The Troubleshooting and Repair for On-board Charger (OBC) Thread

[kiev]

... But from the limited reversed engineering schematic we manage to come up with so far, it seems that the trigger simply & abruptly switch off the relay, thus taxing the bypass (now heated from operation) resistors & caps.

Are you referring to the OBC or the EVSE schematic?

The trigger sends a signal to the microcontroller within the EVSE to stop the charging. It's not clear to me whether there is some sort of control within the EVSE such that it can open the main relay during the zero-voltage crossing of the AC mains to minimize arcing. It seems that the EVSE opens before any relays or contactors in the car.

The EVSE may have some power factor control to sense and monitor the state of the mains at every point in the waveform at 50 or 60 Hz, and so it could alsostop the charging in the event of a loss of mains power (such as from pulling the plug from the wall). It would make sense to do these things in order to reduce the risk of damage to the car.

but i don't have an EVSE schematic to know what it is really doing. There is an unknown processor chip and only one guy on the Leaf forum has figured out what it is and how to read and write the firmware.

 

[ChristopheFR]

Hello tout le monde,
I just acquired a charrger out of service. And so I ask myself the following question :
Can we mix the parts ?

exemple :
Repairing the bottom pcb from a charrger to connect it on the other?

Are top and bottom pcb paired?

 

[kiev]

The boards are not paired, but we have not heard a report of a defect in the top board as yet.

 

[ChristopheFR]

No, what I mean: if my bottom card is too bad, can I change it by the bottom card of the second charrger?

 

[skylogger]

ChristophER:

So far I have come across first of year 2010 IMIEV and Mid year / end of year 2010 IMIEV.
The first of year 2010 used a set of 3 pcbs instead of a set of 2 pcb's for the ac charging section.
It appears that from Mid 2010 up to 2012 all pcbs look same and can plug together, but the very
first 2010 pcbs were totally different and had totally different connectors.
The later versions have a flex strip cable between the two pcbs, while the early 2010 had discrete
wire conntectors between the three pcbs.

 

[ChristopheFR]

Hello tout le monde,
I have just finished repairing my onboard charrger
A friend changed the three big capacitors 680 μF, the relay, the capacitor 2.2 μF, the two capacitors 1000 pF and both 4.7ohm resistors.

When I plug in my onboard charrger, the car does not start charging.
Do I have to erase error codes in the odb?
With which tool? my car was born on 10/10/2011

 

[redcane]

Bonjour Christopher,

I know if at least one case where clearing the error codes was not required, assuming the only error was from the charger. From what I've seen it seems some error codes are "self-clearing", but others aren't.

If you double check everything, and can't find any fault, reading the error codes will point you toward the problem. I've had success with the i909 by iCarsoft both reading codes and clearing them.

 

[kiev]

...
I have just finished repairing my onboard charrger
A friend changed the three big capacitors 680 μF, the relay, the capacitor 2.2 μF, the two capacitors 1000 pF and both 4.7ohm resistors.
...

Did you look at the 20A fuse in the Motor Control Unit--many times the fuse will blow when an OBC goes bad?

 

[ChristopheFR]

Hello Kiev,
When the car is « READY », the 12V Aux battery voltage goes up to 14,5 V
Based on that, the 20A fuse is good, no ?

Do you think icarsoft i909 will works for my 2011 Czero?

 

[Bjron]

Nice this forum is active a lot. Ill share my problems and fixings also.

I had 20a fuse blow problem in charger. But i passed charger and HV feeded just dcdc.

All worked ok before 1. Chademo charge. It stopped charge and maked DTCs so car didnt even go to Ready. On local car maintenance they checked there was like 10 DTC and reset those. And car started ok. 12v battery is new and on 12.3v on idle. I had front lights and seat heaters on for 1 hour and dcdc on but guess 12v usage was high and it didnt full charged it. Is 12.3v still ok?

I tried also there to turn off and restart car but no Ready mode... it gives now everytime Condensator DTC
P1a15, which wont allow car start. Service maganer checked repair bulletin and sayd surely most money tooked faults like Heater or AC compressor. I think fault is just 12.3v lowish 12v or dcdc Failure. It has that my Charger bypass connection but it was ok. Maybe old dcdc just died totally. 20a fuse was ok also

Chademo sayd no CAN community but i think its because no ready mode working not at all. 1. Time i heared battery cooling fan rotates. But Chademo ended in 3 sec. And no fan rotated on other tryes.

