[UMC] Handle Temperature High error

[refjamie]

Woke up this morning to a half-charged car and a 'Handle Temperature High' warning and the charge rate restricted to 5amp.

There is no debris in the charge port, but looks like one of the pins is damaged.

I've scheduled the earliest service I could, but that's not until 28th Jan. As I'm limited to 4mph in the meantime, is there any way I can escalate? I'll try a local fast charger this afternoon.

Thanks!

Dropbox - IMG_0688.jpeg - Simplify your life
Dropbox - IMG_0687.jpeg - Simplify your life

 

[Glan gluaisne]

I can't see any damage in the plug, all looks fine. The live pins are supposed to have those black insulators on the tips, and the Control Pilot pin is supposed to be shorter.

Dirt can cause problems, but the only time I've seen this happen was with a Nissan Leaf, where the owner had decided it was a good thing to squirt contact cleaner into the connector. This created the problem, as the residue attracted a great deal of dirt. Took me half a day to strip and clean the connector on his car, all the time telling him to never, ever, using anything like this on the connector again, it is designed to stay dry.

Try mating and unmating the Type 2 connector a few times, as it is designed to be self-cleaning during insertion and withdrawal.

DC rapid charging should be OK, as that doesn't use any of the Type 2 power pins, just the ground and pilot pins.

 

[Adopado]

Woke up this morning to a half-charged car and a 'Handle Temperature High' warning and the charge rate restricted to 5amp.

There is no debris in the charge port, but looks like one of the pins is damaged.

I've scheduled the earliest service I could, but that's not until 28th Jan. As I'm limited to 4mph in the meantime, is there any way I can escalate? I'll try a local fast charger this afternoon.

Thanks!

Dropbox - IMG_0688.jpeg - Simplify your life
Dropbox - IMG_0687.jpeg - Simplify your life

Could be your charge point gun so need to check with alternative AC charge point.

 

[kelvin 660]

The pins look normal to me... What do the charger handle pins look like? Have re-plugged the cable in multiple times?

 

[Glan gluaisne]

One other thought. It may be that the temperature sensor in the charge port on the car has developed a fault, and is misreporting the temperature back to the car, fooling it into thinking that the charge port is getting hot, when in reality it may not be. That's probably a SC job, I suspect, but check things out by doing as suggested above, plugging and unplugging the connector a few times, and checking out another charge point, or ideally a DC rapid.

 

[refjamie]

Thank you all for your replies;

I can't see any damage in the plug, all looks fine. The live pins are supposed to have those black insulators on the tips, and the Control Pilot pin is supposed to be shorter.

I had never noticed the top right pin was different to the others, everyday's a school day!

Try mating and unmating the Type 2 connector a few times, as it is designed to be self-cleaning during insertion and withdrawal.

Done that

DC rapid charging should be OK, as that doesn't use any of the Type 2 power pins, just the ground and pilot pins.

DC Rapid was ok.

It may be that the temperature sensor in the charge port on the car has developed a fault, and is misreporting the temperature back to the car,

It might be this - though the T on the UMC is blinking red once. I've tried multiple outlets at home, just need to try another house to confirm it's not home and I might have a faulty UMC.

 

[Glan gluaisne]

The UMC has a temperature sensor inside the 13 A plug. Does this error only occur when using the UMC by any chance, and not when using a fixed AC charge point?

If so, then there are a few possibilities, the UMC has a fault (possibly the plug temperature sensor), the UMC adapter lead or connector (the bit that plugs into the UMC) has a fault (try unplugging and re-plugging the short adapter lead from the UMC), or there is a real problem and the UMC 13 A plug is getting hot.

 

[refjamie]

Ok, so further research on here https://www.tesla.com/sites/default...bile_connector_owners_manual_32_amp_en_US.pdf

Page 13, Green lights are streaming with one red light.

What it means

Charging current is reduced due to high temperature detected in the vehicle connector.

What to do

Unplug the Mobile Connector from the vehicle, and then plug it back in. Consider charging in a cooler area, such as indoors or in the shade. If the error persists, contact Tesla.

Considering it's -1 I think it's safe to say there is a faulty temperature sensor on the car or faulty UMC.

 

[Louis0w]

I had the same issue. I was able to verify by plugging in an alternative UMC which charged fine; so was confident the original was faulty. Reported, via the App, to Tesla and they promptly sent out a new UMC.

