Battery management issues VW New California T7

[Steven78]

Hello and greetings from germany,

I am currently facing a very similar issue.
My New California Ocean (T7) (Hybrid) was parked for the first time for 48 hours straight on the driveway without moving.
Then, suddenly, the alarm system went off, and the car was electrically dead.
With jumper cables, I was able to drive it to the workshop. It displayed several error messages.
In hindsight, I realized that the refrigerator had been on. Unlike previous models, there is no indication on the dashboard that the refrigerator is running.
Someone from the VW hotline told me two things that left me stunned:
Firstly, it’s normal for the alarm system to trigger when the battery is almost empty.
Secondly, the T7 doesn’t have separate circuits (isolating relays), so it’s normal for the refrigerator to drain the car battery and not just the camping battery.
I said that this must be a design flaw that hardly any customer would accept and that I wouldn’t want the car back before it’s fixed. He responded that it "works as designed."


Then, my contact person at the workshop told me exactly the opposite:
They’re unclear about why the alarm went off; it couldn’t have been due to low battery voltage. And that the refrigerator draining the car battery couldn’t be the issue.
They’ve sent the er2ror report to the factory and are now waiting for instructions on what to do next.


I’ve been waiting for several days now.
It’s all very frustrating.


Have there been any early findings on your side regarding what might be causing the issue?

Best regards,
Steven

 

[vbk1975]

Hello and greetings from germany,

I am currently facing a very similar issue.
My New California Ocean (T7) (Hybrid) was parked for the first time for 48 hours straight on the driveway without moving.
Then, suddenly, the alarm system went off, and the car was electrically dead.
With jumper cables, I was able to drive it to the workshop. It displayed several error messages.
In hindsight, I realized that the refrigerator had been on. Unlike previous models, there is no indication on the dashboard that the refrigerator is running.
Someone from the VW hotline told me two things that left me stunned:
Firstly, it’s normal for the alarm system to trigger when the battery is almost empty.
Secondly, the T7 doesn’t have separate circuits (isolating relays), so it’s normal for the refrigerator to drain the car battery and not just the camping battery.
I said that this must be a design flaw that hardly any customer would accept and that I wouldn’t want the car back before it’s fixed. He responded that it "works as designed."


Then, my contact person at the workshop told me exactly the opposite:
They’re unclear about why the alarm went off; it couldn’t have been due to low battery voltage. And that the refrigerator draining the car battery couldn’t be the issue.
They’ve sent the er2ror report to the factory and are now waiting for instructions on what to do next.


I’ve been waiting for several days now.
It’s all very frustrating.


Have there been any early findings on your side regarding what might be causing the issue?

Best regards,
Steven

When you say the Alarm went off, did the lights flash or just sound? Some vehicles are fitted with a siren that has its own battery, if it thinks it is being tampered with, it goes off. If the car was completely flat, then the siren thinks it has been disconnected from the car as the communication with the Body Controller stops. They are not meant to trigger with a very slow discharge, but this appears to be a rapid discharge (hours/days not weeks). If the Alarm was flashing it lights and making sound, then it is probably parts of the alarm system just going offline at slightly different voltages and this is being detected as a trigger.

 

[Steven78]

Just the siren with a loud sound and no Lights of any kind.

 

[vbk1975]

Just the siren with a loud sound and no Lights of any kind.

So it will be the Battery Backed Up Siren. The car battery will have gone flat, the BCM will have stop communicating with the siren. The siren detects this as a Tamper, ie. the same effect as someone cutting the wires to it and it will go off.

{EDIT} - So Alarm going off is Symptom of flat battery, not cause.

 

[Steven78]

Ok - my contact person at the workshop said he never heard of a alarm going off due to a flat battery.
However, I think you're probably right.

The question remains why the battery was flat (like many others here in this topic) and - in my case - if the fridge has anything to with it.

 

[Californication69]

This sounds very strange. Almost like the production line forgot to put the electronic side of the split charge relay in.
Even forgot the split charge relay and connected the lesuire with the starter.
Will be interesting to see how this pans out.

