My road trip home was cut short at the Supercharger when, a few minutes in, I got the dreaded orange light with the "Unable to Charge" message in the dash. Came out and found smoke shooting out of the charge port with a loud hiss. In a panic I removed (tore out)the extremely hot handle and soon the cabin had a burnt smell. I've seen the threads about NEMA adapters and UMC ports but was wondering about any similar experiences with a Supercharger. Sure enough the plastic around the connector melted and fused to the handle (hence the tear out part). Tesla Roadside just said to drive it to the nearest SC, and I got hit with a hefty repair bill for a new charge inlet since charging was now physically impossible. I blocked off the stall with duct tape and a sign. In retrospect I wish I recorded the spectacle as it happened, as the other folks just took off. In the future, is there anything I should check for in the connector before supercharging? Cleaner contacts?(pics do show it looking janky, but it's a public port and no issues supercharging for several years now) SC said it was due to wear on the car's charge port (18 MX, 105k miles), though looking at the state of the Supercharger handle, I'd like to think otherwise.
-
Want to remove ads? Register an account and login to see fewer ads, and become a Supporting Member to remove almost all ads.
Supercharger connector melted into charge port
- Thread starter jncizzle
- Start date
geordi
Mr Fusion V.1
Holy crap. I'd raise some SERIOUS hell with that SC and keep escalating until they refund you - it is THEIR responsibility to maintain their infrastructure, and if you were on a road trip with other prior supercharger visits that obviously DIDN'T end in near-fire.... Then that's NOT an issue with your car, it's that handle. That thing looks nasty.
The ability of the service center staff to find ANY reason to charge the customer is just appalling sometimes. Don't think there has EVER been a company out there with such an inflated opinion of their own perfection, NOTHING is ever their fault or a good customer service situation. EVERYTHING is a chance to reach into the customer's wallet.
The Fort Lauderdale Florida service center was in the news a couple days ago b/c one of the cars in for service (possibly flooded from the recent rains, but that wasn't made clear in the article) caught fire while parked at the location and did damage to at least one other car. With how profit-focused the service centers are about the service department.... I'd half expect them to charge the owner of that damaged car to repair the golden-brown baking that his car now has!
The ability of the service center staff to find ANY reason to charge the customer is just appalling sometimes. Don't think there has EVER been a company out there with such an inflated opinion of their own perfection, NOTHING is ever their fault or a good customer service situation. EVERYTHING is a chance to reach into the customer's wallet.
The Fort Lauderdale Florida service center was in the news a couple days ago b/c one of the cars in for service (possibly flooded from the recent rains, but that wasn't made clear in the article) caught fire while parked at the location and did damage to at least one other car. With how profit-focused the service centers are about the service department.... I'd half expect them to charge the owner of that damaged car to repair the golden-brown baking that his car now has!
Falcon73
Member
Where was the SuperCharger?
We had our '17 chargeport replaced a few months ago, but still... this worries me. And it's not like our old MXs charge super fast! 115kW is a reason to celebrate and that only lasts several minutes at best.
If I had to venture a WAG, I'd say a bug found its way into the handle pins area and caused a contact to be "less than ideal" (and to obviously great detriment to the bug). I will be checking the handles going forward for the bugs sakes and our cars!
Or maybe the contacts were just rusty. Yeah, that shouldn't happen with all the use they get.
We had our '17 chargeport replaced a few months ago, but still... this worries me. And it's not like our old MXs charge super fast! 115kW is a reason to celebrate and that only lasts several minutes at best.
If I had to venture a WAG, I'd say a bug found its way into the handle pins area and caused a contact to be "less than ideal" (and to obviously great detriment to the bug). I will be checking the handles going forward for the bugs sakes and our cars!
Or maybe the contacts were just rusty. Yeah, that shouldn't happen with all the use they get.
Last edited:
geordi
Mr Fusion V.1
Your 17 tops out at only 115k? Something fishy going on there, my 2016 X90D has hit as high as 172k, although it is only at that peak for a moment, it tapers down FAST off that.
But it will spend several minutes coming down as it charges. Maybe your battery isn't warmed up when you arrive at the supercharger? It depends on a lot of factors.
But it will spend several minutes coming down as it charges. Maybe your battery isn't warmed up when you arrive at the supercharger? It depends on a lot of factors.
Ah yes, this was in Bolingbrook, IL. May I ask why you needed a replacement? Agreed on the charging speed, took a trip with an MYLR and that was a revelation.
I agree, though I was 400 miles away and just needed to get home. I wouldn't even know where to begin. Do I message my main SC or just open another request? It was near midnight so I had to just rent a car to go back home and drive back to pick it up. No more numbers on Superchargers so SOL on that side.
geordi
Mr Fusion V.1
I'd start with your local service center, go right to the management. Ask to contact the district management to escalate if they push back. They can see in the logs exactly which pedestal you were at, that's not your issue. They can also see that you were using multiple superchargers, which proves it wasn't your car.
Certainly the in-the-moment situation, you do what you have to do.
Certainly the in-the-moment situation, you do what you have to do.
Falcon73
Member
The charging port door kept opening at random intervals and the light wasn't working properly. The car also kept saying the port was open when it wasn't.
Falcon73
Member
I will double check my log or I will do even better like start entering it into a SS. Yeah I know it likes to be around 40C but maybe I need to try it when the charge is super low, but it tends to self drain quickly below 15%, so I don't get it under 10% very often.
Falcon73
Member
Ok thanks. I'm wondering if Range Mode is actually hurting things. I've turned it off now and will see what changes. I'm watching a Bjørn video that was linked on another thread here and it seems it could be bad for degradation. Since this is OT, let me look for another place to ask this.
But no, I don't let it sit below 20 or above 80. I try to keep it around 50% when I can.
I also confirmed from my log that actually 118kW is the fastest I've ever charged.
Last edited:
You didn't mention that before. It's not hurting your battery, but yes, it obviously will be slowing your Supercharging speed. Turning off battery warming is what that function does (and reduce cabin HVAC), so the battery won't get warmed up enough to get really fast Supercharging.
Similar threads
