[arijaycomet]

Background:
We have a 2021 XC40 Recharge with just a tick over 11k miles on it over the last 7 months. We’ve been charging at home without any issues, using a “generic” 25-foot cable (NEMA 14-50 wall to J1772 car). Never had any issues charging before. My Polestar 2 (same architecture as the XC40) charges fine with this setup, too.

Issue:
Got home lasted night, in the wife’s XC40 which was around 75% SOC. Unplugged my Polestar which was fully charged (90% SOC) and plugged in her car. Light would go green, charging would start, you could hear clicking at both ends (the relays in the car AND at the charge cable’s black box) — then it would go yellow — then back to green, doing this green/yellow cycle a few times till eventually going red/failure to charge (on the car’s screen and at the charge port).

Observations:
Inside the car on the instrument cluster I would see it ramp up but never exceeding 7A max before it would click/fail off. Also, at some point it even tripped the breaker and i had to go flip that in the basement of my house. But only once during my MANY tries. It seems like something is unhappy and keeps clicking off relays, as if something is shorting out? Basically the car is not managing to successfully get up to charging speed, and eventually errors out.

(Side note: I tried charging my Polestar 2 up to 100% today, since we have a day trip planned— its charging fine right now, so i know it isnt the cable)

In order to test other options, I decided to get out the short OE charge cable that came with the car. This requires some musical chairs (cars) to get my wife’s car close enough to the NEMA 14-50 outlet — which I did, simply to test. SAME issue persists, even with the factory cable that came with her Volvo. So this eliminates the cable as the issue (same issue with aftermarket AND factory cable). And it seems to eliminate the outlet, since the Polestar works fine with the aftermarket cable. Leaving me to think it is the car.

Plans:
Later tonight or tomorrow, when time permits, I will go off-site and find the nearest AC charger (potentially a friend who lives 20min away with a WallBox) and perhaps also test a DC charger (nearest option is only 50kW but being at over 70% SOC that is plenty to at least TEST things). If indeed the AC charging issue persists, then a visit to dealer seems imminent.

But…
If anyone has experienced a similar story, or has any thoughts or creative ideas, please let me know!! Thanks…

 

[andyharvey]

Background:
We have a 2021 XC40 Recharge with just a tick over 11k miles on it over the last 7 months. We’ve been charging at home without any issues, using a “generic” 25-foot cable (NEMA 14-50 wall to J1772 car). Never had any issues charging before. My Polestar 2 (same architecture as the XC40) charges fine with this setup, too.

Issue:
Got home lasted night, in the wife’s XC40 which was around 75% SOC. Unplugged my Polestar which was fully charged (90% SOC) and plugged in her car. Light would go green, charging would start, you could hear clicking at both ends (the relays in the car AND at the charge cable’s black box) — then it would go yellow — then back to green, doing this green/yellow cycle a few times till eventually going red/failure to charge (on the car’s screen and at the charge port).

Observations:
Inside the car on the instrument cluster I would see it ramp up but never exceeding 7A max before it would click/fail off. Also, at some point it even tripped the breaker and i had to go flip that in the basement of my house. But only once during my MANY tries. It seems like something is unhappy and keeps clicking off relays, as if something is shorting out? Basically the car is not managing to successfully get up to charging speed, and eventually errors out.

(Side note: I tried charging my Polestar 2 up to 100% today, since we have a day trip planned— its charging fine right now, so i know it isnt the cable)

In order to test other options, I decided to get out the short OE charge cable that came with the car. This requires some musical chairs (cars) to get my wife’s car close enough to the NEMA 14-50 outlet — which I did, simply to test. SAME issue persists, even with the factory cable that came with her Volvo. So this eliminates the cable as the issue (same issue with aftermarket AND factory cable). And it seems to eliminate the outlet, since the Polestar works fine with the aftermarket cable. Leaving me to think it is the car.

Plans:
Later tonight or tomorrow, when time permits, I will go off-site and find the nearest AC charger (potentially a friend who lives 20min away with a WallBox) and perhaps also test a DC charger (nearest option is only 50kW but being at over 70% SOC that is plenty to at least TEST things). If indeed the AC charging issue persists, then a visit to dealer seems imminent.

