[jdornan]

My 2017 Bolt has been trouble-free for 75000KM (45000 miles?) Today after a short run, I plugged it into my L2 40amp charger. The car is always on hilltop reserve to prolong battery life.

An hour after coming home, my wife noticed a burning smell. The garage was full of smoke. In a panic, I drove the car out onto the driveway before really identifying where the smoke was originating. Out in the fresh air, the car appears in perfect running order, no error messages, nothing wrong.

I will ask my dealer tomorrow, but would be curious if I am the only one who has had this issue....

 

[MikeyBolt]

Could it have been the charger or house wiring? Or was the smoke actually coming from the car (could you tell)?

Mike

 

[jdornan]

Update!

Actually, after the smoke cleared, i plugged the car back in by running the plug cable out to the driveway. The plug from my Juicebox40 into the wall receptacle started smoking right away. It is melted and charred. Good news, the Bolt is fine. Bad news, my charger almost burned my house down. Any insights anyone? Thanks to Mike for his quick help

 

[p7wang]

If the on-board charger is not overheated, then maybe a lose wiring somewhere else in the car.

 

[TFPDrive]

Have you popped the hood? If something under there is creating enough smoke to fill a garage it should be pretty scorched up.

 

[RichardC]

I would open the hood and take a look around. Also look at the charge port. Your dealer will know nada until you bring it in. Still could be the charger though, give it the sniff test.
Are there lights on the charger, does it look normal?

 

[MikeyBolt]

Update!

Actually, after the smoke cleared, i plugged the car back in by running the plug cable out to the driveway. The plug from my Juicebox40 into the wall receptacle started smoking right away. It is melted and charred. Good news, the Bolt is fine. Bad news, my charger almost burned my house down. Any insights anyone? Thanks to Mike for his quick help

Yikes! I wouldn't take any chances with that. Have a licensed electrician come out and look over the whole system.

Mike

 

[Rick CH]

Update!

Actually, after the smoke cleared, i plugged the car back in by running the plug cable out to the driveway. The plug from my Juicebox40 into the wall receptacle started smoking right away. It is melted and charred. Good news, the Bolt is fine. Bad news, my charger almost burned my house down. Any insights anyone? Thanks to Mike for his quick help

As others have said, getting an electrician to troubleshoot is the best course of action. That said, this is most likely caused by arcing because there's a connection (within the outlet, between the circuit wiring and the outlet) that's a bit loose so there's a small gap between the conductive parts. That arcing creates heat and then things go downhill.

 

[GJETSON]

Update!

Actually, after the smoke cleared, i plugged the car back in by running the plug cable out to the driveway. The plug from my Juicebox40 into the wall receptacle started smoking right away. It is melted and charred. Good news, the Bolt is fine. Bad news, my charger almost burned my house down. Any insights anyone? Thanks to Mike for his quick help

The crimped connections of the wires to the prongs in the molded plug are not good. The loose connection creates resistance, and heat, which makes the connection worse. Eventually the plug will get hot enough to do what you saw. I noticed mine getting warm, and after several more charges it got hot enough that I pulled it, and went back to the OEM charger, until they sent us a replacement. That one had a relay fail after a month. Got partial refund. I wasn't going to fight them about it. I just wanted it out of my garage. Our Tesla Gen II has worked flawlessly for 22 months.

Disappointing experience with Juicebox

It was my understanding that JuiceBox was an open source design, and that everything from complete products, to individual components could be purchased to create your own. Is it purely a consumer product now? I'd like to see a community put together an open source EVSE with various features...

www.chevybolt.org

 

[p7wang]

I am using this one since June... my charge sessions are only 1-2 hours and I leave it plugged in. My OEM EVSE is in the cargo area with the plug adapters.

How old is your 14-50 plug? How many time do you connect/disconnect? Maybe you need to install a new outlet?

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[GJETSON]

How old is your 14-50 plug? How many time do you connect/disconnect? Maybe you need to install a new outlet?

I can't speak for jdornan, but our 14-50 plug was less than a year old, and had been unplugged perhaps three times. Our outlet is perfect. The plug was defective from the factory. I would certainly pull the outlet cover plate, and check the screw terminals to assure they are tight, but my hunch is there is no charring on the outlet.

 

[p7wang]

I can't speak for jdornan, but our 14-50 plug was less than a year old, and had been unplugged perhaps three times. Our outlet is perfect. The plug was defective from the factory. I would certainly pull the outlet cover plate, and check the screw terminals to assure they are tight, but my hunch is there is no charring on the outlet.

A good EVSE would have temp sensor built in to the plug... My new portable EVSE shows temp and I guess would shut down if something is going wrong.

 

[Eriamjh1138]

There‘s nothing wrong with the car. The Juicebox is the problem. Didn’t anybody read his post?

Update!

Actually, after the smoke cleared, i plugged the car back in by running the plug cable out to the driveway. The plug from my Juicebox40 into the wall receptacle started smoking right away. It is melted and charred.

Either the electrician did a poor job or the receptacle was of poor quality. No pics or updates? It’s been 13 hours!

 

[jdornan]

Thanks to everyone. I have an electrician coming to take a look. I am inclined to have him hard-wire the Juicebox, and take the receptacle out entirely.

I will post a final update and close the thread after that.

 

[Colt Hero]

Update!

Actually, after the smoke cleared, i plugged the car back in by running the plug cable out to the driveway. The plug from my Juicebox40 into the wall receptacle started smoking right away. It is melted and charred.

The Juicebox plug is melted and charred? And this is caused by the outlet or the plug itself? If it’s the molded plug, this is something that can happen over time to a molded plug? Never heard of that (unless maybe you’re sometimes pulling the plug out by its wire/cable instead of by the plug head itself)?

Also - was it a good idea to drive the vehicle out of the garage if you weren’t sure where the smoke was coming from?

 

[Eriamjh1138]

Yes it was. He did the right thing to save his house.

Other probably would have posted on Facebook or this forum asking for advice. That would have been stupid.

 

[RichardC]

There‘s nothing wrong with the car. The Juicebox is the problem. Didn’t anybody read his post?



Either the electrician did a poor job or the receptacle was of poor quality. No pics or updates? It’s been 13 hours!

????? Every other post after OP says it was the plug talks about the plug, not the car. Must be time for more coffee! Any initial talk about the car discussion you see is because multiple posts went in at the same time and overlapped.

 

[Eriamjh1138]

My bad.

 

[TFPDrive]

Yeah, instead of adding another post OP edited his earlier post which initially said that he had ruled out the EVSE as the issue. Kind of complicated things for those who don't go back and re-read everything each time the post is opened, and also appears to be an attempt at hiding the part where OP looks somewhat foolish to have initially ruled out what was the actual issue.

 

[Digi]

Update!

Actually, after the smoke cleared, i plugged the car back in by running the plug cable out to the driveway. The plug from my Juicebox40 into the wall receptacle started smoking right away. It is melted and charred. Good news, the Bolt is fine. Bad news, my charger almost burned my house down. Any insights anyone? Thanks to Mike for his quick help

Get the Bolt checked out anyways. Better to be safe than sorry.