From Love to Hate in one Roadtrip

[Xd85]

Yup, known issue, but looks like may not have affected everyone to the same degree. I was a bit suspicious when UMC wouldn't plug right. details at this thread:

"Charge-gate" Dec 2017 builds

Picked up my shiney new Model S 75D on Dec 18th. Love the car. Love everything about it. With the exception of a small rattle on the driver’s side (which I’ll get taken car at a later date) the car is flawless.

I gush about it. I rave about it. I can’t wait to do the first road trip with the family in it.

First trip arrives today as we plan on leaving our place - in Cambridge Ont - to do a late Christmas at my parents house in Kingston Ont. It’s only an overnight trip due to work obligations - but the kids are excited. We need to make a stop along the way for a hockey game my daughter is playing in - but the navigation says a full charge followed by a 10 min stop at the Supercharger in Port Hope will get us to our destination with about 9% battery. Even my wife - who was against the purchase of the car due to range anxiety and delays from charging was impressed.

Until we hit Port Hope.

I couldn’t connect to the Supercharger. An orange ring and a could not connect was presented at the first stall.... and the second.... and the third... and the fourth....

I called Roadside who stated that it appeared that everything was fine with the car except that many cars with my build date have “tight charging ports” that often prevent them from connecting to the SC. It is apparently “a known issue”. He suggested wiggling it and hoping for the connection to take.

It didn’t.

After 30 mins of trying.

In the rain.

With not enough charge to get to our destination we found a public destination charger where we now sit for the next 90 mins to get enough charge to get us to Kingston. Except that we don’t have any charging solution there with the exception of a SC which we can’t seem to connect too.

Tesla strongly suggested we take the car to a service center for repair. Which we obviously can’t - as it’s too far away, isn’t open until Monday and in the complete opposite direction. Fear note though - they’ll log the concern in my file. Crisis averted (note: that’s sarcasm - they were of no help at all).

Thankfully a local B&B in Kingston is being kind enough to let us charge overnight despite the fact we won’t be staying there. That should get us enough of a charge to get to Toronto so that we can find a public charger to get us home.

Not the least bit thrilled with the situation - how is a cars inability to connect to a Supercharger something that gets by QC?

I guess I can take solice in the fact that my wife is too angry to speak to me and as such I don’t have to listen to her yelling....

Anyone encountered a similar problem and found a DIY solution?

I just got my 2017 Model S 75 right after Christmas, and had a few charging issues with the orange ring, but the thing that didn’t make sense was how much force it took to get the charger out of the car (two hands pulling). Sounds like I may have had the same issue as you. I took it back to Tesla, and they replaced the charging port, and now it’s much easier to put the charger in and take it out. I think it’s a great tip to try out at a supercharger before a trip. I will definitely do that!

 

[DrivingRockies]

If you have some Chap Stick or lip balm I would use it on the male side of the port.

High voltage/amperage connection. Bad idea. People get killed by things like this.

 

[Solartech]

Sorry to hear about your terrible experience!

I live just west of the porthope supercharger. If you get stuck and need to pull off for a 240V 32A charge please pm me.

I also have a dremel tool that can shave down the connector so then maybe you can hit the new pickering superchagers... Until you can have Tesla replace connector. Safe travels...

Just an update...

The NAV system miscalculated a little and we didn’t have enough power to make it to the local B&B last night. We coasted into a friends place on the outskirts of town with about 15 km of power left. With my parents place being another 11km away - and the charger we had arranged being 25 KMs away we opted not to risk things. We were already on Range Mode and cut all cabin heat/lights. It was pretty awful.

We “charged” the car overnight on a 110V charge and should have enough this morning to get to the aforementioned B&B. The plan is to charge there for several hours and make our way home - knowing we will need a few stops at destination chargers and several more hours of charging to make it. I see a movie or two in our future today - with any luck maybe The Last Jedi won’t be so terrible on a second viewing.

Needless to say this trip has been a complete failure - including having to reschedule a work flight that was supposed to leave tonight as there is no way we make it.

Thanks for the suggestions on the Supercharger - I may stop and try it again on the way home as I have nothing to loose. Fingers crossed!

As for testing the car before I left - the closest Supercharger is an hour away (at least for now - they’re building one 10 mins from my home). I don’t think it’s reasonable to take a 2 hour round trip to ensure something so critical and basic on my new car is working before taking a 5 hour one way trip. I am generally practical - but also don’t have hours of time to waste to cover other people’s mistakes.

I’ll update when we make it back - and have had some time to reflect on things....

