Charge port red after successful HPWC charge completion

[Tdreamer]

I've noticed recently that after successfully completing a charge at home from my HPWC the charge port is red when I approach the car to unplug. I'm not certain, but I think this may have started after the recent introduction of "Scheduled Departure" which I have enabled in my car. Specifically, I have it set to Depart at 7:00AM Weekdays. I know I've seen the red port after plugging in and initiating a charge in the afternoon or evening - not sure if I've seen this in the morning when I leave for work. I should note I typically charge at work on a 40A J1772 and use the 72A HPWC less frequently these days.

I did a quick test the other day and initiated a +1% charge to see what it did. It finished the charge in ~5 minutes, went solid green for 10-12 seconds before changing to red. I did this +1% test three times with constant results. I also tried this once with the scheduled departure setting off - it didn't go red after completing the charge, which is what makes me think this is a firmware issue vs. a charger or HPWC issue.

I have a mobile service appointment Friday to check this out, but I'm in extended warranty coverage and might be subject to a deductible payment for the visit which I'd prefer to avoid if this is something others have also seen.

EDIT: I'm currently on 2019.40.2.1

 

[boaterva]

Never seen this on the car. We use scheduled departure charging 4 days a week on our 3, no red ports.

I’ve had this on the *app* but it’s an offshoot of a flaky charger board in my X that goes away on a reboot and spent months trying to reproduce for the SC so they can replace it.

I’d say you have a bad charger board or port and it’s a good idea for mobile to take a look at it and it’s great it’s easily reproducible.

 

[IROAR]

I had a red light on the car's charger port. Turned out the 110 outlet i was plugged into had a defective ground.

 

[Tdreamer]

Never seen this on the car. We use scheduled departure charging 4 days a week on our 3, no red ports.

I’ve had this on the *app* but it’s an offshoot of a flaky charger board in my X that goes away on a reboot and spent months trying to reproduce for the SC so they can replace it.

I’d say you have a bad charger board or port and it’s a good idea for mobile to take a look at it and it’s great it’s easily reproducible.

Thanks - unless they acknowledge a known firmware defect prior to arrival I'll keep the appt and post the results. I've turned scheduled charging off for further testing and it seems to consistently go and stay green post-charge with that. We'll see...

 

[Tdreamer]

I had a red light on the car's charger port. Turned out the 110 outlet i was plugged into had a defective ground.

Been there - only charged on 110v twice - once when I first got the car and tried it at home (worked fine), and once on my first road trip visiting my sister in Richmond VA for Thanksgiving. Plan was to charge up in Glen Allen on the way in, and trickle charge at her house while there for the week. Red port squashed that plan quickly.

 

[ShawnA]

Hi Tdreamer,

What charging equipment do you have???
HPWC Gen 1 or Gen 2?
Mobile Gen 1 (40 Amp) or Gen 2 (32 Amp)?

Thank You,

Shawn

 

[Tdreamer]

HPWC Gen 2 (I believe - installed 9/2017) set to 72A output on a 90A breaker. My Model X accepts the 72A with a smile The car came with a Gen 1 UMC - rarely use it.

 

[Tdreamer]

Thanks - unless they acknowledge a known firmware defect prior to arrival I'll keep the appt and post the results. I've turned scheduled charging off for further testing and it seems to consistently go and stay green post-charge with that. We'll see...

Mobile Service appointment pushed to early January after a pre-visit discussion with the tech. They saw a few things in the logs that looked odd, but nothing that immediately jumped out as an obvious hardware issue. They wanted more time to consult with the mother ship to formulate a plan which I'm fine with since the car is charging to completion. I'll update once more info available.

 

[Tdreamer]

Mobile Service appointment pushed to early January after a pre-visit discussion with the tech. They saw a few things in the logs that looked odd, but nothing that immediately jumped out as an obvious hardware issue. They wanted more time to consult with the mother ship to formulate a plan which I'm fine with since the car is charging to completion. I'll update once more info available.

Tesla Mobile Service sent an update today saying engineering wants me to bring it in to a service center... so perhaps there is a real problem after all. I asked about the AP2.5-->FSD computer upgrade and I'm not on the list yet (may not be doing MCU1 cars yet from what I gather), and my preferred service center (Watertown, MA) has not yet had their broken UV-thingy repaired/replaced yet to fix the yellow screen, although Dedham, MA has one.

