As someone who is going through the exact same thing right now (I bought a clean title used one with a 'bad battery" to try my hand at fixing) I cant tell you how much I appreciate you posting these videos. Especially the one with the tesla tool box connection issues as well as all these misc issues and their fixes. Mine had a couple of bms boards that had burnt out. So I had an a ton of BMS and isolation faults. I replaced the boards and reinstalled the pack now all the cells are showing within 14mv of each other. All the faults cleared as well except two, the f097 and f098 and of course the car still wont move. My ethernet cable just came in today so hopefully I just need to use toolbox to clear the last two remaining codes to have it up and running this weekend. But its always nice to have this info to fall back on if I run into some issues. If nothing else to at least have some ideas of where to start looking.
The online forums are a godsend for troubleshooting this kind of thing. I have many hours logged of researching things when I owned a first-gen Insight. Good stuff, Ben.
Congratulations, on the long and arduous path. to diagnosing and resolving your Supercharging issue. What amazes me is that Tesla doesn't 'show' you a specific code, to tell you that it's not connected properly.
The hardest part of all of this was diagnosing where the problem was! The "code" shown in the car was "CHG_f012_hwFastChargeDriver" - There's not a lot of information out there about that code, but it refers to the circuit in the AC charger NOT sending a signal to the contactors that activate Supercharging. Not only that, but there weren't any other errors or problems. I guess that somehow the low-voltage connector on the car was maybe at an angle or for whatever other reason that one pin didn't connect, but all the others did?
@@BenjaminNelsonX Thank you for the additional details explaining, why the error code was somewhat misleading in diagnosing the actual problem. Just curious was it an option to have Tesla do the diagnostic and/or get access to their database possible diagnosis based on error codes, that should have shown the connection issue as a possible cause of the problem? And did you check how much they charge for something like this? Hopefully for DIYers, AI will streamline accessing the information, such as from forums in the future. Shame you got the information, so late. Since as you know, it's always best to check the simplest solutions first. But I'm sure you'll find some use for the additional AC charger, that suits your needs. Please excuse all the subsequent inquiries and thoughts on the matter. I'm sure you're busy, you don't necessarily need to respond. Look forward to the next installment. Of you upgrading your Model S. TC
On the car, you can just go into "Service Mode" and it will display errors for you in plain English. No need for an OBDII scanner and then looking up what codes mean. I did NOT talk to Tesla. I DID put in a service request through the app. That got me an appointment a couple of weeks out, and then never gave me an estimate or anything else. It's all automated. There's no reason to think that Tesla would have figured this out any differently than I did.
@@BenjaminNelsonX I`m yet to to see a Tesla with non Tesla motors/battery and a module with some code to tell the Tesla brain everything is perfectly fine... Zeezer 001 FR or Ioniq 5 N motors with ? batteries to fit in the Tesla case. There is a Model S with a non-Tesla battery in Europe that has a 125kw pack.
@@BenjaminNelsonX If you look at the old procedure for installing the battery they actually mention needing to use a special tool to fully seat the connector after re-installing the battery. Curiously that step is completely missing from the latest procedures.
Congratulations on trouble shooting this problem and getting your car fixed. What a trip down memory lane, with the battery swap station (Tesla did build one station in CA), and the rapid mate connectors. Loved the video showing how they are spring loaded on the car side. This should be helpful to other Model S/X owners. I owned a 2015 Model S with dual chargers installed from the factory, providing up to 80 A (19.2 kW) charging. I only used them 3 or 4 times, back in the early days, before the supercharger network had coverage in all the areas I travelled.
Good on you for sharing this fix. Your description sounded exactly what my partner had to do with a stuck piglet whilst a sow had a difficult birth. A can't attest that our porcine can supercharge now, but many lives were saved that day, including several piglets that followed. I'm also an Australian EV enthusiast, and have followed Tesla's history. This would have been about the last thing I would have thought of, despite being aware they had entertained battery swapping. Quedos for you nauce.
Sticking a small cable camera up in there to see the connections while raising the battery back up is useful too. Thanks gor sharing this! Didnt know you could reach yourbhand up in there.
@@TRYtoHELPyou We did use an endoscope to look at the connectors while raising the battery to make sure they were properly aligned. It never occurred to me that something could be wrong with the connector AFTER it was properly aligned AND the battery was raised all the way up. There’s not much room once the battery is in place. Probably more accurate to say “I got my finger tips on top of the car side of the connector and was able to push down a tiny bit.”
