Charging interrupted

[twentw]

I've had an issue twice now where charging from my home outlet (14-50) gets periodically interrupted. The red light next to the plug goes on and the screen says charging stopped. I am unable to immediately get it charging again. It seems that a hard reset (foot on brake, hold down left and right buttons for 20 seconds) usually gets it going again.

I've charged many times since I got my SR+ in April and this has only happened twice, so I don't think it's my electrical service. Has anyone else had this issue?

 

[twentw]

This time resetting did not work. The car charges fine off a120v outlet.

I measured the voltage coming from the 240v outlet. The voltage on one side was 131v and the other side was 105v. Is that a problem? Any electricians out there?

 

[davewill]

Kinda sounds like a bad ground to me. I'd say it's time for a professional to check your circuit out.

 

[ngogas]

Bring it into the sc and bring hour charger and try it there. Have them tested it out as well. I had the same issue and they verified it for me. Later I found out the wiring at my nema 14-50 was done incorrectly.

 

[paperjohn]

The voltage difference is a problem and you should find out why. Did you try lowering the charge rate in the car?

 

[eprosenx]

This time resetting did not work. The car charges fine off a120v outlet.

I measured the voltage coming from the 240v outlet. The voltage on one side was 131v and the other side was 105v. Is that a problem? Any electricians out there?

That is a huge problem.

Residential electrical in the US is single phase split phase. It has a single “primary” voltage wire feeding the transformer within a couple hundred feet of your house. You should have nearly identical voltages between the two “hot” legs and neutral/ground. If you don’t, you have some fairly serious wiring issue.

Before I get to various possible scenarios, please test the following and report back:

Test the “line to line” aka “hot to hot” voltage (outer pins on 14-50). It should be around 240v.

Test the voltage from neutral to ground. This should be zero volts.

Test the voltage from each hot to ground. Should be about 120v and nearly identical.

Test the voltage from each hot to neutral. Should be about 120v and nearly identical.


So now my theories:
You could have an “open” on one of the hot wires at the breaker but you are getting induced voltage from the adjacent conductor in the cable/conduit. Some meters like my fluke have a mode you can put them in to drain off this spurious voltage and give you a true reading.

Your neutral line for the house may be loose at your main panel or outside the house on the utility company side (at the transformer etc..). If so, this is an extremely dangerous situation and it needs to be addressed by the utility or by someone working on your behalf if the issue is on your side of the meter form the utility. This is no joke, this is a common cause for house fires and it could be a shock hazard.

I would be measuring the voltages in my main panel to diagnose this, but barring that (if you don’t have the comfort level to do this), I would go around measuring various 120v receptacles in the house to see what the line to neutral and line to ground voltages were. If I found them similarly out of whack to what you described, I would immediately turn off the main power and call the power company and/or an electrician.

Please report back with your findings! This is how we learn which gives us data to help the next person!

 

[twentw]

Thanks for all the responses. It turned out to be a loose neutral wire on the pole leading to my house. The power company fixed it so I should be good to go.

 

[davewill]

Thanks for all the responses. It turned out to be a loose neutral wire on the pole leading to my house. The power company fixed it so I should be good to go.

Kudos for getting such a prompt response. Although it may not seem like it, it was a blessing to have the car refuse to charge properly.

 

[P85_DA]

Your neutral line for the house may be loose at your main panel or outside the house on the utility company side (at the transformer etc..). If so, this is an extremely dangerous situation and it needs to be addressed by the utility or by someone working on your behalf if the issue is on your side of the meter form the utility. This is no joke, this is a common cause for house fires and it could be a shock hazard.

@eprosenx ..calling it right again!..love this forum

 

[eprosenx]

Thanks for all the responses. It turned out to be a loose neutral wire on the pole leading to my house. The power company fixed it so I should be good to go.

Wow! I am *so* glad you got that dealt with rapidly!

So how did that conversation with the utility go? When you said "loose neutral" did they immediately send someone out? (I have heard from others that they don't mess around with loose neutrals because of their likelihood to cause damage) What did the line crew report to you about it? Also, did anything get damaged in your house electronics wise?

Thanks for reporting back! I have called out the possibility of a loose neutral maybe ten times now here but nobody has reported back that it was the issue until now. I somewhat hesitate to do it as I don't want to unnecessarily worry folks, but I guess even if that turns out to be the issue one in ten times then it is worth warning folks. ;-)

It would be nice if the Tesla would give you a more specific warning on this (I wonder if it can tell the voltage between each phase leg and ground and alert if they were very different?)

Glad it worked out!

 

[twentw]

Wow! I am *so* glad you got that dealt with rapidly!

So how did that conversation with the utility go? When you said "loose neutral" did they immediately send someone out? (I have heard from others that they don't mess around with loose neutrals because of their likelihood to cause damage) What did the line crew report to you about it? Also, did anything get damaged in your house electronics wise?

Thanks for reporting back! I have called out the possibility of a loose neutral maybe ten times now here but nobody has reported back that it was the issue until now. I somewhat hesitate to do it as I don't want to unnecessarily worry folks, but I guess even if that turns out to be the issue one in ten times then it is worth warning folks. ;-)

It would be nice if the Tesla would give you a more specific warning on this (I wonder if it can tell the voltage between each phase leg and ground and alert if they were very different?)

Glad it worked out!

I just reported "voltage fluctuations" and they sent someone out the same day. When he got here I told him about my measurements and he seemed to know exactly what the problem was.