Faulty Onboard Gen 3 Charger

[Naota]

Six months ago my MS 75D started charging at half the speed on a wall charger, it would only go up to 24 amps instead of 48.
Yesterday it stopped charging entirely - it would charge a mile or so, drop to 23 amps and then eventually to zero. It would happen 3 or 4 times and then error out.

I started taking my car apart to replace the fuses when I found out the fuses I bought are for the older generation of charger. I have a gen 3 onboard charger.

My questions for the forum are...
1. Are there fuses I can/should replace on the gen 3 onboard charger? Is that still a thing? And if so, what is the model? I saw this video but it didn't get into the detail I was hoping:

Tesla of course is going to charge my ~$2950 to do it themselves. If I go that route I will definitely ask for the original unit to be returned to me.

Any suggestions? I started looking at ebay but most of them are no returns so I am afraid of getting a defective unit.

 

[dbldwn02]

Six months ago my MS 75D started charging at half the speed on a wall charger, it would only go up to 24 amps instead of 48.
Yesterday it stopped charging entirely - it would charge a mile or so, drop to 23 amps and then eventually to zero. It would happen 3 or 4 times and then error out.

I started taking my car apart to replace the fuses when I found out the fuses I bought are for the older generation of charger. I have a gen 3 onboard charger.

My questions for the forum are...
1. Are there fuses I can/should replace on the gen 3 onboard charger? Is that still a thing? And if so, what is the model? I saw this video but it didn't get into the detail I was hoping:

Tesla of course is going to charge my ~$2950 to do it themselves. If I go that route I will definitely ask for the original unit to be returned to me.

Any suggestions? I started looking at ebay but most of them are no returns so I am afraid of getting a defective unit.

I already replied to your other post but I'll hit you here just in case...

Replacing Onboard Charger Gen3 2017 MS75D...My Experience (With Photos)

Here is my experience replacing my onboard charger on my 2017 Tesla MS75D. Disclosure… Don’t try this at home, YMMV, High voltage, you can kill yourself if you do something stupid, yadda-yadda, I’m not liable if you do this, warranty void, blah blah blah… My car specs: 2017 MS 75D (USA) Gen...

teslamotorsclub.com

Your problem is EXACTLY what happened to my charger. Ebay is ok and you can buy 6 used chargers for the price that Tesla wants for a rebuilt charger.

I doubt they'll give you the old charger back, plus it's not going to be worth much anyways. $3000k for a new charger is crazy expensive, especially with so many going out at the 5-6 year range.

Half rate charging wasn't a deal breaker for me and supercharging is unaffected, since it bypasses the on-board charger. I just take pride in my car and want it to operate 100%, if I can help it. The charge fault was the equivalent of a "check-engine" light and I can't stand that.

Oh yea, and you can't repair these...no fuses to replace like Gen2 chargers.

 

[enterandre]

Six months ago my MS 75D started charging at half the speed on a wall charger, it would only go up to 24 amps instead of 48.
Yesterday it stopped charging entirely - it would charge a mile or so, drop to 23 amps and then eventually to zero. It would happen 3 or 4 times and then error out.

I started taking my car apart to replace the fuses when I found out the fuses I bought are for the older generation of charger. I have a gen 3 onboard charger.

My questions for the forum are...
1. Are there fuses I can/should replace on the gen 3 onboard charger? Is that still a thing? And if so, what is the model? I saw this video but it didn't get into the detail I was hoping:

Tesla of course is going to charge my ~$2950 to do it themselves. If I go that route I will definitely ask for the original unit to be returned to me.

Any suggestions? I started looking at ebay but most of them are no returns so I am afraid of getting a defective unit.

I got your profile post. I have insufficient privileges, so I'll answer here:

Hey I just wanted to see how your tesla charger is doing? I had some mine yesterday and have similar issues

The 12volt wasn’t doing so well so I put it on a tender and the car stopped charging. The first time it charged almost 70 miles before stopping and the next five or so times it has stopped after a few minutes.

CHG_f099_noflowDetected

Are you still getting a full charge?

It is still working, now two weeks after the repair. I would keep trying to charge, but check to make sure the coolant level in the reservoir is normal -- for my car, I had to add about a cup or two of coolant. For my car, Tesla service advised me to use Zerex G48 50/50, with "For Tesla" written on the container.

If restarting the charging isn't getting the air out and you've confirmed none of your coolant lines are pinched, maybe try this video I found to cycle the coolant to bleed the air out.

