Welcome to Tesla Motors Club
Discuss Tesla's Model S, Model 3, Model X, Model Y, Cybertruck, Roadster and More.
Register

Retrofit CCS compatibility onto earlier (NA) Model 3 - DIY approach

This site may earn commission on affiliate links.
Status
Not open for further replies.
I am glad my service center was NOT a 4 hr. trip as that would be scary. I replaced my ECU and THEN went to the SC to do the software half. Fortunately in the Bay Area I have about 50 service centers in range of a full charge, but with the swapped ECU you cannot charge until you do the software install. That could get messy if something doesn't work.

I like J's method but if it's that far to a SC it might be better to open a ticket in the app and request a re-install, you get all the benefit of J's method above, just an orange clock at the top of the display until you get around to the ECU swap.

I thought you could still supercharge, but not level 2 charge. Or did I read that wrong?
 
I like J's method but if it's that far to a SC it might be better to open a ticket in the app and request a re-install, you get all the benefit of J's method above, just an orange clock at the top of the display until you get around to the ECU swap.

I saw that mentioned that you could request a re-install via the app after I performed my upgrade and for this situation would be perfect vs all that windshield time.
 
  • Like
Reactions: miles267
Interesting! I'd suggest getting back into service mode (or ask service to give you a report of the service-fix faults), so you can see the underlying hidden service message - it'll detail exactly what it's complaining about/what it's sensing, and how to fix it. I would say it's unlikely to be something in the Bundle, but... with so many built, all by hand, you never know! 😅
Well, I've charged it again since then (Supercharger and L2) and no more error! So I won't worry about it :)
 
hi, so I took delivery of my 2021 M3 on Aug 2021 and it says I don't have the CCS adapter installed so I requested the 00-B part from my local service center and this is what they told me: Yor tesla is already equipped with this ECU. Please be advised that CCS is not currently or available in NA. any recommendation on what to do?
 
hi, so I took delivery of my 2021 M3 on Aug 2021 and it says I don't have the CCS adapter installed so I requested the 00-B part from my local service center and this is what they told me: Yor tesla is already equipped with this ECU. Please be advised that CCS is not currently or available in NA. any recommendation on what to do?

Did you bring up your "additional information" screen under software and check the CCS status?
 
  • Like
Reactions: buckets0fun
Did you bring up your "additional information" screen under software and check the CCS status?
yes that's where I saw the "not installed" status.
Find another service center. There are appear to be two in Vancouver (assuming BC). Drive there and see if you can purchase over-the-counter.
yeah I should try another one, but it is weird that they are saying I have the part which obviously is not the case
 
  • Like
Reactions: FalconFour
yes that's where I saw the "not installed" status.

yeah I should try another one, but it is weird that they are saying I have the part which obviously is not the case
If you're going to replace it yourself, you should get up-to-it first, and get comfy pulling the panels out to access it. In the Y it's actually a whole hellova lot easier to access than the 3, it seems - from my recent experience with helping a Y owner swap ECUs, it's much more snap-and-clip, less band-and-groan like in the 3.

That way you can go to them with a photo and say "Uh, no, you wonderful jerks, it's -80-, here's a photo of my car, would you like to come look yourself? Now please... simply let me buy the part over-the-counter as shown in the parts catalog".
 
  • Like
Reactions: Tedkidd and israndy
Recently had same experience with my nearest service center. I submitted a request via the Tesla app and they said there's no CCS retrofit for NA yet; despite my referring to the specific Tesla P/N. At this point, unless a mobile tech is willing to do the swap for me (as part of an open request for other service), I'll just need to wait until the next software push so I have a pending update before peeling the M3 trunk compartment apart. I thought about making a run at it now in anticipation of this inevitable swap, but haven't for the time being.
 
