How many PCS have failed?

[ucmndd]

I wonder if cracking the penthouse and trying to do this work yourself would void your HV battery warranty. Going down that path could kinda force Tesla's hand / argument on the PCS being part of the HV battery or not.

Sorry, I was speculating / navel gazing based on @doomnika 's post above requesting info on DIY replacement. There's another associated problem with that approach as I doubt Tesla would even sell you a PCS - most HV parts are "restricted" in the parts catalog and not available for over the counter sale.

I'm sure someone motivated enough could find a used one.

 

[PlaidSpeed]

I have the same issue! Pre charge failed boost error. I just live with it. I am out of warranty, and Tesla wants $1200 to replace it. When the 2nd face goes bad, I will replace it, but 32 amps is fine as I only charge at 24 at home

 

[colepalmer]

Just had a power conversion unit failure on my brand new Model Y. It has 400 miles on it...the trip from Paramus to home. They replaced it and the replacement failed on the spot at their service facility. They are trying another one this afternoon. The fact that they have two in stock when they don’t have much in parts inventory speaks volumes. Tesla sucks.

 

[tegra7]

Tesla is speculating that my PCS might be compromised as ive been having issues installing the latest update. My question is would an aftermarket amplifier for my subwoofer cause pcs failure? This all started after I installed my amp last month and it is tapped to the penthouse for power supply. I have an appointment in 2 weeks so it gives me time to rip out the aftermarket stereo equipment and hansshow speaker activation kit before they diagnose the car. As for charging I see no issues. 21 model 3 sr+

 

[MP3Mike]

Tesla is speculating that my PCS might be compromised as ive been having issues installing the latest update. My question is would an aftermarket amplifier for my subwoofer cause pcs failure? This all started after I installed my amp last month and it is tapped to the penthouse for power supply. I have an appointment in 2 weeks so it gives me time to rip out the aftermarket stereo equipment and hansshow speaker activation kit before they diagnose the car. As for charging I see no issues. 21 model 3 sr+

Why not try just disconnecting the amp and see if the update will install?

 

[tegra7]

Why not try just disconnecting the amp and see if the update will install?

Tried that and everything else.

 

[Skunis]

So, I have a question. I just happened to look at the Service section on my app and saw two alerts. One states that my PCS requires service and the other is that my vehicle's systems over temperature limit/AC charging unavailable/Try DC Charging.

This was three days ago. I do not remember seeing any alert on my screen when I was in the car. Nothing.

I have a 2019 M3SR+ (just out of warranty the end of April) so it only charges at 32a and tested it last night and charging at 32a. I checked the cable and although there are scrapes to it it is not damaged. The mobile charger is plugged into a NEMA 14-50 outlet and I do not see any damage there or to the charger connector or at the car connector.

I did just have, about 4 weeks ago, a wall connector put in for my new MYLR and they needed to put in a subpanel that now connects to the mobile connector and the wall connector (both using 50a breakers and the wall connector is set to the 40a charge setting). This allows the ability to charge both cars at the same time. Not sure if that could be the problem but it was almost 4 weeks until I got these messages.

Again, I have charged it daily since and did not get this alert again so I am wondering if it was just a glitch or something else.

Thoughts from anyone here would be helpful.

 

[Skunis]

All I did was ask about it being covered under the high voltage battery warranty and they said yes. Have an appointment this Friday. Currently have an invoice just for diagnostics on $200 and if deemed PCS is the issue they're replacing it completely free and waving all charges

I assume you opened a service ticket and then messaged them through the service part of the app to get this response?

Crazy things is Tesla SCs do their own thing and what one covers does not always mean another one will.

 

[jrmnet]

Unfortunately I am in the club now.

Has anyone had a similar experience to me?

I can charge from the mobile charger fine. I can charge from Superchargers fine, but not my HPWC.

I just had a HPWC installed, set for 40 amps. It goes up to 32 amps, charges for less than 5 minutes, then quits. It also shows the grid/car warning that others have received.

Tesla says the PCS needs replacing.

I am out of warranty and the estimate is $1,860.54. Arrrrrgh.

 

[Yanquetino]

Unfortunately I am in the club now.

I am so sorry to hear this. Given the breakdown of my PCS, Tesla's refusal to cover such repairs under its battery warranty like other automakers, the increasingly erratic behavior of EAP, and the personality disorders of the CEO… I intend to transition to a different EV in the not-too-distant future. According to the recent survey at Bloomberg, I'm not alone.

 

[davewill]

Unfortunately I am in the club now.

Has anyone had a similar experience to me?

I can charge from the mobile charger fine. I can charge from Superchargers fine, but not my HPWC.

I just had a HPWC installed, set for 40 amps. It goes up to 32 amps, charges for less than 5 minutes, then quits. It also shows the grid/car warning that others have received.

Tesla says the PCS needs replacing.

I am out of warranty and the estimate is $1,860.54. Arrrrrgh.

If it's working from the mobile connector, then it ought to work from the HPWC. You might try reconfiguring your HPWC for 32a charging (40a circuit) and see if the car can finish a charge.

 

[jrmnet]

If it's working from the mobile connector, then it ought to work from the HPWC. You might try reconfiguring your HPWC for 32a charging (40a circuit) and see if the car can finish a charge.

I didn't see a way to set this within the HPWC web interface. It just has the circuit breaker setting, which I'm leery of messing with. From the main screen though I see where I can limit it to 32a and it seems to be charging with no alerts! Thanks for the suggestion, 1hr and 20 min to go, let's see if it goes the whole way without any alerts.

