Safety Advice - NOCO battery charger fried my fusebox

[barraw]

I bought a NOCO "Ultra Safe" G7200 charger, to keep my BMW M5 F10 topped up when not in use in the winter months, having used NOCO products for years

I also purchased the ODB charge cable, for a simple hook-up

When I plugged it in, the windscreen wipers came on, and one side mirror folded and everything else died - car wouldn't start, car wouldn't lock and windscreen wipers would not turn off. For 3 hours I tried to reset my ECU, PC could not communicate with ECU, then I started looking through the fusebox in the dash and boot, and to my alarm, a lot of the 3.5amp and 5amp fuses had been blown, including the ECU fuse.

Eventually I replaced all the blown fuses and the car gradually came back to life. If the fuses hadn't done their job I'm sure the damage would have been a lot worse, including possible expensive damage to the ECU

I'm trying to make other BMW owners aware of the potential risk to their cars so I've left a review on Amazon to warn other BMW owners

Amazon UK
https://www.amazon.co.uk/review/R270...p_perm?ie=U...


Has anyone else used the official NOCO OBD charge cable with the NOCO G7200 charger?

[barraw]

I've asked NOCO customer support if they've tested it, and if they can confirm the devices are compatible with BMWs - they've not answered the question

[bmwmike]

Nothing to add really other than I think it's incumbent on the car to protect itself against faulty chargers, which is exactly what happened I think?

Good on you for raising awareness but I guess it's just one of those unfortunate things. Doesn't sound like the charger is incompatible, just that yours was faulty.

Incidentally along the same lines I have a bog standard ancient battery charger. From what I've read online it is not compatible with AGM. I asked the charger manufacturer and they also said it is not compatible with AGM batteries. Then I asked BMW and they said it would be fine! Point is, charged via the dedicated charging posts I think it probably would be fine as the car will clean up the charge which it could not do if connected to battery directly. After all the alternator is a fairly noisy device.

Which brings the point back to your charger must have been seriously faulty to blow all those fuses. I doubt that's by design.

[mudster]

Leave my NOCO connected to my E92 and not had any problems. I do have it connected direct to the battery rather than through the OBD though.

[barraw]

I've not had any problems when connecting direct to battery / charging post, only with the OBD connector.

It seems that the 7.2amp G7200 charger should not be used with the OBD connector, but they are listed by NOCO as compatible and they don't seem to be concerned about the damage this can cause

[barraw]

BMWMike - I think the charger connected to the battery is fine. They recommend the G7200 to charge a 95AH battery. I have other smaller NOCO chargers, but they aren't rated to charge a 95AH AGM.

Surely NOCO should have tested a G7200 with and OBD cable before listing them as compatible devices

Not sure while the links didn't work, trying again

Amazon UK
https://www.amazon.co.uk/review/R270GH25TH7NVC/ref...

Amazon US
https://www.amazon.com/review/R1671SONCVJ3Y8/ref=c...

[JakeT]

I'm surprised one can even charge a battery via the OBD port. A CTek or the like with the eyelets for the Battery might be handy. Less faffing in the boot and means a quick connect and disconnect. I'd only charge a battery through the posts though. To me OBD is only for diagnostics and coding. Not supplying power.

[Leptons]

JakeT said:

I'm surprised one can even charge a battery via the OBD port. A CTek or the like with the eyelets for the Battery might be handy. Less faffing in the boot and means a quick connect and disconnect. I'd only charge a battery through the posts though. To me OBD is only for diagnostics and coding. Not supplying power.

Sounds bonkers to me too, don’t even know why you’d consider it. I thought most trickle chargers worked through the cigarette lighter which is designed to handle some AMP’s

[bmwmike]

Ahhhhh that's what I was not understanding. I thought the charger was connected to the battery or posts as normal and the OBD thing was to monitor the battery.