 

[WelshGas]

This sounds very strange. Almost like the production line forgot to put the electronic side of the split charge relay in.
Even forgot the split charge relay and connected the lesuire with the starter.
Will be interesting to see how this pans out.

I doubt it is as simple as that. You have an AGM battery for the engine , Lithium for Leisure and the 48v EV battery. The engine alternator/ generator will charge all 3, on EV charging it also charges the EV and engine battery and on EHU it charges the Lithium Leisure Batteries and trickle charges the AGM engine battery.
It maybe as simple as in Camping mode the engine battery is protected as they do not expect the Fridge to be running without Camping Mode being on and if it is then the engine is running thus charging everything. No one expected the Fridge to be run without either being on EV charging or on EHU and Camping mode selected.

 

[chockswahay]

We called in to dealer yesterday to have a look at Hybrid Ocean…….. could not test drive as battery completely flat! Dealer said this is a known issue and expect a recall from VW very soon. Dunno if that settles anyone’s mind?

 

[Californication69]

I doubt it is as simple as that. You have an AGM battery for the engine , Lithium for Leisure and the 48v EV battery. The engine alternator/ generator will charge all 3, on EV charging it also charges the EV and engine battery and on EHU it charges the Lithium Leisure Batteries and trickle charges the AGM engine battery.
It maybe as simple as in Camping mode the engine battery is protected as they do not expect the Fridge to be running without Camping Mode being on and if it is then the engine is running thus charging everything. No one expected the Fridge to be run without either being on EV charging or on EHU and Camping mode selected.

Hard to know exactly, without looking at the electrical diagrams
Here is an ide:
Wonder why the system isn’t intelligent enough to know when it’s charging in EV, and EV and Starter AGM is full, why wouldn’t it charge the lesuire Lithium ?

Totally get where you coming from regards the fridge in the camping mode, but it should know when you’re driving and chilling the fridge down for arrival to campsite ?
Then when you’re stopped, should be a monitor to check you’re in camping mode and the Lesuire battery charge.

So it sounds like VW didn’t get the FW / SW correct in the first instance.
It will be sorted, just a waiting game.
*note to myself, get solar installed asap to run fridge so it doesn’t discharge the starter !

 

[Californication69]

We called in to dealer yesterday to have a look at Hybrid Ocean…….. could not test drive as battery completely flat! Dealer said this is a known issue and expect a recall from VW very soon. Dunno if that settles anyone’s mind?

Same at Droitwich, even though they were plugged in EHU. Starter batt dead.

 

[Steven78]

Had any of you the fridge switched on, when it happend? Or are you shure it was off?
I'm still wondering if thats the cause.

 

[Lebuha]

Had any of you the fridge switched on, when it happend? Or are you shure it was off?
I'm still wondering if thats the cause.

I’m 110% sure that the fridge was off when our car died. Btw, I looked in the “Volkswagen” app some days ago because I was curious if I could see the car online at the dealer. And the app tells me that the cars position is at my home, nearly 24 hours before I should have been on a trip and I found out that the car was dead. So maybe it ran out of battery around 24 hours before I noticed it?
Still haven’t heard anything from the dealer. Ridiculous service in my opinion

 

[Steven78]

I think the dealers and the workshops aren't the problem. They are probably all waiting for intructions by VW.

I got an E-Mail vom VW with some nice smalltalk and the only relevant information, that I have to pay the rental car by myself. Nothing on fixing the California.
Just great. :-/

 

[Mads-P]

I got my Cali back on Wednesday and the problem of not charging when driving is solved - but of course not the general SW issue.

We went a for trip and slept in the car this weekend. We were at a site that allowed for 230V connection and I can confirm that the 12V battery is also charging when connected so that will be our plan until the drainage issue is fixed.

/Mads


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Californication69]

I got my Cali back on Wednesday and the problem of not charging when driving is solved - but of course not the general SW issue.

We went a for trip and slept in the car this weekend. We were at a site that allowed for 230V connection and I can confirm that the 12V battery is also charging when connected so that will be our plan until the drainage issue is fixed.

