problem : 3 blue LED + end of charge = drain 12v battery.

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SoulEV2016

Well-known member
Joined
Jul 18, 2016
Messages
572
Hello,

On my french forum, we have 2 reports of the same problem during the end of the charge : http://www.automobile-propre.com/forums/kia-soul-ev/le-kia-soul-ev-ne-demarre-plus-la-batterie-12v-est-cuite-t4951-80.html#p107759

1) the owner charge like usually (onboard charger)
2) the car rise the 100% of charge
3) the 3 blue LED stay ON ... they don't shutdown
4) the 12v Battery is drained (in 1 night !)
5) the Kia Assistance must jump start the car on the day after

Can you have a report of this problem ?

Like i have notice, the 12v battery accessory is used at the start of the charging process (for the high-voltage contactor ?) and at the end of the charge.
 
The 12V battery is going to be used for running all the control electronics and doing things like the water pump and radiator fans. I can easily see why if the car gets stuck in a charging mode that could use up the 12V battery.

During charging, I think the DC-DC converter is meant to charge the 12V battery and also supply all the other 12V needs to avoid the 12V battery being used up. I guess if the DC-DC converter has switched off, or the onboard charger isn't actually providing the high voltage to the vehicle then that could be causing the 12V battery to be used up.

There was an update for the DC-DC converter to help prevent the 12V battery from being used up, do you know if those cars that had this issue had the update done to them?
 
the 1st have been flashed after the 3th jump start by Kia Assistance.
now, the 4th Kia Assistance have take the car to the seller to investigate, probably to stay connected with the kia console and create a debug LOG from the charge after 24h of plug (they can read the voltage of accessory battery during a long time).

the 2nd, no update.
 
An update from my 30kW 2018 model..
Yes, I have had Kia Assistance two times at home because of a flat 12v battery

First time I had no idea... It was almost dead... I was able to open the door, the cabin light started to flash and then it was dead.
When the Kia Assistance came later to pick up my car everything was fine... and he told me maybe the 12v battery was flat and recommended me to charge it.. Ok, gave 24Hour charge with external charger
Then a couple of days later it was dead again and this time totally dead, had to open the card with the key, connected the charger again and called Kia Assistance and asked them to pick up the card and ship it to the dealer, the dealer called me later the same day and told me they installed a new battery and updated the software.
Was told it had an update for how the car charge the 12 battery when charging the main battery..

ok.. In both situation the car had been connected to the charger at night to get it up to 100%

So the after a month.. drove over to a shopping center, shopping for 1 hour, came out and almost dead again
Low battery warning and 11.6 volt on the battery, ignition on but no start
Connected my jumpstart and it was ok again

Then to my next observation
When driving in daylight there is only 13.1Volt in the car but if I turn on the headlight it goes up to 14.1Volt

So after this... I always use headlight to give the battery max volt like generators in Petrol/Diesel engine does
Knock on wood.... No more issues so fare

So when it comes to the DC-DC converter I have a full log of a 4 hour 15 minutes charge on my 230Volt/16Amp charge station and you can see that the DC-DC is not charging the 12V battery with +14Volt all the time and at the end it seems to be something taking the battery down to 12.4 volt when the charge end.

 
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