 

[jrmnet]

I am so sorry to hear this. Given the breakdown of my PCS, Tesla's refusal to cover such repairs under its battery warranty like other automakers, the increasingly erratic behavior of EAP, and the personality disorders of the CEO… I intend to transition to a different EV in the not-too-distant future. According to the recent survey at Bloomberg, I'm not alone.

Your page on that was super helpful, thank you for that! They did deny my request to cover it under the battery warranty even after submitting an image of someone having it covered. Personally I've been very happy with EAP. I did a 3 hour trip each way last weekend completely on EAP. The only negative issue is that I had 1 phantom breaking event and I normally don't get those.

 

[davewill]

I didn't see a way to set this within the HPWC web interface. It just has the circuit breaker setting, which I'm leery of messing with. From the main screen though I see where I can limit it to 32a and it seems to be charging with no alerts! Thanks for the suggestion, 1hr and 20 min to go, let's see if it goes the whole way without any alerts.

Ok, you don't have an HPWC (Gen1), you have a Gen3 Wall Connector. I had meant for you to change the circuit breaker setting to 40a, but this will do for a test. If you're going to do this long term, go ahead and change the breaker setting. It won't matter that the setting in the wall connector is lower than the actual breaker.

You can likely limp along this way, but I'd guess that every time you plug into a >32a EVSE, it's going to error out on you. If it were me, I might bite the bullet for the repair.

 

[jrmnet]

Ok, you don't have an HPWC (Gen1), you have a Gen3 Wall Connector. I had meant for you to change the circuit breaker setting to 40a, but this will do for a test. If you're going to do this long term, go ahead and change the breaker setting. It won't matter that the setting in the wall connector is lower than the actual breaker.

You can likely limp along this way, but I'd guess that every time you plug into a >32a EVSE, it's going to error out on you. If it were me, I might bite the bullet for the repair.

It charged for 1.5 hours and added 47 miles, so I consider this a success. Last weekend I did 4 supercharger stops and they all charged just fine and over 32 amps. I guess it is possible the part broke the same day as the new HPWC was installed. I'll need to try a supercharger this weekend to see if it fails or stops at 32a. For home charging, I can totally live with 32a.

Right now, the web interface for the HPWC is set for 50 amps which I believe limits charging to 40 amps. If I change the circuit breaker setting to 40 amps, are you saying that auto limits charging to 32 amps?

 

[Rocky_H]

Last weekend I did 4 supercharger stops and they all charged just fine and over 32 amps. [...] I'll need to try a supercharger this weekend to see if it fails or stops at 32a.

Superchargers aren't relevant. The part you are having trouble with is the onboard charger, which is the device that converts AC electricity into DC electricity. With Superchargers that is done in a really big cabinet outside of the car, so then it is passed into the car and bypasses the onboard charger.

 

[davewill]

It charged for 1.5 hours and added 47 miles, so I consider this a success. Last weekend I did 4 supercharger stops and they all charged just fine and over 32 amps. I guess it is possible the part broke the same day as the new HPWC was installed. I'll need to try a supercharger this weekend to see if it fails or stops at 32a. For home charging, I can totally live with 32a.

Right now, the web interface for the HPWC is set for 50 amps which I believe limits charging to 40 amps. If I change the circuit breaker setting to 40 amps, are you saying that auto limits charging to 32 amps?

Yes, setting it to 40a will limit the charge rate to 32a.

The reason you first saw the failure at the same time you tried the new wall connector is because that was the first time you tried to AC charge at greater than 32a. You would have never known if you hadn't plugged into a higher powered EVSE.

Supercharging is completely different and will not be affected by this.

 

[jimc066]

I'm an owner of a 2018 Tesla M3 LR RWD. My car was built in June 2018 which should fall within the window of the TSB. My charging is limited to 32a and I stumbled across this issue because I was testing another charger at a different location to see if his charger would charge at 40a. I usually just charge my Tesla at 24 or 32a as I don't really drive that far so no need to fast charge it.

I have an appointment scheduled in a few weeks with an estimate of around 2k to fix this. I can live with charging at 32a but my worry is if this is a bigger issue and needs to be addressed. I'm also getting an error message "PCS_a100_suspectedViperChipIssue" along with the PCS_a103 message. Is this something I should be more concerned about? I'm going to bring the TSB with me but from what I've read here then I don't know if that will help getting this repaired.

 

[TheCaptain67]

So my 2018 Model 3 has been charging fine (at 32A) with only 2 working PCS modules.

This weekend, it will no longer charge on AC at all. I have tried:
* Mobile charger on 240V circuit
* Mobile charger on 110V circuit
* Public Volta J1772 charger with Tesla adapter

In all cases, power fluctuates from a high positive number to 0 and then back again endlessly. The result is zero miles added to the car.
Of course, supercharger works fine and is now the only way for me to charge.

If another PCS went out, I would have expected to still be able to charge at 16A.
Do you think BOTH remaining PCS modules bit the dust at the same time ? Or is the car just having problems using the one remaining good module ?

Got a Service Center appt for 11/20

 

[davewill]

More likely some component in the PCS that isn't redundant (there must be a few) failed, or perhaps something outside the PCS that can interfere with charging. A bad temperature sensor, perhaps? Is it possible that one failed, then another and you just didn't notice being limited to 16a in between?