Charging Fault error.

[BEC]

Interesting seeing what’s inside.

We got our Soul EV back this afternoon - so repair diagnosed, OBC acquired by the dealer and installed from Thursday afternoon to Monday afternoon. I saw the service invoice....the OBC was priced at something like $2290. They also performed a couple of other updates: SA 297 Battery Management Logic Improvement and SA 306 OBC update/inspection. It was probably doing this latter that confirmed my OBC was kaput.

The new one is version P14.1R (made 20170427). The old one was version V12.2R (made 20151214)

I wasn’t feeling well and was resting when they called, but after I listened to the voice mail and was able to verify the state of charge at 98% via the UVO app it was clear they’d gotten it done.

I plugged it in a little while ago and it’s now full again, so things appear to be working.

The only cost to me was putting $22 of gas in the 2017 Soul loaner before taking it back (well, and the time, of course). Driving that gas Soul sure made me miss the EV’s quiet strong responsiveness where the 1.6L engine/6-speed automatic was noisy, hard to control smoothly and nowhere nearly as responsive.

So - all smiles again now. I still hope against hope that the 2020 Soul EV will be in the Seattle area in September of this year (and with this OBC failure mode designed out). If not....we may wind up in a Niro EV. We shall see.

 

[JejuSoul]

I repaired my OBC.
The problem in capacitors 1mkf

Thanks for posting this - and am glad someone has posted a do it yourself fix.

But a faulty OBC has been opened up before and that simple to swap faulty capacitor wasn't seen. I think there is more than one way for these to fail.

Posted by Sylvain Belanger‎ - here https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10212906196503462&set=pcb.1854263821270008&type=3&theater&ifg=1

The OBC fix was done at Véhicules électriques Simon André. This is the (first) used EV repair shop in Quebec. So it's not a Kia dealership. As the car was bought in the US, the warranty does not apply here so that's why they were on their own to change the OBC. They took the opportunity to open the OBC case to check if something is broken and repairable.

 

[warren55]

I'm glad to hear Kia of Puyallup got the job done in a reasonable amount of time. I'm sure I'll be there at some point. I wonder if they'll give me a loaner since I didn't buy the car there?

 

[BEC]

I expect you will have to call and ask that.

 

[PAU]

Hey guys. My OBC broke and it has no warranty , so i'm trying to fix it myself. Would anyone might know what these components are?
https://ibb.co/LCvFwg9
https://ibb.co/z5cZbHT

 

[ksoul2084]

Hey guys. My OBC broke and it has no warranty , so i'm trying to fix it myself. Would anyone might know what these components are?
https://ibb.co/LCvFwg9
https://ibb.co/z5cZbHT

Well "Rxxx" generally means it's a resistor of some sort. That is good news as resistors are cheap and simple components. Is there any writing on them to indicate spec? You could also use a multimeter to test the resistance across the two sides of them to measure it (ones that aren't fried, obviously).

I'd take the board to an electronics repair place they should have no trouble fixing it.

 

[notfred]

Agreed that Rxxx should be a resistor. Normally I'd expect surface mount resistors to look like the smaller components above R478 - R481 but these might be high power versions, google "Panasonic ERJ" to see some examples.

My concern is that resistors don't usually burn up. I wonder if some power transistor has died and put too much power through them to cause that kind of damage.

 

[ksoul2084]

Agreed that Rxxx should be a resistor. Normally I'd expect surface mount resistors to look like the smaller components above R478 - R481 but these might be high power versions, google "Panasonic ERJ" to see some examples.

My concern is that resistors don't usually burn up. I wonder if some power transistor has died and put too much power through them to cause that kind of damage.

Agreed. Something else must have failed to overpower the resistors.

 

[JohnD]

The resistors R475, R476 and R477 are in series and connected in parallel with the series resistors R472, R473 and R474.

If any of the resistors in the series fails with a short, the others will be carrying more current and likely fail.
Cooling liquid could cause a short, if it were to enter the board.

I suspect that all resistors are of the same value, so if any one is still OK, the measured resistance of that one could be used for all replaced resistors.

 

[JejuSoul]

-
Still getting occasional posts about this error -

Not charging, clicking then off

Although it seems that Kia must have fixed the problem because people who have had the replacement aren't posting any more.

 

[slavab4]

Hi, could anyone share experience how to open kia soul obc and what temperature to heat? thank you

 

[JejuSoul]

-
This thread is mostly about the charging errors caused by a broken OBC. This prevents slow charging.
Fast charging using the Chademo plug is unaffected by a broken OBC.

