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AC charging issue since 2020.44
- Thread starter SSonnentag
- Start date
So I scheduled an appointment for this issue today and without any type of communication from Tesla I was pushed a software update. I’m now on 48.12.1. I’ll report back if this fixed the issue. Just wanted to let you know if your experiencing this issue schedule an appointment and there will push the update to your car... it seems.
Do you have any error messages when you look under "Controls --> Service --> Notifications" ?
I jumped the gun in saying all was well last Wed 23Dec. After receiving 2020.40.9.2 on 18Dec my S charged well until the am of 27Dec when I got an orange (!) ring around the charge port when I walked by with my key fob. I figure the orange was a combo of the red ring and the white/light blue ring. Not only did it not top off the battery the night before but it did not keep it the battery lukewarm so when I sat inside and turned the car on I had zero regeneration. Usually when it is around 0o (freezing) and the car is plugged in I have ~5or 6 yellow bars of restriction but this time it could not coordinate that. All resolved when I took it off scheduled charging. We'll see what happens when I get newer updates.
No active errors. Two old messages about cannot drive while charge port occupied.
There is still something weird in charging when cold. The dreadful "bang relays every 5 second through the night"-bug is luckily gone, but still my car sometimes is stuck in some weird state.
Here's an example from last night, graph from my home automation:
Charging started by timer at 22:00, but it only used about 150W power.. Maybe the battery heater? At midnight I noticed that it is still only using only 150W, and we would need the car early in the morning. I grabbed my phone and started the app, no change. Then I enabled cabin heating, and power graph jumped right away to 3kW! Disabled heating and charging continued at 3kW. I have 3kW (5A three phase) set in car settings as the maximum.
It was very cold night, about -15C (=5F).. And it's getting even colder here.
Sucks a bit that I need to keep watch of the car that it actually charges, but on the plus side, it's very easy to fix with the app.
We don't need the car tomorrow, so I can try today what happens if I just let it stay at the 150W stage.. Maybe it wakes up automatically at some point?
Also a bit scary thought, but maybe this slow 150W charge is the correct behaviour to spare the battery, and "get full power by toggling cabin heater" is the bug? Now I have ruined it by messing with the heater?
Here's an example from last night, graph from my home automation:
Charging started by timer at 22:00, but it only used about 150W power.. Maybe the battery heater? At midnight I noticed that it is still only using only 150W, and we would need the car early in the morning. I grabbed my phone and started the app, no change. Then I enabled cabin heating, and power graph jumped right away to 3kW! Disabled heating and charging continued at 3kW. I have 3kW (5A three phase) set in car settings as the maximum.
It was very cold night, about -15C (=5F).. And it's getting even colder here.
Sucks a bit that I need to keep watch of the car that it actually charges, but on the plus side, it's very easy to fix with the app.
We don't need the car tomorrow, so I can try today what happens if I just let it stay at the 150W stage.. Maybe it wakes up automatically at some point?
Also a bit scary thought, but maybe this slow 150W charge is the correct behaviour to spare the battery, and "get full power by toggling cabin heater" is the bug? Now I have ruined it by messing with the heater?
BigNick
Infamous Fat Sweaty Guy
I don't think 150W is enough to actually warm up the battery, that's not even 10% the heat of my wife's hair dryer.
While I wouldn't want to rest my hand on a 150W incandescent light bulb, when that heat is spread out over 7000+ individual battery cells that are well under freezing, it's not much.
You might be correct WRT the battery heater having to come online slowly at those temps, and the increase in power usage is when the battery heater starts going full blast. I can only speculate, since Pennsylvania doesn't experience the extreme cold seen in Finland or other Nordic countries. When my car charges, it ramps to 40A/240V (single-phase) quickly. But my garage rarely gets colder than 5C, even on rare nights when it does get to -10C here.
While I wouldn't want to rest my hand on a 150W incandescent light bulb, when that heat is spread out over 7000+ individual battery cells that are well under freezing, it's not much.
You might be correct WRT the battery heater having to come online slowly at those temps, and the increase in power usage is when the battery heater starts going full blast. I can only speculate, since Pennsylvania doesn't experience the extreme cold seen in Finland or other Nordic countries. When my car charges, it ramps to 40A/240V (single-phase) quickly. But my garage rarely gets colder than 5C, even on rare nights when it does get to -10C here.
Yeah, 150W is just some slightly more awake state of a computer. That's not enough to be any kind of heating. And battery heating systems shouldn't take more than an hour to "ramp up". They are safe to turn on nearly instantly, or within a few seconds anyway.
OK now I had the change to just leave it charging overnight unattended, this is the log. The start SOC was about 70%, and charge limit was set to 90% and it managed to fill the battery during the night. But it's interesting looking graph! Again it was about -18C temps (~0F) and battery was cold. Max charge amps set to 3*6A @230V, about 4kW.
Almost three hours at 150W level, then interesting spikes to 3.5kW but drops back to 150W after a while. But it stays "connected" to EVSE, relays are not banging. Car just stops taking power for a while, then resumes.
I think the 150W periods ARE battery heating, but it must be using the battery power to run the heater! That makes sense, as the power taken from battery will actually heat it up. I guess in the end battery is finally so warm that it can charge without interrupts from 2:30 to 06:00 where it actually reaches charge limit.
Anyway, I think it is working as intended. A "normal user" wouldn't even notice anything odd because car is flashing green for the entire time, so the 150W periods are not visible in any way.
I think the original problem described in this topic was that instead of staying at 150W, car tried to charge at max power right away and some safety mechanism kicked in..
I brought my S to the service center for a door handle fix, and asked them to recreate the problem. They had it overnight and we tried to recreate the problem in the morning, and of course, it fired right up to max amps (72). Have not had a problem since. Magic, coincident, or the threat of a SC visit seems to have fixed it. We'll see if it happens again next fall.
