original supplied charging cable with ICCB is broken

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teutocat

Member
Joined
Sep 4, 2018
Messages
8
Location
Germany
Hi,
i'm new to this forum and i live in Germany and own a Focus electric MY 2014.

Now i have trouble with the original supplied charging cable (model no. FM58-10B706-CB). This cable is for 230VAC and has a european style "SCHUKO" wall plug.
It seems one of the leads in the cable between the wall plug and the ICCB is broken or has a slack joint and the break is in the strain-relief or 1 or 2cm in front of it, so there is no simple solution for cable replacement.
If i bend the cable somehow, the ICCB goes green, but charging isn't possible because of the higher current.
My question is now, is it possible to open the ICCB and attach another cable?
I removed 8 screws from the bottom but the ICCB seems glued.
Any hints would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Roman
 
If it's anything like the US version there is a "rubber" sealant and then it is still held together by little clips. I cut mine open with a dremel tool to discover this. In the US versions there is a thermistor in the plug end to detect if it is getting hot. If yours has the thermistor that could create problems from simply putting on a new plug or new cable... Many early version US units that did not have the thermistor like mine are being recalled.
 
triangles said:
I cut mine open with a dremel tool to discover this.

Where did you cut exactly?
If you already discover this, is there a way without destroy the cover?
How did you remove the nuts from the strain-relief? They seem fastened very hard.
 
I cut along the seams on one side (top in the picture) then pried it open carefully with a flat blade screw driver. I don't have a picture of the cover but where you see the 4 indents on each side of the circuitboard is where the clips that hold the top on are. The strain relief on mine is all molded. Show us a pic of what you got.
 
That's quite a different animal than the US spec EVSEs. I'm betting if you're careful you can probably just pry it apart. In addition to the screws mine was sealed (glued together) with a rubber adhesive/sealant. Good luck getting it apart. If it makes it easier for you, think of it this way. It is already dead so worse case you screw up and make it permanently dead. If not you can fix it. You also could simply caveman it and destroy the current enclosure to get the good guts out and repackage it in another suitable enclosure once you've replaced the bad cord...
 
I dont know how it works in Germany but the ford supplied evse is under warranty as part of the 8 year, 100k mile battery ev parts warranty. Thats in the U.S. If yours is under warranty you might not want to open it as that might void any warranty.
 
Wow, none of that looks like any oem anything. I wonder who they contracted to build those for overseas?
On the positive side, it looks easy enough to cut and bypass the broken section.
 
carbuff said:
On the positive side, it looks easy enough to cut and bypass the broken section.
Yep, i'm happy about this. There are only three wires L/N/PE towards the wall plug, so no thermistor or any other sensor in the wall plug. In Germany, we can rely on the continuous capability of 10A (~2,3kW) for the SCHUKO wall outlets.

By the way, in 2014 in Germany the warranty coverage was only 2 years, and somehow longer for drive train and battery (5y or 100.000km, if i remember).


Two PCB inside, connected by flat ribbon cable.
I haven't seen before such complex EVSE with only this little functionality.



 
The broken cable from ICCB to wall plug was a 3G1,5 which is like AWG 16, but the cable from ICCB to Typ1 car connector is a 3G2,5 (like AWG 14).
The ICCB is coded to 10A and 3G1,5 is sufficient up to 16A, but i wonder why the manufacturer uses a thinner cable at the wall plug side.
Finally i replaced the broken cable with a H07RN-F 3G2,5 and a new SCHUKO plug and i hope it lasts longer .

Roman
 
teutocat said:
The broken cable from ICCB to wall plug was a 3G1,5 which is like AWG 16, but the cable from ICCB to Typ1 car connector is a 3G2,5 (like AWG 14).
The ICCB is coded to 10A and 3G1,5 is sufficient up to 16A, but i wonder why the manufacturer uses a thinner cable at the wall plug side.
Finally i replaced the broken cable with a H07RN-F 3G2,5 and a new SCHUKO plug and i hope it lasts longer .

Roman
Half of what you typed there is all Greek to me. Glad it was a relatively easy fix. If I remember correctly the US version had 16GA wire which I think is only rated for 13A and they are pushing 12A thru it :shock:
 
Sorry for the Greek, i think in Europe we have other names and dimensions for wires and leads, so it is difficult to compare.
And sorry for my bad english speaking, it isn't my daily business.

I'll try to make things more clearly.
In Europe we use metric measure systems. The dimension of wire cross section is mm² (square millimeter).
Our usual abbreviation 3G2,5 means three wires in a cable, each with 2,5mm² and one of them is Green/yellow striped for Ground (PE=protective earth).

The "In Cable Control Box" (ICCB) has two cords or cables, one from wall to ICCB and one from ICCB to vehicle. The vehicle side has a "Type1" connector which fits to the FFE. In the opposite of this, most of other EVs in Europe have a "Type2" connector, which is for three-phase current.
In my case, the cable from wall plug to ICCB is 3G1,5 and the cable from ICCB to vehicle is 3G2,5 (+ 2 additional pilot signal wires).
My ICCB ist factory preset to 10A. Even though 1,5mm² is sufficient for 16A, i wonder why they attach a 2,5mm² cable at the vehicle side.
My H07RN-F 3G2,5 replacement cable is a heavy duty rubber cable
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tough_rubber-sheathed_cable
 
Thanks for explaining the metric wire nomenclature. I've never heard the term "ICCB" before. We just call the whole thing an EVSE (Electric Vehicle Service Equipment). I don't think we have any special name for the box. By the way, your English is great. I wouldn't have know it wasn't your native tongue.
 
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