Charging stopped-rebuild title

[erniejenson]

 

[erniejenson]

This is the purchase order I sent to them. I will try again and show them the document that you sent to me.
Thanks for pursuing this futher. I am very happy what you are saying. I don't want anyone think that I am one to critize Tesla. I think what Tesla has done is fantastic. I am a big supporter and I just want to get through this project as easy as possible. The car looks fantistic!

 

[user212_nr]

Someone made a youbube video about your Tesla with 6,245 views.

Title: "Fraudsters‼ ️in insurance auction"

Not sure yet what is the content of the video.

 

[erniejenson]

That is really interesting. They are talking in Russian. The car was sold by an insurance company at Copart. Hard to think their could be any fraud. I have talked to the owners and they are a fine family involved it an typical freeway accident. However that is my car!

 

[user212_nr]

Don't see why they think it is "fraudsters", as they improved it slightly then sold for a bit more.

This was damage of initial accident:

Here is when sold last

 

[user212_nr]

That is really interesting. They are talking in Russian. The car was sold by an insurance company at Copart. Hard to think their could be any fraud. I have talked to the owners and they are a fine family involved it an typical freeway accident. However that is my car!

Definitely not fraud in the literal sense of the word. He's not saying much in the Russian - "they fixed the bumper and the trunk and then sold for 2,400 more". Sounds like reasonable amount, maybe a bit of profit there.

Considering your earlier comments, I don't think you were aware of the full extent of the impact damage.

The damage was limited due to a hit in the back on the freeway and pushed into the car in front setting off the airbags. No damage to headlights or tail lights but a dent in the trunk and a damaged facia and rear bumper. The front had limited damage also... Hood was not damaged or frunk plastic. The main damage was the four front airbags were set off and all four seat belts needed reseting.

 

[erniejenson]

That is a poor way to make money if you consider sales tax, auction fees and hauling.

 

[user212_nr]

That is a poor way to make money if you consider sales tax, auction fees and hauling.

Not a lot of money, definitely. However, when you have a dealer license, then you do not pay the sales tax.

One thing which is odd is the purchase on 07/03/2019 for $14000 and the attempted sale 1 month later (8/19/2019) for $8,600. Then dropped to $7,300, before jumping to $17,000 listing price.

Don't have any answers or explanations for it myself. Really doesn't matter as you own the car now and just need parts.

 

[Oldnoob]

This is the purchase order I sent to them. I will try again and show them the document that you sent to me.
Thanks for pursuing this futher. I am very happy what you are saying. I don't want anyone think that I am one to critize Tesla. I think what Tesla has done is fantastic. I am a big supporter and I just want to get through this project as easy as possible. The car looks fantistic!

Any updates? I’m rebuilding a model 3 and curious about your charging problem.

Any chance is the wall charger? What is the color of the Tesla light on the charge port? The car can drive so the pyro fuse is still working.

 

[erniejenson]

The wall charger is OK. I also have the moble charger that works on 125 vac and have tried it at two charging stations. After I installed the pyro fuse it charged and drove as normal. The only electrical damage was the air bags and the seat belts. I charged it regulary when working on the car for a month. I had probably driven it two miles since purchase during testing. Since it would draw so much current when sitting, maybe 3 to 5 miles a day, I would disconect the 12 volt battery in the frunk and then eventually the 12 volt battery charger on the main battery by pulling the small black connector. When this happened I had put about two miles on the car when testing. I had 150 miles left on the battery when it stopped charging. Now I am down to 50. I have to get to the CHP for a vin number check and then to Tesla after I get my registration. It looks like it is trailer time from now on. I don't like loading, hauling and unloading as that gets dangerous unless you do it every day. I get a notification on the screen that says "Battery will not charge". I have a 400 vdc lab power supply. It can only put out 1 amp at 400 vdc but that is as good as the 125 volt charger provided by Tesla with the car. If I pull the pyro fuse, hook up there and find a good ground, that would probably get me by until I can get help from Tesla reprograming the computer. There would zero chance of that harming the battery but I am concerned about the 12 volt charger, the on board AC to DC converter that charges the main battery, and any logic circuits that sense battery range, etc. I took the car to a local Tesla service station and met some really nice car technicians. They said, after inspection that all the high voltage appeared perfect as there was no damage anywhere near any of the high voltage cables. They said that I need to go to one of the main Tesla service facilities, Pomona, CA as they do electrical and collision service. I guess I will have to drive there to plead my case as they are hard to communicate with by phone and if I get the wrong person they might say, "Salvage title, Go Away!
By now you must agree that the Tesla is very easy to work on mechanicaly. The plastic all pops right off and there is a lot of working space. However, if there is no help on the computer from Tesla, the car is more trouble then it is worth. I have not been able to find anyone in the country that can reprogram a 2018 or 2019 Tesla 3. Mine is a late 2018 with 4 K miles on it. The light goes from red to blue when I push the button and then back to red after 5 seconds. No green!

 

[MP3Mike]

". I have a 400 vdc lab power supply. It can only put our 1 amp at 400 vdc but that is as good as the 125 volt charger provided by Tesla with the car. If I pull the pyro fuse, hook up there and find a good ground, that would probably get me by until I can get help from Tesla reprograming the computer.

The HV battery is isolated from the car, so you can't use a "ground" to charge it. You would have to hook to positive and negative inside the PCS on the battery side of the contactors. I.e. Not safe.

