Vintage12

Have been away from my '18 E-Hybrid for about 5 weeks, thought it prudent to keep a battery tender connected while I was away. Got back yesterday to find unhappy car with "Vehicle electrical system error Service necessary Driving permitted" message. In addition, Check Engine Light with "Reduced engine power Driving permitted Visit Workshop". I've seen this once before but it disappeared after a 12V service battery charge overnight. Not this time though, and the battery is showing quite a low voltage range 11.6 - 11.8V which indicates it is not taking charge. The car does start and run but limited to 2150 revs on the ICE, will change up a gear at these revs, stops any manual downshifting if it is clear that 2150 would be exceeded. Anybody experienced this and have any insights? I guess it's back to the dealer (again), not even driven the car ten times.

rwstv

Normally charge overnight. 10,500 miles got engine light.
Topped off gas tank last week and noticed gas gage didn't go to full. Drove car again 2 days later and after 15 minutes check engine light came on for 1st time and has stayed on. Dealer advised to park car and let cool and then restart each day for 3 days to see if light would reset. Have removed gas cap and replaced multiple times. Now day 3 and light still on. Going into dealer tomorrow.
Seems like it has to be related to pressurized gas tank. Anyone else notice a connection to gas gauge function?

Wilson Laidlaw

This morning when I came to plug my 7.2 kWH universal charger in to the car (Mains supply - 32A 230V), I noticed it was saying: Code E480, with a logo suggesting a possible supply issue. There has been a lot of discussion of this on the Audi E-Tron forums but no ideas or solutions from Dealers. Some have suggested it is a faulty plug connection but given how tight my 32A Commando plug is to insert into its exterior waterproof socket, I doubt this in my case. Switching the power off and on again at the socket made the E480 code go away. My E-Hybrid is going in for service and the final warranty multi-point check required before I extend the warranty (around £2000 for 2 years in the UK), as my original 3 year warranty expires on October 26. I will leave the charger in the car when they come to pick it up and mention the issue to them.

Anyone else experienced this?

Wilson

Vintage12

In the interest of helping others wade through these electrical gremlins, thought I would share an update on my issue with some good news. Before taking the car in to the shop I noticed that my CTEK charger had been left in it's standard (non-AGM) charging mode for those last 5 weeks, just for grins I decided to try one more charge overnight but this time put the CTEK in AGM mode - wouldn't you know it, this cleared the warnings in the dash and my service battery was back to 12.8-12.9V. Even though the CEL was still active, I gave the car a quick test run and the "limp-mode" had cleared as well. Next up, I checked the CEL codes with my OBDII reader and found U0411 (Invalid Data from Drive Motor Control Module A) and P0480 (Fan 1 Control Circuit), certainly the latter related to an out of voltage condition of at least 10% from reference spec. I decided to clear these on the assumption they are related to low service battery voltages. After 3 days, all is good, no errors messages and no CEL returns. Moral - only use AGM charging from now on.

The CEL 480 code is unrelated to Wilson's above although it makes one think doesn't it...

Wilson Laidlaw

It is the high voltage traction battery charger that is giving the 480 code and that was showing before I plugged it into the car. On the Audi E-Tron forum there are various suggestions about checking the earth connections to the power socket, as E480 is a faulty earth code. I will trip the isolator tomorrow and check that the earth connection is clean and tight inside the waterproof 32A ":Commando" socket. I would however thought if a poor earth was the problem, switching the socket off and on again, should not have cleared the fault like it did.

Wilson

Wilson Laidlaw

I have just tested the earth quality at the 32 Amp socket for the Porsche Universal Charger at my UK house and it is 1.17Ω. This is an excellent figure and well below the recommended limit of 5Ω for earth sensitive electronic equipment. I know the electrician at my French house had great difficulty in getting the figure below 5Ω, due to the house being built on porous coral limestone rock with a thin covering of dry sandy earth. He had to hammer in 6 x 1 metre long copper rods connected in parallel before he could get anything approaching a decent earth. This is vital there, so that the lightning protection box's fast gas switches can divert any lightning surges to earth, within microseconds. In the 32A socket, the screws were dead tight at all earth connections and it was completely dry, clean and cobweb free on the inside. There is the high sensitivity RCD in the house, which is required for a 32A charging circuit using an outside IP44 water-resistant socket. This would detect any earth circuit leakage. So whatever the E480 code is on the charger, it is not a poor earth or earth leakage that is causing it.

Wilson

bjterp00

I contacted Herr Rode @ insiderfelgen and was able to get the 20" winter wheels & tires delivered to my home with Swiss VAT / customs paid for CHF 6'000. The dealer in Zurich - same exact part number - could only go as low as CHF 8'000 with a free change and one season of storage (CHF 280 total) ... so net CHF 7'720 vs. list CHF 8'974 ... but still CHF 1'700 more than I ended up paying. Thanks for the recommendation!