I've just read through this whole thread. I have a few comments, then a question....
After installation I was able to charge with my Wall Connector, so I went to the grocery store where Francis Energy has four 50kW chargers. I tried each one, but kept getting the message DISPENSER_OVERCURRENT_ERROR on the charger. I went to another Francis location and tried both of the 50kW chargers there and got the same error.
There's a YouTuber called Crazypostman who did a series of videos about a year ago with the Setec CCS adapter, mostly on Francis Energy fast chargers, and IIRC he ran into that error on some of their units. I can't reference a specific video right now, but you might be able to dig a bit to find them. If I'm remembering correctly, then, this may be a problem with some Francis Energy units generally.
I thought the 2022s come saying CCS1 enabled?
A friend of mine bought a Model Y about two weeks ago, and his came with CCS enabled. (I was with him for the delivery, and we checked this detail.) Of course, as others have said, YMMV....
Have you found a good website or data resource that shows how your/our battery degradation means and averages? I read online blogs from Teslarati and other online sites of "2-3%" degradation over 50k or 100k miles, so I've been a bit disappointed that I may only have a 65-68kWh capacity left, though I do admit that most of my charging has been done with Supercharger or CHAdeMO fast charging, rather than L2 or L1 charging. However, after my first year of ownership, I was quite good about keeping my car between 20-80% when not regularly driving, though I wonder if my regular driving of 400-500 miles (95-100% down to 15-20% twice a weekend) every other weekend for 3 years caused some of the quicker degradation.
I've subscribed to TeslaFi since a few days after taking delivery of my new LR RWD Model 3 in March of 2019. I'm currently at 27,230 miles with a current range of 301 miles (down from 325), vs. a fleet average of 300 miles (for cars with similar odometer readings). Thus, both my and the fleet average degradation over 3+ years and ~27,000 miles is a bit over 7%. This makes me think that 2-3% degradation over that, or longer, periods is a rarity, not the typical amount. That said, it could be that forcing the BMS to fully recompute everything by doing a deep discharge followed by a 100% charge would improve TeslaFi's report for my car, and for the TeslaFi average, too.

My question:
The Bundle of Wires that makes a Gen4 ECU work with a Gen3 ECU actually discards the port-heating pins - they go nowhere, but the ECU thinks there's a heater there. The problem is, there's no hardware in the port that could "heat", so there's nothing to connect to. The ECU also always thinks the port is hotter than it is (due to the thermistor issue, "patched" to a safety-functional degree with those resistors), so if it's 10F outside, it probably thinks the port is sitting happy at 60f. It wouldn't heat properly even if it could.
How would this impact those of us in cold-weather areas? I live in Rhode Island, and both park and charge outside -- my house has no garage, but I do have a driveway and an outdoor EVSE. I know that Tesla implemented a hack of unlocking the charge port in freezing weather to keep it from freezing shut, prior to adding the heating feature to the Gen4 charge port. Do you know if Tesla's unlocked-port hack relies on the charge port's thermistor reading, or is it based on some other temperature data? If the former, then I'm guessing that adding the Gen4 ECU and the Bundle of Wires, which reads 60F in 10F weather, would tend to cause Tesla's cold-weather workaround to fail. Do you concur? This might not be a complete deal-breaker for me, but it would be a serious drawback. (I could be careful about charging in particularly cold weather to compensate.)

Also, if it did get cold enough (presumably sub-0F weather) to trigger the port heater, what would happen? Would the car detect the absence of a heating element and throw an error, or would it just ignore the absence of the heating element?

Oh, and just FWIW, I took my car to the Warwick RI SC today for routine maintenance (tire rotation, etc.), and I asked about the availability of Tesla's official CCS update. The woman I asked (the service manager, I think) said she didn't know. She also said that I'd be notified when it became available, but I don't believe that for a moment. I'm not even sure she knew what "CCS" meant, and was just saying what she thought I wanted to hear.
 
  • Helpful
Reactions: FalconFour
My experience (at EA stations) has been:
1a. The car unlocks the charge port when it's done charging, or...
1b. I press the button on the CCS handle as far as it will go, which is far enough to signal to the car to unlock the charge port.
2. I pull the CCS handle to disconnect it from the car. The adapter is still attached to the CCS handle.
3. I press the button on the CCS handle again (which should go down all the way now) and remove the adapter from the handle.
Y'all, I stand corrected... by none other than the car itself:
IMG_20220701_175342.jpg

fwiw the 3 never yelled at me. This is my first time charging the X...
 
Last edited:
Do you know if Tesla's unlocked-port hack relies on the charge port's thermistor reading, or is it based on some other temperature data? If the former, then I'm guessing that adding the Gen4 ECU and the Bundle of Wires, which reads 60F in 10F weather, would tend to cause Tesla's cold-weather workaround to fail. Do you concur?
Interesting point! I didn't know about that behavior -- probably because, well, see my location. haha. It never gets to truly "freezing" here. I'm not sure, but I'd suspect that, because it's Gen4, it would discard with any workarounds and would try to use the (non-existent) heater. Probably wouldn't throw any faults or anything - it'd just try to heat and get nowhere quick.

