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Fans going off during level 2 home charging?

3804 Views 14 Replies 10 Participants Last post by  ArcElectric
Has anyone noticed the car's (presumably battery cooing) fans going to 11 while they're level 2 charging?

Noticed a fairly loud ruckus and went out to see that it was coming from the car, with hot air coming out the bottom front vents. Car was being charged at the time. I unplugged it and within seconds the fans went to a more moderate intensity and then 5-10 min later turned off. First time I've noticed this. I have installed the May OTA although unclear if that's definitely related (though they did say something about battery heating management.). Could this be part of a new battery management/cell balancing routine?

I've sent a note to our CS. It's not clear if this is concerning or just annoying given how loud the fans were - if it weren't the middle of the afternoon I would be worried about bothering my neighbors. And in case it's pertinent, yesterday was the first time I got this car into turtle mode (down to 5%) and it charged up to 90% overnight without apparent issue (or the fans didn't wake us at least). Today brought the car down to 37% after 115mi in 70-80sF/25-30C dry weather. The car had charged up to 47% with 9 kW level 2 charging by the time I noticed the fans. No other issues I could see - car's been great. If it stays great I'll try putting it back on the charger after sunset when it cools down some.

Only other post-OTA-related issues are that the app says data sharing is off and those settings are grayed out for me for the past couple days. And I've intermittently lost LTE/Wifi a few times (each resolving after a short period or infotainment reset) where before my connectivity was solid - not sure if that is just correlated or caused by the OTA.
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I noticed a presumed battery fan going on a couple days ago while charging. This was the first I'd heard this, but I didn't find the fan uncomfortably loud, just sounded like a ICE radiator fan running when the engine is hot. This was while I was charging after a 40 mile drive in 90 degree heat, so didn't seem out of place to have a bit of fan running in that scenario. FWIW, I did not do the new update yet.
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I’ve also noticed this. Currently slow charging while visiting parents and my mother wanted to make sure the car wasn’t gearing up to explode in the garage (other than an unrelated persistent issue with driver alert / radar, car’s been fine). We’re in Arizona so it’s hot, cooling is not surprising.
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Brief follow up: Plugged in after sun down when the weather and car both cooled off some. No fans and charge rate has been solidly at ~9kW.
Am guessing the earlier issue was related to starting charging after going ~80s mph for a while in 80sF weather and parking and immediately starting charging with full sun bearing down on it. Not unreasonable it needs some fanning off in those conditions!
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Brief follow up: Plugged in after sun down when the weather and car both cooled off some. No fans and charge rate has been solidly at ~9kW.
Am guessing the earlier issue was related to starting charging after going ~80s mph for a while in 80sF weather and parking and immediately starting charging with full sun bearing down on it. Not unreasonable it needs some fanning off in those conditions!
I noticed the same. It seems to be very conservative in spinning down the fans if you plug it in directly after a spirited drive, but i found that when this happens if I just unplug it they stop and if I plug it in again a couple of minutes later they don’t spin up again, not at 11 anyway. That was with the February firmware mins you no idea if they adjusted this on the latest one.
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So this happened (is happening) again.
I think it’s somehow related to depth of discharge and/or repeated charging/discharging.

I left our vacation with 71% and slowly made our way home, ending up with 16%. Level2 charged up to 26% and then had to run an errand and came back with 15%. Then resumed level 2 charging at 9kW.
With the first level 2 charge, there was nothing notable about fans, etc even though the weather was ~20degF warmer and I just finished going 75-85mph on the highway for about 35mi. It was only on the second charge that I noticed the fans going to 11.
I unplugged and heard the fans wind down, although there was a persistent machine noise going from the front end of the car with hot air emanating from the front wheels on each side and the bottom air slats on the front (not the grille). After replugging I didn’t noticed anything wind back up.

I honestly never noticed this before the May update. No idea if it’s something concerning or maybe something they’re doing to help preserve battery life.
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I had this happen to me once since I got all the updates.

Frankly, I'm glad as the more I learn, the more I realize how important it is to keep the temperatures down.

It did surprise me, though.
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This just happened to me a short time ago and it was scary. The car was driven locally earlier in the day and then plugged in (Chargepoint Home Flex) when it was around 45% SOC. About 2 hours later I noticed the fans were going crazy (don't know when it started) and the garage was quite warm. I immediately unplugged and moved the car out to the driveway. I had to rush to a meeting and haven't been back to check the car yet. Is there anything I should look for? It is not exceedingly warm (70s, overcast and raining). I'm still on the April update.
This just happened to me a short time ago and it was scary. The car was driven locally earlier in the day and then plugged in (Chargepoint Home Flex) when it was around 45% SOC. About 2 hours later I noticed the fans were going crazy (don't know when it started) and the garage was quite warm. I immediately unplugged and moved the car out to the driveway. I had to rush to a meeting and haven't been back to check the car yet. Is there anything I should look for? It is not exceedingly warm (70s, overcast and raining). I'm still on the April update.
FWIW I haven't noticed that event again since that post a couple months back. ¯\(ツ)
I've gone out in the garage several times this summer after the charging session had been going for a couple of hours and the fan was running full speed. Other times nothing. I had read already about that happening to others and I suspect it's part of the battery cooling during charging. I will say it definitely raises the garage temperature a few degrees.
Not to revive this old thread but this happened to me today for the first time, I was charging at 15A, garage was around 80F, went in and the fans were very loud. Not sure why but I assume this is normal? Just feel like 15A isnt that strong.
Not to revive this old thread but this happened to me today for the first time, I was charging at 15A, garage was around 80F, went in and the fans were very loud. Not sure why but I assume this is normal? Just feel like 15A isnt that strong.
one conjecture I had was it related to when the car went into its cell rebalancing routine which I understand involves differentially charging and discharging individual cells in order to remove effects of hysteresis for reduced degradation. I imagine that process builds up a good amount of heat that needs dissipation, thus the fans.
Was your car close to an extreme of full or empty when the fans started going?
normal, much quieter than my Bolt, that thing woke me up the first time it did it. Every EV We've owned (5 now) have done some kind of this or another. all charging generates heat, just how fast it accumulate changes in the summer :)
Mine is doing this right now - husband was concerned...
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