 

[speedy]

Not to take away from the fact that it should have worked or your frustration, but if it was me, I would have tested Supercharging before embarking on a trip that depends on it. And in fact, I did actually test mine, even before a road trip, to get familiar with the process and determine my expected charge rate, etc.

Wow, why so many disagrees? I did say that the expectation is that it should just work, but as others have mentioned, if this was an airplane or sailboat, you would be remiss in not checking any systems that you are dependent on, even if the expectation is that it SHOULD work.... I also understand that this was not an easy option for the OP, but that doesn't make it a bad idea...

 

[CalBlue 85D]

Sorry to hear your story, that's not the way a road trip is supposed to work but hopefully you can laugh about it someday. I also think it is totally inexcusable for Tesla to deliver a car with a known defect, especially since you are paying for Supercharging that they know you can't use. Every owner of an affected car should have been given a loaner car until the problem was fixed. Every single one. Can you imagine how dangerous this could have been with winter weather if you arrived at a remote supercharger with your entire family in the car and could not add power or keep the car running?

We have done thousands of miles of road trip without major incidents, but driving an EV still requires more thought and planning than in a car with a ICE. Tesla makes it fairly easy, but one missing charge opportunity or an unexpected detour can really cause problems.

 

[Buster1]

Sorry to hear of this. Please don’t give up on your car yet. But I understand the frustrations.

As a data point, my Dec 17 build MS has been charging fine, and I’ve SpC four times total now without any issues. The last SpC event I did get an orange ring initially, but resetting the plug fixed it. No clue why this is happening to you and some cars of this timeframe.

 

[Hornedfrog1]

While it is a good idea to check a car before a trip, it should not be required, especially on a new car delivered the week before. Do you take your Tesla for an inspection before every trip over 60 miles? Even if you do (which would be a waste of money, but hey, you may worry about something being loose and falling off, your money), don't you think assuming that Tesla did a proper inspection a week earlier at delivery of a brand new car is a reasonable assumption?

When I had my my battery coolant heater and the 12 v batt go out last weekend on a trip the service center was great and claimed they found everything and got it fixed right. They suggested, before I go on a road trip, to take it by my local SC to let them do an inspection of that unit. They said it only takes about 20 mins and my SC said that inspection is complimentary. I agree...a huge pain in the butt because my SC is a little over an hour away.

 

[Hornedfrog1]

Care to elaborate on what you consider "take good care of you" means, since you are so sure of it? Will they travel back in time to fix things, will they gift the wife a P100D so she's not mad anymore? How exactly do you take care of such things? Will they voluntarily pay whatever the OP considers "pain and suffering damages"?

What Tesla should have done is send a new loaner, or offer to pay for Uber Black or something to take care of the family trip while they take their time to tow the car unable to charge and fix it, then deliver it fully charged to wherever the family happens to be at that time. That would be taking care of it. Once your trip is F'ed up, the only way to take care of it would be through some gesture so ludicrous that makes the injured party think "they made up for it". Considering the family can afford a Tesla, a coupon for free BigMac isn't going to do it. A free battery swap from 75 to 100KW might.

When my car crapped out last weekend a bad situation was made worse when I got the the Bellevue, Wa service center. Not because they were rude, but because service was not open on Sunday but the sales department was and when I inquired about a Loaner the ladies at the front desk said, “I’m sorry. Only the service department can check out loaners.” I had to drive home, 260 miles, in a Kia minivan. Then my local SC wanted me to come swap out for a Tesla loaner the next day so over an hour one way.

 

[BinaryField]

Wow, why so many disagrees? I did say that the expectation is that it should just work, but as others have mentioned, if this was an airplane or sailboat, you would be remiss in not checking any systems that you are dependent on, even if the expectation is that it SHOULD work.... I also understand that this was not an easy option for the OP, but that doesn't make it a bad idea...

A boat or airplane is a very far-fetched comparison to a car. The simple reason is that the consequences of system failure in the former cases is substantially greater than in the latter.

 

[Brian-MS90D]

A boat or airplane is a very far-fetched comparison to a car. The simple reason is that the consequences of system failure in the former cases is substantially greater than in the latter.

I think you miss the point. The comparison is not regarding potential loss of life. The comparison is regarding reliability for intense or long use. For example, if for some reason you knew you had to run your lawn mower for 12 hours you would need to check it beforehand. Every machine in the world including ICE cars require inspection before intense or long use (and their manuals state so too).

