Not Charging - "Flashing Ring of Death"

[Taylorjd]

Has anyone had this issue? When plugging in my Ford Fusion Energi to a Level 1 or Level 2 charge I get a flashing ring port (I heard it called "the flashing ring of death")  and it never charges. I am heading to the dealer this morning to see if I can get any help.

 

[Video] http://youtu.be/UX-PZa2Wtzk

 

On the inside display I see "Fault - Inside Car".

 

I have had my Fusion for more then a year and I love my car. This is the first major issue I have had. I hate driving on gas so I need to get this fixed.

[murphy]

According to the Owner's Manual the flashing ring says to take it to your dealer.

[Taylorjd]

Yes, thanks Murphy....now if they only new what it was. I am heading there now to see what they can do..crossing fingers.

[FordService]

Yes, thanks Murphy....now if they only new what it was. I am heading there now to see what they can do..crossing fingers.

 

Taylorjd,

 

Was your dealer able to get this squared away for you? If not, send me a PM with your name, phone number, VIN, mileage, and dealer info, and I'll take a look.

 

Ashley

[Taylorjd]

I took my 2013 Ford Fusion Energi Titanium into the Ford dealer in Gaithersburg Monday. They did not know what the issues was but said the soonest they could look (setup a service appointment) was Friday. So I am going back Friday morning. Hope it is a fast fix, because I am going on vacation starting this weekend. 

[echase]

Had same problem.  Took it to my dealer and they said it needed a software update.  They did the update and now charges without a problem.  Had them fix a few TSB issues at the same time.

[Taylorjd]

I ended up doing the same thing with the same results. I was able to get it fixed the same day. Many thanks to Ford Service and Sheehy Ford of Gaithersburg. 

[norcal]

I'm having the same problem with my Fusion.  What I need to figure out is how serious this is.  My local dealer (Novato Ford) will not service my Energi since I didn't buy it there--which is outrageous.  The closest dealer in the next county can't take it until five days from now.  So should I just drive it on gas until I can get an appointment, or is it a serious enough problem to drive a long distance to fix?  The check engine light is on, too.  

[Taylorjd]

I did not have the check engine light (just the fault described above). According to Ford, the charging issue was covered in a bulletin posted to their service people. I think it was fixed with just a software update. Other then having to use gas (major issue ;-) for me) I think the not charging problem will not cause any damage, but the engine light maybe something else. If the dealer is certified for EV, they should help. You may want to connect with Ford Service (see post above). They called my dealer directly and I think that helped. My dealer then did a great job getting it fixed.

[murphy]

I'm having the same problem with my Fusion.  What I need to figure out is how serious this is.  My local dealer (Novato Ford) will not service my Energi since I didn't buy it there--which is outrageous.  The closest dealer in the next county can't take it until five days from now.  So should I just drive it on gas until I can get an appointment, or is it a serious enough problem to drive a long distance to fix?  The check engine light is on, too.  

If your local dealer is not EV certified they are not allowed to work on an EV electrical problem.  That would be like having a plumber work on your house wiring.

[larryh]

If the check engine light remains on after three on/off cycles, then you should have that checked by the dealer.

[jeff_h]

If your local dealer is not EV certified they are not allowed to work on an EV electrical problem.

 

And conversely, if the dealer *is* EV certified it doesn't sound right that they refuse to work on the car since it was not purchased there - I think that is one where Ashley should be contacted here on the forum and get the regional rep to tell the dealer to put away the sour grapes and get to work.

[cmaxmd]

Posting to both cmax/fusion forum b/c i think the same would work.

 

I have now seen the flashing ring of death on 2 cmax energi's.  At least one had an obd code/check engine light with code C0564 (the other wasn't checked).  Both *would* charge if connected to either 120v or 240v chargers.  One actually wouldn't "start" (saying it was really plugged in, didn't ask if its plugged in); workaround was to plug in 120v charger (without plugging 120v charger into wall as wall wasn't available).  Remove charger and it would ask if it was plugged in, and would start.

 

Both self resolved after doing the following steps:

* Plug in HV charger (either 120v or 240v; one car was done with 120v the other was 240v).