Ben thank you for this. Let me bring 44 years of engineering the testing of automotive connectors work wide in big auto. If you remove these connectors and yes Ive worked with this form after they have been in service for x years you will note they are tough to separate (yes i know in this unique situation you cant cant get to the pair so easy but the problem still applies) and they will be real tough to connect and in this case as the latch system that tries to ensure they are connected to the correct insertion has been removed, guess what they may only partially connect so separate later..........the worst failure. I always apply minimal grease or WD40 or light oil to the plastic/rubber parts where they slide over each other so the parts will go together with ease. Over time the elastominer sealing losses its oil and fouls up. It happens on all connectors with seals.
I just found your videos and this is probably the fourth or fifth I've watched. I had a 2011 Leaf until 2023 when the heater core went out and it wasn't repairable and Nissan no longer has replacements available. So I sold it and bought a 10-year-old 2013 Tesla Model S P85. First thing that went out on it was the heater, about a week after I bought it. Go figure. At least Tesla could take it in and repair it. One of the things they did was replace the main fuse and possibly another fuse, I don't remember. It sounds like that's a common thing on these older MS cars, sounds like you had to have that replaced too. The oldest vehicle I own (I mean, the vehicle I've owned the longest, I actually have a 1951 Chevy pickup too) is a 1985 Nissan 720 pickup. I'm the second owner and have been since April 1989. The engine is great, but I do have dreams of one day converting this truck to electric power. Your teardown of the Leaf motor and gearbox, and discovery of the aftermarket controller is really exciting to me, as it shows I have avenues toward doing this conversion. Ideally I want the batteries under the bed, but before I get into this project I want to put a tilt bed on and get the truck painted. The truck is a standard bed 2wd model so it is very lightweight. I could swap out the engine for the Leaf motor and inverter and the rest in that stack. Ideally I keep the 5-speed manual transmission so I can have reverse and selection of forward gears, but it will need to have an adapter plate made. Knowing you can remove the one-speed gear reduction transmission on the Leaf motor is vitally important. I was ruling it out and thinking I was going to need to stay with a DC motor like a a Warp 9 or Warp 10, but now thanks to your videos I know that's not the case. Thank you!
Hi Ben! Congratulations! While in the US I had a Tesla MS with two chargers - and they helped a lot - I have been using chargepoint free chargers a lot while driving around, so I would install the second if I was you. I really can recommend it! Again, congrats!
You are probably correct. There may be another explanation as well and that is fretting corrosion caused by micro movement between the connector halves. Lacking a positive lock would seem to increase the chance of this being true. There exist specific lubricants to help avoid this issue but of, practically, forced movement of the connector can work too
China has more than just NIO developing battery swapping... In various forms, such as modular battery swapping and for various types and classes of vehicles.... From scooters to megawatt cement trucks... It's a fascinating subject for anybody open-minded enough to consider that it's still a viable option...
Battery swapping makes a ton of sense for scooters and bikes. It's done very commonly on forklifts. I guess it's probably a "which vehicles is this most appropriate for" kind of a question.
Those Rapidmate connectors sound like part of the reason large pack swaps didn’t pan out! Aside from swap station capital investments, which would be enormous, presumably.
They only made them battery swappable, because of a government program, at that time that paid them to show they were capable of battery swapping, including a demonstration of a working battery swapping station. Can't say 100%, that it's the only reason, but since when the government program, that paid them ended, so did Tesla's development of battery swapping ended. (did a little research a few years ago and that's my two cents on it fwiw)
I didn’t give the idea much credence at the time, so I couldn’t attribute the motivation for trying it. I’m just speculating that it was part of the feasibility assessment whether to try it at scale. Just a factor. There are government programs for all sorts of ideas that don’t pan out, which could be debunked out of hand initially but someone decides to pay for a pilot study to prove it. Battery swapping seems like one of those things that works for scooters and e-bikes handily, and anything larger requires a combination of station equipment, vehicle architecture, and standardization across vendors that never seems quite right.
It always seemed like a game of musical chairs to me. You drive in with your one week old car and they swap in an eight year old battery and the next day you hear on the news how the battery swap company went out of business. Your car's value drops in half after a week of ownership.
The musical chairs analogy isn’t a bad one, but I’d expect the batteries wouldn’t be swapped that wildly, or if they were, they couldn’t impact the car’s value because battery swaps would decouple the battery value from the car’s! After all, if a swap station can downgrade your battery, why wouldn’t a station be able to restore the age of the battery? Anyway, this applies to scooters with swappable batteries at a smaller scale if it helps work it out in the real world where swappable batteries are being used right now. Basically companies maintain fleets of batteries, check on their status, and cycle them out by maintenance technicians at stations when they’re no longer suitable.
