Hello coulomb, kiev, skylogger, piev, everybody else who is willing to lend us a neuron or two...
One of my friends has a Citroen C-Zero from 2012...
He's retired, but worked as an electrician his entire life. Retired = really no money for replacing the unit. No, I still have 20+years until I'm off work. I'm trying to do a good deed by helping out. We're in Switzerland, the car is in Aargau.
I'm an electronic hobbyist, I've repaired several car remote keys and few car units (Mercedes, Audi) for friends. I have many tols, lots of microcontrollers and many projects in progress or already done. except a good microscope. yes, I also have a thermal camera.
I've read through this forum for the past few weeks and my lonely neuron started hurting. I know I haven't even started yet with measuring and troubleshooting.. but it's next on Baywatch.
The problem: 2012 Citroen C-Zero not charging either from fast charge or from AC. The car owner drove to a fast charger but his car wouldn't charge, so then he drove home only to find out that the AC charger doesn't charge either. The green charging led on the power brick only blinks green and doesn't stay on and the car HUD doesn't show any signs of charging. The drive battery is now discharged. Otherwise in very good condition (after 11 !!!! years). The 12v battery is fine. It's been on life support ever since the car is suffering, as the DRL are always on and we fought a lot with the diagnose (yes, I have only realized now that we need a MUT... Will try to call on the local automobile club, maybe someone will help). So we have no DTCs.. Sadly, the local Citroen dealer is of no help.
We've looked inside the BCM (Battery Charging Module) but we found no blown capacitors in neither the EMI filter doghouse nor in the doghouse above the wafer plate. All the fuses are fine, even the one in the motor controlling unit, even the LittleFuse SMD one below the top BCM board.
There were indeed some skorch marks on the BCM metal cap (the wires have "shadowed" the skorch marks, I tend to believe it's just HV and dust), but it's exactly above the wires and fat inductors (towards the motor control unit). There's nothing fried (afaik/see). There is however a persistent electronics smell, so I suppose THERE MUST actually be something fried, it's just that we haven't found it yet.
The relays under the hood were all tested. No problem there.
The labels of the BCM and MCU attached.
I can attach some more photos, but you already have them all on this forum
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Thing is, I don't know what to put my hand on. The car is a bit further away from me, and any drive requires 1h (30 min each way). I'm still working and besides I also have some dinosaurs that must be take care of and provided for, plus delivered to and extracted from all their after school activities.. So my free time is below 0..
I haven't yet tested the thermal fuse cemented in the ceramic capacitor, but will do. I'd hope not too have to desolder the waffle plate, but if nothing else works, "I'll do it, «and I'll definitely do it again»".. some laughing won't hurt..
I don't know what fan should start and what relays should click when turning ignition, I haven't paid to much attention, but I could hear the water pump regularly working for many seconds then pausing for few minutes while we were digging with elm, obd and vcds cables in the car..
Questions:
- Any advice on what should we test/measure with the boards still in the car?
- Anything I should check at the car while I'm there?
- Does removing of the BCM boards entirely (including the waffle board but without its box) require the emptying of the coolant installation? I'm thinking to get them to my home so that I could conduct the investigation work during the night.
Thank you and much obliged!
I'll continue reading and I'll keep you updated on the progress.