** Blink of death kept happening even after HV was fully charged!

* Charge 12v battery until full.

* Pull fuse to reset MFM (fuse 67 on cmax).  One car this was necessary because MFM stopped working.  On the other I did it as ritual.

** Once both batteries were charged the blink of death stopped, and didn't come back.

 

Of course if you can get dealer to fix it great, but we were given appointments days out.

Note: attempting to charge 12v battery first doesn't help, becuase blink of death consumes more amps than my 6A 12V charger produces.  Must charge HV and leave plugged in (to stop blink of death) and charge 12V after or at same time as HV.

Will check if my friends car still scans the code when I get a chance (this is the one that happened this week and was charged with just 120v).  Mine was charged with 240v.

Root cause for mine might have been mechanically damaged airport charger.  Root cause for friends isn't known.

[rickrye]

Can anyone here who's been through the flashing ring of death issue help me to understand how to communicate the solution to the Service team?

 

I've been to the dealer 4 times here in Austin Texas over this issue.....no resolution in sight.    So far they're blaming my L2 charger...but I get the same issue when I use the 120V new L1 charger they handed me on my 2nd visit last spring as well as the ChargePoint commercial chargers around town.   Vehicle has been great until January of this year...now the charge faults are a big issue that the local dealers are not sure how to deal with.  

 

 

 

[murphy]

Are your local dealers "Electric Certified"? 

If not, they have not been trained on how to repair the car and have no clue what to do.

 

https://www.ford.com/dealerships/

 

Click the "Certified Electric Vehicle Repair" box.

[subman576]

rickrye did you ever get this issue resolved? I have a similar issue they are working on now. The problem started on my level 2 with the light ring blinking for 1 minute when I unplugged it and unlocked the door. After a few days of this the check engine light came on. When check the code was a generic charging problem. I switched to my level one after getting the car back with no answer. That charger started doing the same thing and then turned on the check engine light. They kept it for three days and could not replicate the issue even with my level 1 charger. In the mean time I had sent my level 2 charger back to the manufacture that found no problem. They had come out with an updated model that gave you more charging information so I got it and upon return of my car started using it I found the car continues to charge a a low rate even when it turns the light ring solid and sometimes the light ring doesn't go out until I unplug it.

[jsamp]

subman,

 

Unlikely you'll see an answer from rickrye.  They haven't logged on in over a year.

 

When the HVB is done charging, the system will then charge the 12V battery, which likely explains the low rate of charging once the ring is fully lit.  Doesn't explain your flashing ring issue though.  Let us know what the dealer says.

[subman576]

jsamp the dealer has not found anything specific yet unfortunately. The check engine code is non specific it just says charging problem. They tested it with 3 different charging cords that included 1 level 2, and 2 level 1 units over a period of three days and could not re-create the issue. I am very knowledgeable of electrical, electronics and troubleshooting. I started several very close checks last night starting with my level 2 charging cord. It has in my opinion some odd things going on. I see you guys use several acronyms I am not familiar with HVB being one of them. It is my understand from all that I have read (and please correct me if I am wrong) that the so called charger cord is not the charger but rather a amperage regulator that communicates with the car charging system. The light ring is just a visual reporting device. My level 2 is nice because it has a complete readout of what is going on during the charge. That information includes charging temperature, charging voltage, charging amperage, charging time in hours, minutes and seconds, a visual battery charge indicator and total KW hours used. This is what I saw during a charge from 1 mile remaining when we returned from the dealer. The charge began at 14.1 amps and 240 VAC. It charged for 2hrs 14 minutes and the light ring went solid for 1 minute then off but the charge continued at 8.2 amps. At 2 hours 23 min it is still charging at 2.4 amps with no charge ring light on. At 2 hours and 38 min I found the charge ring light on and the charge rate at 0.4 amps. At 2 hours and 42 min I found the light ring still on and the charge rate at 0.0 amps. It stayed on with no charging amps until I unplugged it at 2 hours and 56 minutes. 12 minutes later I plugged it back in to see what would happen. The light ring flashed normally then went solid for 41 secs at 0.4 amps then the light ring shut off and amperage went to 0.0 amps.  One hour later I got in the car to do a SYNC update that took about 30 minutes. I started the car with the climate control off but the heated seat on. I turned the car off and exited and locked the door. One hour later I plugged back in the type 2 charging cord. The light ring flashed normal, showed a solid ring and shut off. The charge cord showed a 2.4 amp draw for 11 min and 23 sec with the ring light never on then stopped charging. Do you see anything odd about this or is there an explanation for what is going on. Today I tested the level 1 charging cord after driving the car to a point that it had 18 miles remaining when I started charging. I made a short test cord upstream of the cord to be able to use a clamp on amp meter to see what was going and plugged a volt meter into the adjoining outlet in the box. I started the charge at 10:00 AM and the amperage slowly ramped up to 12.4 amps and 116.8 VAC. I checked it several times over the next hour and just happened to catch the light ring go solid and then turn off at 11:08. I checked the charge rate and found it still going at 12.3 amps and 116.8 VAC with the light ring off. I kept a close eye on it and the amp draw didn't vary much during this time. At 11:40 the light ring came on solid and staid on for 1 minute. During that time the amperage draw staid the same until the light ring shut off then it went to 0.0 amps. I watched it for another hour then unplugged it. Again do you see anything odd about this? I will continue to closely monitor the charges to se if I get the same failures I had before.

