Ford lightning not charging? Vehicle charging fault error message?

[jefro]

Ground fault??

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[mitchskis]

There is an OBCC update available for Lightnings. That module controls charging.

If you DM me your VIN I'll check and see if it's in your update list, pretty sure though that everybody is supposed to get that. Dealer tech will do for free. Warranty.

Also, was this at an EVGo Fatboy charger by any chance?

Best,

Mike

No EVGo Chargers. I attached a couple more pictures of the chargers and the error messages I've gotten. I tried resetting the chargers, bur no luck.

I plan on testing on another public charger this evening to see if I have the same issues. A combination of "Charge Fault" and "Vehicle Fault" error messages? I'm likely going to have to reach out to Ford and my dealer to see what's going on.

 

[mitchskis]

I had my coworker plug in his Tesla with no issues. Also saw a Bolt and MINI charge up so almost certain its the truck at this point.

 

[Stlww18]

No EVGo Chargers. I attached a couple more pictures of the chargers and the error messages I've gotten. I tried resetting the chargers, bur no luck.

I plan on testing on another public charger this evening to see if I have the same issues. A combination of "Charge Fault" and "Vehicle Fault" error messages? I'm likely going to have to reach out to Ford and my dealer to see what's going on.

the error about stopping providing backup power makes me think even more there’s a power issue at the charger. Maybe it starts charging, loses power, intelligent backup tries to kick in, can’t since the Bosch isn’t made for that, ends the charging session

 

[Stlww18]

All the other EVs would never know the difference since they can’t do bidirectional power

 

[SmoothJ]

The fact that you can use the Ford EVSE that came with the truck says something. It basically means that it can charge and work with the trucks OBCs and computers. So there might be some sort of protocol mismatch thats going on preventing it from continuing, or its very particular on what it takes. I wonder if anyone else has this issue.

 

[FlasherZ]

All the other EVs would never know the difference since they can’t do bidirectional power

That is extremely weird.

The J1772 protocol doesn't deal with bidirectional power, it's a pretty simple one. The protocol required to enable bidirectional power is the digital protocol, like the one CCS uses - it connects the HV battery to the HV terminals in the CCS connector. Unless the Bosch charger is trying to speak CCS (which it likely is not), maybe it's a weird Ford software thing.

Certainly looks like the Ford thinks it's going into bidirectional mode...

 

[SmoothJ]

Makes me wonder if those older EVSEs need a shot of dielectric grease. Maybe the inital handshake is fine, just maintaining it is an issue.

 

[FlasherZ]

Makes me wonder if those older EVSEs need a shot of dielectric grease. Maybe the inital handshake is fine, just maintaining it is an issue.

I doubt it. The protocol is pretty sturdy and requires stability to enter charging mode. What I think is happening is that the truck's manipulation of the pilot signal is confusing the charging station, and in turn it is disconnecting and erroring in the truck.

The truck will apply resistance to ground for the pilot signal to draw down the voltage of the pilot; the EVSE reads this and knows what state the EV is in. When the EV is first connected, it draws the +12V of the pilot signal down to +9 volts to read the duty cycle for the current it can draw. Then when ready to charge, the vehicle varies the resistance to ground to bring it down to +6V, and the EVSE recognizes this and closes the contactors to start charging. It's possible there's some weird ground interaction at that point, or the truck uses a resistance that is out of spec for that particular charger. The EVSE would go into an error mode and open the contactors, dropping its pilot to 0V to indicate an error and the truck will report that error.

 

[Mike G]

Bottom line it's the EVSE that's the problem here and not the truck. At least that's what I'm getting out of this. Especially if his portable equipment is working without issues.

It wouldn't hurt for the OP get the OBCC update at the dealer to make sure that he has the latest and greatest. They can check his connected vehicle dashboard for the DTCs and do the update to address the codes they see.

Mike

 

[EVTruckGuy]

It really would be helpful to try a different level 2 charger. Just because other vehicles can charge ok at your work does not exclude a problem with the charger.

Your truck could be working just fine and have some sort of hardware or software incompatibility with that specific charger that a trip to the dealer cannot fix. Maybe the charger needs a software update or some sort of hardware/wiring update to communicate successfully with a Lightning. There are other possible issues with that charger as well.