/Mads


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

What was the root cause of the starter battery not charging ?
Fuse or the alternator ?

 

[Mads-P]

What was the root cause of the starter battery not charging ?
Fuse or the alternator ?

To be honest, then it is not completely clear to me. It was not a fuse - I believe they called it a power distributor that has now been replaced with a new one…


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[Melyn]

Interesting part linking to the electrical issues today when I received my twice weekly vw call…

The wing mirror problem I had (wouldn’t fold or unfold properly) was originally blamed on an “external impact” despite no visible damage

Following further knowledge sharing. The vw garage has now confirmed that the t7 Cali wing mirrors are now fully linked to the alarm and door locking mechanism

Again something new for vw compared to previous - but does feel like there is an insane lack of knowledge amongst the vw authorised service centers / dealers around the t7

 

[Californication69]

Par the course with any new vehicle.

It’s a total disaster!
As my good German friend use to say in his Bavarian accent.

I’m like, whatever. It’ll get fixed when it’s fixed.
It does cheese me off when dealers want to charge you for a loan car though.
That is really taking the biscuit

 

[Melyn]

Par the course with any new vehicle.

It’s a total disaster!
As my good German friend use to say in his Bavarian accent.

I’m like, whatever. It’ll get fixed when it’s fixed.
It does cheese me off when dealers want to charge you for a loan car though.
That is really taking the biscuit

They wanted to charge me the £900 for a new wing mirror plus fitting originally..

Then the alarm plus locking were linked and the lovely chap at vw complaints arranged it to be covered

 

[Californication69]

They wanted to charge me the £900 for a new wing mirror plus fitting originally..

Then the alarm plus locking were linked and the lovely chap at vw complaints arranged it to be covered

Told you, VWCV would come through
Takes a while, but they are good in the end.

 

[Melyn]

Told you, VWCV would come through
Takes a while, but they are good in the end.

Yeah I can’t fault them to be fair. It’s just a really grim way of doing it. As first few conversations just redirect you to the garage.

Now just have to wait for the part being available

 

[Steven78]

VW instructed the workshop to simply recharge the batteries and return the car to me. With no clue what caused the issue. So I have to see if it happens again.

What do you think about the folling theses:
I drove the car in full electric mode for quite a while. And I would have expected the 12V starter battery to also be charged when charging the car. Maybe this isn't really the case and VW is expecting the car to drive in hybrid mode more regulary?

 

[sticky1]

VW instructed the workshop to simply recharge the batteries and return the car to me. With no clue what caused the issue. So I have to see if it happens again.

What do you think about the folling theses:
I drove the car in full electric mode for quite a while. And I would have expected the 12V starter battery to also be charged when charging the car. Maybe this isn't really the case and VW is expecting the car to drive in hybrid mode more regulary?

I have been researching how to measure and log the electrical load on the starter battery and realise that it is quite a specialist job.
I suspect someone will need to find a good auto electrician with the right equipment to be able to measure what’s going on.
I’d really like to understand how much is being drawn by the remote keys, pre conditioning when a drivers door is open etc.

 

[Melyn]

VW instructed the workshop to simply recharge the batteries and return the car to me. With no clue what caused the issue. So I have to see if it happens again.

What do you think about the folling theses:
I drove the car in full electric mode for quite a while. And I would have expected the 12V starter battery to also be charged when charging the car. Maybe this isn't really the case and VW is expecting the car to drive in hybrid mode more regulary?

I genuinely think the workshops have 0 info on the new California’s - they charged my battery the first time. Returned it and said no problem

Second time - oh maybe there is a problem, but it’s ok now

Third time - oh you’re right. Our demo version is the same…. Let’s change the batteries (pretty sure they did more than just change the batteries but they won’t give me any proof of what they did. Other than it took them a full day)

The manual has nothing regarding not charging once under 15% leisure battery either, which id have expected to be covered.

Even the wing mirrors. The garages weren’t aware they are now linked to the alarm and locking mechanism. Surely this is part of the wiring diagrams?