 

[Naota]

I got your profile post. I have insufficient privileges, so I'll answer here:



It is still working, now two weeks after the repair. I would keep trying to charge, but check to make sure the coolant level in the reservoir is normal -- for my car, I had to add about a cup or two of coolant. For my car, Tesla service advised me to use Zerex G48 50/50, with "For Tesla" written on the container.

If restarting the charging isn't getting the air out and you've confirmed none of your coolant lines are pinched, maybe try this video I found to cycle the coolant to bleed the air out.

Appreciate the response!

I actually topped off with the same coolant as you. I also coincidentally found that video and followed it as well yesterday. I did six cycles of that. After that I had one more charging failure due to heat, but i removed it and put it back in. I also cycled between heat/cooling.

I have been charging since coming home from work and it has charged 132 miles so far without stopping.

I hear the liquid moving less often now so I think most of the bubbles have made their way out. I'll finally get my back seats back (Was hesitant to put them on).

Did you replace your onboard charger with the exact same version as what you previously had? (i.e. replace an xs-2-1 with an xs-2-1, or an xs-1-1 with an xs-1-1, etc?)

 

[Naota]

Just wanted to give an update here..

I followed dbldwn02's guide on replacing an onboard charger (mine is xs-2-1.). Mine was charging at half speed about 6 months ago, and then the other half failed about a month ago so I could only super charge. My car only has 48k miles on it and is a 2017, so I was pretty mad about it. Tesla was quoting around $2900.

I replaced my gen 3 onboard charger XS-2-1 version with another XS-2-1 version. It was from a totaled 2018 Model S (mine is a late 2017.). I wanted to try a newer version but decided not to risk it.

I made sure to take pictures the entire way to remember which bolts go where, which cable is positive and negative (for the high voltage cables.)

Once I put in the working onboard charger I turned the car back on but both screens on my model s went black right when I pressed install. This was because my 12v was low. I put it on a tender for 8-10 hours (overnight) and when I hooked it back up in the morning I was able to run the install and all my errors went away.

The next issue was the charger overheating. The car would let you charge for a while and then it would stop. Pressing resume in the car or app wouldn't work. The only way to get it to charge again was to remove the cable and plug it in again. To see the error I had to go to the alerts section.

I bought some Zerex G48 50/50, (which will say "for Tesla" on the packaging.) Note they sell 50/50 and unmixed. I went with 50/50. I topped it off. But that was not enough. I parked my car so the front would be at the highest point and followed the directions here, doing about 7 cycles of it to get bubbles out:

I also drove around some which seemed to help. Lastly I would plug and unplug the charger to let it cycle some more. I left the back seats off until I was 100% sure I didn't have a pinched pipe or anything. This also let me make sure that coolant didn't leak from the unit.

Shoutout to dbldwn02 for all the emotional support and the idea about using a tender! And thank you enterandre for posting as well. Seeing someone with the same issues and learning how you resolved them was really helpful.

 

[dbldwn02]

Shoutout to dbldwn02 for all the emotional support and the idea about using a tender! And thank you enterandre for posting as well. Seeing someone with the same issues and learning how you resolved them was really helpful.

Nice work dude! Glad I could help. Welcome back to the world of 48amp charging! Lol.

Hopefully Tesla releases a service bulletin, considering these seems to be going out at a fairly high rate. I doubt it will happen but it's probably the 3rd most expensive part in the car behind the drive-train and battery. (And those are covered under the 8 year warranty) It's a bummer for these to be failing at 40-60k miles.

 

[Naota]

For everyone else here is the guide I followed

Replacing Onboard Charger Gen3 2017 MS75D...My Experience (With Photos)

Here is my experience replacing my onboard charger on my 2017 Tesla MS75D. Disclosure… Don’t try this at home, YMMV, High voltage, you can kill yourself if you do something stupid, yadda-yadda, I’m not liable if you do this, warranty void, blah blah blah… My car specs: 2017 MS 75D (USA) Gen...

teslamotorsclub.com

And I bought my onboard charger on eBay. I was careful to verify the version in the photos and asked the seller

 

[meomyo]

my gen1 mobile charger cable just went red and wont work... error...so i have a gen 2 cable in the trunk and it works but only at 32amps where as the old cable worked at 48 amps..and the new gen2 cable still gives me errors to say not charging when it really is..its odd. They replaced the charger port under warranty a while ago because of the pins having an issue and its been fine till now. Why would a perfect gen1 cable just crap out like that when all it does it sit in garage coiled and plugged in every nite after getting home????? And why would the brand new gen2 mobile charging cable tell me its not charging when it is? I opened a issue in app and mobile is coming over in 2 days and they made apt for me on may3 in sc too...why i dont know...