But…
If anyone has experienced a similar story, or has any thoughts or creative ideas, please let me know!! Thanks…

Saw something similar last week. It turned out it was due to our utility voltage being extremely low. Car would start charging then after about 30 seconds red light on the charging cable came on, slight difference was that the car display and light on the charging port stayed green. Reported amps on the display was zero.
This is in the UK, we had storms that disrupted the utility supply we were on about 175v AC instead of the normal 230v. I had one RCB trip as well - but not the one connected to the car.
Since the supply has been fixed, no problem seen.

 

[Rousie13]

Someone else in the forums was having issues charging as well. They were told by VCC that the vehicle had to be locked to charge…..complete BS I know, but I’m wondering if some are dealing with a software bug that is causing this issue you are seeing. I know we have had some weird issues and locking over night has helped fix the glitches we were seeing. So instead of VCC saying if we have a known issue, they are just saying the car needs to be locked to charge.

Long story short, try locking the car while attempting to charge to see if that works.

 

[JT Rock]

Sorry to hear about the new issue. I recall that @kevinxb's vehicle had a similar symptom here. DC charging still worked.
I hope that you don't need to have your onboard charger replaced. It may take a while.

 

[B-mtrd]

The only time I experienced charging issues was a couple of weeks ago but they were caused by the Grizzl-E charger. They provided a solution and since then I haven’t had any issues.

Having a 10yo and a 5yo we lock our cars when in the garage. They tend to be mischievous and get into trouble.

 

[XC90_Dinosaur]

Background:
We have a 2021 XC40 Recharge with just a tick over 11k miles on it over the last 7 months. We’ve been charging at home without any issues, using a “generic” 25-foot cable (NEMA 14-50 wall to J1772 car). Never had any issues charging before. My Polestar 2 (same architecture as the XC40) charges fine with this setup, too.

Issue:
Got home lasted night, in the wife’s XC40 which was around 75% SOC. Unplugged my Polestar which was fully charged (90% SOC) and plugged in her car. Light would go green, charging would start, you could hear clicking at both ends (the relays in the car AND at the charge cable’s black box) — then it would go yellow — then back to green, doing this green/yellow cycle a few times till eventually going red/failure to charge (on the car’s screen and at the charge port).

Observations:
Inside the car on the instrument cluster I would see it ramp up but never exceeding 7A max before it would click/fail off. Also, at some point it even tripped the breaker and i had to go flip that in the basement of my house. But only once during my MANY tries. It seems like something is unhappy and keeps clicking off relays, as if something is shorting out? Basically the car is not managing to successfully get up to charging speed, and eventually errors out.

(Side note: I tried charging my Polestar 2 up to 100% today, since we have a day trip planned— its charging fine right now, so i know it isnt the cable)

In order to test other options, I decided to get out the short OE charge cable that came with the car. This requires some musical chairs (cars) to get my wife’s car close enough to the NEMA 14-50 outlet — which I did, simply to test. SAME issue persists, even with the factory cable that came with her Volvo. So this eliminates the cable as the issue (same issue with aftermarket AND factory cable). And it seems to eliminate the outlet, since the Polestar works fine with the aftermarket cable. Leaving me to think it is the car.

Plans:
Later tonight or tomorrow, when time permits, I will go off-site and find the nearest AC charger (potentially a friend who lives 20min away with a WallBox) and perhaps also test a DC charger (nearest option is only 50kW but being at over 70% SOC that is plenty to at least TEST things). If indeed the AC charging issue persists, then a visit to dealer seems imminent.

But…
If anyone has experienced a similar story, or has any thoughts or creative ideas, please let me know!! Thanks…

Sorry to hear that.
Being devils advocate I will say that your car will charge just fine at your friends place.
What you can do and I learned that from BC Hydro trying to charge in Whistler some time ago: Each EV has timer that if car fails to charge over some number of times will not charge at all. Despite ending up with deep charging station reset it makes sense. Anyway my suggestion is to move the car few inches back and forth inside the garage and try again. Check the onboard charger that comes with the car. If you have ground fault or something the Volvo charger will go red.
Another try is to hold J1772 up for better contact but try above first.

