Locking pin for EV cable will not engage followed by complete 12v battery failure.

[Dissappinted]

I waited two years for the delivery of my hybrid Skoda Octavia PHEV and finally received ownership in October 2023.

 

Since then my car has now failed to charge the EV portion of the vehicle twice (so far).

 

It appears that the locking pin will not engage for the EV charging cable resulting in the car not charging as the cable has not been secured.  I have used the at home tethered charger (pod point), 3 pin charging cable or at numerous public charging stations to no avail.

 

Then shortly thereafter about 48-72 hrs later, even with the car is being driven regularly via the petrol motor, the cars 12v battery then also dies making my car a garden ornament.

 

When this complete power failure happens, the car alarm will sound, the car will allow me to open the doors but will then not lock again.

 

My first visit to a Skoda dealer resulted in about 14 days of wasted time, being told everything is fine and they had never heard of this before, but it’s all working fine now so have a nice day, oh and they also scraped my car.

 

A google search however shows this fault to be not unheard of.

 

If anyone has indeed suffered this ongoing problem I would be grateful to learn how the matter was finally resolved and how many times they were told everything is fine and dandy by the dealer until someone finally listened and rectified the fault. 

many guidance/experience is appreciated even if it’s to know I’m not alone.

 

[Ootohere]

Welcome.

 

Hopefully there are members here that can help with advise from their experience.

It is beyond a joke with Skoda Main Dealers.

[Novascape]

Hi,

 

Just had this exact issue

 

car been in today and they have replaced 12v battery as saying its faulty.

 

Not expecting it to fix it and I think it's a software issue causing something in charge circuit to stay on which stops the locking of cable etc. But will have to wait and see.

 

Im hoping the new battery might resolve some of the other issues I've had recently.

 

Need to find a fuse I can remove to do hard reset on power supply in car. So if it happens again I don't need to wait till battery is discharged so much everything dies and have to jump-start it. (Fixed the issue 2 days before going I to dealer)

 

P.s. they told me they had exact same issue with another car delivered to them on back of AA flatbed last week. Soon as it was jump started everything worked fine again

 

Edited 19 February by Novascape

[Dissappinted]

Ok, so here is a wee update, Skoda Assist came out and immediately knew how to overcome dead car.

 

Namely they attached an external battery to charge my now dead battery, we were immediately able to charge EV side of car.

 

AA mechanic found 12v battery at 4 volts and believes there is a parasitic power drain.

 

Took car to a different dealership than before to have car looked at.

 

Many faults found to be going on with the car via onboard computer checks but none found to be at this time at least causing said failed EV charge cable locking and charging or subsequent power failure.

 

The new Skoda dealership though did state as far as they can tell form the onboard computer files that the car had NEVER been tested before making it likely that the previous dealership had not done anything of note to diagnose the now ongoing problem or even ascertain what had gone wrong!!!!

 

The new dealership also looked at my 2 previous Skoda Assist call outs and found that my battery on the last occasion was at 4.3 volts and that a parasitic drain of about 4 volts was found.

 

so long and short my car is working again for now……I will have car back tomorrow and wait to its next episode for the same fault.

 

My car is leased from Skoda (first time I’ve leased) any advice and experience with handing the car back for not being for for purpose would be helpful.

[Novascape]

The completely flat battery turns off whatever the power drain is and when you connect external battery everything boots from scratch again. It resolves the issue.

 

When I jump started from battery. As soon as you connected it you can hear the ev charge socket locks starting up again.

 

 

[Edela]

On 21/02/2024 at 16:47, Dissappinted said:

The new Skoda dealership though did state as far as they can tell form the onboard computer files that the car had NEVER been tested before making it likely that the previous dealership had not done anything of note to diagnose the now ongoing problem or even ascertain what had gone wrong!!!!

You may report it to importer and they must investigate what's wrong with the first dealer.

On my 2020 model I had also 12V battery at 4V once after overnight parking. Technician came on rescue and told me it is something software related and not uncommon for Skodas. My observation is that it was infotainment starting up at night and playing music inside, though there might have been other reasons. I had so many visits to workshops so I don't know what exactly fixed the issue.

[PoloGaz]

Mine didn’t charge last night and it seems it’s due to the charger lock not engaging. (Doesn’t engage when tried this morning several times)

so I’m wondering now if I’ve also got a dead 12v battery to look forward to

[Novascape]

Still haven't found a fuse or anything that can be pulled to do a complete hard reset of power on car. So you will prob have to wait till 12v battery dead and jump it.

 

 

[PoloGaz]

I’m seeing if obdeleven can clear the fault. First scan showed up 37 faults…

[PoloGaz]

All faults cleared and no change in behaviour. Car is aware cable is connected as it displays the information on the dash but doesn’t lock in position. I guess it’s time to call the dealers

[Novascape]

Yep same thing I had. Dash shows charger connected. Wouldn't lock and the echarge screen showed charging not started.

 

As soon as I jumped it from flat battery you can hear the charge port lock reinitialising

 

 

[PoloGaz]

This morning I had “low 12v battery voltage - please drive with caution” warning on dash but car still operated normally

 

rubbish on fuel on short journeys with a flat battery. 😭

 

Calling vw breakdown Friday to try and resolve

[PoloGaz]

I never got around to calling the dealers or vw assist last week.  The car hasn’t moved since Friday morning. I tried to drive the car today and it was totally dead.

