Trachda

Been driving the etron about a month charging it exclusively at home using the Audi supplied charger cord. We had a new 50 amp, 240 volt circuit installed prior to car arrival. Yesterday upon starting the charge, the slowly pulsing white initialize LED on car did not turn green. Tried both ports, no change. Checked charger, it was on and green for 100%. Tried the 120v cord with charger, still did not start to charge.
We then took car to a DC fast charge station and it worked, car charged. Dealer had suggested trying this.
Had anyone had this problem?
Thanks

A4 Phil

Try any other AC outlet on another circuit/different from the one you normally charge on. Even if it is 120v, you just want to see if will charge at any level AC (might be tiny trickle but charging)

If I were to internet guess, I would say that you have some sort of ground issue. These cars want rock solid consistent grounds. If your car charges on another AC circuit, then have your electrician come back and troubleshoot the ground of your EVSE.

TTom TTR

I would use PlugShare to find a nearby level 2 charger and seee if it works. That would give you the info that another 240v charger works fine and it’s the charging setup at home that the electrician needs to evaluate.

JNealCox

Did the lights at the car port just keep pulsing white? What were the colors of the three indicator lights on the box while the car was trying to negotiate a charge?

Trachda

The three indicator lights on charger were off during the charger-car negotiation. The power icon was pulsating green and the 100% icon was on and green. Looks like the three other icons on charger illuminate briefly when charger is plugged in. Also about about every minute or two there is a cycle. The charger power icon goes white, then back to pulsing green.

While negotiation with car.

Trachda

Electrician checked on outlet this morning and said all the connections in service panel and outlet were tight and multi meter tested out good. The my Audi app says "charging not possible, no main power available".
Dealer said it may be pins in charger cord, but it's not going in for two weeks.

JNealCox

If you test out your car at a public L2 charger and it works, and your electrician says your home 240V circuit is OK, then the problem must be with the Audi charger/cables. Can't Audi lend you another compact charger to test it out?

Trachda

I just tried a public L2 AC charger and car did not take a charge. Back on the DC charger again and it is working.
I guess it's a problem with car.
Any thoughts.
Thanks

skaven81

The charging initialization sequence for DC fast charging and L2/L1 (AC) charging is completely different. With DC fast charging, the charger is at the facility and you basically connect directly to the battery. The vehicle communicates with the EVSE using an Eithernet-like protocol (in fact, I think it actually is Ethernet). There is a lot of information that has to be shared with the EVSE: acceptable charge rates, temperatures, even things like billing information and vehicle identity for plug-and-charge.

With L2/L1 (AC) charging, the charger is actually onboard in the car (and so all that extra communication happens within the car, not over the charging cable), and all the vehicle has to do is listen to the EVSE for an indicator of how much current it may draw, then configure the onboard charger to use that much current.

They're completely different code paths and completely different operational modes -- therefore you cannot infer that something may be working or broken about either system by looking at the other. DCFC working is no indication that L2 "should" work, other than perhaps confirming that the J1772 plug pins are making contact. But even then, DCFC doesn't actually use the AC power pins in the J1772 plug, just the ground and pilot pins.

If DCFC works and L1/L2 does not, then my guess would be that your car's onboard charger is shot. You'll need to take it to the dealer to have it diagnosed. The suggestion from whoever you talked to, to try DC fast charging, doesn't help solve anything for this kind of problem. But it does mean that the vehicle's computer is at least able to communicate with some charger, just not the onboard charger, apparently.

Based on your symptoms, it seems like your L2 charging sequence is starting up just fine: the EVSE is sending the vehicle a pilot signal that says "you can draw 40 amps", but the vehicle never actually starts drawing any current. That means the vehicle's computer has failed to start up the onboard charger. If you started getting the pulsing green signal but the battery didn't actually charge, that would indicate a problem between the onboard charger and the J1772 receptacle, such as the AC contactors, or perhaps between the charger and the battery (again, a set of contactors). But since it's just pulsing white, that suggests to me (a random dude on the internet, not a professional) that the vehicle's computer is either not seeing the pilot signal (which seems unlikely since DCFC works and it uses the pilot pin, albeit for a very different purpose), or it saw the pilot signal just fine but is failing to get the onboard charger to start.

JNealCox

That sounds right. The only thing you might try is a full shutdown/reboot of the car. That can clear up some software problems. It's easy to do (if you don't do it already): While in the car with it turned on, roll up all the windows. Turn off the car, get out and lock all the doors. Keep all fobs away from the car and do not use MyAudi app. Let the car sit for at least an hour before starting it up again.

I find it a little odd that there seems to be so many things that can go wrong with the battery and charging system that do not generate some sort of error code or alert.