Mobile Charger Strange Fault

[cucubits]

I think my Mobile Connector hates me!

My usual charging routine is the slowest one of all, with a regular 5-15 outlet in the garage (I charge at 12A).
It's a 2016 Model S and came with a Gen 1 mobile charger. Everything was fine up until a few weeks ago when the charger started acting up more and more often up to it doing this every single time now.

This is the scenario:
- I plug the charger in the wall, it does it's green light checks, green light stays on, I plug the other end in the car and it charges
- after charging is complete, the light on the Mobile Connector starts blinking red and the light ring on the car charge port turns red
- I unplug the car, but the light on the mobile connector keeps blinking red.
- it blinks slowly 5 times which according to the manual it means something wrong with the adapter. I plug it out, put it back in, still 5 x red. I plug it out put it back in 10 more times and eventually it does its checks and stays green.

This same cycle now repeats every single time. Once the car is done charging, the mobile connector goes crazy.


I did open a service request with tesla but no update on it yet and I'm wondering if anyone else noticed this pattern.

 

[DerbyDave]

Try cleaning the connector port. See:

 

[EnterpriseT]

Sounds to me like a fault with the unit. Mine suddenly started doing something similar, but was doing 1 flash not 5 (ground fault).

I was scared that it was a wiring issue on the building side, but Tesla Mobile Service gave me a new Mobile Charging Unit and outlet adapter and the problem has never returned. They could see the fault via the cloud on the car's system when they checked the logs.

 

[cucubits]

A quick update on this matter. I cleaned all the connections and it would still show the same fault more and more often. I went to the service center for an appointment (the emmc recall) and I told them about the Mobile Charger too. They checked it, found a fault, and gave me a new one.

It's a happy/sad outcome as they gave me a new gen2 charger, while I had a gen1. I say sad because the gen1 would let me raise the speed even with a 5-15 plug. I could easily charge at 15A while the new gen2 are limited to 12A, I think. Haven't tested it yet.

 

[Rocky_H]

the gen1 would let me raise the speed even with a 5-15 plug. I could easily charge at 15A while the new gen2 are limited to 12A, I think.

It is not supposed to do that, ever. If it did, that was another fault.

 

[cucubits]

Makes sense as most 110v outlets are on 15A breakers so you're probably right.

The thing is, I know my outlet where I charge at is on a 20A breaker and the wiring is new, so I could safely charge at 15A with the old Mobile Connector. Had no issues with this for about 2 years.

No matter, I already found a "workaround". A simple 5-15 to 14-50 adapter and I can use the 14-50 lead with the new Mobile Connector which will allow me to set charging at 15A max. To be honest, 12A is more than enough as I don't drive daily, but for when I need a little more speed, this helps.

 

[Rocky_H]

Makes sense as most 110v outlets are on 15A breakers so you're probably right.

It can't detect what is in your circuit, but the maximum number of amps is signaled by what is in the plug adapter you are using. If it is the 5-15 plug type, that will signal to the charging cable to only announce 12A max. If you instead used a 5-20 plug type (where it has one of the blades turned sideways) that will signal that it can use 16A max.