Home charging issues with 2021 M3 (14-50 outlet/adapter w/mobile cable), and it's not the house. And 'TESLA' LEDs are on.

[JCtx]

Before today, I only had 1 instance where the car refused to charge, and I attributed that to not pushing the plug forcefully all the way in. I did that the second (and subsequent) time(s), and no issues until today. I've been supercharging a lot lately, since my garage gets pretty hot (100+ days for weeks here), and have free supercharging this year, and it's 3+ miles from home. Anyway, car was at 26%, and my wife needs to use it early tomorrow, so I hooked it up at home (to 60%, so 3+ hrs), and went inside. Luckily, I had to get something from my other car, and saw the red light. WTF? Unplugged it, plugged it again all the way in as always, and nada. Did that THREE more times, and same error message: 'charging stopped'. I know it's not the outlet, the garage wasn't that hot now, and I've been inserting the plug the same way for months. Darn. Decided to try it one last time, but slowly, not expecting that to work, and lo and behold, I hear a 'click click' from the charger, and the car finally starts charging. Whew! And it's been charging for an hour, with 2 to go. So what the hell is going on? By now, it's pretty obvious it was a stupid relay not tripping to allow current to flow, but what exactly is going bad??? Is it the plug, or the charger (which has the 'Tesla' letters)? I know it's not the car, because it works fine with the superchargers. But is there a way to check where is the issue? Since the relay tripped, allowing charging, no issues so far. By the way, is that relay the same one that trips when it gets too hot? Do you guys think the charger is starting to go bad, or the relay just got temporarily stuck for not being used for 2 weeks, and the garage being hot? Next time I could hit the 'box' with a rubber mallet to get it unstuck, no? All comments welcome.

Finally, I remember reading that Gen3 chargers were going bad, but the tell tale sign was the 'TESLA' LEDs were off. And that's not the case with mine at all for now. I never noticed the charger makes that 'click click' noise before charging, but I'm sure it's been doing it since the beginning, correct? My car was bought Dec 29, 2020, so only 6+ months old, and it just passed 6K miles. Is this something Tesla warrants? And would they warranty the mobile charger now, or do I have to wait until it actually craps out completely (meaning no LED lights)? All comments welcome. Thanks gang.
JC

 

[Sophias_dad]

They may well warranty the UMC now. Its covered under the same terms as the car, I believe. Doesn't hurt to describe the symptoms to them and ask.

 

[Gasaraki]

Before today, I only had 1 instance where the car refused to charge, and I attributed that to not pushing the plug forcefully all the way in. I did that the second (and subsequent) time(s), and no issues until today. I've been supercharging a lot lately, since my garage gets pretty hot (100+ days for weeks here), and have free supercharging this year, and it's 3+ miles from home. Anyway, car was at 26%, and my wife needs to use it early tomorrow, so I hooked it up at home (to 60%, so 3+ hrs), and went inside. Luckily, I had to get something from my other car, and saw the red light. WTF? Unplugged it, plugged it again all the way in as always, and nada. Did that THREE more times, and same error message: 'charging stopped'. I know it's not the outlet, the garage wasn't that hot now, and I've been inserting the plug the same way for months. Darn. Decided to try it one last time, but slowly, not expecting that to work, and lo and behold, I hear a 'click click' from the charger, and the car finally starts charging. Whew! And it's been charging for an hour, with 2 to go. So what the hell is going on? By now, it's pretty obvious it was a stupid relay not tripping to allow current to flow, but what exactly is going bad??? Is it the plug, or the charger (which has the 'Tesla' letters)? I know it's not the car, because it works fine with the superchargers. But is there a way to check where is the issue? Since the relay tripped, allowing charging, no issues so far. By the way, is that relay the same one that trips when it gets too hot? Do you guys think the charger is starting to go bad, or the relay just got temporarily stuck for not being used for 2 weeks, and the garage being hot? Next time I could hit the 'box' with a rubber mallet to get it unstuck, no? All comments welcome.

