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Crackling when plugging car in to charge

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I'm really struggling to think what could cause this. Water ingress into the relay/contactor in the chargepoint? Whatever it is, I'm sure EO will be very keen to get to the bottom of this.

Completely second the view that you should not use the chargepoint (and should turn off the breakers) as it is highly likely to be a safety risk. That aside, repeated arcing risks pitting of the contacts in the connectors in both the cable and the car (and could be a risk to the charging electronics in the car, too).
 
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My guess is either the relay/contactor is sticking, or the control circuit/hardware that handshakes with the car is faulty.

5 minutes with a multimeter would answer a lot of questions, but it's not a good idea to go poking around with a meter unless you know what you're doing.

If you need to continue to charge until someone can look at it, can you get in to the habit of turning the charger off at the circuit breaker, before plugging it in to the car? that would ensure that the plug would be voltage free, regardless of any faulty relay or handshake. That or just use the UMC.
 
If you need to continue to charge until someone can look at it, can you get in to the habit of turning the charger off at the circuit breaker, before plugging it in to the car? that would ensure that the plug would be voltage free, regardless of any faulty relay or handshake. That or just use the UMC.
I would strongly suggest not using it at all, and sticking to the UMC until you get to the bottom of this. The arcing is the observed symptom, but it may not be the only problem. If there is water ingress (we know the problem is weather dependent) then you may have far bigger problems than you realise - worst case the entire car could become live!
 
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@Billbrown1982 Did you ever get to the bottom of this? Would be interested to know what the resolution was with EO.

Funny enough EO have been utterly diabolical throughout this whole process. I've been chasing them every few days since this whole ordeal started and was getting nothing but promises of call backs that never came.

BUT, I literally got an email yesterday that they are coming to see it on Wednesday, so here is hoping it gets fixed. I have been using it occasionally since this all started though and its so hit or miss as to whether it does it or not, I can almost guarantee it won't when they show up and it will all have been a waste of time.

I also have the car booked in with Tesla on friday as a plan B.
 
Funny enough EO have been utterly diabolical throughout this whole process. I've been chasing them every few days since this whole ordeal started and was getting nothing but promises of call backs that never came.

BUT, I literally got an email yesterday that they are coming to see it on Wednesday, so here is hoping it gets fixed. I have been using it occasionally since this all started though and its so hit or miss as to whether it does it or not, I can almost guarantee it won't when they show up and it will all have been a waste of time.

I also have the car booked in with Tesla on friday as a plan B.

You should absolutely not be using it, it sounds like it’s damaging your charge port and it’s potentially a massive risk as the cable is live before it’s inserted
 
Personally, I would have 100% switched the damn thing off at the breaker and not touched it until it was looked at and deemed safe for A / anyone to touch and B / for the car. Just as others are advising. Do that and use the UMC in the meantime or charge it away from the house.

I don’t mean to be patronising, but there are mechanical and software systems designed to stop this from happening, that are obviously not working. Do you actually, fully understand the risk (no matter how small of a chance it is)?
 
Funny enough EO have been utterly diabolical throughout this whole process. I've been chasing them every few days since this whole ordeal started and was getting nothing but promises of call backs that never came.

BUT, I literally got an email yesterday that they are coming to see it on Wednesday, so here is hoping it gets fixed. I have been using it occasionally since this all started though and its so hit or miss as to whether it does it or not, I can almost guarantee it won't when they show up and it will all have been a waste of time.

I also have the car booked in with Tesla on friday as a plan B.
That's pretty shocking (no pun intended). It's been what - two months now?
 
In an ideal world, no I wouldn't be using it, wouldn't even be thinking of using it.

BUT, I have a long commute and often work between 12 and 15 hours a day. I can't charge it at work. So what are my options? UMC won't charge it quickly enough, if I go and charge it somewhere off route, during my commute, then I have to wait with it and lose even more of the little amount of sleep I will get, or I phone in sick because my car is flat?

Not everyone has the option guys.

And yes, its actually 2 months today since I first reported this.
 
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Probably best to turn it off at the breaker before plugging/unplugging from the vehicle to avoid arcing and damaging the Tesla’s connector. i.e. only have it powered on when plugged in.
You beat me to it. Definitely plug in first to avoid any arcing and then switch back on at the breaker ... if he has to use it at all. Remember the state of the inside of a distributor cap when the capacitor was failing ... that's your Tesla socket.
 
Yup - perhaps I should have been clearer in my follow up. I HAVE been doing that since we first talked about this issue. When I said it sometimes crackles and sometimes not, I meant originally, before I started this new process of plugging in and unplugging.

I still don't totally get what is happening. I really hope they send somebody knowledgeable on wednesday and not just a grunt. Because if the socket is live, then in theory the car should charge right? But its not charging outside of its scheduled hours, yet it used to still crackle when plugging in.

So live, but not live? I know there's a small current for handshaking, but.....honestly no idea.
 
Well, EO showed up and of course, couldn't get so much as a buzz out of the damn thing. Tried multiple times, showed him the videos that I'd taken but, without seeing it himself there was not a lot he could do.

Charger got taken apart. All the connections were checked for any signs of damage and tightened. He also did a software update on it and said I'll just have to see if it does it again.

I've got the car booked in with Tesla tomorrow, although I may have to postpone that thanks to my booster jab leaving me pretty floored. Honestly i'm expecting even less help from them, but I am starting to wonder if there's something lose in the charging socket, so that when I remove the charger sometimes its pulling a pin out with it or whatever, which is why its shorting the next time I charge it? Would explain the randomness of it.

We did come to the conclusion however that its definitely the 12v (ish) handshake circuit and nothing more sinister, so he says it isn't that dangerous and should not cause any damage to use it if it starts playing up again. So there's that I guess.

Not going to let it lie though, just not sure I'm up for the drive to Tesla tomorrow.
 
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So, it has been over 2 weeks now since EO came out and the car has been plugged in to charge pretty much every day since.

Not once has it made so much as a sound...

My appointment with Tesla is this Friday but I am going to give it another couple of days and then cancel it for now. I'm kind of assuming that whatever temperamental fault was with the charger, its been fixed either by taking it apart and putting it back together, the firmware update, the tech actually fixing something but not wanting me to know in case it was a liability thing, or just dumb luck.

Either way, there is no point me making the drive up to Chelmsford at this point only to be told they cannot find anything wrong.
 
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