DCFC Confused – 2023 F150 Lightning Lariat SR

[John Becker]

Today was my third DCFC experience. The first two were uneventful successes. So, what happened today?

• 24 percent SOC
• Plugged into same EA charger used in the past
• Failed after 4 minutes and 10.1 kWh
• Reset and restarted a new session
• Failed again after 2 minutes and 5.3 kWh
• Moved truck to different charger
• Successfully completed after 41 minutes and 53.8 kWh
• 90 percent SOC
• Porsche pulled into the first charger that had failed me and had no problems.

Please help me to understand what happened?
Location: Montgomery (Cincinnati) Ohio

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[MidAtlanticLightningClub]

Today was my third DCFC experience. The first two were uneventful successes. So, what happened today?

• 24 percent SOC
• Plugged into same EA charger used in the past
• Failed after 4 minutes and 10.1 kWh
• Reset and restarted a new session
• Failed again after 2 minutes and 5.3 kWh
• Moved truck to different charger
• Successfully completed after 41 minutes and 53.8 kWh
• 90 percent SOC
• Porsche pulled into the first charger that had failed me and had no problems.

Please help me to understand what happened?
Location: Montgomery (Cincinnati) Ohio

You'll get lots of guesses but no real answers on this.

What you do know is it wasn't the truck as the truck charged fine on another charger at the same site.

It sounds likely that it was a problem with the charger failing to communicate with the truck. Why? It could be something preventing Fords from charging properly at that charger on that day. It could have been a temporary glitch that was resolved by the time the Porsche plugged in. It could be ...

Unless you can pull the station logs (you can't), you'll never know.

Gremlins.

 

[chriserx]

EA chargers in my area have been acting up this week, I'd try a non EA before you worry too much. Also this week I had to disable Ford's plug and charge to charge at my local EA don't know what your particular setup entails.

Edit: I suspect that has to do with the fact last time I used an EA about a month ago, I setup their own plug and charge, and I recently reenabled Ford's and they conflicted.

 

[Maquis]

It could be that the way you happened to park that time stressed the connector enough to cause an intermittent communication error.

 

[frautumn]

That sounds like my typical EA experience.

 

[EFG]

I have had this happen many times both on my 2023 SR and on my 2019 Chevy Bolt over the last few years when charging only at EA DCFCs. I spoke to an EA tech rep a few years back and they said that their DCFC connector contacts to the vehicles charge port can act up as they get older and the solution was to hold the connector slightly elevated while it is inserted into the vehicle until charging negotiation is completed. You can then prop it up a little with a skillfully placed/jammed dry rag. I keep a pair of blue shop rags wrapped around my Ford DCFC adapter in the Lightning and A2Z DCFC adapter in the Bolt. I don't remember the exact specifics but I think he referenced the Pilot pin as the problem connector.

I have also seen another Bolt guy route the charge cable over top of his charge door and then insert the EA cable into the DCFC socket on the car. This holds the cable slightly elevated and seems to deal with this issue as well, if you don't like the rag idea. Puts a lot of pressure on the charge door but it works in a pinch. I saw another Bolt guy with a proper length pine 1x2 shoved under the connector running down to the ground to hold it up. This is a more frequent and somewhat well known issue on the Bolts at EA DCFCs.

I actually just used this rag technique last week on an EA charger in the Daytona Beach area. I have never had this issue at a Tesla Supercharger with either the Ford adapter or the Magic Dock in use.

YMMV.

 

[B177y]

That sounds like my typical EA experience.

This

It's EA expected behavior.

 

[K6CCC]

I have also seen another Bolt guy route the charge cable over top of his charge door and then insert the EA cable into the DCFC socket on the car. This holds the cable slightly elevated and seems to deal with this issue as well,

We had a couple of the J1772 cables at work that required that as well due to damaged cables. Did look funny to see the cable draped over the charge port door or the rear view mirror, but it worked and they were free.

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