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-20C : Our Tesla will not charge
- Thread starter SmartElectric
- Start date
Totally bypasses the onboard charger. Of course, you also need the CHAdeMO adapter.
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At least on my car, glowing blue indicates the car sees the UMC, but that the scheduling says it's not time to charge yet. If it doesn't see/connect to the UMC, it will either not glow at all or turn orange or red.
mrElbe
Active Member
My car with dual chargers is sitting in the driveway at -32 C degrees and charges fine with the HPWC. Since it is timed for 3am, when I plug it in, the green shows for a second or two and then the timer takes over. My stab in the dark is that the UMC is on the fritz.
Todd Burch
14-Year Member
You're absolutely right, brain fart on my part. If scheduled charging is on, you expect to see blue when plugging in. My bad.
The battery heater is working, which is clear to Tesla when they reviewed logs. Plus, the car has dropped to 50% SOC from 80% only 24 hours ago.
The car won't charge from either UMC or J1772 charger cords in my garage.
Fellow Tesla owner near me is able to charge, this is not a fundamental problem on all cars in the cold, it's only just happened to my car yesterday.
Am going to hope it doesn't drop too low in charge before Tesla service is back on Tuesday....
The car won't charge from either UMC or J1772 charger cords in my garage.
Fellow Tesla owner near me is able to charge, this is not a fundamental problem on all cars in the cold, it's only just happened to my car yesterday.
Am going to hope it doesn't drop too low in charge before Tesla service is back on Tuesday....
The battery heater running is rough. You can save a little juice by putting it in range mode (which will limit pack heating) and energy saver mode with always connected unchecked. If you have a 12V battery tender, can't hurt to throw that on there to mitigate 12V draw and save a couple %.
Another hour outside in the cold yielded no joy.
Heated the charge port with blow dryer, no charge.
Pulled fuse 44 and waited a few minutes, heard various clicking sounds (relays) from the car, put fuse back in, same result.
Hard rebooted (foot on brake, double press on thumbscrolls) didn't change anything.
Jay from Toronto service emailed me back, my wife will drop the car off Tuesday morning.
Thanks everyone, but it seems to me like a charge port relay or built in charger (in the car) is failing.
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Well, the car is showing the blue snowflake, so it's certainly in "self preservation" mode with respect to heating the battery...
I already turned energy saving on, and disabled always connected yesterday.
I do have a 12V charger, but am hesitant to use it...not sure why I feel that way, but I'm not confident plugging it onto the Tesla, even though I've done so on other vehicles I've owned (but loved less LOL!).
Car may get down to 30% by the time Tuesday morning hits, at which point, that is sufficient to go the 30 km to the Tesla SC in Toronto. My wife is going to find that stressful, she never drives the car with less than half a charge, but it might be an opportunity for her to overcome that range concern. Boy the more I think about it, it's really not ideal to have her driving it down to Toronto, considering the circumstances, I might just do it myself. Ok, made up my mind while typing, this one is on me. Thanks for listening folks, I'll report back on what Tesla finds.
Heated the charge port with blow dryer, no charge.
Pulled fuse 44 and waited a few minutes, heard various clicking sounds (relays) from the car, put fuse back in, same result.
Hard rebooted (foot on brake, double press on thumbscrolls) didn't change anything.
Jay from Toronto service emailed me back, my wife will drop the car off Tuesday morning.
Thanks everyone, but it seems to me like a charge port relay or built in charger (in the car) is failing.
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Well, the car is showing the blue snowflake, so it's certainly in "self preservation" mode with respect to heating the battery...
I already turned energy saving on, and disabled always connected yesterday.
I do have a 12V charger, but am hesitant to use it...not sure why I feel that way, but I'm not confident plugging it onto the Tesla, even though I've done so on other vehicles I've owned (but loved less LOL!).
Car may get down to 30% by the time Tuesday morning hits, at which point, that is sufficient to go the 30 km to the Tesla SC in Toronto. My wife is going to find that stressful, she never drives the car with less than half a charge, but it might be an opportunity for her to overcome that range concern. Boy the more I think about it, it's really not ideal to have her driving it down to Toronto, considering the circumstances, I might just do it myself. Ok, made up my mind while typing, this one is on me. Thanks for listening folks, I'll report back on what Tesla finds.
Todd Burch
14-Year Member
William13
Active Member
I have a similar problem. The connection on your car is likely suboptimal. My car charges with supercharger and portable plugs fine but not with my HPWC.
Please try multiple reinsertion a and torquing / pushing the charger handle up or POWs or left or right. Hold it steady with pressure while the charging starts. After 60 seconds of green the voltage should be high enough to release.
I need a new HPWC cord. Lots of work to replace for someone else and part of a day off work for me. Thus I haven't fixed it yet.
Good luck. It may be your car or the plug.
Please try multiple reinsertion a and torquing / pushing the charger handle up or POWs or left or right. Hold it steady with pressure while the charging starts. After 60 seconds of green the voltage should be high enough to release.
I need a new HPWC cord. Lots of work to replace for someone else and part of a day off work for me. Thus I haven't fixed it yet.
