ALL POSTS about Charge Timer Failure

[Dsinned]

Miimura, be sure to have your dealer install the (Tesla) EV Gateway ECU firmware update, and before you pick up your car to leave, look for the calibration ID sticker under your hood. It should say the calibration ID is "1.3.62". When I got my update Saturday before last, the dealer did NOT apply this sticker, so I am not sure I got the update or not, although that is specifically what I requested. :roll:

From the other thread on Ravcharge, you probably know I already tried a scheduled extended charge this past Sunday night (w/o Ravcharge). Although it did work, unfortunately, it still did not meet my expectations. Please advise how your update goes. TIA.

 

[miimura]

The service was very minor and I have my doubts as to whether my primary complaint, the "Charging Stopped: Due to System Malfunction" message was resolved. The interesting thing was that after 6 months of ownership, there were absolutely no error codes stored in the car. I personally logged 9 instances of this message coming up between June 16 and October 28, yet none left an error code anywhere in the car.

They applied two software updates to my car and gave me printouts of the first page of the related TSBs. They are:

T-SB-0082-13 Rev1 July 1, 2013 "Charge Schedule Function Inoperative Intermittently"
- Some 2012-2013 model year RAV4 EV vehicles may experience a condition where the charge schedule function is intermittently inoperative. The condition may result from power interruption including: momentary blackout from the utility company, long term power outage, removing and reconnecting the charging plug, or other circumstances.
- Follow the procedure in this bulletin to update the multi-information display software to address this condition.
- Note: This software update does NOT affect:
* Vehicle charge start time
* The use of an EVSE timer
* Inability to charge on the 31st of the month
- This update applies to vehicles produced before the Production Change Effective VIN #1893.

T-SB-0050-13 Rev1 March 25, 2013 "ECU Software Update: Charging System Improvement"
- Revision Notice: July 29, 2013 Rev1: The Warranty Information and Calibration Information sections have been updated. Any previous printed versions of this bulletin should be discarded.
- Introduction: The EV Gateway Control ECU logic has been updated to improve vehicle operation and chargin timer operation. Use the following procedure to reprogram the ECU.
- Warranty Information: This repair is covered under the Toyota Powertrain Warranty. This warranty is in effect for 60 months or 60,000 miles, whichever occurs first, from the vehicle's in-service date. Warranty application is limited to occurrence of the specified condition described in this bulletin.
- Calibration Information: Model - RAV4 EV / Previous Calibration ID - 1.3.57 / New Calibration ID - 1.3.62

They also included two "Tech Tips".

Tech Tip T-TT-0248-13 "Charging Starts Earlier than Displayed on Radio Screen"
Condition: Some customers may experience charging starts and/or completes earlier than shown in charging and pre-climate setting screen when the EV system is turned off.
Recommendations: The Charge Start times and Charge Complete times are estimates. Actual Charge Start and Charge Complete times may vary and some discrepancies between estimated and actual times are normal. Actual Charge Start and Charge Complete times are affected by a number of variables. Among the most impactful variables are: ambient temperature and voltage from the AC power supply. Under certain conditions, a user could expect to see a discrepancy of more than 3 hours with a properly operating system. The system estimates conservatively to ensure charging completion prior to scheduled departure time.

Tech Tip T-TT-0206-12 "RAV4 EV: EV Charging Station Incompatibility - 'Check EV System' Message"
Condition: Some customers may experience a 'Check EV System' message after attempting to charge their vehicle. No other vehicle operation or performance issues are present. This may be a result of incompatibility with unapproved EV charging stations.
Recommendations: blah, blah, blah, only the Leviton models specified above have been fully approved for use on Toyota vehicles. blah, blah blah. Reset procedure.

To me, the gist of the first tech tip is the following: Yes, the charging timer starts really early. It's a feature not a bug. Deal with it.

The second one doesn't apply at all to me since I have never gotten a 'Check EV System' message and only ever used the Leviton 40A EVSE at home, ChargePoint once, Clipper Creek once, and Tesla branded Clipper Creek twice. I appreciate that they made the reset procedure public, but the way they emphasize the Leviton compatibility is ridiculous and ignores the reality that public charging is necessary on occasion.

My work order specifically stated that they applied both TSBs and the powertrain was updated from 1.3.37 to 1.3.62. They did not put a calibration sticker on the hood.

 

[Dsinned]

What disturbs me is Toyota's TSBs really don't say what actually is being fixed. They are simply vague references to a charging problem, but lack any actual details or explicit information as to what specific issues will be corrected in the software (or firmware) update. Conversely, I find it of little comfort when they say what will NOT be fixed. I also find it unsatisfactory that in two different cases so far (Miimura and myself), the servicing dealers both failed to apply the calibration ID sticker as required by the Gateway ECU update procedure. This type of update will not be reflected on the RAV4 EV's Center Console "Software Update" screen, so how do we know the update was actually performed? :roll:

 

[miimura]

@Dsinned - I totally agree about the lack of release notes. They are also not doing a good job to make it clear what the status of the car is. However, your service technician should have at least detailed what they did on your work order.

Anyway, back to the Timer. I'm purposely leaving the car to its own devices, as the saying goes, tonight to see for sure whether the 31st bug is fixed or not. There was some chatter somewhere that it was fixed and my car is allegedly completely updated. We shall see. I have enough time to fully charge between when my alarm goes off at 6:30 and when the delayed PG&E rates go back up. I'll just check my phone as soon as I wake up and start the charge with Entune if it didn't.

 

[eschatfische]

I'm happy to say that my RAV4 EV charged successfully this morning (October 31st) via the charge timer, starting at 1:11am and ending at 3:49am. Looks like T-SB-0050-13 Rev1 may have actually done the trick.