Given the hardware the Gen3 *does* have available as a makeshift heater, I wonder what it's trying to do... maybe intentionally stall the lock motor and have that produce heat (since it'd be in no danger of burning-out at those temps)? Hmm.

It's something to consider, and I'd be interested to know some experiences from cold weather users!

Y'all, I stand corrected... by none other than the car itself:
View attachment 823701
fwiw the 3 never yelled at me. This is my first time charging the X...
now this is kinda funny and kinda awesome. It's never the right way to stop it to push the button against the lock (it only moves because you're bending/deforming the lock lever of the station), but for as much as Tesla is stalling with giving people the CCS adapter, they SURE DO seem to have the best CCS implementation of any car I've seen so far. It's very informative! (Also note the "station requires authorization" that pops up when digital comms are established, and it's waiting for you to authorize the station - something no other car seems smart enough to do!)
 
  • Informative
Reactions: abraha2d
now this is kinda funny and kinda awesome. It's never the right way to stop it to push the button against the lock (it only moves because you're bending/deforming the lock lever of the station), but for as much as Tesla is stalling with giving people the CCS adapter, they SURE DO seem to have the best CCS implementation of any car I've seen so far. It's very informative! (Also note the "station requires authorization" that pops up when digital comms are established, and it's waiting for you to authorize the station - something no other car seems smart enough to do!)
This just goes along with my theory that Tesla is purposefully allowing NA owners to purchase the CCS1 adapter from Korea. It allows the "super fans" to get their hands on it, and it provides Tesla with a lot of test data about CCS charging in the USA.
 
Another successful conversion here today! Vehicle is a 2018 model 3 long range. Just want to thank everyone who has contributed to the thread! On the island we only have 5 DCFC‘s (no superchargers) and only one in our town. Not one location but 1 single actual charger. They are 50kW Greenlots Chademo/CCS combos. Chademo has been my main charging option since buying the car in 2018. There are also currently no working level 2 chargers in our town of 20 thousand either. Last year bought my wife an ID.4 to replace our Leaf. The CCS just works on it and none of the problems I’ve had with the Chademo adapter (errors, slow charging rate, etc). Tested my model 3 today after doing the software update and it worked flawlessly. Went straight to 48kw/200mph and stayed there all the way to 80%. Now if I could just do something about the battery heater lol. So I know it’s probably not everyones cup of tea having 2 EV’s with no home or work charging access, but we’re just that committed. Aloha from Maui!

1FBD1B0E-3290-4988-8BC3-7F8E1D6BB90F.jpeg
 
Well, I've charged it again since then (Supercharger and L2) and no more error! So I won't worry about it :)
Another update:

My 2017 Model 3 still says it’s CCS enabled after the retrofit, but will no longer charge with CCS chargers (L2 and Superchargers work).

Order of events:
1) Upgraded hardware successfully (new ECU from Tesla, bundle of wires from Ebay, adapter from Harumio)
2) CCS charged successfully on a Volta charger
3) Plugged into L2 charger and got error: “Charge port requires service. Charging maybe unavailable” but L2 charging was successful.
3) Charged a few more times on L2 and Supercharger, no errors
4) Attempted to charge CCS again. Charging started very briefly, but then stopped. Received same error “Charge port requires service. Charging maybe unavailable”
5) Plugged into L2 immediately after failed CCS session, got the same error, but the car did start to charge (although the charging speed was all over the place for a few minutes before it normalized and the error went away)

I investigated the error codes in service mode, and the only two Service-Fix errors are for low coolant in the powertrain (ongoing, I guess I should get this looked at) and thermalVelocityHigh (happens during CCS charging and any charging immediately after that, then goes away). See attached image.

Any thought on how I can resolve the thermalVelocityHigh error that’s preventing CCS charging?

Note: I have a very early 2017 Model 3 (VIN in the low 700s).
 

Attachments

  • F60BB83A-B1DD-4171-A7EA-8EB31B81342E.jpeg
    F60BB83A-B1DD-4171-A7EA-8EB31B81342E.jpeg
    869.8 KB · Views: 67
Status
Not open for further replies.