Two error screens that may be seen when you have a broken OBC are
(These error screens can also be self-caused without doing any harm. Start charging, turn the car on, pull the charging cable out.)



and



------------------

If your navigation system hasn't been updated since 2016 you also see the External Ch arger Error occasionally while fast charging.
After 2017 it was updated to this for fast charging.



---

I very rarely fast charge nowadays. Today was the first time I have ever fast charged my white Soul EV. It is due for a battery replacement on Monday. It repeatedly stopped charging after a few minutes, each time showing the error above. This may be a random glitch. It may be a faulty charging station. But I am also assuming a very degraded battery may have problems fast charging. Has anyone else noticed this?

-

 

[Kish]

My 2015 Soul EV just stopped charging today. I'm getting a "External Charger Error" and the dreaded 3-LED blue blink on the dash. I tried multiple Lv2 charging stations, but looks like the OBC is toast. This car already had the OBC replaced before (by the previous owner) and was charging at 28A, so this will be the 3rd OBC on this car once it is replaced.

 

[JejuSoul]

-
The majority of older soul EVs had their OBCs changed. Most have been problem free since then.
I hope this isn't the start of a second wave of failures.

Here's an official video showing the meaning of the charging lights above the dash.
The 3 blinking lights is the most common error message on this thread for the OBC error, but not everyone gets this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6atkerEFbs

 

[Kish]

Got my car back after OBC replacement. Took about 2 days, and was covered under EV System Warranty (10yr/100k). After 2 faulty OBCs, I hope they've improved the design by now. :roll:

Looks like the new OBC is able to boost the input current to over 28A (28.6A in this case) in order to compensate for the voltage drop at the input (233V, vs 240V nominally). But either way, it looks like it's hard capped at around 6.6kW. So at full 240V, it would pull 27.5A.

UPDATE:
Looks like I was wrong. It's able to charge a little bit faster than 6.6kW:

 

[user 1563]

Just thought I'd share the link to the Service Action notice from Kia for this OBC replacement:
https://static.nhtsa.gov/odi/tsbs/2017/MC-10119118-9999.pdf

(how can I attach PDF files directly to a post?)

I am in the UK and currently chasing my Kia dealer to agree and complete this work under warranty given the notice is direct and official from Kia.
No faults yet noticed with the car, but my understand of the Service Notice is replace the part anyway - i.e. "replace the OBC, even if the related DTCs are not present."

 

[DemMo]

Hey guys. My OBC broke and it has no warranty , so i'm trying to fix it myself. Would anyone might know what these components are?
https://ibb.co/LCvFwg9
https://ibb.co/z5cZbHT

Would anyone might know what these resistance are?

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Gv7ZGHrxwJOyGlysL9kJi-HeM3hyFiMZ/view?usp=drivesdk
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1GrZx9q1ADM7xH1cVGrldHk1jGuHIfZfp/view?usp=drivesdk

 

[ReneCR]

Hello all
I am René, from Costa Rica.
I purchased an used Kia Soul Ev2016 in Feb 2020. It has been a good experience during the pandemic until last week. Our car start to have the issue with charging on L2. We always charged on L1 during the nights and then L3 when on the road. But we never realized the error on the OBC until now.
Since we are located in Costa Rica, and the car came from the US we are not able to apply the warranty that several have used to change the OBC with no cost or reduced at least.
Do you know options available to get KIA to replace it and apply the warranty, even when one is not in the states? or if there any other options that does not imply buying a new OBC?
The importer from the US who sold the car can bring an OBC but is $2000 plus the repair shop fees.
Any suggestions or comments are taken.
Muchas gracias and pura vida!

 

[SmurfUK]

Hi, we've recently had our OBC replaced on a UK 2016 Soul EV.

The dealer has fitted a new OBC with the following details taken from the rear label:
ECU ASSY - OBC
36400 - 0E240
E010010401
MANDO P14.1E 20J21
03601000

Front label:
B010920002
EO30010400(G)
DATE 20181128
LOT SEQ:281

My question is, the new OBC fitted would appear to be dated late 2018, so presumably any fixes have been incorporated into the design? (apologies if this info exists elsewhere but I couldn't find conclusive details).

The reason for asking is that our 2016 Soul EV only has a 7yr warranty in the UK, so is getting close to the end of its cover. For this reason we are wondering about whether to keep the car, or sell it. The SOH is 102% at 22k miles, so the battery is in good health, but another OBC fail out of warranty could be painful on the wallet...
Any views much appreciated.

 

[IanL]

I would expect KIA to have learned from the initial crop of OBC failures and to have eliminated the causes, so the replacement should be far more reliable. Plus it has far fewer running hours than its predecessor. Should be a good bet. Of course, we are talking probabilities, so no guarantee.