@@BrianTRice77 Considering Elon's negative comments prior to and after the battery swapping scheme, thinking of it as a "feasibility study", stretches credulity, . But who knows for a few months maybe he secretly had a different mindset? China has proven the viability of battery swapping across the board with dozens of different types of battery swapping networks. Including CATL's modular battery swapping, that can accommodate different sized vehicles. FWIW the US still has three different DCFC standards, that's taking decades to create one universal standard. .So it's ironic and kind of hypocritical, hearing that 'standardization across vendors' is a requirement for battery swapping. It's just a shame that the West is falling behind, in so many different forms of technology. battery swapping is just one of many. To some degree it's just hubris, that the West Knows Best IMHO
The cameras used for exploring drains and other tight spots would work for you. The type on the end of a cord. Diameter the size of a pencil. Give you some good video to show.
Who are you kidding ? There will be a video on fitting the second charger in about a months time... 🤣 Good work on the repair though, it definitely pays to check the "simple" things first whenever possible.
@BenjaminNelsonX. figure out how to install the second 40A AC charger and document it so I can make the Mod to mine! I have an 80A Wall Connector for you, if you need an inducement. You'll need it for testing!
Suggest explaining where low voltage connector is and where high voltage connector is so someone is not accidentally electrocuted if they touch high voltage connector.
Hi Ben, Glad to hear you got Sc sorted. However, to me, it makes little sense that simply seating the LV connector was the whole answer. Surely if, electrically speaking, the connector is made, just pushing it home a bit more won't make any difference. You said there were no other indications of non-functioning electrics so why would just a better seating make any difference? So, I wonder if there is some sort of interlock switch incorporated in the LV connector - an 'electronic connector latch', if you will, that tells the car the connectors is fully seated? Maybe one of the error messages on the MCU related to this and will now have cleared...?
I’m curious about adding that second AC charger, whether that would increase AC max charge capacity. I have access to a 19kW AC source that charges by the minute but I can only pull at 11kW. Was this for all years of the gen 1 S? Glad to hear your problem is fixed!
I have an OG original MS (low VIN #), yes, each charger was capable of 40A, the older High Power Wall Charger can deliver 80A to the car, on a 100A circuit.. I have it installed, but typically only charge at 5-10KW these days (20 to 40A).. I am on “National Grids” EV Off-Peak charging program, where you get a discount if you start charging after 9PM.. since the car has 8-10 hours to charge, there’s no need to push it at 80A (20KW, which is about 50MPH of recharging speed) any longer. If I arrive home early, and have to go out on a far drive later in the day, I occasionly set the car to charge at 80A, but I very rarely do.
@@jimstack3694 EVERYTHING else on the car worked fine. 120v charging and 240v charging worked as they should. The Rapid-Mate connector really can NOT get bumped or anything. It’s BETWEEN the battery and the car. Very little room in there at all.
@BenjaminNelsonX thank you so much for the Video i am going through the exact same problem with my 2013 Tesla, Same error message and everything you described. So i went through all of the checklist that you did and i am on the final one checking the LV Rapid Mate connection. I've taken out the plastic underbody panels, but when searching for the LV connector that i need to reach and push down, i cant find the location at all. Could you please help me and tell me some type of clue or reference point to look for? I took a tone of screenshots of the footage you provided in this video and still can locate....thank you in advance!!!!
The Low Voltage Rapid-Mate connector is located near the rear passenger side corner of the battery pack. The furthest rear part of the battery pack is narrower than the rest of the pack. The connector is on that part just a few inches in from the passenger side. There is VERY little room between the body of the car and the battery. You will NOT be able to see the connector with the battery pack installed. There is a small gap in which a person can reach their fingers up and around the rear edge of the battery pack. Stick your fingers up in there and feel around near the passenger side. Move your hand side to side until you find it. Get your fingers up on top of the car body side of the connector and push down. If it's the same issue that I had, you will feel the connector move, but only a very small amount. But a definite movement. If you still need a visual, you can put an endoscope up and over the rear cross-member of the car, pointed towards the front to find the connector. Basic endoscopes for smart phones are pretty inexpensive, and are handy tools for other projects as well. Something like this: amzn.to/474n6fZ In one of my previous videos, there's a camera move showing the whole battery pack out of the car. It quickly moves to the HV and then the LV connectors at the rear of the pack. You can see that here at about a minute 58 seconds into this video: ruclips.net/video/O1nQmR5O2y0/видео.htmlsi=_gQXqpm_8N4kEi7O&t=117 At ten minutes and two seconds in to the same video (at the end) you can see the video in the upper left corner of the end screen showing the battery going up into place under the car. That was shot from the rear driver's side wheel position. You can clearly see the bump-out shape of the very rear portion of the battery and how it fits up into the car. You can even make out the two conductors of the HV connection. Good luck!
What kind of measures are you taking to ensure the loose connector won't work it's way loose again seeing as the quick battery connect feature isn't in use??? Lockwiring it in place?
