Not charging! **FIXED**

[Js1977]

So. Yesterday was a good day. Wall charger installed, car charging "properly".

Today. Its messy. Car started in the morning saying reduced regeneration braking and later on saying its unable to charge.

Unable to charge, contact service, try plugging cable again (alternating message) remains on the screen all the time.

Got home, Tried wall charger and it didn't respond (red light on charge port) , Tried gang charger and its the same. Tried both soft and hard reset (same)

Called roadside assistance and advised to try another charger (reluctantly I did)

So... three chargers, same issue.

Booking a service request on the app is no help... It asks me to to choose service centre and a date. How on earth am I supposed to get there if I dont have enough juice?!

Car is not even a month old and already giving me grief... To top it off, I bought it for the Mrs and she loves it to bits and to satisfy me on occasion in wait for Model Y.... Im not looking forward to give her these news when she comes in later

 

[Dilly]

Have you tried a hard reset. Brake pedal and both scroll wheels?

 

[pgkevet]

Assuming a power off reset didn't help then you call roadside assistance back again. Worst case they'll have to arrange a trailer for the car and a loaner for you.

 

[Js1977]

Assuming a power off reset didn't help then you call roadside assistance back again. Worst case they'll have to arrange a trailer for the car and a loaner for you.

Right...last ditch attempt before the Mrs gets in...Ive got out the and disconnected the battery and the connector under the rear seat and leaving it for a bit while I type this and clean the cat box (she's just gone for a poo )

Yes worst case scenario is calling them again albeit the girlie on the phone today did not mention anything about them picking it up should the worst be

Personally, I dont mind a tinker but the Mrs on the other hand might put a dampener on my tesla plans

 

[MrBadger]

Today. Its messy. Car started in the morning saying reduced regeneration braking and later on saying its unable to charge.

Reduced regen message is a fact of autumn/winter. We got our first one of the season this morning and expect many more.

The unable to charge one is more of an issue.

 

[Js1977]

Have you tried a hard reset. Brake pedal and both scroll wheels?

Yes, done a soft reset to start with and the a hard (with brake pedal) after before I called assistance.

I’ve now done a full power down and another hard reset after but the same remains.

 

[Js1977]

 

[Js1977]

Reduced regen message is a fact of autumn/winter. We got our first one of the season this morning and expect many more.

The unable to charge one is more of an issue.

I get what you mean but it was 13 degrees celsius out there! Thats summer for us!

 

[Js1977]

Im going to start drowning my sorrows now and gain courage to tell her when she gets back.... this strangely feels like when I had to call her to say the vets have put the dog down

 

[MrBadger]

I get what you mean but it was 13 degrees celsius out there! Thats summer for us!

We got ours at 18C. So its not unusual if thermal mass of the battery has cooled. iirc it likes it above around 15C.

Do you have access to a supercharger with battery in reserve in case that doesn't work? That will show if its a general charging issue or just one on AC. It may also give you some method of charging via DC in the mean time.

The other one to try is the UMC. Not that it will likely work, but you can then tell Tesla that its also failing on the charging equipment supplied with the car too so they wont have any third party to blame things on. But there is also the slight chance that a slower charge rate may give different results.

 

[Js1977]

ITS FIXED!!

Just in time!

I knew just as I told the roadside advisor that it was improbable to be the cable since ive tried two and two different chargers plus was was it telling me these messages all the time even when driving even though I wasn't trying to plug anything in.

A youtube search yielded this

And this was my problem. All I had to do is wiggle that connector and things happened....If you unplug it fully, the messages as per my pictures above is all you get... From their end (when they tap remotely to your car) all that get logged is a charger miscommunication! I will still log this with tesla since my cable was fully in and wiggling it would cause the messages to come and go hence why i fully unplugged and put it back in.

My thinking is that it was fine with ten amps from the granny charger since this only happened after it was pumped with 32 amps from our new charger for the first time hence my belief is that this connector is a bit "wonky"/made on Friday...or may need some of that grease that I can't remember what the name is (not copper) (not being funny) since I have alerts for when the car charges and it initiated and completed successfully on the 7kwh charger and then the problem was after that.

 

[Glan gluaisne]

This problem is almost certainly mechanical, and has, I think, been seen before. If you look carefully at the connector, you will see that the pilot pin is slightly shorter. This is to ensure that, if the fail safes n the protocol fail, and the connector unlatches with power on, then as the connector is removed the pilot will disconnect first. Disconnecting the pilot causes the charge point to open it's contactor, so the power is removed before the power contacts separate, reducing the risk of a big spark.

The issue seems to be that the connector can be a bit tight when new, so may not go fully home. It doesn't take much to cause the pilot pin to fail to properly connect, and that then gives a communication error.

DO NOT GREASE THE CONNECTOR. If you do, then what will happen is that the grease will attract dirt, the dirt will then cause rapid wear on the contacts and the connector may end up needing to be replaced. I rescued a Leaf from this situation a couple of years ago, where the owner had been spraying some sort of contact cleaning stuff in the connector, and very nearly totally buggered it from dirt. I stripped the connector out of the car and stripped his charge point connector, spent about 3 or 4 hours carefully cleaning all the muck off and reassembled it, telling him that under no circumstances should he squirt anything near the connectors, they are designed to work totally dry.

 

[Satman]

ITS FIXED!!

Just in time!

I knew just as I told the roadside advisor that it was improbable to be the cable since ive tried two and two different chargers plus was was it telling me these messages all the time even when driving even though I wasn't trying to plug anything in.

A youtube search yielded this

And this was my problem. All I had to do is wiggle that connector and things happened....If you unplug it fully, the messages as per my pictures above is all you get... From their end (when they tap remotely to your car) all that get logged is a charger miscommunication! I will still log this with tesla since my cable was fully in and wiggling it would cause the messages to come and go hence why i fully unplugged and put it back in.

My thinking is that it was fine with ten amps from the granny charger since this only happened after it was pumped with 32 amps from our new charger for the first time hence my belief is that this connector is a bit "wonky"/made on Friday...or may need some of that grease that I can't remember what the name is (not copper) (not being funny) since I have alerts for when the car charges and it initiated and completed successfully on the 7kwh charger and then the problem was after that.

Glad you got this sorted. Same thing happened to me and I just switched off the mains / breaker power to the charging unit and that sorted it out

 

[Js1977]

Glad you got this sorted. Same thing happened to me and I just switched off the mains / breaker power to the charging unit and that sorted it out

Thanks. YesI had tried all that to no avail. I knew straight away with the car plugged in just as I touched the plug that the message on the screen was changing. Not had a problem since but yet another thing learned.