Not all Tesla chargers will work in my M3?

[PDEric]

Very weird problem. Tried plugging into my daughter's Tesla charger at her house to get a few electrons before driving home (San Diego to Palm Desert). Initially got clicking sound and msg on screen that "connector not fully inserted - remove obstruction or insert fully". It started charging at 16 amps with a msg on screen that "charging at reduced rate due to connector not fully inserted" or something like that; the charger is on a 50 amp/240v circuit. Let it charge for a couple of hours and then headed home. Stopped at a supercharger on the way just to test it (150Kw). It worked fine! Got home and plugged in my Tesla charger (same circuit config as my daughters) and it also worked fine.

My daughter's charger works fine on her M3 (same as mine). What gives? Anybody have a similar experience with a Tesla charger? How could this be? No obvious obstruction in my charge port or anything like that.

 

[cwerdna]

Was this a wall connector or a mobile connector?

If the former, which version? See bottom of Wall Connector. Part numbers could end in -A thru -E.

There is a compatibility problem w/very early WCs with "newer" Teslas. See Series 1 HPWC issues with 2018 model S, for example. My work had 4 very old Tesla wall connectors from many years ago and facilities mentioned to me they "didn't work" with "newer" Teslas. They were very likely -A or -B judging by the years listed there. Facilities got them replaced. They're in another building that's being sub-leased to another company and those WCs are now designated for another company, so I can't report on their status.

 

[PDEric]

Both wall connectors. Me and my daughter bought our M3's literally days apart in April this year. We both bought Tesla wall chargers around the same time so I'll assume they're the same version. Also of note: I DID SUCCESSFULLY use her wall charger about a month ago when I was visiting. I also checked for bent pins, etc. and everything looks good.

 

[maketm]

I had this happen one time on my charger, my wife had plugged it in. I think she didn’t push the charger plug in quite enough. Nothing wrong with the car or the plug in my case. Unplugged it, plugged it in again and never happened again.

 

[MP3Mike]

Any chance one of the pin caps on her charge port came off and are lodged in the HPWC plug? (Such that it will still fit in her car, but won't properly fit in your car.)

You mentioned that you checked your port, but did you check the plug on the HPWC?

Note: There is a TSB for the pin caps on the Model 3.

 

[Fadiawesome]

i think tht your daughters charger was not plugged in fully into the mobile connecter when you were trying to chage

 

[ewoodrick]

Look at the part in the car and the plug closely. It's very possible that something has broken.

 

[Kevin-rf]

I've had this happen once on the home hpwc, needed a quick top off mid day. Received the message, went that's odd, unplugged, inspected the cable, nothing amiss. Plug back in paying attention to how I plugged it and the error went away.

My only thought was I wasn't paying attention the first time. That and the cable was dropped the night before... The puppy had gotten tangled in some Mardi gras beads the kiddo had placed on him and I had to quickly deal with the commotion dropping the cable thinking coyote.

 

[silentsnow31802]

Any chance one of the pin caps on her charge port came off and are lodged in the HPWC plug? (Such that it will still fit in her car, but won't properly fit in your car.)

You mentioned that you checked your port, but did you check the plug on the HPWC?

Note: There is a TSB for the pin caps on the Model 3.

This ^^
Very common problem.
Use a flashlight (or you cell phone light) to look into the connector of the HPWC handle. There may be a piece of black plastic lodged in it. This would stop the handle from fully inserting into your cars port.

Be careful inserting and removing the supercharging into your charge port

 

[PoitNarf]

Any chance one of the pin caps on her charge port came off and are lodged in the HPWC plug? (Such that it will still fit in her car, but won't properly fit in your car.)

You mentioned that you checked your port, but did you check the plug on the HPWC?

Note: There is a TSB for the pin caps on the Model 3.

Yep, mobile service tech replaced my charge port pins about 2 months back. Said it was a common issue causing all sorts of charging headaches.

 

[PDEric]

Thanks for all the ideas/suggestions. I tried my daughter's charger again a few weeks later....same problem. The next time I visit her, I'll try and do a complete inspection. When I had my tires rotated a couple of weeks ago, I asked the service guy if he had heard of the problem but he said he hadn't. Based on my interaction with him, I suspect he was a newbie and didn't know much (Cathedral City, CA service center).