14-50 Winter Charging

[eprosenx]

I pulled it out and looked inside the charge port and the charger “wand” and there are no obvious obstructions. When I plug it in, I hear about 5 “cha-chick” clicks sounds before it’s finally done mucking about and the charging starts.
I have had the “obstruction” warning maybe only one or two times in 10 days, but the loose feeling to the charger has been consistent.

Yeah, sounds like it is time to contact Tesla. Something is broken.

If you want to troubleshoot it some more then I would find someone else with a UMC or Wall Connector or a Destination Charger to see if it will lock in properly and go above 16 amps.

Another thing to try is to go to a J1772 charging station and use your adapter to see if that works.

I might also try playing with the emergency release handle in the trunk gently with nothing plugged in to see if you can exercise the latch mechanism a bit.

Good luck and please report back when you get a final resolution as to what the issue was in order to help folks in the future!

 

[eevee-fan]

I pulled it out and looked inside the charge port and the charger “wand” and there are no obvious obstructions. When I plug it in, I hear about 5 “cha-chick” clicks sounds before it’s finally done mucking about and the charging starts.
I have had the “obstruction” warning maybe only one or two times in 10 days, but the loose feeling to the charger has been consistent.

Maybe hold on to it, shift angle, and see if it will latch properly within the 5 attempts... maybe it's slightly misaligned.

 

[F14Scott]

When brand new, my cable's connector was very snug at the point where the lock engaged the connector, sometimes yielding me the "poor connection/limited charging" error when the lock wouldn't engage. I used a small bit of silicone lubricant on the exterior of the connector, and it fixed the issue.

 

[brkaus]

Take the UMC to Tesla service and ask to try it there.

Tesla did have a service bulletin to replace some little insulators in the charge port. You have a new car, but I think I read those were traveling around. Come off one car, get stuck in a supercharger, get transferred to next car.

 

[cinergi]

The Model S would limit to 16 amps if the connection between the wand and the car wasn't secure. You may have either a bad UMC or charging port. Are you in a location where you can try another Tesla charger (not supercharger .. but like a destination charger)? That should help determine whether it's your port or your UMC.

 

[BBBC]

Problem solved. Though this is really embarrassing!

a local owner stopped by and noticed my problem right away. My charger wasn’t plugged in all the way. It was very “sticky” if you will, and had to be jammed in to get it in all the way. I’ve been treating this car with kid gloves, with all the info out there about bad paint jobs, easily dented body panels, damaged goods from closing the frunk, etc. was afraid to be more forceful.

the funny thing, as if that wasn’t stupid enough, is that I’m colorblind and didn’t notice the yellow light wasn’t green, they both look the same to me. Thanks to Matt in Geneva for helping me solve my really stupid user error!

 

[brkaus]

@BBBC glad it’s working! I’m with you on the colorblind stuff. Mostly life is good, but can make me look pretty stupid on occasion.

 

[BBBC]

24 hours ago I “ruined” my daughter’s 5 yo bday party because her rainbow dash cake with light purple instead of light blue. Colorblindness strikes again.

 

[eprosenx]

Problem solved. Though this is really embarrassing!

a local owner stopped by and noticed my problem right away. My charger wasn’t plugged in all the way. It was very “sticky” if you will, and had to be jammed in to get it in all the way. I’ve been treating this car with kid gloves, with all the info out there about bad paint jobs, easily dented body panels, damaged goods from closing the frunk, etc. was afraid to be more forceful.

the funny thing, as if that wasn’t stupid enough, is that I’m colorblind and didn’t notice the yellow light wasn’t green, they both look the same to me. Thanks to Matt in Geneva for helping me solve my really stupid user error!

Not stupid at all! Glad you got it sorted!!!

It should not be too stiff. If it does not loosen up then I would have the service center look at it.

This is what the forums are all about! And now hopefully this will be in the Google cache and so future folks may benefit from your troubles!

 

[eevee-fan]

Problem solved. Though this is really embarrassing!

a local owner stopped by and noticed my problem right away. My charger wasn’t plugged in all the way. It was very “sticky” if you will, and had to be jammed in to get it in all the way. I’ve been treating this car with kid gloves, with all the info out there about bad paint jobs, easily dented body panels, damaged goods from closing the frunk, etc. was afraid to be more forceful.

the funny thing, as if that wasn’t stupid enough, is that I’m colorblind and didn’t notice the yellow light wasn’t green, they both look the same to me. Thanks to Matt in Geneva for helping me solve my really stupid user error!

You are not the only color blind Tesla owner/future owner. This needs to be brought up to Elon as an area for improvement.

 

[eprosenx]

You are not the only color blind Tesla owner/future owner. This needs to be brought up to Elon as an area for improvement.

Green/Red are logical colors to use as it is very commonly understood as to their meaning, but I think the logical thing to do here would be to provide an alternate method to understand the state (say flash pattern vs. solid). It would be a bit more work to decipher for folks that are color blind, but this would be similar to the way they understand stoplights by position.

I am not sure what other colors would be appropriate as there are different forms of color blindness and you want the signal method to be obvious to as many people as possible.

 

[brkaus]

24 hours ago I “ruined” my daughter’s 5 yo bday party because her rainbow dash cake with light purple instead of light blue. Colorblindness strikes again.

Just wait until she is 15 and you have to pick something up from the store... On the other hand, I've been banned from shopping, so all is good

Green/Red are logical colors to use as it is very commonly understood as to their meaning, but I think the logical thing to do here would be to provide an alternate method to understand the state (say flash pattern vs. solid). It would be a bit more work to decipher for folks that are color blind, but this would be similar to the way they understand stoplights by position.

I am not sure what other colors would be appropriate as there are different forms of color blindness and you want the signal method to be obvious to as many people as possible.

I tend to prefer multiple lights + flashing patterns. I couldn't see any of the patterns in the colorblind test book - except the sample

 

[BBBC]

Green/Red are logical colors to use as it is very commonly understood as to their meaning, but I think the logical thing to do here would be to provide an alternate method to understand the state (say flash pattern vs. solid). It would be a bit more work to decipher for folks that are color blind, but this would be similar to the way they understand stoplights by position.

I am not sure what other colors would be appropriate as there are different forms of color blindness and you want the signal method to be obvious to as many people as possible.

street light colors are very obvious even to me, but little LED lights like this have a neon quality to them where the green and yellow look exactly the same.