It’s spring-loaded. There’s a spring constantly pushing the connector down in place. When the battery was put back up in to the car, the connector didn’t fully engage. Perhaps it was just on a slight angle or something. I manually pushed it down a tiny bit to fully complete the connection. There’s no reason to think it would come back out.
Ben, how is the battery condition and range on that model S? I just did my longest cross country to date between NE and Oshkosh, WI and it was so easy! Autopilot is so nice on long freeway drives!
Battery has about 250 miles range if charged to 100% I would say that's pretty fantastic for an 11-12 year old car. No autopilot on this older car, but I do hear how autopilot makes long drives more comfortable. Stop by Oconomowoc any time.
I connects together with the other charger through the junction box in the middle under the back seat. The opened junction box can be seen at 2:00 in this video.
@@scienticstratgies2368 On many EVs, the source off a variety of problems is a bad 12v battery. It’s usually a pretty good place to start troubleshooting. On a Tesla, I would also go into service mode on the main screen and look for listed errors.
It was the Tesla BMS_u018/BMS_u029/BMS_a066 group. That mostly focuses on problems with reduced battery capacity, but lots of smart hands-on people are in the group. facebook.com/groups/654984809485342
The trailbrella uses a 2", so it would fit with an adapter. Unfortunately, the adapter makes everything so long. I'm tempted to weld up a short piece of 1.25" with a vertical tube on it so I can use the tailbrella on the Model S with the connector being nice and short.
Are you asking if it WOULD be? I didn't show any zip-ties in this video. The problem wasn't that a connector somehow worked itself loose, it was that the connector did not get fully seated when the battery was reinstalled.
Great video. But hat is a terrible design with this connector, especially as tesla never finished the swap. and if you don't know this hint, you can probably spend a fortune swapping unrelated parts.
Mice can get almost anywhere. This was just under the back seat. It wasn't inside a weather-tight gasketed aluminum enclosure or anything similar. Just a seat, like any other car.
@@BenjaminNelsonX finally i would like to ask, Have you experienced battery or motor failure? Have you had to replace the battery for any other reason? How is the health of the battery now?
@@erginyilmaztenor This is a used car which I purchased not long ago. I got a good deal on it because it wasn't running. It turned out that the reason it didn't run was because water got in to the fuse. OTHER than that, the battery and motor seem to work great. Please see the playlist on this project to get the big picture. ruclips.net/video/2QbOsc3BRLw/видео.html
I guess that if you really want to get technical.... So strange though that everything else worked. No other problems, no other errors. Just supercharging not working. I had no reason at all to think it was that connector!
@@commonsense4you In 2007, I built an electric motorcycle. It got the equivalent of 321 MPG. I rounded DOWN to the nearest hundreds when naming my blog.
There is no way these connection could’ve survived multiple battery swap without any issues plus imagine doing this in winter conditions and the salty slush falling into the connectors you saw the amount of crud around the connections they only made it easier to swap in order to get more ZEV credits from the government but the the rules changed so Tesla lost some credit and then suddenly the dropped the hole idea.
Why? The man spent tons of time/effort researching and solving an obscure problem and you're bitching about the amount of details he went on explaining to others? You're always free to move on after 30 seconds if you don't have the patience nor interest.
As always, please read the whole video description for more information!
As someone who is going through the exact same thing right now (I bought a clean title used one with a 'bad battery" to try my hand at fixing) I cant tell you how much I appreciate you posting these videos. Especially the one with the tesla tool box connection issues as well as all these misc issues and their fixes. Mine had a couple of bms boards that had burnt out. So I had an a ton of BMS and isolation faults. I replaced the boards and reinstalled the pack now all the cells are showing within 14mv of each other. All the faults cleared as well except two, the f097 and f098 and of course the car still wont move. My ethernet cable just came in today so hopefully I just need to use toolbox to clear the last two remaining codes to have it up and running this weekend. But its always nice to have this info to fall back on if I run into some issues. If nothing else to at least have some ideas of where to start looking.
The online forums are a godsend for troubleshooting this kind of thing. I have many hours logged of researching things when I owned a first-gen Insight. Good stuff, Ben.
Absolutely. Google search is completely worthless now
Congratulations, on the long and arduous path. to diagnosing and resolving your Supercharging issue. What amazes me is that Tesla doesn't 'show' you a specific code, to tell you that it's not connected properly.
The hardest part of all of this was diagnosing where the problem was!
The "code" shown in the car was "CHG_f012_hwFastChargeDriver" - There's not a lot of information out there about that code, but it refers to the circuit in the AC charger NOT sending a signal to the contactors that activate Supercharging.
Not only that, but there weren't any other errors or problems. I guess that somehow the low-voltage connector on the car was maybe at an angle or for whatever other reason that one pin didn't connect, but all the others did?
