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Retrofit CCS compatibility onto earlier (NA) Model 3 - DIY approach
- Thread starter FalconFour
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To add my data point. I have a 2021 Model Y so I just need the ECU. I stopped by a few service centers and asked nicely. No luck. I also made a few service requests. After fourth try, one of the service centers tried to talk me out of it but at least they are not flat out saying no. I pushed on and assured that I just want the part and do not expect it to work. They graciously sent out mobile service to me and install the ECU in my garage. It took less than 30mins and tech followed all the precaution and fully powered off the car. The software update took like 40mins though. I was able to charge with CCS later today. Huge success! Cheaper charging here we go! Thanks for the pointers.
I've got two coming because I bought from several sources not sure which would come through. So I will have an extra.
How much extra did it cost for the tech to install?
@FalconFour If a Tesla tech install the gen 4 ecu I'm assuming they will provide the correct harness for my 2019 model 3?
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ambudriver03
Member
@saurfang has a 2021 Model Y, which means that he had a stripped ECU, but the rest of his harness and chargeport was Gen4 already. He only needed the ECU.
If you have a 2019 Model 3 (which is similar to my 2020 Model 3), they have neither the Gen4 ECU, nor the Gen4 Chargeport.
Thus far, no one has been successful in getting a Gen3 CP/ECU car to get upgraded to a Gen4 CP/ECU by tesla service.
TLDR: @Metaljug Tesla service can't help you, yet.
TLDRTLDR: Buy the bundle of wires from Ebay, hunt for a Gen4 ECU at your local SC, or E-bay, or whatever, and install it yourself. Tesla officially doesn't, yet.
Caveat - If your chargePORT or ECU Fails under warranty, Tesla will replace the entire assembly - ECU, Harness, and Chargeport; under warranty... which would officially get a model 3/Y CCS capability by virtue of the Gen4 components. Source: My On-Board Charger Broke, and I'm Glad [charge port ECU]
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Sort of - but not quite. In that cited thread, OP simply got a new Gen4+PLC ECU in place of their Gen4 "stripped" ECU. Not a new charge port. (source: I was there in that thread, lol)
As I dug-into and painfully discovered over many dollars of purchased parts, and explained earlier in the thread (up to page 10), it's not possible to put a Gen4 charge port in a Gen3 car. The car itself is literally known as "Gen3" or "Gen4", and the linkage of related components goes from the ECU->Charge port->Battery pack. You'd have to replace the battery to go from Gen3 to Gen4, and even then, that's just where I stopped following the relationship chain. Tesla definitely isn't going to do that themselves.
Tesla still makes Gen3 charge port replacements - and there have been a few revisions of those (e.g.: I have the earlier all-orange charge port - later ones are black). I bought their prescribed charge port replacement (the part they'd give me if I needed a charge port replacement), and it's still a Gen3. Fat orange cables = Gen3. Big metal pipes with orange net wrapping = Gen4.
But I'll give ya a like for the rest of your summary, which is accurate
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This thread started off with me asking Tesla service to "do it for me", and I would hope to pass the info along. Verdict: they tried putting the Gen4 ECU in the Gen3 car, and couldn't figure out why it wouldn't work. Long story short: they eventually updated their parts catalog as incompatible, and I figured out how to make it work anyway. Net result: Tesla can't do it.
It's fundamentally different. I'm getting to be like a broken record here (give me a "like" if you've heard this before): when Tesla comes out with the official retrofit, it'll be a different ECU part number, but likely still be the same Gen4 ECU board inside, with minor tweaks. There will be no harness or "bundle". It's a software & minor hardware change to the Gen4 ECU itself, nothing more. But it's not been released yet.
Tesla still, to this day, does not support CCS in any way. If you mention those 3 letters, "C", "C", "S", Service will hang-up on you, basically. Tesla does not support CCS today. That's why we're here, back-dooring it in a DIY manner
Does make you wonder why they bother showing whether or not CCS support is enabled. They could easily hide that information based on region. I suspect the initial plans were to launch the CCS adapter and official retrofits around the time V11 rolled around, but something (probably supply chain) messed up their plans
This thread started off with me asking Tesla service to "do it for me", and I would hope to pass the info along. Verdict: they tried putting the Gen4 ECU in the Gen3 car, and couldn't figure out why it wouldn't work. Long story short: they eventually updated their parts catalog as incompatible, and I figured out how to make it work anyway. Net result: Tesla can't do it.
