'14 Volt not able to charge on Level 2, but could charge on L1 (8 amp and 12 amp)

3870 Views 12 Replies 9 Participants Last post by konimail, Mar 30, 2021

Millenium Falcon

Discussion Starter · Feb 24, 2017

My '14 Volt was bought new and now has 48K. It's been charging nightly on a Blink Level 2 home charger for the past 3 years. I've also charged it at public charging stations often. It's been very reliable so far.

So this week, when I plugged in the car to the Blink charger, I expected the car to initiate a charge for 20 seconds, then stop, with the car's charging indicator to flash slowly to indicate "delayed charging."

What I got instead was the car trying to initiate a charge, stop, start again, stop--it never would get to the "delayed charging" phase. Each time it starts and stops, the car honks once. On the dash, I saw a message "Problem Detected with Charging Station," No CEL displayed, and Onstar couldn't detect any error or fault codes.

So thinking that maybe I had a problem with the Blink Charger, I tried using 2 other Level 2 chargers:

a Panasonic portable EVSE (from a '11 Leaf) that was upgraded by EVSEUpgrade to a Level 2, and,
the Clipper Creek portable EVSE (from a '16 Volt) with a 240v adapter.

Both of these chargers also exhibited the same issue--the stop, start, stop... error.

But my '14 Volt charges fine on the supplied Level 1 charger (either on 8 amp or 12 amp). No errors or problems.

And interestingly, all 3 Level 2 chargers work perfectly fine on my 2016 Volt--no errors or problems.

Any ideas why my '14 couldn't charge on Level 2? I'm going to try a public charging station next, so that way I can rule out that possibly something is wrong with my house wiring or utility.

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Millenium Falcon

Discussion Starter · #8 · Feb 25, 2017

Ok, some good news/bad news.

I tried the '14 Volt at a public L2 charger (Clipper Creek)--and it charges just fine.

And strangely, I've just plugged in this morning (Saturday, 2/25) at home (portable Panasonic Level 2 EVSE), and it also is charging just fine again!

So now I'm perplexed as to what is causing the charging problem at home (on Level 2) for my '14.

My guess is that the problem is not the car, but these 3 possibilities:

the utility: PG&E may be trying to restore power transmission lines due to the recent storms/floods in San Jose
the utility: the problems with Level 2 charging seem to happen during the week (so far), but not on the weekend (or is it coincidence)
the house circuits: (interference from another device--possibly the central heat) may be causing the charging problem.

The mystery continues...

Meanwhile, my '16 Volt hasn't had any trouble charging at home on either of the two 240v outlets (and with any of the 3 Level 2 EVSEs).

And for the last 3 years, my '14 hasn't had trouble charging on Level 2 through either of these two 240v outlets either. The problems just started during the past 1.5 months (when the serious rainstorms started).

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Millenium Falcon

Discussion Starter · #9 · Feb 25, 2017

ItsNotAboutTheMoney said:
Only if the 2016 was tested on the same circuit.

Yes, my '16 has also charged successfully on the same circuit without issue. It seems as though that Gen 1s are much more sensitive to power fluctuations than Gen 2.

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Millenium Falcon

Discussion Starter · #10 · Feb 25, 2017

jsmay311 said:
There have been a few threads describing situations where L2 EVSEs work but L1's don't. It seems not all were the same root cause tho.

Anyway, here are a few links for your reference:

http://gm-volt.com/forum/showthread.php?227426-Mystery-CEL-amp-S1E98-P1EC4-error-codes
http://gm-volt.com/forum/showthread.php?239642-Volt-WON-T-charge-on-L2-but-WILL-charge-on-L1-(-)
http://gm-volt.com/forum/showthread...-L2-charge-station-quot-Unable-to-charge-quot

Thanks for sending me these threads! These are VERY helpful!

So it's possible that I could be seeing signs that could later develop to what Steverino had--a failing "junction relay."

I would have gone to the dealer if I had a CEL or if I had trouble charging at a public charging station.

But I don't have a CEL yet. And if the car works fine at a public charging station, then the dealer's charging station will very likely work ok too. I don't want to have the dealer guess and replace miscellaneous parts, or tell me "no problems are detected at this time" and just give me back the car.

But at least several people (Steverino and blastersix) have something that resembles my situation. Like them, I was almost certain that my Blink Level 2 charger is failing (it's notorious for poor reliability). But when our 2016 had no trouble charging with it, then I started to suspect that it could be the '14, the utility, or interference between home circuits.

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