Good luck. It may be your car or the plug.
Why pull the fuse to the BMS (battery management system) ?
It's working, it's keeping the car battery warm in this extremely cold...
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I have a UMC and a J1772 charger, neither works, both have same effect, namely, nothing.
Tried pushing the charge cord in fully, tried q-tip cleaning, tried warming the charge port, using J1772 connector, etc.
It's possible the charge port is acting up, but unlikely, because the car charged on Friday overnight, and I never unplugged it, and when I used the app on Saturday morning to pre-condition, it wouldn't draw any charge from the UMC, which is not what usually happens, that's when I knew there was a problem.
Almost certain it's the actual charger in the car itself.
Todd Burch
14-Year Member
tliving
Member
Went to a Tesla store event the other night and tried to charge using their HPWC there. It wouldn't latch on my car. Stayed orange. I tried several times, then asked the Tesla people for help and they couldn't get it to work either. We unplugged one of their other cars and plugged the other HPWC into my car and it latched immediately. Seems the HPWC cable was too cold/frozen up. Nothing obvious on the connector end but could be warming that cable will help.
Your Battery is toooooo COLD to accept a charge. Just like when you start up in the cold and the Regen is de-activated because the battery can't or it's not good for it to accept charge when this COLD. If you go for a drive 45-60 min your regen orange line should drop and allow regen hence allow for charging from shore power.
I just saw this exact thing from my app on the same days in question. I went up north to friends and parked my car at the Mississauga shop for safe keeping while my wife picked me up in her SUV (I work near there). They where going to bring it in overnight to sleep inside but must of forgot as I saw it outside overnight on my app. In the morning after being outside all night at -25c they brought in to charge in up since I was not picking it up till LATE that night. I thought it was weird that it was now plugged into shore power and Amps where at like 20 of 50 but zero KM/HR where being added. It took about 1.5 hours and the car was on heat inside and that temp was rising until the battery started to accept charge/range. Even after 3 hours or so it was only charging at 20km/hr when I usually get 50km/hr in normal circomstances.
On another note I then got my car late that evening and went to work a short drive away. Pre heated for 35 minutes prior to picking it up, drove 5 minutes and plugged into 12amp shore. I usually get 6km/hr on that plug and ALL night it only drew 3km/hr and my regen line was half way down. So cold battery = less charge rate dump.
When I drive 1hr to work from home and plug into 12amp right away with will charge at 6km/hr no matter of temp and hold that charge rate all the time.
LONG story short. I think it is normal. It is pretty much a fail safe of the battery not to charge when in extreme cold. The battery must be warmed up to accept charge. Go for a drive and that amount of amperage will allow it to warm up and then accept charge when returned to shore power.
You probably had the time charge set as I read from your post and it charged full (90%) and stopped. It then did not kick back on because of timed delay charge setting. Then became extremely cold REAL fast at those temps and tooooo COLD to start charging when you asked it to, without driving it and allowing the battery to heat up to acceptable level to accept a charge. YES probably an issue that Tesla should look into to overide set time charges when the temps drop below such to no allow for this type of so called "temp bricking".
Good luck hope this help, it's what I have deducted from my experiences and what I read on your post. I hope everything checks out and all is good in Tesla Land. If so this should 100% be addressed for us eskimos.
Oh and LOVE the Tesla best thing going hands down!!!!
I just saw this exact thing from my app on the same days in question. I went up north to friends and parked my car at the Mississauga shop for safe keeping while my wife picked me up in her SUV (I work near there). They where going to bring it in overnight to sleep inside but must of forgot as I saw it outside overnight on my app. In the morning after being outside all night at -25c they brought in to charge in up since I was not picking it up till LATE that night. I thought it was weird that it was now plugged into shore power and Amps where at like 20 of 50 but zero KM/HR where being added. It took about 1.5 hours and the car was on heat inside and that temp was rising until the battery started to accept charge/range. Even after 3 hours or so it was only charging at 20km/hr when I usually get 50km/hr in normal circomstances.
On another note I then got my car late that evening and went to work a short drive away. Pre heated for 35 minutes prior to picking it up, drove 5 minutes and plugged into 12amp shore. I usually get 6km/hr on that plug and ALL night it only drew 3km/hr and my regen line was half way down. So cold battery = less charge rate dump.
When I drive 1hr to work from home and plug into 12amp right away with will charge at 6km/hr no matter of temp and hold that charge rate all the time.
LONG story short. I think it is normal. It is pretty much a fail safe of the battery not to charge when in extreme cold. The battery must be warmed up to accept charge. Go for a drive and that amount of amperage will allow it to warm up and then accept charge when returned to shore power.
You probably had the time charge set as I read from your post and it charged full (90%) and stopped. It then did not kick back on because of timed delay charge setting. Then became extremely cold REAL fast at those temps and tooooo COLD to start charging when you asked it to, without driving it and allowing the battery to heat up to acceptable level to accept a charge. YES probably an issue that Tesla should look into to overide set time charges when the temps drop below such to no allow for this type of so called "temp bricking".