 

[mark_rivers19]

i'm NOT HAPPY to report that my RAV4 EV DID NOT charge this morning.
i have charge at departure time ( 5am).

Good thing i have 2 other ICE cars to choose.

 

[eschatfische]

Mark, did you get the T-SB-0050-13 Rev1 update described above within the past couple of months?

 

[arnolddeleon]

My car did not charge this but I noticed something interesting. I needed to load some stuff in the back of the car so I opened the back door (which naturally wakes the car up). The result was the car started charging.

I've also observed that I can avoid most (but not all) of the "charging interrupted" messages if I unplug the nozzle before waking the car up by opening a door.

arnold

 

[fooljoe]

Mark, Arnold, have you guys not yet heard of RavCharge? No missed charges here...

 

[miimura]

My car also charged this morning. However, I'm not 100% sure that it would have worked completely unattended. I was awakened at 4am so I checked my phone and it had not started charging yet according to Entune e-mails, so I opened the Entune app and did an Update. It said it was not charging. When I woke up at 6:30 I found that it started charging shortly after 4am. So, my checking may have woken it up to charge when it would not have otherwise done so.

 

[TeCKis300]

I likewise am NOT HAPPY that the car did not charge last night. And this is after I supposedly got the latest update after taking car to the dealer for a routine checkup a few weeks ago.

Now I'm going to have to do some due diligence to figure out if they truly updated the car or not.

 

[mark_rivers19]

Mark, did you get the T-SB-0050-13 Rev1 update described above within the past couple of months?

i took delivery of the RAV4 EV ( Aug 28,2013) and i specifically asked if all softwares/TSB were up to date. They said yes.

Aug 31, i don't think i charged using "Departure time", so this is my first encounter with the 31st bug.

 

[n3ckf]

yup. me too. now i must admit i knew this might happen so i've been charging the car using scheduled all week (and its been working) but this morning it hadnt charged. I only drove it 10 miles yesterday though so it was just amusing as opposed to actually annoying.

Interestingly, when i drove the car into work, it said it was going to charge for my 5pm departure time today but i forced it into charge immediately anyway (and it did). I dont know if it would've failed a 2nd time becuase it was still Oct 31st or not.

 

[Dsinned]

I likewise am NOT HAPPY that the car did not charge last night. And this is after I supposedly got the latest update after taking car to the dealer for a routine checkup a few weeks ago.

Now I'm going to have to do some due diligence to figure out if they truly updated the car or not.

Check for the sticker under your hood (near the back edge). If your car has the latest update, in accordance with TSB, T-SB-0050-13 Rev1 March 25, 2013 "ECU Software Update: Charging System Improvement" (issued July 29, 2013), the Calibration ID on the sticker should be "1.3.62". This is the update that re-flashes the Gateway Control Logic ECU made by Tesla, mounted inside the left rear sidewall of the car.

 

[n3ckf]

btw my car also did not scheduled charge today (sunday nov 3rd). I think it has something to do with daylight time changing? in the scheduled charge menu it quite clearly has a sunday 8am departure selected, but the next charge in the ev status says next departure Monday @ 7AM (which would be the next one).

Annoying. its possible i fumbled something in the UI but it sure looks like it should charge correctly.

 

[mark_rivers19]

btw my car also did not scheduled charge today (sunday nov 3rd). I think it has something to do with daylight time changing? in the scheduled charge menu it quite clearly has a sunday 8am departure selected, but the next charge in the ev status says next departure Monday @ 7AM (which would be the next one).

Annoying. its possible i fumbled something in the UI but it sure looks like it should charge correctly.

my RAV4 EV successfully charged today, even with the DST cancellation.
i had a departure time of 5:55AM and it worked.

 

[eschatfische]

Mine charged today, too - a quick one between 4:45am and 5:09am. We have a 7:30am departure set for the weekends.

 

[rav4buyer]

Why not just use RavCharge and forget about it. Set it and forget it, just like Ron Popeil used to say. Don't even need the e-mails.

 

[eschatfische]

While I think what fooljoe has done is great, the in-car charge timer provides a solution that is both free and autonomous. It's not dependent on the operation of the car's cellular link, AT&T's cell networks, Toyota's Entune service or the RavCharge service itself. If Toyota is able to make the built-in charge timer reliable - and they clearly have been working in that direction, albeit slowly, and things have been reliable for me since the recent TSB was installed - the lack of reliance on several vendors' networks makes me think that the built-in timer provides the best solution long term, and is something we should be testing, discussing and pressuring Toyota to get exactly right.

 

[Dsinned]

While I think what fooljoe has done is great, the in-car charge timer provides a solution that is both free and autonomous. It's not dependent on the operation of the car's cellular link, AT&T's cell networks, Toyota's Entune service or the RavCharge service itself. If Toyota is able to make the built-in charge timer reliable - and they clearly have been working in that direction, albeit slowly, and things have been reliable for me since the recent TSB was installed - the lack of reliance on several vendors' networks makes me think that the built-in timer provides the best solution long term, and is something we should be testing, discussing and pressuring Toyota to get exactly right.

In my opinion, Toyota has already had ample time to "fix" this problem, but for whatever reason has failed to do so. To wit, my Chevy Volt has a timer/scheduler battery charger function as well and has worked flawless from day one, even on the 31st day of the month. Apparently, this is one time AMERICAN quality control has upstaged the Japanese! It has been nearly a year since I bought my 2012 RAV4 EV. I have been to the dealer THREE TIMES complaining about this problem since last year, and been in touch with Toyota's corporate customer service center about this problem, all to no avail. Toyota is clearly failing to meet customer expectation! :roll:

Thank God for fellow owner/member "fooljoe" and his RavCharge webapp, which has essentially solved this problem for Toyota.