Charging stuck at 1 km/h but only for certain driver profiles

[neoprime]

Hey all, I have a weird one for you. I noticed this past week that our MX Plaid 2022 battery was lower than usual despite our normal weekly usage. We're have a 120v 12A setup, which usually gives us 12A at 5 km/h charge rate. I realized it was only charging at 1 km/h with 12A, but only on my wife's profile. The moment I switch to my profile the km/h shoots up to 5 km/h.

I've checked her charge settings and her amps are at the max 12A. Charging schedule and departure settings are off. Sentry at home location is off. Camp and pet mode are off. I thought maybe it was because it was preconditioning the battery since their was a dip in temperature to 10C, but it doesn't explain why I can switch between our profiles at get different km/h charging.

My wife and I both use phoney key and key fob (the battery in mine is dead). Any ideas?

 

[DCGOO]

Hey all, I have a weird one for you. I noticed this past week that our MX Plaid 2022 battery was lower than usual despite our normal weekly usage. We're have a 120v 12A setup, which usually gives us 12A at 5 km/h charge rate. I realized it was only charging at 1 km/h with 12A, but only on my wife's profile. The moment I switch to my profile the km/h shoots up to 5 km/h.

I've checked her charge settings and her amps are at the max 12A. Charging schedule and departure settings are off. Sentry at home location is off. Camp and pet mode are off. I thought maybe it was because it was preconditioning the battery since their was a dip in temperature to 10C, but it doesn't explain why I can switch between our profiles at get different km/h charging.

My wife and I both use phoney key and key fob (the battery in mine is dead). Any ideas?

It is likely due to other settings, like cabin temperature, sentry mode and so forth. Charging at 120V has so little headroom, often the auxiliary functions consume most of the available power capacity. If someone is inside the vehicle, the auxiliary functions get first dibs on the incoming power. Whatever is left goes to charging, often that is zero.

12 amps at 120V is only 1,440 watts. That often is not enough to cover basic functions of the car, if you have any climate functions running, that is often much higher that 1,440 watts.

You really need to set up 240 volt charging if at all possible.

 

[strider]

Chalk another one up to crappy Tesla software. Obviously there is a setting somewhere that is incorrect. I would try deleting your wife's profile so then only your's is left. Verify it charges correctly, then have her adjust the seats/mirrors and save as a new profile. Hopefully that will clear whatever is wedged in her profile.

 

[neoprime]

@strider I'm at the service center today for another issue and mentioned this weird charging issue. They actually recommended what you suggested, which is to make a 3rd profile from scratch and see if it has the same issue to make sure it's not a car issue, then if no issues with the new profile, try deleting the problem profile.

@DCGOO I forgot to mention that in my tests, I would switch profiles and get out of the car and watch the charging details on the screen from the window. You're right, sitting in the car is basically no km/h charge, but when getting out and closing the door while on my profile I see the full 5 km/h. I'll recheck any climate settings on my wife's profile again. I had the house assessed for 240v and they said I would have to do a $10k upgrade to bring more power to the house. That was one company's opinion though, so I will look into it again.

I'll update later today. Thanks guys!

 

[strider]

@strider I'm at the service center today for another issue and mentioned this weird charging issue. They actually recommended what you suggested, which is to make a 3rd profile from scratch and see if it has the same issue to make sure it's not a car issue, then if no issues with the new profile, try deleting the problem profile.

@DCGOO I forgot to mention that in my tests, I would switch profiles and get out of the car and watch the charging details on the screen from the window. You're right, sitting in the car is basically no km/h charge, but when getting out and closing the door while on my profile I see the full 5 km/h. I'll recheck any climate settings on my wife's profile again. I had the house assessed for 240v and they said I would have to do a $10k upgrade to bring more power to the house. That was one companies opinion though, so I will look into it again.

I'll update later today. Thanks guys!

Keep us posted.

On the 240V upgrade, was that for any 240V outlet or for a specific amperage? In my experience there are 2 obstacles you can run into. First is you do not have any space in your breaker panel to add a new 240V circuit (takes 2 slots). In that case and if they are not able to rearrange or recover circuits that are no longer needed, then you are looking at adding a sub-panel which can cause a snowballing of upgrades. But the second issue could be a limit on the amperage that your panel can support. In that case, you may be able to install a lower amperage circuit. Both the Wall and Mobile connectors support all the way down to 240V/12A (15A circuit/breaker). So if you have space in your panel you could triple your charge speed by charging at 240V/12A (15A circuit). This was common for us when we lived in the Bay Area - we regularly dealt with 60+ year old houses with only 100A service and panels. In all of them we could add a low amperage 240V circuit for charging and stay within the panel limits.

 

[DCGOO]

@strider I'm at the service center today for another issue and mentioned this weird charging issue. They actually recommended what you suggested, which is to make a 3rd profile from scratch and see if it has the same issue to make sure it's not a car issue, then if no issues with the new profile, try deleting the problem profile.

@DCGOO I forgot to mention that in my tests, I would switch profiles and get out of the car and watch the charging details on the screen from the window. You're right, sitting in the car is basically no km/h charge, but when getting out and closing the door while on my profile I see the full 5 km/h. I'll recheck any climate settings on my wife's profile again. I had the house assessed for 240v and they said I would have to do a $10k upgrade to bring more power to the house. That was one company's opinion though, so I will look into it again.

I'll update later today. Thanks guys!

I installed my own 60 amp circuit, for roughly $500 I think (that 6 gauge cable adds up quickly). Later I hired a contractor to install completely new 200 amp service to my house (only had 100 amp before). This included a new meter base, and full replacement of my service entrance and breaker panel. That ran me round $3,500, including all permits and inspections. I also had an automatic transfer switch for my standby generator, which was already present, but it complicated the installation slightly. So, yeah I think 10k is a little high, unless you had to dig a trench and install conduit.

But even if it runs $10,000, remember you driving around a $150,000 car. It makes no sense to struggle with 120V charging on a permanent basis.

 

[Rocky_H]

I installed my own 60 amp circuit, for roughly $500 I think (that 6 gauge cable adds up quickly).

Then I am very suspicious that you did that correctly. Since you used the word "cable" that usually is the word people use for NM-B Romex. People would generally use the word "wire" instead of cable if they were using separate wires in conduit. 6 gauge would be acceptable for a 60A circuit if it's wire in conduit, but not if it's Romex. If that's 6 gauge Romex, you need to switch that down to a 50A circuit.