@@BenjaminNelsonX Thank you for the additional details explaining, why the error code was somewhat misleading in diagnosing the actual problem.
Just curious was it an option to have Tesla do the diagnostic and/or get access to their database possible diagnosis based on error codes, that should have shown the connection issue as a possible cause of the problem? And did you check how much they charge for something like this?
Hopefully for DIYers, AI will streamline accessing the information, such as from forums in the future. Shame you got the information, so late. Since as you know, it's always best to check the simplest solutions first. But I'm sure you'll find some use for the additional AC charger, that suits your needs.
Please excuse all the subsequent inquiries and thoughts on the matter. I'm sure you're busy, you don't necessarily need to respond. Look forward to the next installment. Of you upgrading your Model S. TC
On the car, you can just go into "Service Mode" and it will display errors for you in plain English. No need for an OBDII scanner and then looking up what codes mean. I did NOT talk to Tesla. I DID put in a service request through the app. That got me an appointment a couple of weeks out, and then never gave me an estimate or anything else. It's all automated. There's no reason to think that Tesla would have figured this out any differently than I did.
@@BenjaminNelsonX I`m yet to to see a Tesla with non Tesla motors/battery and a module with some code to tell the Tesla brain everything is perfectly fine...
Zeezer 001 FR or Ioniq 5 N motors with ? batteries to fit in the Tesla case.
There is a Model S with a non-Tesla battery in Europe that has a 125kw pack.
@@BenjaminNelsonX If you look at the old procedure for installing the battery they actually mention needing to use a special tool to fully seat the connector after re-installing the battery. Curiously that step is completely missing from the latest procedures.
I sold my old Model S earlier this year and bought a Y but I subscribed because I still like hearing about these classic EVs.
whoa... and really glad you got this on youtube.. it will be much more findable by others than forum posts so thanks for making and sharing this.
Congratulations Ben, I'm happy to see all your hard work has paid off for you, and hope the car brings you MANY years of great service.
Great! Glad you found the bugger. At some point you will find a use for that spare charger...
Congratulations on trouble shooting this problem and getting your car fixed. What a trip down memory lane, with the battery swap station (Tesla did build one station in CA), and the rapid mate connectors. Loved the video showing how they are spring loaded on the car side. This should be helpful to other Model S/X owners.
I owned a 2015 Model S with dual chargers installed from the factory, providing up to 80 A (19.2 kW) charging. I only used them 3 or 4 times, back in the early days, before the supercharger network had coverage in all the areas I travelled.
Congrats Ben! All your exhaustive research and hard work has paid off! Looking forward to a long trip report!
Your old S looks amazing. Kudos.
Thank You Everybody for All that you are doing for our Planet Earth.... Peace.. Shalom.. Salam.. Namaste
🙏🏻 😊 ✌ ☮ ❤ 🕊
Nice work on problem solving to success! Even better work on sharing it so it could help other people!
Good on you for sharing this fix. Your description sounded exactly what my partner had to do with a stuck piglet whilst a sow had a difficult birth. A can't attest that our porcine can supercharge now, but many lives were saved that day, including several piglets that followed.
I'm also an Australian EV enthusiast, and have followed Tesla's history. This would have been about the last thing I would have thought of, despite being aware they had entertained battery swapping.
Quedos for you nauce.
I have already been using nio battery swap or BASS for 2 years. Very good
Fast
Sticking a small cable camera up in there to see the connections while raising the battery back up is useful too. Thanks gor sharing this! Didnt know you could reach yourbhand up in there.
@@TRYtoHELPyou We did use an endoscope to look at the connectors while raising the battery to make sure they were properly aligned. It never occurred to me that something could be wrong with the connector AFTER it was properly aligned AND the battery was raised all the way up.
There’s not much room once the battery is in place. Probably more accurate to say “I got my finger tips on top of the car side of the connector and was able to push down a tiny bit.”
just kidding. I’ve been watching this series. Very well done. Easy to follow. Thanks.
Thanks for taking the time to explain this. It is appreciated.
this is a great fix!! hopefully I won't need it but I saved this vid for when I do
Ben thank you for this. Let me bring 44 years of engineering the testing of automotive connectors work wide in big auto. If you remove these connectors and yes Ive worked with this form after they have been in service for x years you will note they are tough to separate (yes i know in this unique situation you cant cant get to the pair so easy but the problem still applies) and they will be real tough to connect and in this case as the latch system that tries to ensure they are connected to the correct insertion has been removed, guess what they may only partially connect so separate later..........the worst failure.
I always apply minimal grease or WD40 or light oil to the plastic/rubber parts where they slide over each other so the parts will go together with ease. Over time the elastominer sealing losses its oil and fouls up. It happens on all connectors with seals.
