fast charger stuck for 2 hours

[SueReddy]

My brand new Leaf had it's first fast charge using a public CHAdeMO charger. After completing and stopping charge the charger refused to come out. The Support Techies told me it was the car's fault. The breakdown guy didn't know how to fix it. Then suddenly after 2+ hours it released like nothing had ever been wrong. Anyone had this experience?

[dmacarthur]

The local EvGo DCFC will not release by pressing any of the buttons on the screen, but will release using the app and "stop charging". Get the app is the best suggestion I have.....

[dmacarthur]

apps, I should say.... get all you can, and get cards for as many DCFCs as you can although the cards don't work as well as the apps...... and you can always call the number on the DCFC they have been pretty good at helping.....

[GRA]

My brand new Leaf had it's first fast charge using a public CHAdeMO charger. After completing and stopping charge the charger refused to come out. The Support Techies told me it was the car's fault. The breakdown guy didn't know how to fix it. Then suddenly after 2+ hours it released like nothing had ever been wrong. Anyone had this experience?

I had a similar problem a couple of years ago at an EA CCS charger when renting a Bolt. When the charge stopped (at 100%) the connector refused to unlock. Two of us tried everything we could think of for the next 20 minutes and no dice, but then the guy helping me gave it a last, angry yank not expecting anything to happen. It had unlocked itself at some point shortly before, so he almost fell on his butt. No idea why it happened then, and I haven't experienced another incident since in the 3 different BEVs I've subsequently rented, but I've never charged at that same site since then. Tried to once and the chargers there were apparently down, as I couldn't start a charge. Fortunately I didn't need one, so drove to another EA site closer to home and got one with no problem.

I'm not up on the current LEAF, but the two Kias and one Hyundai I've rented recently all allow you to set whether or not the charger will lock to the car while charging. You can also set the max. charge % for it to stop charging, so if you try and stop the charge before it reaches that point, you have to either change the max. charge % to less than its current level to get the connector to unlock, or else otherwise tell the car not to lock the charger. Others here will have a better idea if current LEAFs have similar charging features.

[cwerdna]

I had a similar problem a couple of years ago at an EA CCS charger when renting a Bolt. When the charge stopped (at 100%) the connector refused to unlock. Two of us tried everything we could think of for the next 20 minutes and no dice, but then the guy helping me gave it a last, angry yank not expecting anything to happen. It had unlocked itself at some point shortly before, so he almost fell on his butt. No idea why it happened then, and I haven't experienced another incident since in the 3 different BEVs I've subsequently rented, but I've never charged at that same site since then. Tried to once and the chargers there were apparently down, as I couldn't start a charge. Fortunately I didn't need one, so drove to another EA site closer to home and got one with no problem.

Bolt has a stop button on the infotainment system that will stop DC FCing. See https://www.chevybolt.org/threads/psa-o ... ost-762209. I've not been able to find an equivalent on my Niro EV, which is also CCS.

https://www.chevybolt.org/threads/psa-o ... lug.39067/ is a list of other methods to stop CCS chargers, not all of them apply.

[cwerdna]

My brand new Leaf had it's first fast charge using a public CHAdeMO charger. After completing and stopping charge the charger refused to come out. The Support Techies told me it was the car's fault. The breakdown guy didn't know how to fix it. Then suddenly after 2+ hours it released like nothing had ever been wrong. Anyone had this experience?

Are you willing to post the location so we can check on Plugshare?

It's possible (but not likely) that it has a very old style of CHAdeMO handle that is not intuitive to operate. I've not seen either of these styles for ages. Skip to 1:20 of https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FqjMlblghEc to see the multi-step release process.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=317VrBDkBjg at the 1 minute mark is a similar style but w/o the grey handle lock at the back.

Both of these styles sucked.

[GRA]

I had a similar problem a couple of years ago at an EA CCS charger when renting a Bolt. When the charge stopped (at 100%) the connector refused to unlock. Two of us tried everything we could think of for the next 20 minutes and no dice, but then the guy helping me gave it a last, angry yank not expecting anything to happen. It had unlocked itself at some point shortly before, so he almost fell on his butt. No idea why it happened then, and I haven't experienced another incident since in the 3 different BEVs I've subsequently rented, but I've never charged at that same site since then. Tried to once and the chargers there were apparently down, as I couldn't start a charge. Fortunately I didn't need one, so drove to another EA site closer to home and got one with no problem.

Bolt has a stop button on the infotainment system that will stop DC FCing. See https://www.chevybolt.org/threads/psa-o ... ost-762209. I've not been able to find an equivalent on my Niro EV, which is also CCS.

https://www.chevybolt.org/threads/psa-o ... lug.39067/ is a list of other methods to stop CCS chargers, not all of them apply.

I reduced the max. charge level setting in the Niro (and I think the EV6) when I wanted to stop the charge, or I could have changed the connector to never lock. On the Niro they're both on the EV menu selection on the touchscreen. Setting battery charge level is covered on page 1-11 of the owner's manual (you can set AC and DC charge levels separately), and charging connector lock mode is covered on pg. 1-17. Unfortunately that doesn't help the OP with his LEAF.

[cwerdna]

I reduced the max. charge level setting in the Niro (and I think the EV6) when I wanted to stop the charge, or I could have changed the connector to never lock. On the Niro they're both on the EV menu selection on the touchscreen. Setting battery charge level is covered on page 1-11 of the owner's manual (you can set AC and DC charge levels separately), and charging connector lock mode is covered on pg. 1-17. Unfortunately that doesn't help the OP with his LEAF.

Yes, Niro EV has separate max charge level % settings for AC vs. DC charging. I've not tried setting it below the current SoC to see if it'll stop from that, but IIRC, you can't move them below 50%.

Unlike Leaf, there is no never lock setting for Niro EV's charging lock. There's a button on the left side of the dash that toggles between LOCK and AUTO. I have 2 different PDFs of the Niro EV manual. One appears to be a US one that I downloaded w/a prop 65 California cancer warning on page 2. The other doesn't but the discussion of the charging lock is the same.

[WetEV]

I had a similar problem a couple of years ago at an EA CCS charger when renting a Bolt. When the charge stopped (at 100%) the connector refused to unlock. Two of us tried everything we could think of for the next 20 minutes and no dice, but then the guy helping me gave it a last, angry yank not expecting anything to happen. It had unlocked itself at some point shortly before, so he almost fell on his butt.

Or he broke a tiny bit of plastic, on some cars, that latches the CCS connector in while the DC voltages and currents are not safe. Yea, should be metal. Hard metal and large enough so that angry yanks don't break it.

Or the latch tab on the CCS connector itself.

DC high current high voltage arcs are scary. As in potentially deadly scary. Unlike AC arcs, the voltage doesn't go to zero so the arc can continue for long periods of time.


DO NOT FORCE A DCFC CONNECTOR, EVER.

[cwerdna]

Exactly. I come across broken tabs on CCS DC FCs very frequently. Two sites that I frequent have had it happen numerous times. They get all fixed and then at some point, at least 1 gets broken again.

I almost always call them in (e.g. to EA) when I see it. The only one exception I can remember was when I was pressed for time and didn't have all the info I needed to call in about later (e.g. which charger).