Default charging reverts to 5A at 48A home charger

[Mekkelek]

I charge my car at home with a professionally installed Tesla Wall Connector on a 60 amp circuit braker which is capable of charging the Model 3 with 48 amps. My problem is when I arrive home, even before plugging in, my car often displays 5A as the default charging speed at that location instead of 48 amps. When this happens, I have to change the charging limit manually to 48A on my car's display. When I do that, the car is happy to charge at 48 amps.

I suspect the issue is that when I got the car in 2018, I charged it from 110V / 5A for a few monts before my solar install was and the electric panel upgrad completed. I think the car sometimes is confused and associates my home's coordinates with a 5A charger insted of the newer 48 amp charger.

Any ideas on how to fix this?

 

[Traior]

Does it still charge @ 5A when plugged in? It may say 5A, but once plugged and charged, it'll adjust and increase. That's what happens on mine.

 

[WilliamG]

Does it still charge @ 5A when plugged in? It may say 5A, but once plugged and charged, it'll adjust and increase. That's what happens on mine.

Same here.

 

[boaterva]

Once you plug it in and save that rate in that location it should override the old ‘saved’ location limit. Not sure what the old limit has to do with it.

And yeah as above it should ramp up to the max pretty quickly.

 

[seanns32]

I see the same issue at home (I've got a SR+, using a 32amp non-tesla wall connector). I'd say when I get home, about 25-50% of the time the speed is set for 5A and I'm then forced to move it to 32amp before getting out of the car.

For what it's worth, i charge at work on a 120V 12A plug, and the car will always be set to 12A for my work location. So only appears to be a 'home' bug

 

[timp123]

I have a similar issue when using local public chargers. The charger supports 40A and initially charging speed ramps up to 40/40, but after a few minutes my car will randomly drop to 38/40 or 36/40 and fluctuate. Not really an issue but I'm wondering if it's the wall connector doing that, or the car charger.

 

[jerry33]

I have a similar issue when using local public chargers. The charger supports 40A and initially charging speed ramps up to 40/40, but after a few minutes my car will randomly drop to 38/40 or 36/40 and fluctuate. Not really an issue but I'm wondering if it's the wall connector doing that, or the car charger.

This issue is caused by fluctuations in the current supplied by the electric company, poor wiring, or additional loads (e.g. an air compressor motor starts). The car determines the maximum amps (the wall charger will also have a maximum it can deliver). If the car senses that the voltage sags enough, it will lower the rate of charge. Once lowered, you have to manually reset it to higher.

 

[TMK26]

... My problem is when I arrive home, even before plugging in, my car often displays 5A as the default charging speed at that location instead of 48 amps. When this happens, I have to change the charging limit manually to 48A on my car's display. When I do that, the car is happy to charge at 48 amps...

The same thing is happening with mine. I noticed last night when I got home that the car displayed 5A as the charging speed. It's supposed to be at the max 32A. I never changed the setting, and I don't plug in anywhere else.

 

[srs5694]

I don't recommend going straight to this solution, but there is a Factory Reset option in the Tesla's main screen, on the Service page. It's described on p. 114 of the (current) owner's manual. I've never tried it, so I can't promise anything, but I'd expect it should clear out old remembered settings for maximum amperages at specific locations. OTOH, it will also wipe out all other personal customizations, so you'll need to set the car up again from scratch, re-pair it with your phone, etc. It might be worth trying as a last resort.

 

[Rockster]

Mine does the same thing, at home and at work. It'll show 5A when I pull in to the space. I've been manually increasing it back to the amperage I want. Honestly, I don't think I've tried just seeing if the car will charge at the higher, desired amperage once I plug in. I've just been increasing the amperage manually before getting out of the car to plug in. I'll have to try just plugging it in and see if it charges at the correct rate instead of at 5A.

 

[jkoya]

Mine will show 5A before plugging in. After plugging in, it changes to 48A....

 

[Rocky_H]

This issue is caused by fluctuations in the current supplied by the electric company, poor wiring, or additional loads (e.g. an air compressor motor starts). The car determines the maximum amps (the wall charger will also have a maximum it can deliver). If the car senses that the voltage sags enough, it will lower the rate of charge. Once lowered, you have to manually reset it to higher.