I've driven multiple electric vehicles, and it is not uncommon to not be able to get a specific charger to work in any given vehicle only to then see a different make and model charge there without a problem. When this happens, your vehicle will will just fine at the next charger most of the time.

For all we know, nobody's Lightning can successfully charge there, so simply calling your dealer before doing more troubleshooting will likely not be much help. If you know anybody else with a Lightning, have them try charging at your work.

Or, your truck is broken and will not let you charge on any other level 2 chargers either. If that's the case, there is only 1 way to find out.

 

[FlasherZ]

Bottom line it's the EVSE that's the problem here and not the truck. At least that's what I'm getting out of this. Especially if his portable equipment is working without issues.

Not necessarily, could be a joint thing... that EVSE may be less tolerant of voltage issues *and* the truck may be out-of-tolerance on its resistance to activate the charger. That would allow most chargers to work with his truck, and other vehicles to work with that EVSE, but the two combined will have problems. You'd need some equipment to watch the pilot signal to see what's happening to cause the problem.

 

[Mike G]

Not necessarily, could be a joint thing... that EVSE may be less tolerant of voltage issues *and* the truck may be out-of-tolerance on its resistance to activate the charger. That would allow most chargers to work with his truck, and other vehicles to work with that EVSE, but the two combined will have problems. You'd need some equipment to watch the pilot signal to see what's happening to cause the problem.

Understood but somebody who can see his DTCs needs to use their decoder ring to get a clue and advise further. That means at the very least a call to the service advisor who can pull up his VIN in PTS and cypher it out.

Mike

 

[mitchskis]

Has anyone had any issues with charging their truck at a public charger? My mobile charger works fine when I plug in at home, but when I tried charging at a level 2 charger at work, I'm getting the solid amber lights on the charge indicator next to the charge port and an error message that there is a "Vehicle charging fault"? Simultaneously, I'm getting a "Service vehicle soon" message as well, but this disappears once I stop trying to charge at this particular charger. Has anyone run into this issue or has any ideas on what's causing this issue? I'm hoping someone might have ideas on how to troubleshoot?

Ok, latest update. I spoke with Ford about the issue. After being transferred to 3 different “charge pro” departments they ultimately told me to take back into the dealer to have a diagnostic. I called my dealer and going to take the truck in once they have some availability.

I took the truck over to a different level 2 charger (ChargePoint) and had NO ISSUES with charging the truck, though very slow, but to be expected at a free Level 2 charger outside of target. I’m feeling a little better that I can at least charge other public stations. I’ve informed my dealer, but still planning on taking in to have diagnostic run just in case.

I plan on calling the customer support number on the Bosch station to tell them the issue and maybe they can see something on there end that I just can’t, which would solve the problem? I’ve seen a few people on this thread mention it could be some outdated software update Bosch needs to complete to make compatible with the Lighting? Either way, trying to go at it from both directions, Truck & Charger, and hopefully find the solution. I appreciate everyone’s Feedback.

I’m sure either Ford, the Dealer, or the charging network will google the problem at some point and come across this thread which will likely give them ideas on what the problem might be to help troubleshoot.

 

[FlasherZ]

Interesting. My TeslaTap is an 80A Mini, and I see exactly the same symptom on the Gen1 charger that you described.

I also have an 80A JDapter Stub which I leave on one of my 2 gen2 chargers at home - and it occurs to me that because the JDapter is sitting right there, I may not have tried the TT since I rewired the gen2 units' branch circuit and upped them from 56A to 80A. I'll try it when I'm home later this week and see what happens. At 56A the TTMini worked fine on the Gen2 units.

So it seems there's some type of an incompatibility between the Lightning, TeslaTap, and Tesla gen 1 HPWC unit. My TeslaTap works with my HPWC gen2 charging the Lightning (delivered today!), but does not work with the gen1 HPWC. When I plug the TeslaTap into the gen1 HPWC it stays green, but when I plug into the Lightning the HPWC flashes red 8 times and refuses to charge.

@cs13368, anything you'd like to do to try and troubleshoot this? The HPWC1 will charge a Model X through the J1772 adapter and TeslaTap, but Lightning is a no-go.

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