 

[dbldwn02]

my gen1 mobile charger cable just went red and wont work... error...so i have a gen 2 cable in the trunk and it works but only at 32amps where as the old cable worked at 48 amps..and the new gen2 cable still gives me errors to say not charging when it really is..its odd. They replaced the charger port under warranty a while ago because of the pins having an issue and its been fine till now. Why would a perfect gen1 cable just crap out like that when all it does it sit in garage coiled and plugged in every nite after getting home????? And why would the brand new gen2 mobile charging cable tell me its not charging when it is? I opened a issue in app and mobile is coming over in 2 days and they made apt for me on may3 in sc too...why i dont know...

I could be wrong but I think the new mobile charger only goes to 32amps. The old mobile charger was good to 40amps.

It sounds like you have a charging port issue based on the error codes it's throwing.

 

[meomyo]

I could be wrong but I think the new mobile charger only goes to 32amps. The old mobile charger was good to 40amps.

It sounds like you have a charging port issue based on the error codes it's throwing.

mobile tech is coming out tomorrow i guess...we will see...the actual port on the car was replaced once under warranty when the rubber gaskets in the mobile gen 1 came off and got stuck in the port on the car..like 2 yrs ago. I hope its just the port as it sounds like it would be cheaper to replace then the larger on board charging unit($3k?) yikes. I still think my gen 1 cable is good and prefer charging in my garage to 40 amps.

 

[meomyo]

I already replied to your other post but I'll hit you here just in case...

Replacing Onboard Charger Gen3 2017 MS75D...My Experience (With Photos)

Here is my experience replacing my onboard charger on my 2017 Tesla MS75D. Disclosure… Don’t try this at home, YMMV, High voltage, you can kill yourself if you do something stupid, yadda-yadda, I’m not liable if you do this, warranty void, blah blah blah… My car specs: 2017 MS 75D (USA) Gen...

teslamotorsclub.com

Your problem is EXACTLY what happened to my charger. Ebay is ok and you can buy 6 used chargers for the price that Tesla wants for a rebuilt charger.

I doubt they'll give you the old charger back, plus it's not going to be worth much anyways. $3000k for a new charger is crazy expensive, especially with so many going out at the 5-6 year range.

Half rate charging wasn't a deal breaker for me and supercharging is unaffected, since it bypasses the on-board charger. I just take pride in my car and want it to operate 100%, if I can help it. The charge fault was the equivalent of a "check-engine" light and I can't stand that.

Oh yea, and you can't repair these...no fuses to replace like Gen2 chargers.

so my car is 2017 75d....do i have a gen 2 or 3 in the car now? I would think gen 2 but dont know.

 

[Zeeshan Javaid]

so my car is 2017 75d....do i have a gen 2 or 3 in the car now? I would think gen 2 but dont know.

What did the mobile tech said ?

 

[meomyo]

What did the mobile tech said ?

mobile tech was canceled and appt at service center was made instead...i took it in and they said its the onboard charger unit failing...2600.00 they took off the diagnostic fee for me...and ordered the part...what option do we have?? it will eventually crap out

 

[dbldwn02]

mobile tech was canceled and appt at service center was made instead...i took it in and they said its the onboard charger unit failing...2600.00 they took off the diagnostic fee for me...and ordered the part...what option do we have?? it will eventually crap out

Really the only other option is to order a Used/New one on Ebay for $400-800 and DIY it. Worked for me but it took two days and a bit of headache. But with the instructions I wrote, I think handy people can get it done in 3-6 hours.

 

[meomyo]

my error went away now and its charging fine...go figure

 

[Zeeshan Javaid]

Tesla changed my onboard charger today and all errors are gone.

 

[Zeeshan Javaid]

Getting this error at L2 chargers at public place today
Tried many of them but got same error as the voltage started at 204 and then drops to 192

At home my L2 charger works fine without any errors. Voltage stays at 237 and current at 32

 

[ucmndd]

That’s due to the electrical infrastructure of the chargers you were using, not anything to do with your car.