 

[arijaycomet]

first off THANK YOU to all who have replied. Some great advice.

Ok just to add to then:
DEEP SLEEP was attempted. Charging issues were last night. So I’d read about this. Locked car w/o charger attached. Let it deep sleep overnight. Didn’t fix issue.

MOVING car was also attempted. And that didn’t help. But I didn’t try to lock car while charging so maybe will try that this evening.

VOLTAGE not an issue as there is an LCD screen on the charger box (my third party cable) and it shows correct voltage and amperage which is nice. And again my polestar was fine on that cable

since I did get two cables tested and neither workeD, still blaming car. But will try both AC and DC offsite charging to see what happens.

again thank you for assistance — basically from what I’ve read above only thing I didn’t yet (since it did deep sleep overnight to not benefit or repair) would be to “lock while charging” so I’ll try that once back home (out for day) — cheers all! Will update more soon.

 

[XC90_Dinosaur]

first off THANK YOU to all who have replied. Some great advice.

Ok just to add to then:
DEEP SLEEP was attempted. Charging issues were last night. So I’d read about this. Locked car w/o charger attached. Let it deep sleep overnight. Didn’t fix issue.

MOVING car was also attempted. And that didn’t help. But I didn’t try to lock car while charging so maybe will try that this evening.

VOLTAGE not an issue as there is an LCD screen on the charger box (my third party cable) and it shows correct voltage and amperage which is nice. And again my polestar was fine on that cable

since I did get two cables tested and neither workeD, still blaming car. But will try both AC and DC offsite charging to see what happens.

again thank you for assistance — basically from what I’ve read above only thing I didn’t yet (since it did deep sleep overnight to not benefit or repair) would be to “lock while charging” so I’ll try that once back home (out for day) — cheers all! Will update more soon.

Try it and I hope you have enough charge to drive to the dealership. I would call them anyway to go and read the car for codes. Fingers crossed.

 

[ColoradoNative]

I suspect that the onboard charger has failed.

 

[arijaycomet]

I suspect that the onboard charger has failed.

This is my thought exactly. I just want to ensure that is the case; and if that is the case, then i’d presume the DC fast charging might still work. So if indeed DC works but AC doesn’t, at any location — then i’d be inclined to agree with you fully. But i want to be armed with ALL data first.

Side note— does volvo offer free loaners? We haven’t actually had to take our car in for service except one time, and in that instance we opted to not bother with a loaner since my wife/i commute to work together anyhow. But this time around, knowing this visit may be extended, a loaner might be nice. Or does this vary by dealership?

 

[B-mtrd]

This is my thought exactly. I just want to ensure that is the case; and if that is the case, then i’d presume the DC fast charging might still work. So if indeed DC works but AC doesn’t, at any location — then i’d be inclined to agree with you fully. But i want to be armed with ALL data first.

Side note— does volvo offer free loaners? We haven’t actually had to take our car in for service except one time, and in that instance we opted to not bother with a loaner since my wife/i commute to work together anyhow. But this time around, knowing this visit may be extended, a loaner might be nice. Or does this vary by dealership?

I believe they do. They will also bring the Lis de to your house and take your car to the shop.
It will also depend on their availability.

 

[XC90_Dinosaur]

Loaners depends on the dealership. The reason I am going Dec 10th to address my connectivity issues. That was the date when they would have loaner available in case I need it. Dealership should ask you if you need one.
You will be the second person on the forum experiencing those particular charging problems.
The Post

 

[Rousie13]

At our dealer it was almost a month out to get a loaner, but this was to have a rattle fixed, so we could deal with waiting that long (still super annoying though). If my car wouldn’t charge then I’d be throwing a fit if they said a month…..I can’t go a month with no car.

 

[arijaycomet]

You will be the second person on the forum experiencing those particular charging problems.
The Post

Thanks for sharing this post. I had vague recollections about it but didn’t recall the title of the thread, and today was busy so never had a chance to go searching. So appreciate this… and yeah, I suspect my onboard charger will be replaced. See my next post/reply ….