 

[BinaryField]

I think you miss the point. The comparison is not regarding potential loss of life. The comparison is regarding reliability for intense or long use. For example, if for some reason you knew you had to run your lawn mower for 12 hours you would need to check it beforehand. Every machine in the world including ICE cars require inspection before intense or long use (and their manuals state so too).

I honestly don't know why people are waving their hands on this so much - it has absolutely nothing to do with the original poster. The car was new and presumably charged before pickup. It was driven home successfully from the showroom. It's a perfectly good expectation that the car was in working order.

 

[TexasEV]

Just an update...

The NAV system miscalculated a little and we didn’t have enough power to make it to the local B&B last night. We coasted into a friends place on the outskirts of town with about 15 km of power left. With my parents place being another 11km away - and the charger we had arranged being 25 KMs away we opted not to risk things. We were already on Range Mode and cut all cabin heat/lights. It was pretty awful.

The nav system doesn’t know it’s raining, or the road is wet, or your heater is on. If you see you’re using more range than you expect, the main thing to do is slow down. Also use your seat heaters so you don’t need to use the climate control heat as much. Most importantly, don’t cut it so close. Starting a trip with an expected arrival of 9% is not a good choice, especially if you’re not experienced with Tesla road trips.

 

[Need]

OP, my MX was delivered on Dec 18 too and have the exact same problem. The only difference is that we didn't go on any road trip but we took it the local mall's supercharger to test it while we were shopping for X'mas. I was managed to body slam the charger into the port. I had my wife tried it and she cannot no matter how hard she tried. Then I read here that there is a fix that they will have to come out and file down the port. Haven't call to have them do it yet as we are not really planning any road trip.

 

[Hornedfrog1]

Sorry you had this first terrible experience. I have 2 Teslas and have had similar terrible initial experiences with both (albeit not exactly the same as yours). Tesla is a bit of a love / hate kind of car. When they are working well, they are just amazing and there is no better road trip car. When they let you down it just sucks.

Once you get past the initial quality issues and get the car settled (all initial issues including rattles, etc.) and can make peace with the fact that they will still have some minor "gremlins" (i.e. reboots at strange times) you will love the car again.

The original owner of my 16 CPO Model S had no problems with it and traded it in on a Model X. Once I got it and reached about, only 36,000 miles, I started having problems (see my previous posts) so I don’t agree that everything will be sunshine and lollipops unfortunately. If anything....it gets worse.

I know a lot of people will say no no and opens a totally different can of worms but I’m starting to think that Elon has his hands in too many things (Model S, Model 3, Model X, solar, underground tunnels, Space X, and now semis.) I applaud his efforts and desire to do good for the world but I believe quality has decreased as his interests have expanded. From what I have seen of posts on here, the early Model S owners are very happy and virtually trouble free for the most part. He needs to have more of an active role in the auto department and focus on that to ensure quality. If the semis start having these issues at such low mileage, orders will be cancelled left and right because big rig drivers absolutely will Not stand for that. 18 wheelers can’t be breaking down due to electrical stuff especially ones caused by their need to supercharge.

I was told that the reason why my battery coolant heater unit failed was because it was starting to have problems, though it hadn’t warned me of this, and then when I supercharged twice on my trip it tipped the scales over the edge and fried it so make sure and be aware while supercharging...you could be dead in the water at any time.

 

[Hornedfrog1]

If you picked up your car at a service center, they most likely had a supercharger inside for their own use. If new owners knew that, they could ask to have their cars tested out at delivery. I certainly will if I ever buy another one.

Your local SC does not have a super charger at them unfortunately. They only have the standard NEMA plug like you do at home.

 

[DrivingRockies]

Your local SC does not have a super charger at them unfortunately. They only have the standard NEMA plug like you do at home.

Some do.

 

[Hugh Mannity]

Wow, that would be annoying and I’d be pissed too if my first road trip ended up like this.

My wife was skeptical at first as well but after our first road trip, (interestingly via Kingston from Toronto to visit my parents), then via the states to our home in Vancouver she is a believer.

Hopefully this bump in the road is your first and only and your family loves the EV experience going forward.

 

[TexasEV]

Your local SC does not have a super charger at them unfortunately. They only have the standard NEMA plug like you do at home.

Really? You’ve checked every service center? Actually they all have HPWCs, and some have a supercharger.

 

[Hornedfrog1]

Really? You’ve checked every service center? Actually they all have HPWCs, and some have a supercharger.

There is no need to be snotty. We are all on here to get opinions and to try and learn from each other. If you have some information that conflicts with something someone else said, just say it.

 

[Carl]

Wasn't that just what @TexasEV did, giving information to the contrary?