Yay! So glad it works. Persistence and resourcefulness pay off :)
Congrats on the great detective work! I'm sure you'll find a good use for the second AC charger.
I just found your videos and this is probably the fourth or fifth I've watched. I had a 2011 Leaf until 2023 when the heater core went out and it wasn't repairable and Nissan no longer has replacements available. So I sold it and bought a 10-year-old 2013 Tesla Model S P85. First thing that went out on it was the heater, about a week after I bought it. Go figure. At least Tesla could take it in and repair it. One of the things they did was replace the main fuse and possibly another fuse, I don't remember. It sounds like that's a common thing on these older MS cars, sounds like you had to have that replaced too.
The oldest vehicle I own (I mean, the vehicle I've owned the longest, I actually have a 1951 Chevy pickup too) is a 1985 Nissan 720 pickup. I'm the second owner and have been since April 1989. The engine is great, but I do have dreams of one day converting this truck to electric power. Your teardown of the Leaf motor and gearbox, and discovery of the aftermarket controller is really exciting to me, as it shows I have avenues toward doing this conversion. Ideally I want the batteries under the bed, but before I get into this project I want to put a tilt bed on and get the truck painted. The truck is a standard bed 2wd model so it is very lightweight. I could swap out the engine for the Leaf motor and inverter and the rest in that stack. Ideally I keep the 5-speed manual transmission so I can have reverse and selection of forward gears, but it will need to have an adapter plate made. Knowing you can remove the one-speed gear reduction transmission on the Leaf motor is vitally important. I was ruling it out and thinking I was going to need to stay with a DC motor like a a Warp 9 or Warp 10, but now thanks to your videos I know that's not the case. Thank you!
That's my next project after the Prius PHEV! Thanks for sharing! 😀
Great video and congratulations on solving the super charger issue!
Hi Ben! Congratulations! While in the US I had a Tesla MS with two chargers - and they helped a lot - I have been using chargepoint free chargers a lot while driving around, so I would install the second if I was you. I really can recommend it! Again, congrats!
You got to Fight! .....................For your Right!......................to Supercharge it!!! great news
Great to hear you figured it out
Ah, the old reach around trick.😂😂😂
Nice work; always good to hear what the root cause was 🥳
NO WAY!!! Tesla had the battery swap idea back in the day?!!
Search for the Model S launch event.
80 Amp for the win!
Dialectic grease helps it slide
You are probably correct. There may be another explanation as well and that is fretting corrosion caused by micro movement between the connector halves. Lacking a positive lock would seem to increase the chance of this being true. There exist specific lubricants to help avoid this issue but of, practically, forced movement of the connector can work too
Battery swap already happens with Nio cars in China and now in Norway and more countries to follow. Takes 3-5 mins for fully automated swap.
Better Place was another (failed) battery swapping company. It's interesting to read about. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Better_Place_(company)
China has more than just NIO developing battery swapping... In various forms, such as modular battery swapping and for various types and classes of vehicles.... From scooters to megawatt cement trucks... It's a fascinating subject for anybody open-minded enough to consider that it's still a viable option...
Battery swapping makes a ton of sense for scooters and bikes. It's done very commonly on forklifts. I guess it's probably a "which vehicles is this most appropriate for" kind of a question.
its always simple things that get you in the end!
Battery swap … love the idea!
Good work, from one Model S fixer to another :)
Great job, thanks for the video!
i dont have a tesla, but i was curious. thx for this knowledge
Nice job and clear explanation. As a EE I suspect you are also an engineer!
@@jeffberwick Not an engineer. Just curious.
@@BenjaminNelsonX with that mind set I'm sure you could have been one! Appreciate the content.
Great fix after all.
Those Rapidmate connectors sound like part of the reason large pack swaps didn’t pan out! Aside from swap station capital investments, which would be enormous, presumably.
They only made them battery swappable, because of a government program, at that time that paid them to show they were capable of battery swapping, including a demonstration of a working battery swapping station.
Can't say 100%, that it's the only reason, but since when the government program, that paid them ended, so did Tesla's development of battery swapping ended. (did a little research a few years ago and that's my two cents on it fwiw)
I didn’t give the idea much credence at the time, so I couldn’t attribute the motivation for trying it. I’m just speculating that it was part of the feasibility assessment whether to try it at scale. Just a factor.
There are government programs for all sorts of ideas that don’t pan out, which could be debunked out of hand initially but someone decides to pay for a pilot study to prove it. Battery swapping seems like one of those things that works for scooters and e-bikes handily, and anything larger requires a combination of station equipment, vehicle architecture, and standardization across vendors that never seems quite right.
It always seemed like a game of musical chairs to me. You drive in with your one week old car and they swap in an eight year old battery and the next day you hear on the news how the battery swap company went out of business. Your car's value drops in half after a week of ownership.