Ill going to try if car mechanist can reset DTC when i disconnect dcdc and charge 12v first. Then i drive 1km to Chademo without dcdc and try if it works. Ill take 12v 15a 230v charger to type2 on fast charge to make sure 12v will be ok on chademo. Feed 12v in cigarette socket.

 

[Bjron]

Update: Not helped dcdc disconnect and 12v boost to 13.8v. Still got same DTC active again allways even reset codes. So car goes to official garage.. i said that no need new heater or AC compressor so just disconnect and seal tape connectors if fault.

 

[DBMandrake]

Update: Not helped dcdc plud disconnect and 12v boost to 13.8v. Still got same DTC active again allways even reset codes. So car goes to official garage.. i said that no need new heater or AC compressor so just disconnect and seal tape connectors if fault.

The car relies on the AC compressor for rapid charging so if this is disabled or not working you will not be able to rapid charge.

 

[Bjron]

True on summer or over 25 celsius battery.. so its not happenin on 6 months here near arctic circle. . No indoor place for car. Still it might do some fan blowing for battery on winter if over 60a fast charge. Below 60a it wont use AC compressor even on summer.

 

[Bjron]

I got p1a15 code when i was in Chdademo charger and started fast charge.. yea it wont let car to go Ready mode.

I reboted 12v battery there hope DTC to clear but nono.. instead when reset 12v battery i got about 15% more SOC and 15km more range. Even car didnt charge at all. Soc meter started with bar to bar more. So it did reset also

. Just wondering how it gived 15% more soc?
Do u think i might need ask maintenance just reprogram ECU to not get p1a15 active after every DTC clear?

 

[Bjron]

Anyone else here using Just DCDC of OBC, Charger board HV bypassed? I still use CAN board of OBC unit. I havent try yet disconnect CAN from it. Will car get errors if OBC CAN module disconnect? If it need just CAN module sure it might just put in small plastic box and let it be there.

I have readed that someone used 3.party DCDC and just Chademi charging. My 1. try to do Chademo with OBD just doing DCDC failed and its now in repair garage..

 

[redcane]

. Just wondering how it gived 15% more soc?

I've noticed our fuel meter jumping around when we disconnect the 12V. It's obviously affecting the calibration calculation rather than the actual state of charge.

Do u think i might need ask maintenance just reprogram ECU to not get p1a15 active after every DTC clear?

Whilst this is technically possible, I don't think they have access to the source code, nor would they consider it a good idea to make such a change for safety reasons.

We've got the same code, and have isolated it to a failure of the pre charge contactor or resistor. However it could be related to a failure that was dangerous.

<span>Anyone else here using Just DCDC of OBC, charger board HV bypassed? I still use CAN board of OBC unit. I havent try yet disconnect CAN from it. Will car get errors if OBC CAN module disconnect? If it need just CAN module sure it might just put in small plastic box and let it be there. </span>.

The only case of this seems to be charliejuliett - http://myimiev.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=413. He found, and I also found, without CAN comms to the charger there is an error raised. The 12V battery light is lit. He taped over it with black tape.

 

[Bjron]

Thx for replies.

I just readed AC Comoressor and heater connection drawings and find out there are no HV relays for those.. this is nonsense..

So only way to disconnect/isolate them is really only fuse remove in bottom of car.

So starting prosedure really allways chech also those components HV side allways.

 

[redcane]

My understanding is these are only powered through the main (and pre charge) contactors, so they are isolated when the car is not in "ready"?

 

[Bjron]

Yes and that might disable my driving now. And those both are under car without any HV fuse HV relay oe HV connector under hood.

https://static.nhtsa.gov/odi/tsbs/2015/SB-10058387-6169.pdf

Maybe failure might be also in Can bus because chademo said Can error. I never have tryed not ready able cat on Chademo before so cant know.

 

[DBMandrake]

Thx for replies.

I just readed AC Comoressor and heater connection drawings and find out there are no HV relays for those.. this is nonsense..

So only way to disconnect/isolate them is really only fuse remove in bottom of car.

So starting prosedure really allways chech also those components HV side allways.

Why don't you remove the link plug under the front left seat to isolate the battery if you need to work on the HV system ? That's what it's there for...

You would have to remove the link plug before safely removing one of the fuses under the pack anyway.