# Charging issues



## Captnegs (Feb 22, 2019)

Sorry if this has been posted before. 

I have the Tesla Hpwc. New last year (older one failed and Tesla replaced it). Sometime in January after a software update I am only able to sustain 23-24A charge. I get lots of notifications into he car that says unable to charge. It says the full 48A is available. 

I usually get the 48A for a short time then back to 24A. Took my car to a friends place and his gets 32A. I managed to keep that for a while but was still getting the errors. Unable to charge. 

Taking it in for service next week and wondering if there is anything I could do first? I have rebooted charger and car. Anyone else have issues like this?

Thanks


----------



## Ed Woodrick (May 26, 2018)

That very possibly can indicate that you have connection problems. It can also indicate a charger problem in the car. Open a ticket with Tesla and see what they say.

Since that it seems to work somewhere else, that suggests that you may have wiring problems. Get someone to come check the wiring and all of the connections. This is where fires could start.


----------



## garsh (Apr 4, 2016)

Ed Woodrick said:


> It can also indicate a charger problem in the car.


This is what I would suspect.

@Captnegs , can you have your friend attempt to use your Wall Connector to see if they have any issues with it? That would help narrow down the problem.


----------



## Captnegs (Feb 22, 2019)

garsh said:


> This is what I would suspect.
> 
> @Captnegs , can you have your friend attempt to use your Wall Connector to see if they have any issues with it? That would help narrow down the problem.


They did. Got "unable to charge" message on his car quickly then got the 48A. Possibly didn't leave it plugged in long enough before the amps dropped.... electrician has been called to make sure.


----------



## garsh (Apr 4, 2016)

Captnegs said:


> electrician has been called to make sure.


Good. Given your friend's experience with your connector, there might be a poor connection there.


----------



## msjulie (Feb 6, 2018)

Hmm, my 2018 car approaching the same age, still claims it can charge at 40amps - good luck and watching with interest.


----------



## Captnegs (Feb 22, 2019)

Follow up. The service centre did do a work over on the unit in the car and there was issues with it. It was close to 2700 to replace. I had to wait as I just didn't have that kind of cash at the moment. I will probably replace in the fall. 

Car is 2017 and has 171,000km on it. For perspective.


----------



## JasonF (Oct 26, 2018)

Captnegs said:


> I usually get the 48A for a short time then back to 24A. Took my car to a friends place and his gets 32A. I managed to keep that for a while but was still getting the errors. Unable to charge.





Captnegs said:


> They did. Got "unable to charge" message on his car quickly then got the 48A. Possibly didn't leave it plugged in long enough before the amps dropped.... electrician has been called to make sure.


I'm going to go out on a limb here and say your Wall Connector has an overheating problem, and the overheating is on the cable that runs from the Wall Connector to the car. I would guess Tesla replaced only the wall unit and not the cable. I also suspect that the overheating cable might have damaged your car's charge port. It sounds farfetched, but it's the only combination of issues that makes sense. At 40+ amps, a damaged cable can get red hot in an instant, which would be enough to soften the metal connectors at the ends, and anything they're plugged into.

Food for thought:

- Why do both your Model 3 and your friend's cause an initial "Unable to charge" message? If the car end of the cable is damaged, it or the connectors within might warp and become difficult to seat in the charge port.

- Why does your car charge at such an odd number of amps for a reduced rate? Usually when one of the on-board chargers fails, it does so in increments of 16, like 16 amp limit, or 32 amp limit.

- A heat damaged charge port would also account for the Tesla Service Center seeing charging issues as well, and blaming the on-board chargers (to be fair, at $2700 it might be a "parts cannon" approach that replaces all of the on-board chargers and the charge port).

- A heat damaged charge port also explains why you get a 32-amp limit at your friend's Wall Connector - IF he actually gets a steady 48 amps! If not, his might have been installed incorrectly as well.


----------



## Captnegs (Feb 22, 2019)

Wow. Thanks for the explanation of that. I'm going to do some more testing now with something else. My buddy's charger is only 32A. But he rest maybe makes some sense. I know some people with NEMA 14-50 wall plugs and might try those and see what happens. 

Appreciate the discussion.


----------



## JasonF (Oct 26, 2018)

Captnegs said:


> Wow. Thanks for the explanation of that. I'm going to do some more testing now with something else. My buddy's charger is only 32A. But he rest maybe makes some sense. I know some people with NEMA 14-50 wall plugs and might try those and see what happens.
> 
> Appreciate the discussion.


If your friend's Wall Connector is 32A only, then there is a close to 100% chance that the issue is completely in your Wall Connector and your charge port might be ok as well.


----------