[murphy]

HVB = High Voltage Battery

 

The charger is built into the car.  The box that everyone calls a charge is an EVSE (Electric Vehicle Supply Equipment).  It takes care of things like a power failure while charging.  When the power returns it delays the restart a random amount of time up to 30 minutes to avoid a huge instantaneous load on the power company by all of the chargers on the system starting at the same time.

 

When charging of the HVB completes, charging of the 12 volt battery begins if it needs it.  Mine always needs it.  The notification to the app happens at HVB completion. If the EVSE is still on leave it alone until it shuts off.

 

The second segment of my light ring burned out while I was still under warranty.  It was replaced under warranty.  Shortly after that I turned the light ring off and have not turned it back on.

 

116.8 VAC is quite low.  The nominal voltage in the USA is 120 volts.  You might want to check the tightness of the screws in the outlets and the circuit breaker.  If any are loose that becomes a heat generation point.

If heat is being generated there will be a voltage drop at that point.

 

Do any of the receptacles being used have the spring clip connections in use.  The type where you insert a small screwdriver to release the spring and pull the wire straight out.  They are fine for a table lamp but are unsuitable for a continuous full load.  The wire needs to be wrapped around the screw and clamped tight.

[subman576]

Thanks for the input murphy. It is actually a new 20 amp outlet with screw fittings but the farthest away from the panel. Before starting the charge voltage is 118.6. The National Electrical Code allows a 5% drop stating between 114 and 120 is OK. Most equipment will operate without issue down to 109 but it isn't a good Idea. Also I never got a fault code on any of the cords I have used. I normally don't use the level 1 charging cord I always use my level 2. I am just doing testing to try and get to the bottom of what happened to cause a check engine light and flashing light ring on my level 2 cord after 8 months of no issues. I sent the cord back to the manufacture the same day I took the car to Ford. They inspected it and found no problem. I went ahead and upgraded to the better model that gives you more information about the charge and am using it now. After getting the car back from Ford the first time finding no problems with it I switched to the level 1 to see what happened and immediately I began getting the flashing light ring after the charge was over and 3 days later a check engine light. Ford again found no problems after resetting so now I am running tests on both units to attempt to resolve it.  I am looking for information from anyone that is more up to speed with exactly how it charges and what is normal. An example is I was not aware that it switched to the 12 V battery after the charge is complete. Do you know if the light ring is on or off during this time. That might explain better what I found. Just tiring to take care of any possible issue under warranty.

 

Thanks

[murphy]

It has been several years since my light ring was enabled so I don't remember the details.

I'll try to remember to check it the next time the car needs a charge.

It doesn't get driven much due to Covid-19.