Finally, I remember reading that Gen3 chargers were going bad, but the tell tale sign was the 'TESLA' LEDs were off. And that's not the case with mine at all for now. I never noticed the charger makes that 'click click' noise before charging, but I'm sure it's been doing it since the beginning, correct? My car was bought Dec 29, 2020, so only 6+ months old, and it just passed 6K miles. Is this something Tesla warrants? And would they warranty the mobile charger now, or do I have to wait until it actually craps out completely (meaning no LED lights)? All comments welcome. Thanks gang.
JC

My god, chill with the coffee...

Anyway I'm assuming you are talking about the Tesla Wall Connector and not the onboard charger.
1) Supercharging and charging at home are totally different things. Charging at home uses the onboard charger in the car. The wall connector is a unit with a cable/connector and some smarts built in to it. Superchargers have the charger at the station and directly accesses the battery, bypassing the onboard charger. So by going to a Supercharger to charge, you can't test issues with the onboard charger by Supercharging.

2) Test by using the mobile connector on a 240V, 14-50 or 6-50 plug if possible. If not, try to test at someone who has a Tesla Wall Connector also.

3) The Wall Connector always clicks when the car begins to charge. It is normal.

4) Gen3 Connectors "going bad" was not a thing to my knowledge. The issue with the Gen3 was that they would think the unit or wires were overheating and told the car to slow down charging (told the car that it can only provide a low amperage). In this case the lights are still on and still showed the charging green moving lights except it would show a red light at the top blinking.

5) My guess is that it was an heat issue. Being 100+ in the garage is very hot but it's shouldn't have stopped charging completely.

6) If you want to know exactly what happened, call Tesla Power (not motors, choose from the phone menu), and they can pull logs while on the phone with you and see what caused the charging to stop.

 

[Needsdecaf]

Double check the connections on the mobile connector. Check to make sure plug is seated completely AND that the dongle from the outlet to the brain box is also completely seated.

Do you just have it dangling from the outlet or do you have it secured somehow? I have mine strapped to the wall with slack in the wire as to not put strain on the connections.

 

[jjrandorin]

I know it's not the car, because it works fine with the superchargers.

Charging successfully at superchargers does NOT prove "its not the car". Supercharging bypasses the onboard charger (which is actually in the car, not in the mobile connector).

 

[JCtx]

Thanks guys. In case the title wasn't obvious (MOBILE cable), it's the mobile adapter that came with the car, with the accessory 14-50 240V outlet plug. And yes, the mobile 'box' is secured to the wall with Tesla's 'wall adapter', so the plug is fully pushed into the 'box' (I rechecked). And the garage is not 100+; that's the ambient temperature it's been here lately. The garage gets around 90.

Okay, so superchargers bypass the car's on-board charger; that's good to know. So it's still possible that it's the car then. So should I try to get the cable replaced under warranty, or call Tesla and see what they suggest? And as I explained, the plug/dongle was pushed in with enough force to feel it hitting the stop on the charging port, so that wasn't the issue. My wife just came back, so let me try to charge the car right now, and see what happens. Okay, just plugged it, and a second or two later heard the 2 'clicks', and it's charging fine (@32A), like always. So what do you guys suggest I do? Still call Tesla with yesterday's symptoms, and see what they say, or do I have to wait until the car refuses to charge (if that happens)? I wouldn't like that, but I also understand most dealers don't do crap until the issue can be duplicated in front of them. Thank you.

A final comment. I noticed again now that the relay's 'double click' happened after a second or two of connecting the dongle, and yesterday, I was getting the red 'charging stopped' error almost immediately, so before the relay had a chance to click twice. That tells me the car was rejecting getting charged before the relay was asked to start charging. So maybe a software/firmware issue? Can Tesla pull that info from their computers? Does anybody have a Tesla phone number, so I can call? I'd like to discuss this, rather than using the app, since I cannot duplicate the issue now. Thx.