The musical chairs analogy isn’t a bad one, but I’d expect the batteries wouldn’t be swapped that wildly, or if they were, they couldn’t impact the car’s value because battery swaps would decouple the battery value from the car’s! After all, if a swap station can downgrade your battery, why wouldn’t a station be able to restore the age of the battery?
Anyway, this applies to scooters with swappable batteries at a smaller scale if it helps work it out in the real world where swappable batteries are being used right now. Basically companies maintain fleets of batteries, check on their status, and cycle them out by maintenance technicians at stations when they’re no longer suitable.
@@BrianTRice77 Considering Elon's negative comments prior to and after the battery swapping scheme, thinking of it as a "feasibility study", stretches credulity, . But who knows for a few months maybe he secretly had a different mindset?
China has proven the viability of battery swapping across the board with dozens of different types of battery swapping networks. Including CATL's modular battery swapping, that can accommodate different sized vehicles.
FWIW the US still has three different DCFC standards, that's taking decades to create one universal standard. .So it's ironic and kind of hypocritical, hearing that 'standardization across vendors' is a requirement for battery swapping.
It's just a shame that the West is falling behind, in so many different forms of technology. battery swapping is just one of many. To some degree it's just hubris, that the West Knows Best IMHO
THANK YOU for all the work informing us.
The Hero we need!
The cameras used for exploring drains and other tight spots would work for you. The type on the end of a cord. Diameter the size of a pencil. Give you some good video to show.
Who are you kidding ? There will be a video on fitting the second charger in about a months time... 🤣 Good work on the repair though, it definitely pays to check the "simple" things first whenever possible.
Yeah. "Learning and Sharing." Thanks
Welcome to free supercharging ….. that’s great news
Well done !
@BenjaminNelsonX. figure out how to install the second 40A AC charger and document it so I can make the Mod to mine! I have an 80A Wall Connector for you, if you need an inducement. You'll need it for testing!
Suggest explaining where low voltage connector is and where high voltage connector is so someone is not accidentally electrocuted if they touch high voltage connector.
Wohoo! Great lesson in diagnostics!
Hi Ben, Glad to hear you got Sc sorted. However, to me, it makes little sense that simply seating the LV connector was the whole answer. Surely if, electrically speaking, the connector is made, just pushing it home a bit more won't make any difference. You said there were no other indications of non-functioning electrics so why would just a better seating make any difference? So, I wonder if there is some sort of interlock switch incorporated in the LV connector - an 'electronic connector latch', if you will, that tells the car the connectors is fully seated? Maybe one of the error messages on the MCU related to this and will now have cleared...?
I’m curious about adding that second AC charger, whether that would increase AC max charge capacity. I have access to a 19kW AC source that charges by the minute but I can only pull at 11kW. Was this for all years of the gen 1 S?
Glad to hear your problem is fixed!
I have an OG original MS (low VIN #), yes, each charger was capable of 40A, the older High Power Wall Charger can deliver 80A to the car, on a 100A circuit.. I have it installed, but typically only charge at 5-10KW these days (20 to 40A).. I am on “National Grids” EV Off-Peak charging program, where you get a discount if you start charging after 9PM.. since the car has 8-10 hours to charge, there’s no need to push it at 80A (20KW, which is about 50MPH of recharging speed) any longer. If I arrive home early, and have to go out on a far drive later in the day, I occasionly set the car to charge at 80A, but I very rarely do.
Very well put together video. Great voice
8:49 a mouse cage? 🐁
I'd really rather keep something there OTHER than pet rodents!
Sure would be nice if this car had Vehicle to Load..... just sayin'...
Did it charge on L2 240 charging?
Was it just Super Charging?
Was that Spring connectorvfor batterycswapping bumped or pulled recently?
@@jimstack3694 EVERYTHING else on the car worked fine. 120v charging and 240v charging worked as they should.
The Rapid-Mate connector really can NOT get bumped or anything. It’s BETWEEN the battery and the car. Very little room in there at all.
@BenjaminNelsonX thank you so much for the Video i am going through the exact same problem with my 2013 Tesla, Same error message and everything you described. So i went through all of the checklist that you did and i am on the final one checking the LV Rapid Mate connection. I've taken out the plastic underbody panels, but when searching for the LV connector that i need to reach and push down, i cant find the location at all. Could you please help me and tell me some type of clue or reference point to look for? I took a tone of screenshots of the footage you provided in this video and still can locate....thank you in advance!!!!
