Roadster 2.0 not charging help!

[MaikWho]

I am ashamed that my first post here is one in a time of need.

I just purchased the Roadster today and it’s down to 30 miles until the battery is drained and I worry it won’t last until my scheduled inspection/service on Tuesday. It seems to drain quite a bit over night.

I had a NEMA 14-50 installed in my garage to use with the 240v mobile charger that came with the car. I have no other chargers or adapters.

When I plug it in and engage the charger it turns blue and the car clicks like it’s going to connect but does so repeatedly and never starts charging. I have no idea if it’s an issue with the charging cable or the car.

Please help me with some ideas!

 

[ViperDoc]

I would call Tesla service.

 

[supersnoop]

Does the ring change color? Have you pressed the "charge now" button on the touchscreen?

What does your 240v charging cable look like? Does have have a big metal box? (Which of these: For Sale: MC240 30amp)

 

[gregd]

If you have the yellow 120v charge cable, at least use that for the time being. Be sure to dial down the charging current to match the outlet (likely 12 amps for a typical 15 amp outlet), or lower if you need to use an extension cord.

As Supersnoop suggests, look at the VDS display to see what it says. There should be a status posted with the outlet voltage, and charging current being requested. For a 14-50 outlet, that will likely show 40 amps. You might try dropping it down to 24 or 16 amps, and see if that lets it charge. Tap on the setup icon (the wrench in the lower right) for the menu.

 

[petergrub]

When I plug it in and engage the charger it turns blue and the car clicks like it’s going to connect but does so repeatedly and never starts charging. I have no idea if it’s an issue with the charging cable or the car.

Perhaps someone who regularly uses scheduled charging can confirm, but it sounds like the Roadster could be setup to charge during a specific time window. Hence, the reason charging doesn't start when you request it to. I will check one of my Roadsters to confirm the location of the setting in the menu and behavior when Scheduled Charging is enabled at a different time.

 

[MaikWho]

The charging cable is the UMC. The vehicle status screen says something like preparing to charge the for a split second says charging then immediately says charging canceled and cycles back to preparing to charge. There’s a quick blip of white strobe flashing between each time it try’s to cycle.

The car is set to charge on plug in.

I tried turning the amp setting down all the way as low as it would go (12amps) and it started charging for a few seconds and changed to the amber color but it would suddenly cancel again and try to reconnect. You hear the cable flicker out as the green power light turns off.

It’s at Tesla now. I barely made it there with the range that was left on it. Unfortunately they called and said there might be a connector issue but they only just started looking at it. So I think that means they weren’t able to charge it last night either and the battery may be depleted now but he didn’t touch on that in the voicemail so I don’t know yet..

As I learn more I’ll post up... hoping the first thing I do to the car isn’t some crazy repair.

 

[gregd]

The Roadster's newer Mobile Connector 240, if that's the one you have, is notorious for not being very reliable, so my first guess is that the car itself is fine. Hopefully the service center has a Roadster charger or adapter and can get some juice into the car. Mine, believe it or not, doesn't. Keep after them to do so, as they may be under the assumption that "all" Teslas have safeguards against bricking the battery. Roadsters do not.

You might want to contact @hcsharp for a set of his charging adapters. One will let you charge at "Public" (J1772) charging stations, and the other will adapt the Tesla Destination chargers (but not the Superchargers) for charging your car.

 

[supersnoop]

Did you drive in standard or range mode? Iin standard mode, there’s an extra 10% of battery remaining after the range hits zero.

 

[MaikWho]

It’s in standard mode.
Tesla has had it for a few days now and still no updates. They did try their charger which also did not work.
They think maybe the charging connector or the PEM now. Unfortunately they are not very quick to work on it and I only have tomorrow to figure it out before I just cancel it all and return the car to the dealer (5 day return policy)...

 

[Rotarypower]

@MaikWho ...update? Did you return the car to the dealer? Did the Tesla SC figure out the issue?

 

[Frisco-Dad]

@MaikWho ...update? Did you return the car to the dealer? Did the Tesla SC figure out the issue?

+1 any update?

 

[petergrub]

...update? Did you return the car to the dealer? Did the Tesla SC figure out the issue?

Last I heard from MaikWho or the Tesla service center is that the Roadster was in for service a couple of years ago for a charging problem and they recommended replacing the PEM. Now they diagnosed the problem in the PEM or 400V charger.

400V charger??? <- this is why you ask to speak directly with the technician and not the service adviser. You get second-hand information on something they know little about. I don't want to seem like I'm ragging on the guy because he was trying his best to be helpful. There is no separate "400V charger like in the Model S and X...", as the PEM handles charging. Perhaps he misunderstood controller for charger and was referring to the 400V HVAC controller? Anyway, I was promised a call from one of the two technicians that worked on the Roadster, but I never got my call back.

They said they needed an extra 6-8 hours to fully diagnose the charging problem, but MaikWho didn't have that kind of time left as the dealer return guarantee window was closing. He was wasn't willing to spend extra money on replacing the PEM with Tesla or repairing it with Gruber Motors.

I am still trying to track down that dealer to get this Roadster issue resolved. I would hate to see another battery brick and another Roadster off the road.

 

[DeedWest]

Last I heard from MaikWho or the Tesla service center is that the Roadster was in for service a couple of years ago for a charging problem and they recommended replacing the PEM. Now they diagnosed the problem in the PEM or 400V charger.

400V charger??? <- this is why you ask to speak directly with the technician and not the service adviser. You get second-hand information on something they know little about. I don't want to seem like I'm ragging on the guy because he was trying his best to be helpful. There is no separate "400V charger like in the Model S and X...", as the PEM handles charging. Perhaps he misunderstood controller for charger and was referring to the 400V HVAC controller? Anyway, I was promised a call from one of the two technicians that worked on the Roadster, but I never got my call back.

They said they needed an extra 6-8 hours to fully diagnose the charging problem, but MaikWho didn't have that kind of time left as the dealer return guarantee window was closing. He was wasn't willing to spend extra money on replacing the PEM with Tesla or repairing it with Gruber Motors.

I am still trying to track down that dealer to get this Roadster issue resolved. I would hate to see another battery brick and another Roadster off the road.

Which Roadster is this we're speaking of? Dealer will definitely need to honor their five day return policy or cover the cost of the repairs themselves.
Sounds like it could be the 400V controller...but anxious to hear some updates.