New Wall Connector initially charges at 48A then reduces to 32A

[mongo]

Some interesting info from charging yesterday. In the morning, the outside temp was 76F. I left the car for about an hour and it dropped in current to 32A. Later, i went to the same charger it was successful at, but left it and it dropped after maybe 30 minutes. I thought about what other variables were at play and when i charged at home last night. I left the cabin air on using "keep on" in the controls and charged from 14% to 90% maintaining 48A for the total charge time Temps in the garage were similar to temps from the outside in the morning

When I woke up in the middle of the night to see charge complete, i turned the climate off. My Emporia monitor shows that the cabin air was drawing roughly 6A after charging completed. I'm going to attempt my next charge at 42A with no air.

I wouldn't expect ambient air temperature to have an impact, but I can believe an issue with a component overheating due to that extra current is outpacing the ability to remove the heat.

This is only a sample size of one like the first location was. I am convinced it is my PCS module now, just interesting to see if it will be able to at least give me 42A on a consistent basis. I don't think I'll push it to 48A with nothing else to draw current again though. I certainly won't be spending $2K just to get an extra 16A from what I was getting before.

I guess this could be a caution to anyone thinking of getting a WC. Try a few sessions at public ones with no cabin air running before committing to the cost of the device plus materials and possibly labor.

By the way, I see you are in Michigan. I was just charging at a sushi restaurant near Horrock's Farm Market in Lansing. Have you been there? Awesome place. If it hadn't dropped to 32A on the way back to the car yesterday morning, I would've dropped the stuff off and returned to enjoy a beer at their beer garden.

The power flow is AC -> PCS -> DC -> Pack&CarSystems so running the climate control doesn't reduce the current going through the charger. It could increase the cooling to the charger though (and the interior temp of the car, which also helps to some degree) . If the issue was in the pack itself, diverting power might help, but then you'd have usdues supercharging.

WC is still a good option (similar total cost, integration with PW/ solar), even if vehicle has issues.

Haven't been to Horrock's, may need to check it out once Cybertruck shows up.

 

[CoolBuddy]

Does anyone know what it takes to get a response from Tesla? They have ghosted me.

 

[CoolBuddy]

Does anyone know what it takes to get a response from Tesla? They have ghosted me.

They finally responded to my messages after I wrote "Hello?" followed by "It's been over a week since any communication from Tesla" with "Hello, your appointment is currently in line to be reviewed by a technician. We apologize for the delay as we are working to address all appointments in the order they are scheduled".

Do you guys think it would be worth to pay the $275 diagnostic fee to see if they can isolate the problem? It seems to charge fine at superchargers and at 32A, and I can't see paying $2K more just to get an extra 6A of charging if I know I can just have my 6A draw for the AC if I need to get a quicker home charge.

 

[mongo]

They finally responded to my messages after I wrote "Hello?" followed by "It's been over a week since any communication from Tesla" with "Hello, your appointment is currently in line to be reviewed by a technician. We apologize for the delay as we are working to address all appointments in the order they are scheduled".

Do you guys think it would be worth to pay the $275 diagnostic fee to see if they can isolate the problem? It seems to charge fine at superchargers and at 32A, and I can't see paying $2K more just to get an extra 6A of charging if I know I can just have my 6A draw for the AC if I need to get a quicker home charge.

If you don't need more than 32A, leave it.
Again though, running the airCon doesn't reduce the current going through the charger, but will reduce the module temperature.

 

[CoolBuddy]

If you don't need more than 32A, leave it.
Again though, running the airCon doesn't reduce the current going through the charger, but will reduce the module temperature.

I understand that completely. If I run the cabin air, even at 80F when the garage is 80F, it somehow just works. I almost want to pay just to understand why, but at least I know this is a workaround to get a net 9 or 10 KW. It's not exactly efficient, but will be good in a pinch

 

[mongo]

I understand that completely. If I run the cabin air, even at 80F when the garage is 80F, it somehow just works. I almost want to pay just to understand why, but at least I know this is a workaround to get a net 9 or 10 KW. It's not exactly efficient, but will be good in a pinch

Gotcha. The charger is under the seat so I expect it's the additional cooling.
You may be able to get into the service menu and compare temperatures in each situation.
Have you tried 42A no airCon?

 

[MP3Mike]

I understand that completely. If I run the cabin air, even at 80F when the garage is 80F, it somehow just works. I almost want to pay just to understand why, but at least I know this is a workaround to get a net 9 or 10 KW. It's not exactly efficient, but will be good in a pinch

Some people have had luck with getting the PCS replacement covered under the HV battery warranty which you should still have. (It is inside the battery, and comes with a new battery if you buy one.)

 

[mongo]

Some people have had luck with getting the PCS replacement covered under the HV battery warranty which you should still have. (It is inside the battery, and comes with a new battery if you buy one.)

They have? Color me impressed.

 

[MP3Mike]

They have? Color me impressed.

Yeah, I don't know if they have changed the official policy, or if someone just got a rouge service manager to make the determination.

 

[matt1981m]

Some people have had luck with getting the PCS replacement covered under the HV battery warranty which you should still have. (It is inside the battery, and comes with a new battery if you buy one.)

Isn't the PCS under the rear seat on the drivers side?

 

[MP3Mike]

Isn't the PCS under the rear seat on the drivers side?

The PCS is in the penthouse of the battery, which sticks up under the rear seats.

 

[CoolBuddy]

Tesla remotely diagnosed it and quoted $1650 to replace the PCS. I think I'll cancel the appointment because spending this amount just to get the extra 16 A charge rate doesn't seem worth it. I had looked at my TeslaFi logs and saw I had no issues in April at a casino destination charger so this is a bad coincidence I guess.

If I had to do it all over, I would've just bought a second mobile connector instead of paying to have an electrician update everything and pay for the wall connector.

 

[BrownOuttaSpec]

Tesla remotely diagnosed it and quoted $1650 to replace the PCS. I think I'll cancel the appointment because spending this amount just to get the extra 16 A charge rate doesn't seem worth it.

Just know that other "modules" inside the PCS can die as well. If, in the future, you are limited to only 16amps instead of 32, then know that another module inside the PCS has died and I would recommend you getting to scheduled to be fixed before the last one dies.

FYI, my 2023 Model Y (Nov '22 build from Fremont) had the PCS go back in under a year and nothing showed up on the alert screen other than not being able to charge >32amps. This thread has some more info about PCS: Power Conversion System (PCS) failure

 

[Target]

Tesla remotely diagnosed it and quoted $1650 to replace the PCS. I think I'll cancel the appointment because spending this amount just to get the extra 16 A charge rate doesn't seem worth it. I had looked at my TeslaFi logs and saw I had no issues in April at a casino destination charger so this is a bad coincidence I guess.

If I had to do it all over, I would've just bought a second mobile connector instead of paying to have an electrician update everything and pay for the wall connector.

It is a safer and more durable connection than relying on an outlet. Also the Wall connector, and all of the associated install costs and upgrades have a tax credit, where if you just had an outlet, that might have been questionable. So the install gets you a 30% tax credit on all work done to enable this to happen.