Little update. The current name-of-the-game is "getting the ECU", seems to be the hardest part. I've had a couple people now mention (directly and through this thread) that their experience asking for the ECU has been sloppy, hit-or-miss, different SCs say different things. Not sure why that's the case. But I can tell they're getting hard to find.
Of particular note, a few people have mentioned that their SC straight-up refuses to sell one to them, because "it's restricted", or "it's high voltage". Well, no. The ECU is entirely a low-voltage part (otherwise it'd have bright orange cables around it, and an HV warning sign on it - these are regulations Tesla has to stick to
). No part of this project involves touching HV or removing/crossing any "orange boundaries".
But more importantly: the part isn't restricted. You can see this for yourself - go to
Parts Catalog and sign-in with your regular ole' Tesla account, click "catalogs", "vehicles", "Model 3", then navigate to the "44 - High Voltage System" section, and "4401 - Charge System Inlet". That will lead you to a page with only one selection: "Charge Port". Click the image. That's the catalog page. Note item 2:
View attachment 801388
See how it says "Over-the-Counter (No VIN)"? Yeah. Show this to them, lol. It's their own catalog page.
Hopefully this doesn't get worse. It's oddly now almost more difficult to get the ECU than it is to get the adapter