Car Unable to Charge

[scaesare]

I woke up this morning and the car hadn’t charged… the charge port had a red-ring when plugged in to my home HPWC. I had thought perhaps I had just not plugged in fully.


I also tried with my UMC once I got to work, and got an “Unable to charge, please close charge port, press brake pedal, and try again”, message. That didn’t solve it.


I rebooted the MCU and tried again. No dice. I can hear the MCU contactors close, and the voltage on the IC starts to ramp up, and then 2 seconds later the contacts open again and the voltage drops to zero. It tries this 3 times and then gives up.


Seeing as how it happens with both my HPWC and UMC on different circuits, I suspect the issue is in the car, not with the external equipment.

 

[scaesare]

Talked to the service center... after looking at logs they believe a dead charger.

Estimate is $2500 to replace.

I have dual chargers, and have rarely charged at greater than 40A, so I'm asking what the possibilities of just configuring the car to use a single charger are...

 

[tdjvfr]

Talked to the service center... after looking at logs they believe a dead charger.

Estimate is $2500 to replace.

I have dual chargers, and have rarely charged at greater than 40A, so I'm asking what the possibilities of just configuring the car to use a single charger are...

I'm confused, shouldn't that be covered under warranty?

 

[scaesare]

I turned 70K miles yesterday at exactly 35 months of ownership.

I really feel these cars should be 7 yrs/100K miles warranty... especially when in less than 3 years this is something like a $2500 repair. Less overall maintenance burden is something touted by Tesla.

Cars far less expensive have better warranties.

 

[apacheguy]

Keep us posted. $2500 seems steep. Are you getting a new or refurb unit for that price? Do you get to keep the broken unit?

Aside: has someone ever documented a master charger replacement (aside from the service manual)?

 

[scaesare]

I'd assume it's new for that. I'm certainly going to keep it unless there's some sort of hidden core charge.

I've PM'ed someone on this forum who appears pretty knowledgeable on such things to see if he has any insight.

Fortunately there is a supercharger around the corner from where I work,although its only one of the 2-stall "temp on a pallet" types... I'll have to hit it (and hope it's available) on the way home from work until my appointment next week.

 

[tdjvfr]

Very steep. I hope Tesla isn't going to try to make money on maintenance. Electric cars should be less expensive to maintain then an ICE car. If it's not, it will be very slow to adopt for the masses. Believe it or not, I still get people telling me.."Oh you drive electric? aren't they slow" hahaha

 

[mikeash]

Tesla charges $2,000 to put a second charger in a car that came with only a single charger. It seems weird that it would cost more money to replace on existing one than put in a new one!

 

[scaesare]

Tesla charges $2,000 to put a second charger in a car that came with only a single charger. It seems weird that it would cost more money to replace on existing one than put in a new one!

THAT is an excellent point. One I'll take up with the service center.

I'm actually giving serious thought to to replace it myself with a used one from a salvage...

The other thought is pulling the primary and seeing if the remaining one is smart enough to realize it's the sole charger. I know there's configuration necessary for the chargers to be told which is master and which is slave when their are two installed... but I wonder if it would default to operating in single-mode if it doesn't have a connection to a secondary (I rather doubt it, actually).

 

[apacheguy]

Any config that takes place would have to occur over CAN3. Wonder if someone knows the packet that would be sent out to configure a slave as a master?

 

[brkaus]

Wow, that's more than having a transmission pulled and rebuilt on my car. Guess less moving parts really doesn't help the repair cost. Although it is certainly a nice sound bite.

Rethinking...

 

[scaesare]

Any config that takes place would have to occur over CAN3. Wonder if someone knows the packet that would be sent out to configure a slave as a master?

I was under the impression there was a separate connector for connecting the two chargers together in a dual-charger car, but perhaps not and it is all CAN.

 

[apacheguy]

@scaesare - did you end up replacing this yourself?

 

[Edmond]

There is an 8 wire cable that goes from master to slave.

No one has figured out how to make a slave into a master or vice-versa.

If you put a slave from another car into yours, you'll have to have either the dealer or one of our bright lights here program the car for it. Otherwise it won't work.

 

[scaesare]

@apacheguy yes I did. The grand total was ~$382. This was a few plumbing parts to connect the coolant loop in place of the second charger, and the shunts necessary to me installed in the HVJB. Most of it was labor to perform the swap and reprogram the unit.

Interestingly, when they were to return the car to me, I told them i wanted the faulty charger returned as well, originally the front desk woman thought the charger was was still installed, but simply disconnected, and thus it would still be in my car.

The next day i got a call from one of the folks at the service center, telling me that the scheduling person was incorrect, and that he had my charger, but was being told that corporate policy did not allow the return of the failed unit to me, as it is a "restricted item". I explained that I was not asking to purchase said "restricted item", but that it was already mine, and that they had retained it contrary to my instruction.

Upon my insistence I receive my own property back, I was told the unit would have to be opened, and a part removed first, and/or the unit defaced to remove the serial #. I made it clear he was authorized to do no such thing.

They have since agreed to return it, and would have done so today if logistics hadn't gotten in the way.

I am going to see about either having the unit repaired, or selling it to someone who may care to do so.

 

[apacheguy]

Ok, so if you did the swap yourself, how did the SvC come into possession of your master charger?

Can you also briefly detail what you did to install the charger? Isolating HV, dealing with coolant contained within the charger itself, reprogramming the unit from slave to master, etc.

 

[scaesare]

My apologies... I originally saw your question yesterday and when I came back to answer today I mis-remembered your question as "Did you get this done?"

The service center did the work... sorry I don't have that detail... I wish I did.

 

[DFibRL8R]

Tesla Tysons tried to keep my broken door handle that I paid to repair also, they eventually conceded and gave me my parts as required by State law.

 

[DFibRL8R]

I turned 70K miles yesterday at exactly 35 months of ownership.

I really feel these cars should be 7 yrs/100K miles warranty... especially when in less than 3 years this is something like a $2500 repair. Less overall maintenance burden is something touted by Tesla.

Cars far less expensive have better warranties.

Agree, especially for parts like chargers and door handles for which miles driven shouldn't be a marker for wear (unlike suspension parts for example).

 

[dhrivnak]

It sounds like you got it replaced for a much more reasonable $380 rather than the initial $2500. Did anything change?