Limited Charging - due to cold temperature

[VistaM3B]

Hi,
It's been really cold past two days here in Ottawa (-22c feels like -32). Unfortunately, I don't have a garage and I park my M3 outside, both at home and work. Last night and tonight when I insert Wall Connector, it clicks 2-3 times and little T symbol blinks in amber instead of green. In addition I get "Limited Charging - Charging rate may be limited due to cold temperatures". Has anybody else experience this. Last night it did stop charging by itself at %55 even though I set it to %80.
Do you know what is the best practice to preheat the battery? Should I keep the climate on? Your Advise is greatly appreciated.

Note: I have a 32Amp Wall connector and it limits to 16 Amp in this case.

 

[bijan]

I think if the connector/pin is frozen and can't lock onto the cable then it limits to 16A instead of 32A.

Edit: If you have software update 2018.50 you can lower the rear seat and set climate to HI and it's supposed to thaw the port. I mean even if you don't have it, it should work, but 2018.50 is supposed to help.

 

[Darthbenji]

I usually charge shortly after getting home in the winter since the battery is warm. Last night I decided to a little experiment. I charged to 60% right away to make sure I had enough for today’s drive. I have it set to 80% and a 5am start time. When I went to bed I checked the app and it said charging would begin at 5am. All looked normal. When I woke it hadn’t charged and when I manually turned it on it was getting 0 for the first 20 mins and then slowly started to rise after I turned on climate. I have no idea why it got zero between 5am and 7am which is when I woke up. I expected it would be slow since the battery would have been ice cold but not zero.

 

[DMC-Orangeville]

I think if the connector/pin is frozen and can't lock onto the cable then it limits to 16A instead of 32A.

Edit: If you have software update 2018.50 you can lower the rear seat and set climate to HI and it's supposed to thaw the port. I mean even if you don't have it, it should work, but 2018.50 is supposed to help.

We had Jamie and Dustin, who run the Canadian service teams, at our Owners club meeting on Tuesday. The connector pin issue has been an active item with Tesla. They told us there will be a new part to replace the pin/port on all Model 3 charge ports *very soon*. Canadian customers will get priority for the fix. Hopefully, you won't have to do this in the near future

 

[dmd2005]

It was chilly cold 11 degrees C here on the West Coast today and I had no problem charging to 90% last night...sorry, just rubbing it in with El Nina in the Pacific this year. Hopefully whatever the chargeport pin fix is, those in the subzero areas will get priority and a fix soon.

 

[SSedan]

I usually charge shortly after getting home in the winter since the battery is warm. Last night I decided to a little experiment. I charged to 60% right away to make sure I had enough for today’s drive. I have it set to 80% and a 5am start time. When I went to bed I checked the app and it said charging would begin at 5am. All looked normal. When I woke it hadn’t charged and when I manually turned it on it was getting 0 for the first 20 mins and then slowly started to rise after I turned on climate. I have no idea why it got zero between 5am and 7am which is when I woke up. I expected it would be slow since the battery would have been ice cold but not zero.

Battery is a lot of mass that takes time to heat, if the frozen pin thing limits it to 16amps warming will be darn slow.

 

[MorrisonHiker]

I usually charge shortly after getting home in the winter since the battery is warm. Last night I decided to a little experiment. I charged to 60% right away to make sure I had enough for today’s drive. I have it set to 80% and a 5am start time. When I went to bed I checked the app and it said charging would begin at 5am. All looked normal. When I woke it hadn’t charged and when I manually turned it on it was getting 0 for the first 20 mins and then slowly started to rise after I turned on climate. I have no idea why it got zero between 5am and 7am which is when I woke up. I expected it would be slow since the battery would have been ice cold but not zero.

What Volts/Amps are you charging at?

 

[VistaM3B]

What Volts/Amps are you charging at?

