Below freezing temps., car is skipping scheduled charging.

[Mickie]

I did some searching but couldn't replicate my issue. It's been below freezing the past few days and nights, and when I plugged in to do my regular 2am scheduled charge the other night, it simply didn't. Instead, upon checking the app in the morning, it read the same or similar mileage remaining as when I plugged in, and stated something like, "Starting to charge." When I went out to check what was up, there was a red light illuminating within the green stream of lights on the UMC. I went in the car, turned off scheduled charging, and it initiated as it normally would in cold weather, building up volts and amps, then moments later, miles per hour of charge, slowly reaching around 29 mphc.

Cold does seem to be the culprit here, but I don't feel this is normal. Can anyone help?

Also, a quick afterthought I'll also throw in, my last SoC was 193mi, down from the 197 norm of the daily, not trip, charge. Car only has a few thousand miles on it. Does this happen when it's cold and will some of those top end miles return? Thanks so much.

 

[DarkMatter]

Do you have Range Mode on? The car won't charge if it's left in Range Mode and it's cold enough when you go to charge it.

 

[Frankman60]

While your car is plugged in, call Tesla Tech support. They will be able to see what is happening with the charging when they "remote in' to your car. I did this when I was having a problem with my UMC flashing red LEDs and the red ring on the car. They were able to determine that the problem was my UMC, but I assume they would also be able to diagnose other problems this way as well.

 

[Mickie]

Do you have Range Mode on? The car won't charge if it's left in Range Mode and it's cold enough when you go to charge it.

Just went out to check, and Range Mode was off.

While your car is plugged in, call Tesla Tech support. They will be able to see what is happening with the charging when they "remote in' to your car. I did this when I was having a problem with my UMC flashing red LEDs and the red ring on the car. They were able to determine that the problem was my UMC, but I assume they would also be able to diagnose other problems this way as well.

Thanks, I intend on doing this. There's a troubleshooting guide in the manual of the touchscreen that has error codes depending on the number of red light flashes on the UMC, but states all the green lights would be off if displaying a red light, whereas I had a red light popping up in the green stream of lights.

I'll post back what Tesla tells me later today, as I want this resolved ASAP. I'm on ComEd's hourly rate plan where rates are next to nothing during the late night hours. Having to unneccesarily be subject to higher rates during the day is irksome!

 

[Electric700]

Just went out to check, and Range Mode was off.

Thanks, I intend on doing this. There's a troubleshooting guide in the manual of the touchscreen that has error codes depending on the number of red light flashes on the UMC, but states all the green lights would be off if displaying a red light, whereas I had a red light popping up in the green stream of lights.

I'll post back what Tesla tells me later today, as I want this resolved ASAP. I'm on ComEd's hourly rate plan where rates are next to nothing during the late night hours. Having to unneccesarily be subject to higher rates during the day is irksome!

You may be able to charge normally again by unplugging your UMC, waiting 30 seconds and then plugging it back in. Check your charge port as well. If there is any snow/debris, that could cause an electrical connectivity issue. A can of pressurized air might help with that. After you check/clean the port, be sure to fully insert the charge connector into your charge port.

 

[Evbwcaer]

I had similar problems and my UMC was eventually replaced. There is a reset button on the back of the body of the UMC.

 

[Mickie]

You may be able to charge normally again by unplugging your UMC, waiting 30 seconds and then plugging it back in. Check your charge port as well. If there is any snow/debris, that could cause an electrical connectivity issue. A can of pressurized air might help with that. After you check/clean the port, be sure to fully insert the charge connector into your charge port.

I was going to say what evb just brought up regarding the reset button. I'll actually reset it and unplug it after.

As for the connectivity issue, the port is very clean and the charger end seated firmly inside with a solid blue light and the scheduled dash message displayed. Turning the schedule off during that following day and the car beginning to charge as normal was the peculiar thing.

Thanks for all the input thus far.

 

[Mickie]

Small update to this issue--I'll try to stick to the cliff notes:

I contacted my service center, and upon pulling logs, said that the car was showing error with the UMC. Before bringing it in, I attempted reseting the UMC, as well as unplugging it for a minute, and plugging it back in. The problem persisted.

Brought car in, they dabbled around with my UMC, everything seemed fine, but they sent me off with a brand new UMC anyway. First night of being cold soaked (not having driven the car for a day), scheduled charging again failed to initiate scheduled charging.

Fast forward to today at 2AM. Cold as hell, but I drove the car the preceeding night. Scheduled charging initiated at 2AM without a hitch.

I spoke with my electrician just to eliminate that possibility, but it seems unlikely, simply because I can go out to the car if it fails to initiate scheduled charging, cancel scheduling, and the car will start to charge as normal.

My early takeaway is, when the car is cold soaked, it will fail to initiate scheduled charging. If it was slightly warm from a previous drive, or the ambient temp is up, it'll initiate no problem. Why the hell this is, I haven't a clue. Can anyone begin to make sense of this?

 

[Electric700]

It might be a software problem. You may want to try writing to [email protected] about this and see what they say.

 

[Canuck]

You or Tesla probably did this but just in case...
Press and Hold both scroll wheels until main screen goes dark...
Press and Hold both buttons above the scroll wheels until dash goes dark.

 

[odguy]

Glad I saw your thread. The same thing has happened to me twice now (after owning the car since labor day). I did email Tesla so will see what happens. A quicker workaround if it happens again is to start climate on the app. As soon as you do will begin charging then just stop climate. No need to go to car. Keep us posted. Also appears to be related to cold weather, but it has no issue starting right up with the various workaround so not sure why that is stopping the initiation.

 

[gzerninplatz]

There was some sort of bug that Elon tweeted about that briefly delayed the release of AP2 and had to do with a problem when the car was very cold (not waking up? which could prevent charging?) ....maybe the bug actually was in the software before that and you hit it?

 

[iwannam3]

My 18 volt drill battery ran out when I was using it. It was 15 degrees in the shop and the charger indicated a bad battery and would not charge it. I'm sure it is the same issue with Tesla batteries, doesn't like low temps when charging.

 

[Rocky_H]

My 18 volt drill battery ran out when I was using it. It was 15 degrees in the shop and the charger indicated a bad battery and would not charge it. I'm sure it is the same issue with Tesla batteries, doesn't like low temps when charging.

It's not the same issue. That might be true if the Tesla had no method of heating up its battery, but that's not true. The Tesla does have battery heaters inside. So it should not just refuse to do anything when it is cold. What they are supposed to do, and what they used to do, and what most of the cars do, when they are working correctly is to start pulling current from the charge cable to run the battery heater for a while to warm up the battery first before beginning to actually charge it.

 

[Mickie]

There was some sort of bug that Elon tweeted about that briefly delayed the release of AP2 and had to do with a problem when the car was very cold (not waking up? which could prevent charging?) ....maybe the bug actually was in the software before that and you hit it?

This may very well be true. Worth mention, I'm on 7.1 (I believe, it's a few updates before 8.. last time I updated was August or September). I shot some vid of the incident taking place and will try to upload it here shortly. I've been too busy to contact my SC about it, and I don't really care to hear them take more guesses at it or blame my electrician. I just hope it's not something I have to drop the car off for, or worse yet, downgrade to AP-1 via update. I think I'd rather deal with sporadic scheduled cold weather charge issues than more AP limitations.