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Master Charger failed, part not in stock, Tesla dropping the ball on a Loaner

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Hi all,

I have a 2014 Model S P85D, with the 4 year Extended Service Agreement.

I have a HPWC at home, and only use the Superchargers when on road trips.

Last week, on my way back home (near Orlando) from Miami/Palm Beach, I was unable to charge at the Supercharger (hung on "Starting to Charge", tried 3 different stalls). Fortunately, I wasn't completely out of range, and was able to drive (slowly) home, and charge there.

This was already an inconvenience as I was supposed to go to a family function, and not straight home, but, whatever.

I got in touch with Tesla, who did remote diagnostics, and found that the Master Charger failed and needs to be replaced. The part is not in stock and needs to be ordered, and "should" be in "next week".

Unfortunately, my wife is supposed to have surgery next week in Miami, and obviously I am not going to reschedule that just because Tesla doesn't have a part in stock.

I asked Tesla if they can agree that if they don't have the part in stock and installed before I need to drive down to Miami, they will allow me to take the Loaner down to Miami, and pick up my car when I return. I was told "no", and the only alternative they offered was that I can drive my car down, and use "Destination Chargers" rather than the supercharger network.

As I am sure everyone realizes, having to spend four hours for each charging stop is unacceptable, and considering that this trip would basically require at least four stops at a charger, that adds up to 16 hours spent hanging out at Destination chargers.

Let's just say that I am not amused.

Has anyone else run into an experience like this? I'm stunned that this is the way the situation is handled for a car that cost well over $100k new.

It sound like renting a car may be the best answer. Sure, its not blah blah blah. But it is a solution and a car, while wife in surgery, isn't something that you should be worrying about.
 
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It sound like renting a car may be the best answer. Sure, its not blah blah blah. But it is a solution and a car, while wife in surgery, isn't something that you should be worrying about.

Sure, it is an option, and yes, I can and might do that... But it doesn't change the fact that Tesla is not providing service anywhere near comparable to what you might expect for a >$100k BMW, Mercedes, or Porsche.
 
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Is the Tesla your only vehicle? Despite the cost of a Tesla, I realized when I bought it that it would have certain limitations for long distance travel compared to an ICE vehicle. If I were in your situation, I would not be worrying about dealing with the Tesla, and would take my other vehicle, or renting if I didn't have that option. I'd chalk it up to being an early EV adopter and a customer to a company that is struggling to be profitable.
 
Is the Tesla your only vehicle? Despite the cost of a Tesla, I realized when I bought it that it would have certain limitations for long distance travel compared to an ICE vehicle. If I were in your situation, I would not be worrying about dealing with the Tesla, and would take my other vehicle, or renting if I didn't have that option. I'd chalk it up to being an early EV adopter and a customer to a company that is struggling to be profitable.

Stuff like this, IMHO, is part of why Tesla is struggling to be profitable. Don't you think experiences like this weigh in on decisions when Tesla sends out emails suggesting trading the car in and buying another?

Tesla doesn't need to sell their cars to a thousand hardcore fans -- they need to sell their cars to many ordinary people, who expect to be able to use their car as a reliable daily driver. This isn't a Ferrari or a Lamborghini where it's expected to be a garage queen.

As I said above, if Tesla doesn't come through, I will work things out, one way or another -- that's not the point. The point is, Tesla *should* come through.
 
That's interesting. I would push to have the loaner and do whatever you need with it within reason.

I had a service appointment in Richmond on a Monday @ 2:00 PM, and was going up to Baltimore (~3ish hours away from Richmond), staying overnight there and coming back through Richmond on a Wednesday.

They offered to let me have a loaner (Model S 85) the entire trip because they wanted to keep working an issue and verify if and how it was corrected. This was just for a faulty side repeater autopilot camera bug (the 2019.8.3 update bug) which ultimately was resolved during the appointment and I didn't have to take a loaner. But even they made the offer that I could take the car on my mini road trip and swing back through to collect my car. But I didn't take them up on it because I really didn't want to have to shuffle luggage, baby car seat, etc...
 
I had the same failure of the "master charger" over the weekend, car charges fine at home, but will not supercharge (I rarely supercharge).

I was nearly stuck on the road, but fortunately had enough charge to limp to a service center. Although it was theoretically closed, there was someone there who got me a loaner to complete my trip while slow charging my car so I could pick it up on the way home.
 
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Well if this of any importance my car last month ran out of extended warranty.

Shortly after that my it would not Level 2 charge at home or anywhere else, DC super charging was fine!

After taking it to the boys at Tesla they told me that it was mas master charge and it would cost $2800 to get it replaced!!!
So I decided to research the issue and found a video mentioned above where they mention a defective 50 AMP fuse! I enlisted the help of my father a retired electrical/electronics engineer and together we where going to tackle the issue.

If this did not solve the issue I would had already located a Gen 1 Master charger from a local seller on eBay for about $700 which was going to be my next step.

If after the 2 option the car would not charge then I would have to send ti to Tesla for service (ouch!)

So I gave it a try and after 2 weekends tearing the back seat out 1 getting to the master charger,testing the for the bad fuse and installing the new 50 amp fuse. The immediate problem was solved! Now I ask why did it happen?

j3BLgHX


As part of troubleshooting before finding out it was my master charger I blamed my Level 2 Juice box 75 amp home charger. So I called them and had the unit replaced under warranty! In taking the unit off the wall and opening it up i noticed it was pretty beat up and with dark burn marks?

The replacement Juice Box unit is installed and with the fixed master charger it seems to have resolved the issues.

My best guess it the possibly my Juice Net could have caused via a power surge one of my master charger's fuses to blow, which is what I the fuse should do which is to protect the master charger unit.

What I hate is that with the right knowledge and maybe 3-4 hrs or labor this job could be done by Tesla $1000 parts and labor at their labor rates and not $2800.

The most difficult part of this project is not having detailed disassembly info on the back seat of the car which made us ba more cautious on the tear down. Other than that I ordered some additional interior panel clips and all is well and for the past week we have been DC and AC charging.

Just as a precaution I dropped my AC charge rate to 35 Amps just to not stress out the unit.

Thanks,

Diego Cardenas
PS: I can be found in the tesla tip and tricks group in Facebook.
 

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