It's fundamentally different. I'm getting to be like a broken record here (give me a "like" if you've heard this before): when Tesla comes out with the official retrofit, it'll be a different ECU part number, but likely still be the same Gen4 ECU board inside, with minor tweaks. There will be no harness or "bundle". It's a software & minor hardware change to the Gen4 ECU itself, nothing more. But it's not been released yet.
Tesla still, to this day, does not support CCS in any way. If you mention those 3 letters, "C", "C", "S", Service will hang-up on you, basically. Tesla does not support CCS today. That's why we're here, back-dooring it in a DIY manner
I thought the 2022s come saying CCS1 enabled?
I would think Tesla would open their cars up to CCS1 charging, considering they are now opening up Tesla Superchargers up to other brands on EVs. Doesn't seem right to take chargers away from us for other brands to use, but not allow us to use other chargers also.
As far as I can tell (see the reports peppered around this thread... if you care to dig, lol), the shortage struck again this year and "-80-"s started getting put in cars again. So it's all floppy and inconsistent now. Which probably contributes to Tesla's lack of "actually making it available": the chaos of revealing which cars have it and which don't, without rhyme or reason. (maybe there is some consistency to it I don't know of)
I haven't seen that at all. There was a shortage again, but they shipped cars without an ECU to the delivery centers where they sat and waited for an ECU to arrive and be installed. I have only heard of CCS enabled ECUs being put in these cars. (I had one of those cars presented to me for delivery and it was CCS enabled.)
israndy
Supercharger Hunter
Next stop, Megacharger adapter (MCS standard), looks to be a smaller plug after all, hopefully we don't all need another updated ECU for compatibility, just a nice global standard plug we can all use when no Semi's or Solid State vehicles are waiting for it. I should think it capable of charging as low as 350 volts and 25 amps, or whatever it's bottom end is it would just turn off and say Charge Complete, can't go any slower...
1 min. charging, 16 kWhs charged
1 min. charging, 16 kWhs charged
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YieldFarmer
Analytic.eth
Cool thread! As a datapoint, I got one of the first radar-less cars in May 2021 and it came with CCS support. Btw, did you ever update your gateway's plcSupportType entry?
So much thanks to FalconFour and the team that figured out the CSS retrofit. Came across this thread about 3 weeks ago, ordered a Gen 4 1537264-00-B with the help of local Tesla service center tech. My approach with them was to walk in to the center with the printed Tesla parts catalog page and the correct part number circled and simply ask them if they could order the part. Since all the info is included on that page, including the "Over the counter(No VIN)" designation, and the fact that I was careful to go in early morning when they were not busy, it did not cause any significant extra work for the technician. He was very helpful and ordered the part for me without any questions. It arrived 11 days later on June 17th. I had built my own "Bundle of wires" adapter from the info in this thread and installed it in my 2019 M3 yesterday. I drove to the service center parking lot yesterday prior to installation and put the car in service mode for the firmware update before installing the module. After the installation everything works as discussed in this thread. CCS for a planned road trip to Canada! Thanks again for sharing all this info, you guys are awesome!! If anyone wants to be talked through the process, message me and I will be happy to discuss any questions about my experience.
I think MCS uses CCS communication? I believe I saw that mentioned. If so, I think it'd just need a hardware adaptor
Nope - if any of this involved needing to touch the gateway, I would've stopped there and considered it impossible. That's nearly impossible (removing the MCU/AP box from the car, tearing it apart, attaching probes to the board, etc etc etc... truly "hacking" it), so thankfully, it doesn't need to be done here for 3/Y. Just for older S/X as far as I can tell.
Entirely different systems and procedures and concepts needed on the S/X versus the 3/Y.
okok it's time to engage the forum community
This is the stock situation of the pin-side housings (larger ones) of the Bundle:
Has anyone out there built one of these Bundles themselves, that has additional pin-side housings laying around? I might buy them from you at a reasonably handsome profit, if you've got them laying around in a drawer...
or if you bought a bunch hoping to build some but never got around to it... (maybe I might offer this in exchange as well? ha)
This is the stock situation of the pin-side housings (larger ones) of the Bundle:
Has anyone out there built one of these Bundles themselves, that has additional pin-side housings laying around? I might buy them from you at a reasonably handsome profit, if you've got them laying around in a drawer...
or if you bought a bunch hoping to build some but never got around to it... (maybe I might offer this in exchange as well? ha)
Watts_Up
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