Good luck hope this help, it's what I have deducted from my experiences and what I read on your post. I hope everything checks out and all is good in Tesla Land. If so this should 100% be addressed for us eskimos.
Oh and LOVE the Tesla best thing going hands down!!!!
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I'm going to say that the problem appears to be in your UMC, or perhaps the onboard charger. The former is more likely than the latter, but both are possible.
You say that the car shows the 24A pilot current that's present on the UMC, but shows 0V when the car attempts to charge. This means that the pilot pin is working ok, however the connection is broke to the main power pins. Is that correct - the dash always shows 0V?
When you plug in, the port should turn green, you should hear the "click" in the UMC, then you should see a voltage appear on the dash. If it stays at 0V, it means there's something wrong with your UMC or the power pin connections to the charger in the car.
You say that the car shows the 24A pilot current that's present on the UMC, but shows 0V when the car attempts to charge. This means that the pilot pin is working ok, however the connection is broke to the main power pins. Is that correct - the dash always shows 0V?
When you plug in, the port should turn green, you should hear the "click" in the UMC, then you should see a voltage appear on the dash. If it stays at 0V, it means there's something wrong with your UMC or the power pin connections to the charger in the car.
ArtInCT
Always Learning
Do you happen to know of another Tesla S owner who may be able to run over with their UMC to try it out and perhaps eliminate the UMC as a culprit?
All right... who else is in the Great Toronto area???
All right... who else is in the Great Toronto area???
As was stated multiple times upthread.
. The issue is 100% absolutely not the UMC only, as the EVSE that charges my other electric car (a Smart ED) did not work on the Tesla either.
. I brought the UMC into the house and warmed it up, no difference.
. Blew very hot air on the charge port, nope, no better.
. Went for a drive until regen came back, nope, no better.
. A fellow Tesla owner only a few km away has no problems charging his car in -20C. It's not a fundamental issue with a Tesla Model S.
The problem is almost certainly about the built in charging system, as the car still won't charge today, and it's warmed up to -3C.
A cold battery will not prevent the car from accepting current to run cabin and battery heater. Our car simply will not draw current from the charge port from either UMC or a totally working (on my Smart ED) EVSE.
The "battery is too cold to accept charge" is not a factual explanation, my other EV accepted charge on the same day, the Tesla would not, are you suggesting my $15K Smart car is superior in battery management to the Tesla, um, that makes no sense. I've watched Bjorn Nyland videos on youtube, you will see a Tesla charged in -20C over many winters.
. The issue is 100% absolutely not the UMC only, as the EVSE that charges my other electric car (a Smart ED) did not work on the Tesla either.
. I brought the UMC into the house and warmed it up, no difference.
. Blew very hot air on the charge port, nope, no better.
. Went for a drive until regen came back, nope, no better.
. A fellow Tesla owner only a few km away has no problems charging his car in -20C. It's not a fundamental issue with a Tesla Model S.
The problem is almost certainly about the built in charging system, as the car still won't charge today, and it's warmed up to -3C.
A cold battery will not prevent the car from accepting current to run cabin and battery heater. Our car simply will not draw current from the charge port from either UMC or a totally working (on my Smart ED) EVSE.
The "battery is too cold to accept charge" is not a factual explanation, my other EV accepted charge on the same day, the Tesla would not, are you suggesting my $15K Smart car is superior in battery management to the Tesla, um, that makes no sense. I've watched Bjorn Nyland videos on youtube, you will see a Tesla charged in -20C over many winters.
Then it's your onboard charge system or a bad connection for the power pins at the charge port, if it constantly shows 0V even when plugged into a good piece of EVSE despite being able to see the 24A pilot. Good luck.
(My apologies for not seeing it earlier.)
(My apologies for not seeing it earlier.)
This type of behavior is also normal when the car already has more charge than the set limit. I assume you have double checked the charge limit.
Blue ring implies the port is detecting the UMC and is locking it just fine. Also, if the connection is not right, shouldn't the ring go yellow/red?
Blue ring implies the port is detecting the UMC and is locking it just fine. Also, if the connection is not right, shouldn't the ring go yellow/red?
Recap from up thread to answer new posts :
Charge port was cleaned with q-tip, no joy.
No colors outside of blue, I hear the click for the solenoid and no green.
Voltage only blips shortly to 1volt and back to zero right after.
Charge limit is max.
Charge port was cleaned with q-tip, no joy.
No colors outside of blue, I hear the click for the solenoid and no green.
Voltage only blips shortly to 1volt and back to zero right after.
Charge limit is max.
Kalud
Active Member
Blue chargeport can also means scheduled charging, but I'm pretty you ruled that out already.
As you and others have said before, charging at any cold temp works fine, it just heats first then charge. Temperature is unrelated to this issue. I agree with others, must be a bad connection chargeport to charger or a failing master charger...
As you and others have said before, charging at any cold temp works fine, it just heats first then charge. Temperature is unrelated to this issue. I agree with others, must be a bad connection chargeport to charger or a failing master charger...
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