 

[erniejenson]

Sorry for saying ground instead of saying negative on the main battery. What you say is correct. My error. I am not worried about safe if you mean personal safety as I have worked on building systems with thousands volts on the dc power supply. If you are familar with electron beam recorders and large scale television systems of the old days then you would understand my life of risk. The question is how can one be sure to not damage any of the electrical equipment around the battery. I would need to know how much I would have to disconnect to isolate the battery and then putting 400 vdc to the battery at 1 amp is no electrical risk for me. One has to be carefull when working on a live source of 400 volts but it is nothing compared to working around thousands of volts. I do not want to be one on the internet encouraging the average car mechanic to tear apart 400 volt systems. I don't want anyone to get harmed working on a Tesla. I am sure that Tesla feels the same way. It would be much safer if good information and support was available and we should not discuss such things on the internet. Considering that you have 11,284 posts one would assume that you are an engineer working for Tesla or a former Tesla engineer. Perhaps we should comunicate on email rather then on the internet with hundreds of people watching. You might guide me on what to do and what not to.
[email protected]

 

[ElectricIAC]

Just imagine if you could run that 400v @ 80amp.

 

[erniejenson]

My Tesla charger gives me 21 miles range per hour and the only use the car will get is driving aroud the local area. I have charging covered when the computer gets reprogramed. The big question is why did the computer decide to disable the charger. It is clearly the computer at work unless the AC to DC charger built into the car failed or maybe the charge port module. That is unlikely in a car that has 4K miles on it.
The only electrical work on this car of any consquence has been the resetting of the seat belts, air bag & seat belt module, and replacing of the front four air bags. Tesla does not make seatbelts and air bags. Major companies make seat belts and air bag systems and provide them to all car manufactures. Nothing is unique on this car except the computer system that monitors and displays the status of these items. However the chest air bag on the passenger's side is the latest design that has more options during deployment. I have not encounter a three plug air bag before. Something to learn and understand, but that is the main reason I have this project. I work mainly on collectable cars that go up in value and not down, so I do not usually encounter the latest design.

 

[MP3Mike]

The only electrical work on this car of any consquence has been the resetting of the seat belts, air bag & seat belt module, and replacing of the front four air bags.

Didn't you replace the pyro-fuse as well? Or do you not count that as electrical work? (It requires opening up the PCS/penthouse on the battery does it not?)

 

[erniejenson]

Mike, Please, I do not consider replacing a fuse as anything major for an engineer. Let me tell you what is major work. Taking the dash apart to replace the passenger air bag is major work, electrical and mechanical on this Tesla. You don't want the bag to go off in your face and do serious harm. You have to know what you are doing. To get access to the that air bag your have to remove plastic parts under the pillar posts, pillar post plactic exposing another set of air bags, plastic parts to pull the front part of the dash, the front dash, the rear dash exposing the speakers, the speakers, the other three front airbags, plastic parts around the two lower ones, the stering wheel, the glove box, loosing the center council, and remove the screen. Now you can start to remove the center dash to get to the airbag in the little yellow box. But never mind removing it from the little yellow box as all is scrap. That entire assemply has to be replaced becaus the pad cannot be removed from the dash. The car did not end up with a salvage title because it needed a pyro fuse that cost me $75 and thirty minutes to install. Do you know how much Tesla charges to replace the front four air bags and the seat belts? That is why it received a salvage title. Never have I done so much work for one air bag.

I gave you my email adress. Why don't you send me your thought as to what I should do to finish my project so I can go away as a happy camper and keep telling people how wonderful I think Tesla are. I have many thoughts about the good and bad of this car. I don't want to discuss them on the internet. I don't want to feed the hating crowd. What I need to know is, "Will Tesla update my computer so I will able to recharge my car or do I have to consider more extream action? Just a little email would be fine. When I took my car to the local Tesla service center, they could not answer that. However the guys were really great. They tried their best to get that answer for me. They suggested going to Pamona Serve Center. I have asked that question on-line to Tesla Service and haven't received an answer. I tried calling them with no luck. Now how do you think I will feel if I drive two hours to Pomona and two hours back and can't get this answer?

 

[smatthew]

Really Ernie? You are reduced to begging for answers from strangers online who you suspect might be a Tesla engineer based upon their post count?
And then you threaten "do I have to consider more extream action?"
Please. Your car says "Car needs service, unable to charge" and you still don't believe anything is wrong with the high voltage system?
Do you even have a CANbus hookup so you can read the messages going back and forth?
Let's not even get started about how you built your own DC charger to over-ride Tesla safety systems.

 

[brkaus]

I don’t believe you need anything reprogrammed. I think you need the faults read, explained, and corrected.

There are a lot of safety systems on the car. some looking for even the smallest amount of current leakage among other things. If issues are found they will not allow the contactors to close on the HV pack. If the contactors will not close the car will not charge.

There are many possible causes of faults. I've read about many here - coolant heater (model S/X), charge port lock issues, coolant leaking in the motor unit, and the list goes on and on.

 

[MP3Mike]

There are a lot of safety systems on the car. some looking for even the smallest amount of current leakage among other things. If issues are found they will not allow the contactors to close on the HV pack. If the contactors will not close the car will not charge.

I could be misunderstanding but I think @erniejenson is saying that he can drive the car just not charge it. So it must be passing all of the HV isolation tests. Which would likely limit the problem to the charge port, PCS, and the wiring between them.

 

[brkaus]

I could be misunderstanding but I think @erniejenson is saying that he can drive the car just not charge it. So it must be passing all of the HV isolation tests. Which would likely limit the problem to the charge port, PCS, and the wiring between them.

It wasn’t clear to me which capabilities no longer work. You may be right.