Wilson Laidlaw

This morning when I came to my Panamera and went to unplug the charge cable, I found the LED panel on the vehicle was red. There were no error messages on the charger. I unplugged the charger but on powering up the vehicle, I found that it had not charged overnight on its timed charge. I did a short trip and on my return, plugged in the charger, having powered it down and reset the charge rate to 100% (it is on a 230V/32 Amp outlet). When I selected "charge now" with the top button on the charge socket, it quickly changed to the correct flashing green, indicating charge in progress. Porsche Car Connect on my iPhone confirms this.

Has anyone else seen this issue? My Panamera is going in for service in a week's time. I have told my local service department about the E480 code of around 10 days ago, and the red light and no charge problem of today. I advised I had checked the earth on the 32A socket with a hand cranked Megger earth continuity tester and it showed a very satisfactory 1.7Ω. They asked me to take my charger out of its wall holder and put it in the Panamera, when it is picked up for service, along with both mains supply cables (13A and 32A), so that they can check it on their tester. Hopefully something might also show up on the fault log but from past experience when the electric traction threw a wobbly fit and nothing was recorded, I suspect not.

Wilson

Vintage12

Not seen those errors myself, recall reading someone else having an issue with a bad car connector on their charger. Not sure if you can check earth continuity from the connector versus the wall socket, regardless, I'd be suspect of the charger given what you are experiencing.

MKC91

Sorry to hear this. All I can say is good luck, can't wait for your next update.

Wilson Laidlaw

On one of the Audi E-tron forums, they seem to have had the E480 code more frequently than Porsches have had. Suggestion is always around earth problems at the connection from the charger supply cable to the the charger, rather than the domestic supply. This is not unlikely on mine since I recently returned from France where I use the 13 Amp 3 kW cable and when I got back to the UK changed to the 7.2 kW cable. This had been sitting on the bottom shelf of a cupboard in our utility room since I left for France in July and the contacts may have become dusty even though the cable had its dust cover on the charger connector. I will remove the charger from the wall holder, take the 32A cable out, blow out the connectors on both the charger and cable with compressed air and clean them with Servisol switch contact cleaner fluid, then spray the exterior with WD40 once reconnected to repel rainwater.

I need to get this sorted quickly, as I only have 12 days left on my 3 year warranty. I am very much of two minds as to whether to buy the extended warranty or not, given I only do around 6,000 miles a year in the Panamera and the £2000+ cost for just 2 years coverage. On my previous 997 Turbo S, the only major bills I had over the 10 years I owned it were replacing the corroded alloy radiators twice, which came to around £2000 a time and the inevitable corroded turbo bolts. I know the Audi origin V6 engine did not have a great reputation for reliability but hopefully Porsche's tweaking will have improved that.

Wilson

Jmiran

Hi. I’m here hoping to get some clarification with regard to how the 4 ehybrid engine works in a specific situation. Today I stopped at the pharmacy to pick up a prescription for my elderly mother who remained in the car. As it was very hot, 105, I wanted to leave the air conditioning running for her. I put the car in park, engaged the parking brake, and left key in the car. When I came out, less than 10 minutes later, she was sitting in the car with the door open. Apparently the car shut off and the a/c stopped. Air was coming out but it was not cold. The “key” switch was turned fully to the right. Any thoughts? Thanks in advance!

Wilson Laidlaw

I suspect it was something to do with your opening the door to get out that triggered an auto shut down routine. Some 14 months ago, I arrived early for an Adriatic ferry to go from Ancona in Italy to Split in Croatia and it was very hot outside. I sat with the Panamera, powered up but the ICE not running for around 2 hours and the air con running full blast with no problems. The electric only range decreased around 10 km during this period. The only time I had to restart was after getting out of the car to register my ticket at the ferry office, when that opened, to get a queue number for the ferry. Could your mother have opened her door for any reason, as that might have triggered a shut down? I think the work around could have been to shut down the car as you got out, leaving the key inside and then asked your mother to lean over and turn it back on again, after you had closed the driver's door. As she would not be moving the car, I don't think it would be necessary to depress the brake pedal when turning the power switch. I think the air con runs when auxiliary power is on. The only other thing I wonder is if the car detects weight on the driver's seat to disable the auto-shut-down, so in order to keep the air con running, your mother might have needed to move to the driver's seat.

Wilson

sunnyc123abc

I have a 2012 hybrid and I read that the 12v battery, that runs all the accessories, gets its charge from the hybrid battery. On hot days with AC blasting my hybrid battery would drain fully and then blow hot air with the ICE still running. The AC compressor is electric driven from the hybrid battery, so I figured I would change the 12v battery and see if it would fix the problem of fully draining the hybrid battery. It seemed to work. My car will blow cold air longer with the car sitting at idle, until the hybrid battery drains.

MKC91

Add a sensor in the driver seat. I have asked my kid (14) to sit in the driver seat while the AC is on to keep it on while I run errands.

-- Mike