 

[arijaycomet]

UPDATE — Testing AC/DC charging COMPLETE!

AC Charging
Test #1 - Home … after the car was left at home all day, returned home, plugged in … the same yellow-green-yellow-green-yellow-red … clicking noises on/off, charging starts/stops, eventually fails. No dice.

Test #2 - Church … there is a nearby church with a free AC Level 2 charger. I think it is a Bosch brand unit. Plugge din, same as above color cycles. No dice. Unplugged, try again, green/yellow clicks On/off again like home. But then on third attempt, it went right from yellow/communicating to red/failure. Intereating.

Test #3 - Investment Firm … further down same road there is a ChargePoint level 2 charger. Figured hey I got that $ credit from ChargePoint so worse case, this works, I’ll use some of that to charge the XC40. No dice! Except now, as noted, there is no more even TRYING to charge/clicking. The car goes right from white, plug in, yellow/communicating, red/failure. No clicks nothing. Just failure. YAY!

DC Charging
Test #4 - Chevrolet … there is a free 24kW DC Fast Charger at a local Chevy dealership. Pull up to find the spots are all blocked (the AC and DC chargers are side by side, both spots are taken by new cars, one of which is gas powered). Luckily the DC cable is long, the Bolt is short and pulled in deep, so I was able to squeeze in between the cars at angle so the rear left corner of my car is splitting the spot, snugly.

SUCCESS! DC Fast charging works!

Decided to stay there until I was over 90% SOC just to make sure my wife could run some Monday AM errands she needs to run before we’ll have time to take the car to Volvo. As the DC charging does not make use of the on board charger/converter … this was a good sign that i could charge the car. But alas… this is not how ideal. Let’s face it 24 kW isn’t fast. The nearest EA charger to me is a 25min drive and would use up 10% charge getting home (or 20% round trip); not ideal.

FINAL test on the way home was to revisit #3 (investment firm/ChargePoint) — just to make sure. And sure enough the same issue still; goes from yellow to red, never green, never clicking, never even close to starting to charge. I’m back home now, but as my Polestar is still plugged in and charging, I’ll test L2/AC charging at home one last time tomorrow. Based on above, fully expect yellow to red, no success. And… a visit to Volvo on Monday morning, demanding repairs, and a loaner, are next on my to do list. Sigh….

 

[XC90_Dinosaur]

Bright side is, you know what it is and how to deal with it. It is absolutely frustrating and discouraging. There are another three positive things: you have another EV, you will try another Volvo (hopefully) and the failure occurred when new. Seems first few thousand miles to be failure critical. After that let's hope nothing happens.
My 2009 XC90 brand new had wheel bearing replacement along with an axel. There was something else but forgot. All mechanical. Now we shifted to all electronically. Heads up.

 

[Rousie13]

The magic Volvo 8 ball will say you’re not supposed to be able to use AC charging and only use DC, or maybe you are supposed to talk to the car while charging. 😂

 

[CheshireDoc]

Had my XC40 Recharge for a month here in the UK. Working perfectly until last night. Now get a red Reconnecting Error on the dash and a red light by the charging port, at two separate home charge units many miles apart. Have tried all the usual including letting the car sleep over night, trying different keys, modem resets, factory resets, etc.
Had electric cars since 2014 and never had this kind of problem. Volvo Breakdown don't have a clue. The main dealership doesn't want to know on a Sunday. I am a doctor who needs the car to do home visits on patients. All rather annoying and would appreciate any solutions anyone can suggest.I reckon it's a software fault. Though it's been a delightful car, there have been a few software glitches and bugs I've noticed over the past few weeks. Released a a Beta version, methinks...

 

[JT Rock]

The main dealership doesn't want to know on a Sunday. I am a doctor who needs the car to do home visits on patients. All rather annoying and would appreciate any solutions anyone can suggest.

Find the nearest DC fast charger. If one is close enough, then that should work.

 

[CheshireDoc]

Find the nearest DC fast charger. If one is close enough, then that should work.

Thanks. Seems to work. Got me out of a pickle for now...