Fremont SC only drawing 10A on my car.

[seclinton]

So we took the trusty 2013 CPO P85 to the Fremont SC about 1.5 hours ago, and plugged in. My car was only drawing 10A and i tried several SC spots at the factory.

Took the car home and it's plugged in and pulling a nice quiet 29A on my Siemans Versicharge no problem.

The sales guy checked and said nothing's wrong with the SC stations.

Looks like i am calling the Service Center Monday to bring her in for a look.

Anyone know a way to reset the chargers without a factory car reset?

 

[dsm363]

What state of charge percentage were you at when you tried to Supercharge?

 

[seclinton]

47 miles and about 25%.
Never had this issue until now, also seems like the touchscreen is lagging. a reset seems to fix that, but its now starting to freeze. Can't help but think they are related.

 

[seclinton]

Looks like it might be car related. Seems even at home, I'm pulling ~50% of what current should be at. Hello service center call.

 

[andrewket]

A bad contactor is my guess.

 

[seclinton]

Yup, probably and now it shows as Charging Complete at 55 miles. Any idea on if it is the contactor how long to repair? Is it replace the contactor or replace battery?

 

[Chris TX]

A bad contactor is my guess.

If the car detects a contactor that's stuck open or closed, it paints the screen with warning messages and shuts down the car. It's not the contactor.

 

[seclinton]

Well, I called and emails the Service Center (closed on Sundays), so if nothing by 9:00AM tomorrow, I'll stop by the service center as the factory is on the way to my work.

 

[Chris TX]

Well, I called and emails the Service Center (closed on Sundays), so if nothing by 9:00AM tomorrow, I'll stop by the service center as the factory is on the way to my work.

Have you rebooted both displays and tried started charging again at home?

 

[FlasherZ]

Two thoughts:

1. You should try a reboot as mentioned. Do you have dual chargers, or single charger in the car?

2. The Supercharger (DC charging) is independent from the AC charging, so you can't compare the 10A at Supercharger from 29A at home.

 

[seclinton]

So I plugged in the travel charger on a the 120V outlet in the garage and that seemed to be ok. After some searching I did the hard reset (top two buttons, also reset main display with two middle buttons)

it it seems the home charger is working and that did the trick. We shall see in a few hours.

1. +1 for the reboot advice confirmed via a search for hard reset
3. Yup, this is a P85, dual chargers and many supercharger visits in the now 56k+ miles on her

 

[andrewket]

If the car detects a contactor that's stuck open or closed, it paints the screen with warning messages and shuts down the car. It's not the contactor.

That's if it has completely failed. There have been other reports of higher internal resistance from the contactor confusing the BMS.

 

[seclinton]

Well, the reset seemed to work. I'm at the Fremont SC now and it's looking good. Charged up to 100 miles at home at 29A, and it seems ok.

Ill keep eel an eye out if this happens again and bring it in for service.

 

[Chris TX]

When in doubt, bounce the screens

Glad it worked for this issue.

 

[seclinton]

Yup, tipping the car sideways seems to have fixed the issue.

In seriousness, Tesla wrote back and initiated a log check. They will let me know if they find anything from the car logs. That's a nice way to diagnose remotely.

 

[MrBravo]

We had a similar situation at the SC north of Stockholm (Sweden). I plugged in at the service center supercharger and came back in an hour (after breakfast). The car was drawing 10A. The person working for Tesla said they "have a problem today". Could it be that they had a similar problem but did not notice, because they still charge? Anyway... solved.

 

[seclinton]

Nope. no problem with the chargers as other cars were charging no problem and also my home Level 2 had no issue charging my Nissan Leaf.

Email back from service logs indicated a "Gateway" issue. In short, the comms between units seem to have failed and a "reboot" of the "Computer" was all that was needed. Top two buttons on the steering wheel held for a 60s count and two cycles of the Tesla logo ensured a reset and all is fine now.

I tested at home and SC last night and no problems with the car today.

 

[tom66]

If I were to guess, a coolant problem, and the car is thermally limiting during charging. Is acceleration or other performance adversely affected? What about regen?

 

[apacheguy]

2. The Supercharger (DC charging) is independent from the AC charging, so you can't compare the 10A at Supercharger from 29A at home.

Is that true? I heard there is a relay that has to close in the master charger in order for the SpC cabinet to be directly connected to the pack.

If I were to guess, a coolant problem, and the car is thermally limiting during charging. Is acceleration or other performance adversely affected? What about regen?

Coolant problems usually trigger "Vehicle systems very hot. Charge speed reduced."

Really wish we had read-only access to the diag screens. It would save us a lot of time troubleshooting and avoid having to get Tesla involved.

 

[Spacela]

Is that true? I heard there is a relay that has to close in the master charger in order for the SpC cabinet to be directly connected to the pack.

You're sort of correct. There is a relay, but its in the high voltage junction box. This routes power away from the chargers and directly into the pack when the car is DC charging. Its completely independent from AC charging.