Problem Charging Overheated Roadster

[Ben W]

An acquaintance stopped by my house today to charge his Roadster (v2.0, non-Sport) on my HPC. There were 64 ideal miles showing in Standard mode, and the battery temperature was at the first yellow. PEM and motor temperatures blue.

So we plugged in the Roadster, and the display said: "Preparing to charge. Battery cooling: 0% complete." But then nothing happened. The fan didn't come on, no power appeared to flow, and the indicator stayed at 0%. Fifteen minutes later, still at 0%.

We tried all sorts of things; turning the car on, resetting the charge port, connecting with the 110v mobile plug. But the car seemed insistent on cooling down without using the fan. (The fan would come on every five minutes or so, but shut off after a few seconds.) It took two hours for the "Battery cooling" to finally reach 100%, at which point the car began charging fine (and blowing the fan like gangbusters as usual).

Does this sound like a firmware glitch? I'm pretty sure the Roadster should have been blowing its fans constantly to cool the battery while preparing to charge.

 

[W.Petefish]

Battery in the first yellow?!

That isn't supposed to happen. Even in the Texas heat my Battery never gets above the last blue. Sounds like some sort of FW/HW problem. If I were him I'd contact one of the advocates or service personel and ask about it.

 

[NigelM]

Does this sound like a firmware glitch? I'm pretty sure the Roadster should have been blowing its fans constantly to cool the battery while preparing to charge.

The battery is liquid cooled and the liquid is cooled by the air conditioning. The fans that are "normally" heard during charging are the PEM fans at the back of the car. It's worth checking your HVAC to see if that works as that may be the issue. Could also be the coolant pump. In any case I'd contact Tesla Service a.s.a.p. to avoid any longer term issues.

 

[Nvbob]

Last year we had a similar issue with the batteries in the yellow and not cooling/charging. Tesla came out and found the HVAC system was very low on coolant. They got it charged and it's been fine since then.

 

[mgemmell]

Battery in the first yellow?!

That isn't supposed to happen. Even in the Texas heat my Battery never gets above the last blue. Sounds like some sort of FW/HW problem. If I were him I'd contact one of the advocates or service personel and ask about it.

Never seen this either... even at 53C charging at 32A. Time to call the ranger in.

 

[ggr]

If the air conditioning totally fails, you will definitely get error messages to call for service. But I think there is just a temperature sensor that measures the difference between incoming and outgoing coolant lines, so it won't necessarily detect failure when the A/C is just getting weak. Still, I'd call for service for this.

 

[markwj]

If the air conditioning totally fails, you will definitely get error messages to call for service.

Not quite. I had a problem with the 400V power converter up front, blowing a fuse in the ESS. No message and no AirCon cooling - just warm air.

 

[Ben W]

Brought the car in to the service center, they acknowledged a problem with the HVAC but weren't sure how to fix it. Reassuring to know it wasn't the intended behavior. Will update again when I know more.

 

[frequencydip]

Brought the car in to the service center, they acknowledged a problem with the HVAC but weren't sure how to fix it. Reassuring to know it wasn't the intended behavior. Will update again when I know more.

My roadster does the same thing I just thought it was a catch 22 the roadster having to low battery power and to hot at the same time so it didn't want to waste battery juice on cooling in order to charge...

 

[wycolo]

> Tesla came out and found the HVAC system was very low on coolant. [NvBob]

Our kitchen refrigerators 'never' fail as everything is inside a sealed enclosure (no rotating seals). Tesla has chosen not to do it this way thus relying on rotating seals which *will fail*??

Maybe I'd better turn on the AC occasionally just to excercise the seals. Only rarely have I noticed the front blower working.
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