VW assist came out and now charger port is working again. Said car might not’ve been driven enough. 🤷🏼‍♂️

 

[Novascape]

🤣 surprise surprise.

 

There is some sort of software bug that is causing the charge process to get stuck. Eventually they will get enough repeated issues they will have to admit there is a problem.

 

My local dealer said mine was the second in the week when I took it in and they would be reporting it back to skoda.

 

 

[PoloGaz]

Fully charged last night and all good today. It’s going to be parked at the airport for the next few days so will see if it breaks while it’s there

 

 

 

[Tunners_derby]

On 19/02/2024 at 18:16, Rooted said:

Welcome.

 

Hopefully there are members here that can help with advise from their experience.

It is beyond a joke with Skoda Main Dealers.

That's the thread i raised back in August.  Thankfully, no issues since the software update.  I'm cautious about draining the draining the battery now. If I'm away, and can't charge overnight, I'll make sure I've got a mile or two left.

[wantaskoda]

My car now wont charge. 3 months old, 2500 miles.

Got Skoda assist out and at first they thought it was a pin in the charging socket, but after running diagnostics they have now said needs to go to the dealer.

 

That would be a great idea, but there are only 2 Hi Voltage dealers inside the M25, and one is on stop.

 

Looks like I am now going to be driving on petrol for the next 6-8 weeks until it can go into a dealer!

[Novascape]

If your lucky the 12 volt will go flat overnight and after getting it jump started it will work fine again

[wantaskoda]

Got the car towed to the dealer on Monday.

they called yesterday and said all faults cleared. I asked if we’re charging and they didn’t not know as Skoda assist had not told them all the issues.

they charged the car this morning and all fine.

went to the dealership and made sure that they used my cable to test the charge again and all fine.

car is now home and charging fine
They did say that there is a fix that Skoda have sent out to do with a seal around the chager that might need re-seating, but also that they do get a lot of cars that have software glitches
(They did try and blame my dashcam but that gets powered off when ignition is off)

 

[PoloGaz]

Thought I was having the same issue again this week. Dash warning of low 12v but this time the charger plug lock and charger are still working so far. Looks like I still have a power drain issue. I’m using the car daily and the hv battery is always charged

 

i have a dashcam as well but it goes off with ignition. 🤷🏼‍♂️

Edited 3 April by PoloGaz

[arturamaral]

On 27/03/2024 at 20:37, wantaskoda said:

Got the car towed to the dealer on Monday.

they called yesterday and said all faults cleared. I asked if we’re charging and they didn’t not know as Skoda assist had not told them all the issues.

they charged the car this morning and all fine.

went to the dealership and made sure that they used my cable to test the charge again and all fine.

car is now home and charging fine
They did say that there is a fix that Skoda have sent out to do with a seal around the chager that might need re-seating, but also that they do get a lot of cars that have software glitches
(They did try and blame my dashcam but that gets powered off when ignition is off)

 

I have the exact same problem as you. So you say that Skoda haven´t done anything to the car? Only clear faults?

[wantaskoda]

On 16/04/2024 at 13:12, arturamaral said:

I have the exact same problem as you. So you say that Skoda haven´t done anything to the car? Only clear faults?

Correct.

they didn’t even know why it had been brought on, they just did diagnostics.

that cleared the issue.

been ok for three weeks now 

[Baker01621]

Hi all, 

 

I am also experiencing the same issue. It has happened now 3 times where the charging cable will not lock in place or charge.

 

After the first time back in January I took the car to the main dealer and they said that they had managed to reset it and that the charging socket and mechanism may be at fault. They would like to replace it however the replacement parts are being blocked from entry into the uk due to the issues with Russia so they couldn't give me a timeframe on when this will be possible. (Still waiting !!!)

 

The second time this happened the battery did indeed go flat after a few days and then after jumping the car it was ok for just over 3 months and then it has now failed again 2 days ago. 

 

What I have also found is that the charging socket flap does not lock shut when this fault occurs so I believe it could be down to the locking mechanism for the central locking of the charging flap and cable lock. Has anyone else found that the flap does not lock either?

 

I have tried pulling the fuses for the central locking but this does not fix the issue unfortunately.

[SkOmk4]

2 hours ago, Baker01621 said:

I have tried pulling the fuses for the central locking but this does not fix the issue unfortunately.

 

Check the fuse list/diagram - both inside the car and the engine bay... It seems to me that the one controlling the central locking has nothing to do with the charging flap.
https://digital-manual.skoda-auto.com/w/en_GB/show/6894308d6886e761eceb2387115c9635_9_en_GB?ct=b5c5b826cda76c9eac1445256d1e739f_1_en_GB#titled1462769e158737

 

However, one might try to "reset" the charging system by pulling out fuse #3 in the engine compartment - see attached. (not sure if that's wise to do or not)
There's also fuse #28 in the dashboard, but it's specifically mentioned "The fuse may only be replaced by a specialist garage", so I wouldn't play with that...

[Edela]

43 minutes ago, SkOmk4 said:

However, one might try to "reset" the charging system by pulling out fuse #3 in the engine compartment - see attached. (not sure if that's wise to do or not)

Not advising anything, but following other groups with PHEV owners, that seems to be the solution to the problem. Perhaps in the workshop they just do the same as a first thing to try.