 

[LK06]

Just had this happen to me. Submitted a service request for a faulty UMC. Waiting on a reply.

Does anyone have any noteworthy updates to thread above?

 

[R5scott]

I previously had a faulty UMC and simply popped into the service station in Bristol. Kindly did a very quick check and handed me a new cable. Not sure if you can really do that at the minute and I may have just got lucky with stock.

 

[M3-Newbie]

Hey! I had this happen to me on Wednesday morning - I’m using the ‘laptop charger’ for trickle charge while staying at mums. Have a dry box and an outdoor extension set up - I too got that error and cad simply wouldn’t charge - I had to drive an hour each way for work and couldn’t charge at fastned 175kw charger either which TERRIFIED ME - everyone who told my the Tesla would break was right (haha!) also side note my car might be stranded, and I had to get mum to hospital that afternoon.
But thankfully was able to charge on the 50kw charger beside it - have never been so relieved!

first fastned attempt so maybe it’s normal not to be able to charge in a tesla there - I don’t know.

I Did a couple restarts of the car. And when I got back home tried again with all the same set up - it just worked again.

I had been noticing that pressing the button to trigger the charge port to open hadn’t been working so on first charge after all the stress! I randomly tried it out and it worked perfectly. So I don’t know if car maybe had a glitch communicating with it or what had happened re the remote trigger. However it all seems fine....

If the charging cable does fail - are we covered by the car warranty for the accessory part? It’s been cold here and the block in the charger that would normally be inside has been outside in the cold here but inside a sealed dry box. Would that void my warranty?

all seems fine again for now, but I’m down here at mums for the foreseeable and if I lose that charging option I’ll have serious issues. Electric charging hasn’t really taken off in Cumbria yet..... I had to go up to Gretna supercharger a couple weeks ago before going out to the hospital the next day as I couldn’t charge enough overnight on trickle (poor planning I know) to do the round trip to Whitehaven hospital and back - no chargers on route that weren’t mega mega slow and even then I think I had only 1 option the whole way! And if it was out of order I’d be stuck!

 

[refjamie]

So after submitting a service centre request (earliest I could get was 3 weeks) it stopped faulting on me and worked perfectly, so I cancelled the appointment.
This weekend it flares up again and presents a UMC_a018 error.

When I took the cable out and pressed the button, I saw water come out of the side at the top (the edge of the silver panel where it meets the black).

The earliest I can get an appointment is 3 weeks - is there anything I can do in the meantime to have the UMC replaced?

 

[kelvin 660]

Looks like you need a warranty replacement UMC.
Email [email protected] giving your symptoms and VIN.
They should send you a replacement unit.

 

[refjamie]

Thanks, email sent. Out of interest, where did you find the email address? I've googled it and nothing came back.

 

[Andywil]

Thanks, email sent. Out of interest, where did you find the email address? I've googled it and nothing came back.

You would be better booking a service visit via the app.

 

[FEERSUMENDJIN]

Yup I reported mine with same symptoms on the service APP they had some questions, but wanted me to go to service centre to check everything. I came away with a new replacement UMC. They also did a couple of preventative electrical tweaks in the steering column loom (water ingress protection) which may have been the motive for asking me in.

 

[refjamie]

You would be better booking a service visit via the app.

Yea I did that straight away, but the earliest available is 3 weeks away - was hoping someone had an 'in' for them to just send me a new UMC.

 

[crampedeyes]

Yea I did that straight away, but the earliest available is 3 weeks away - was hoping someone had an 'in' for them to just send me a new UMC.

Beware!
I've been getting this error with the 3pin cable since I bought my car used. When I first reported it Tesla said they wouldn't even look at it till I'd tested it at a few locations to ensure it wasn't my electrics. I finally managed to test the car at a few other locations whilst on a road trip so booked a service apt. They guy found the UMC was faulty as expected, but said it was not covered by warranty as I'd previously mentioned I've used it with an extension cable. Apparently that voids the warranty. The UMC was faulty since I got the vehicle and who knows what the previous owner did with it. In any case the app says they might charge me £350 for this visit. I hope not as they didn't fix anything.

If you want these replaced, I suggest you never mention you've ever used an extension lead or better yet, send it to your local scrap metal merchant and buy a 3rd party lead. Screwfix has 10m 3 pin UMC type 2 charging leads for £170, half the cost of the Tesla call out.