Zoe - annoyances and solutions

[LouB]

During 8 month of ownership, our Zoe experience has genearally been quite satisfactory. We have only had one flat tyre to contend with and no other maintenance problems. However, there are a couple of things I find annoying.

1. The safety warning, that appears on the dashboard display on switching the motor to ON. After seeing it hundreds of times, I wish it could be turned off. If you select Reverse, the rear camera comes on and the safety screen is not seen, but then on changing to Forward, the safety message does appear only to distract you just as you are merging into traffic.

2. A rattling noise, coming from the passenger side front. I think from within the dashboard/firewall area. It has been getting more noticeable with time.

Have you experienced any annoyances or problems?
Have you come up with any solutions or workarounds?

[jonescg]

Yes.

In the middle of rural Western Australia you plug into a charger and it starts charging. You close the door and hit the lock on the remote. You walk away for two hours and come back to find it stopped charging 20 min in. For some reason if you let it lock itself it seems to charge okay.

[antiscab]

I'm curious re the lock stop charging thing. I'll see if I can cause the same issue in our Zoe. I never lock it with the remote, we've always used the walk away auto lock method

[jonescg]

Well we're pretty confident it has nothing to do with the locks and everything to do with the charger. It charges okay on 10 amps but at 32 amps it makes zappy noises and fails. So we're on the bus back to Perth while the car will go on a flat bed tomorrow

[TomZoe]

I always leave the key inside when Zoe is charging.

The key in her seems to keep her more awake.

She seems to take the charge start faster and will not stop charging if key in her.

Obviously it's a security risk but I'm hoping that most people would steal her!

[doggy]

I have never specifically locked Zoe while charging.
I always start the charging and walk away from the vehicle.
Never had the described problem.
Regards,
Dave

[jonescg]

I since worked out it was a charger problem, so ignore the locks discussion. There was definitely something wrong with the power electronics.

[doggy]

Sad your trip was aborted so early.
Cheers,
Dave

[doggy]

Hi Lou, have not had the rattling (yet).
I agree about the safety screen. I just ignore it and it times out and goes away after a minute or so.
It is good that the reversing camera overrides it.
But if I want to set up the GPS immediately, I then press the agree button.
Cheers,
Dave

[LouB]

I have traced the rattling noise to the passenger side A pillar covering.
I had my wife drive around some rough roads while I prodded and tapped at different spots. As soon as I pressed against the A pillar covering the rattles stopped. I then tested by wedging some thin, flexible material in the crack between the base of the A pillar and the dash, and again, NO noise.

This morning, I was feeling good, enjoing that particular sound that EVs make, that is: the sound of silence, when something else came up to spoil things.

There was a 'Low Keycard Battery' warning that appeared on the right of the main screen (obscuring the odometer data). The warning persisted for the entire trip. Once the car had been turned off, and left for a while, I tried using the second keycard, and this time, but not immediately, the warning disappeared.

According to the Zoe User Manual the watch-type battery ( CR2032 3V) should be good for an average of 2 years. We have only had the car for a little over 8 months.
At least, even if the keycard battery goes completely flat, one can still open and lock the doors and drive the vehicle by docking the keycard into the dashboard slot.

[jonescg]

Oh - one other annoyance we found with our demo Zoe was the menu screens were messed up - almost like it was firmware version 0.9. We couldn't even set the clock, despite our best efforts pressing every button in every menu. Probably unique to that vehicle though.

[doggy]

Hi Chris, from memory, the clock is set OTA (over the air). I have never set ours and daylight saving was also automatic.

Very interesting about the charging problem.

I have done Tesla DC charge and also 3 phase charge on 40deg days but only running at 80-90km/hr. The times I did 100/110km/hr charges, the ambient was more like 28degC.

Cheers,
Dave

[jonescg]

Hi Chris, from memory, the clock is set OTA (over the air). I have never set ours and daylight saving was also automatic.

Very interesting about the charging problem.

I have done Tesla DC charge and also 3 phase charge on 40deg days but only running at 80-90km/hr. The times I did 100/110km/hr charges, the ambient was more like 28degC.

Cheers,
Dave

It would never have been over 23'C the whole weekend, and on our final drive from Esperance to Ravensthorpe it was a balmy 9'C, at 98 km/h. But the charger was progressively getting worse, as within 10 mins of plugging into the Tesla destination charger it failed and refused to charge. It charged OK on 10 A though, so the earthing / charge plug sensitivities were not the problem.

[doggy]

Hi Lou,
I also started getting the low keycard battery warning yesterday. We use both keys, but this one is more often used.
As a matter of interest, I checked the battery.
It measured 2.9995volts (on a high res multimeter).
It is probably two years old, but only had 1year use given our cars are all 2017 models.
A new Lithium is around 3.23V so a trigger point of 3V is a little conservative and it would probably work for some time yet (but with the annoyance of the brown rectangle).
The rectangle can also be very annoying if the tyre indicator comes on, as happened when we went to the cold of the Blue Mountains.
Changing the keycard battery is extremely quick and simple as you undoubtedly also found.
Cheers,
Dave

[antiscab]

you can clear the warning each time you start the car by pressing the buttons on the end of the stalk. Similar to what you do to reset the service counter

[LouB]

Yes, the keycard battery is easy to change, though I don't have much faith that the plastic catch of the clip-in plastic cover will last many battery replacements.

Interesting that pressing the buttons on the end of the stalk clears the warning. I must admit I hardly ever touch them because I find their various actions confusing. I need to re-read the manual.