 

[tbleakne]

Tdreamer, I have experienced very similar faults, about 6 total over the last few weeks, with red charge port
appearing while charging on my HPWC. I am glad to hear I am not alone.

Like you, these faults are occasional, and have only started occurring after
the release of the firmware implementing Scheduled Departure Charge. One fault occurred without
Scheduled Departure Charge. Most faults have occurred in the morning from the warming current draw, after the
overnight charge has completed, which is always before 6am. However, this morning the fault occurred very early morning at the
beginning of the charge, so my car did not receive the charge I expected. This makes is a more serious problem
than previous.

I have a 2018 MS with 72A onboard charger. The HPWC is 2013, because this is my 2nd MS. I have the HPWC
set to 64A with a 80A breaker. One big clue for me that this is a firmware issue between the HPWC and the car,
is that several times when I have discovered the fault, I have found the charger window display in the car showing the
maximum current of the charger as its default of 72A, not 64A, even though the cable is still plugged in,
so it should be showing 64A.

Most of the time the HPWC is also glowing red. This tells me the HPWC has shut the current charge down, not the
circuit breaker in the panel, since otherwise the HPWC would be dark. I still reset by briefly shutting off the breaker and everything immediately returns to normal.

My local service center technicians agreed it was probably firmware, and therefore they could not fix it. They promised
to report this to the "mother ship" like they did for you, but they told me there are hundreds of such reports for all kinds of
problems, so don't expect a quick resolution. The fact that you have very similar charge fault experience should help us
both get more attention to this problem. If you have further contact with Tesla, I hope you will share with them my
experience as evidence it is not just hardware. I will do the same. I have to find a time to go to the SC in person, because
there is no contact by phone.

If you took your HPWC into the SC, did they give you a loaner? Have any faults occurred on it? Thanks.

 

[Tdreamer]

I've held off on updating this thread as Tesla Mobile service went silent after they said they couldn't do anything and that Fremont had guided them to have me bring the car in to the local service center for further analysis. They asked me some questions to get that appointment scheduled and then went silent. I've yet to bring the car in, and the problem is still happening (charger port found red in the morning when I go out to my car after a scheduled overnight charging session. Since everything else appears fine (the car is charging fine; the HPWC is working fine - it doesn't fault), I've held off going through the hassle of bringing it in. I've been patiently waiting for a firmware update for me was 2019.40.2.1 on December 10th. It seems at least possible 2020.4 may be a candidate for my car given the current wide distribution across S/3/X, AP versions and MCUs. We'll see. I am still planning to update this thread if/when I get closure on the issue.

 

[Tdreamer]

Picked my my car from service after having it there overnight for the charge fault issue, failed ultrasonic sensors (traced to a failed wiring harness in the rear bumper) and the yellow display border issue. They were unable to reproduce the charging fault issue, even though I specifically retested it two days before bringing it in to see if it was still happening (and it was). Applying 2020.4.1 now, which had been blocked from downloading due to the sensor fault. We'll see if it still occurs after the update.

 

[Tdreamer]

Issue still occurs - I've requested a new service visit via the Tesla App to followup on this further. Here's the testcase I used to trigger the condition if anyone else is interested in trying it. This test was performed after successfully updating my care from 2019.40.2.1 to 2020.4.1.

Starting SoC 71%; charge rate set to 48A in-car currently - normally I charge at 72A at home however
3:45pm set Scheduled Departure for 7:00AM
3:46pm adjusted charge limit to 72% (I use TeslaFi, so have very fine control over remote setting changes)
3:46pm plugged in HPWC (blue port)
3:46:20pm manually initiated charging (green port)
3:50:39pm charge complete @72% (red port)

App screen shots and charge port status captured for each as photo documentation of the issue (not bothering to upload here though)

 

[Tdreamer]

Tesla provided an update - it is indeed a firmware issue as I suspected. Here is what they said:

”We were able to pinpoint this issue you where having. effectively there is a current characteristic of the firmware where the module that is responsible to stop charging the car once the set limit is reached, indeed does not. in some cases this cause the vehilce to charge to 100 percent regardless and in others the red charge alert is caused. This is because the vehilce went "over" its charge limit and effectively stopped it in that fashion. Engineering doesn't have a fix for this currently but i have created a ticket for your vehilce marking it as having this issue. one thing that has helped is having customer refrain from using scheduled departure.”