Not from this symptom. That safety lowering from voltage sag will go to 3/4 of the full current level. This 5A symptom is a glitch of some kind I've seen in a couple of other threads, where it seems to be remembering an old geographical current setting at that location and isn't able to override it for some reason to set a new value for that location.

 

[srs5694]

@M3BlueGeorgia, why did you rate my post above "disagree?" Are you saying that a factory reset would not fix the problem? If so, please elaborate. If you simply think a factory reset is overkill, note that I emphasized that this was a last-resort sort of solution twice in my post. If think there's some other problem with a factory reset I'm overlooking, please clarify. I'd hate for somebody experiencing this problem to try a factory reset and run into an avoidable issue that you know about but aren't sharing.

 

[M3BlueGeorgia]

@M3BlueGeorgia, why did you rate my post above "disagree?" Are you saying that a factory reset would not fix the problem? If so, please elaborate. If you simply think a factory reset is overkill, note that I emphasized that this was a last-resort sort of solution twice in my post. If think there's some other problem with a factory reset I'm overlooking, please clarify. I'd hate for somebody experiencing this problem to try a factory reset and run into an avoidable issue that you know about but aren't sharing.

Doing a factory reset is basically the last thing someone should do, unless Tesla recommends it.
Its the Tesla equivalent of reformatting the drive and reinstalling Windows on your PC. Sometimes necessary, but rarely the best solution.

 

[srs5694]

Doing a factory reset is basically the last thing someone should do, unless Tesla recommends it.
Its the Tesla equivalent of reformatting the drive and reinstalling Windows on your PC. Sometimes necessary, but rarely the best solution.

In other words, it's the last resort. Which I said twice in my original post.

 

[jerry33]

Not from this symptom. That safety lowering from voltage sag will go to 3/4 of the full current level. This 5A symptom is a glitch of some kind I've seen in a couple of other threads, where it seems to be remembering an old geographical current setting at that location and isn't able to override it for some reason to set a new value for that location.

Not from the OP's symptom is correct, but I wasn't referring to that, I was referring to the post quoted, which was about amp reduction.

 

[Rocky_H]

Not from the OP's symptom is correct, but I wasn't referring to that, I was referring to the post quoted, which was about amp reduction.

Oh, I'm sorry. I had overlooked that you were quoting about a different post with different symptoms. I removed that disagree from it. Sorry about that. Still, dropping to 38/40 or 36/40 doesn't seem like the right indicator of that either.

 

[Mekkelek]

Once you plug it in and save that rate in that location it should override the old ‘saved’ location limit. Not sure what the old limit has to do with it.

And yeah as above it should ramp up to the max pretty quickly.

This is what I have been trying for over a year without luck. I park in the grage, open the charging port from the screen, and find that the max charging level is sometimes at 48 amps, sometimes at 5 amps - in which case I manually increase it to 48 amps. I plug in the car after this.

I'm glad many of you found that the car would still charge at 48A even when it's displaying 5A, I never tired this, but I will try next time. BTW I reached our to Tesla support in email, I will share their response. I hope they can remotely reset the charging speed history if indeed this is causing the issue. I guess the old 5A charger's location is still in the car's memory at slightly different coordinates, and sometimes when my GPS location varies, this comes up instead of the correct 48A one.

 

[jerry33]

Oh, I'm sorry. I had overlooked that you were quoting about a different post with different symptoms. I removed that disagree from it. Sorry about that. Still, dropping to 38/40 or 36/40 doesn't seem like the right indicator of that either.

Yeah, usually it drops to 30 or 25, but I've seen a lot of flakey electricity at RV parks and such so I can imagine that flakey wiring can do that. These days, I just set the amps to 32 at those places and that almost always clears the flakey behaviour.

 

[Rocky_H]

in which case I manually increase it to 48 amps. I plug in the car after this.

Oh--that's not how that works. It won't try to memorize a geo-located setting for charging amps while it is not charging. So if you try to set that first and then plug it in, it's not going to do anything. You have to actually adjust the amps while the charging is going on for it to overwrite that amp setting for that location.