240V, 32A by default, but it limits to 240V and 16A

 

[MorrisonHiker]

240V, 32A by default, but it limits to 240V and 16A

Yeah, you mentioned that in your post already. I was wondering what @Darthbenji is charging at to see if it was a similar issue.

 

[VistaM3B]

We had Jamie and Dustin, who run the Canadian service teams, at our Owners club meeting on Tuesday. The connector pin issue has been an active item with Tesla. They told us there will be a new part to replace the pin/port on all Model 3 charge ports *very soon*. Canadian customers will get priority for the fix. Hopefully, you won't have to do this in the near future

As far as I can tell, after 2018.50 update the charger latch/pin does not lock in cold weather anymore. Also I can insert and remove the charger nozzle without my phone. So my problem is not related to pin at all but cold battery.

 

[VistaM3B]

Battery is

UPDATE:

I woke up today and battery was charged to %36 percent and stopped by itself, even though I set it to %90. As I mentioned before, I am confident that it's not pin related.

 

[waterloo42]

Hi,
It's been really cold past two days here in Ottawa (-22c feels like -32). Unfortunately, I don't have a garage and I park my M3 outside, both at home and work. Last night and tonight when I insert Wall Connector, it clicks 2-3 times and little T symbol blinks in amber instead of green. In addition I get "Limited Charging - Charging rate may be limited due to cold temperatures". Has anybody else experience this. Last night it did stop charging by itself at %55 even though I set it to %80.
Do you know what is the best practice to preheat the battery? Should I keep the climate on? Your Advise is greatly appreciated.

Note: I have a 32Amp Wall connector and it limits to 16 Amp in this case.

Yup same thing happened last night at about -9C. Also it was more damp frozen then dry so I think that exacerbated the problem. The charger usually provides 240V / 48A service and it ramped down to 16A when T was amber. Took a hairdryer and ran on low to warm up the port for about 5 minutes and that fixed the problem.

 

[Darthbenji]

Battery is a lot of mass that takes time to heat, if the frozen pin thing limits it to 16amps warming will be darn slow.

I have the Tesla wall connector at 48 amp. There were two hours there that I got 0. I’m assuming now based on others’ experiences that the charging simply didn’t come on as scheduled at 5am

 

[bijan]

As far as I can tell, after 2018.50 update the charger latch/pin does not lock in cold weather anymore. Also I can insert and remove the charger nozzle without my phone. So my problem is not related to pin at all but cold battery.

Charger pin doesn't lock when not charging and unlocks when charging is done but it does lock when charging starts. If pin is frozen in unlocked position the charging is limited to 16A.

Not sure if the interruption in charging is related.

 

[greatseth]

Yup same thing happened last night at about -9C. Also it was more damp frozen then dry so I think that exacerbated the problem. The charger usually provides 240V / 48A service and it ramped down to 16A when T was amber. Took a hairdryer and ran on low to warm up the port for about 5 minutes and that fixed the problem.

YES! you are right.
Even 2 minutes with hairdryer and everything works!

 

[Lon12]

Wonder if I should cary around a portable heat gun in case this happens to me.
Something like the Milwaukee M18 Cordless Heat Gun?

 

[duanra]

From now on I carry a hairdryer in my trunk.

 

[dmd2005]

Wonder if I should cary around a portable heat gun in case this happens to me.
Something like the Milwaukee M18 Cordless Heat Gun?

$150 tool only at Home Depot or KMS Tool. Good if you already have a bunch of M18 Fuel batteries. The 5 amp XC batteries only last 20 min max on a full charge. I carry two 5 amp XC batteries in my trunk for emergencies to defrost the windows, door handles or chargeport.

So far I haven’t needed to defrost anything, but it works well for applying vinyl stickers on the car.

 

[Evoforce]

If you have Harbor Freight stores, hand held 12V Windshield defroster somewhere around $20 if memory serves..

 

[bq533]

At 16A, I can get 15 - 20km/hr. Overnight I get 120km range added, more than my daily range requirement (60km with cabin heat on at 16c + seat heat on).