs that I have sent out to various forum members that have still not been picked up. :?

Hi Joe,
Thanks, I just replied to you. I've been busy working the last few days and am just catching up right now with emails and web notices.

Yikes! Glad all is relatively OK, Ben. Things could have turned out so much worse.

I guess the question I have (anyone can address this) is: shouldn't the J1772 standard have prevented the car from being put into gear and/or accelerated while plugged in? Is this an issue with this particular brand of EVSE or something inherent in the i-MiEVs implementation of the standard?

Benjamin Nead, go back and re-read the posts. What presumably happened is this:

The car is parked on a slight downslope
Wife got into car, turned ON the ignition switch and thought she had started the car and didn't notice that it didn't give the two dings and a READY light
She took it out of PARK and released the brakes and the car rolled
OUCH!
At least two other instances on this forum of this happening...

Personally, I'm satisfied with the existing level of immobilization as I occasionally need to push the car a few feet while it's plugged in and charging. I'm sure every one of us has hopped into the car and turned the key only to discover it's still plugged in...

I hadn't mentioned it yet either, but as Joe just said, there ARE advantages to being able to shift into gear while being plugged in.

There are a few cars out there that almost have TOO many safety features or everything is so reliant on electronics that it can lead to problems. For example, it's been an issue on Prius's that you can't put them into neutral with a dead battery! That makes it very difficult to tow a disabled vehicle. Also, you can't open the rear hatch with a dead battery. Ironically, on the gen 2 Prius, the battery is in the side of the trunk, so you can't get at it when you have a bad battery! (The do provide a jumper-cable connection under the hood.) That one's an issue on the iMiEV too. When I got my flooded parts car, I wasn't able to open the hatch. It was a pain. When I finally got it open, I physically unbolted the loop that the mechanism latches into.

On our Prius, the aftermarket Hymotion plug-in system prevents you from turning the car on when you are plugged in to charge. Unfortunately, you also can't put it into accessory mode, which I think is a pain in the butt! For example, I can't have the car radio on while charging, and I like to have the radio on if I am washing, cleaning, vacuuming, or otherwise doing a little something with the car parked there.

Hey guys!
I got my Level 2 Charging station fixed! A big thanks to Joe for sending me his cord!

Swapping out cords was pretty straight forward.

http://300mpg.org/2016/05/07/evse-repair/

It's very fortunate the car wasn't damaged, that's all I can say.

I cant understand this either, as my car will definitely not start if plugged in.

perhaps stick a bright notice on the garage door with the relevant protocol.

An occupational hazard, but not an insurmountable one it would seem.

I asked Mitsubishi what a replacement home charging lead costs, and they quoted me £1023.68 (in the UK)... just horrifyingly expensive. But the rear seat release lever which was broken when I got the car was only £9.50.

I'ts a bit of a lottery breaking stuff on the IMIEV, so it would appear.