The Low Voltage Rapid-Mate connector is located near the rear passenger side corner of the battery pack. The furthest rear part of the battery pack is narrower than the rest of the pack. The connector is on that part just a few inches in from the passenger side. There is VERY little room between the body of the car and the battery. You will NOT be able to see the connector with the battery pack installed. There is a small gap in which a person can reach their fingers up and around the rear edge of the battery pack. Stick your fingers up in there and feel around near the passenger side. Move your hand side to side until you find it. Get your fingers up on top of the car body side of the connector and push down. If it's the same issue that I had, you will feel the connector move, but only a very small amount. But a definite movement.
If you still need a visual, you can put an endoscope up and over the rear cross-member of the car, pointed towards the front to find the connector. Basic endoscopes for smart phones are pretty inexpensive, and are handy tools for other projects as well. Something like this: amzn.to/474n6fZ
In one of my previous videos, there's a camera move showing the whole battery pack out of the car. It quickly moves to the HV and then the LV connectors at the rear of the pack. You can see that here at about a minute 58 seconds into this video: ruclips.net/video/O1nQmR5O2y0/видео.htmlsi=_gQXqpm_8N4kEi7O&t=117
At ten minutes and two seconds in to the same video (at the end) you can see the video in the upper left corner of the end screen showing the battery going up into place under the car. That was shot from the rear driver's side wheel position. You can clearly see the bump-out shape of the very rear portion of the battery and how it fits up into the car. You can even make out the two conductors of the HV connection.
Good luck!
What kind of measures are you taking to ensure the loose connector won't work it's way loose again seeing as the quick battery connect feature isn't in use???
Lockwiring it in place?
It’s spring-loaded. There’s a spring constantly pushing the connector down in place. When the battery was put back up in to the car, the connector didn’t fully engage. Perhaps it was just on a slight angle or something. I manually pushed it down a tiny bit to fully complete the connection. There’s no reason to think it would come back out.
Excellent video and great expalnation.
Singla connector on HV battery was not fully seated.
Ben, how is the battery condition and range on that model S?
I just did my longest cross country to date between NE and Oshkosh, WI and it was so easy!
Autopilot is so nice on long freeway drives!
Battery has about 250 miles range if charged to 100%
I would say that's pretty fantastic for an 11-12 year old car.
No autopilot on this older car, but I do hear how autopilot makes long drives more comfortable.
Stop by Oconomowoc any time.
Many thanks 👍
nice work
How would you connect AC to a second AC charger? Are there two NACS connectors?
No, they are connected within the car so it can charge up to 80A.
@@Przodownik not sure what single EVSE wall unit can do that, but: cool.
@@emmettturner9452 there are many chargepoint chargers that can do it. And Tesla wall connectors (wallbox) too.
I connects together with the other charger through the junction box in the middle under the back seat. The opened junction box can be seen at 2:00 in this video.
Wonderful.
Nice job
hey i watch alot of your electic project your very good but whats your take on a tesla not starting do you think it has to do with the 12V battrey
@@scienticstratgies2368 On many EVs, the source off a variety of problems is a bad 12v battery. It’s usually a pretty good place to start troubleshooting.
On a Tesla, I would also go into service mode on the main screen and look for listed errors.
@@BenjaminNelsonX not sure if car has any power
@@scienticstratgies2368 Then the 12v battery is DEFINITELY the first thing to check!
I wish the hot swap batteries ended up being real because then I wouldn’t have to care about my battery if I could go trade it for like $30
Which Facebook book gave you the final advise?
It was the Tesla BMS_u018/BMS_u029/BMS_a066 group. That mostly focuses on problems with reduced battery capacity, but lots of smart hands-on people are in the group.
facebook.com/groups/654984809485342
Super!
So, does the TailBrella fit the Model S?!
The trailbrella uses a 2", so it would fit with an adapter. Unfortunately, the adapter makes everything so long.
I'm tempted to weld up a short piece of 1.25" with a vertical tube on it so I can use the tailbrella on the Model S with the connector being nice and short.
So, did you go to MREA Lite this year? @@BenjaminNelsonX
was it worth zip tying the connector to stay down?
Are you asking if it WOULD be?
I didn't show any zip-ties in this video.
The problem wasn't that a connector somehow worked itself loose, it was that the connector did not get fully seated when the battery was reinstalled.
Ssve you money and get unofficial charter from Tesla and see the videos to use the CCS network too!
Great video.
But hat is a terrible design with this connector, especially as tesla never finished the swap. and if you don't know this hint, you can probably spend a fortune swapping unrelated parts.
👍👍
2nd charger for when you visit someone with a 80amp AC for their EV truck.
Noooiceee!
How did the mice get in there ? ‼️
Mice can get almost anywhere. This was just under the back seat. It wasn't inside a weather-tight gasketed aluminum enclosure or anything similar.
Just a seat, like any other car.
My model s has dual ac chargers onboard
@@diniitotoom2526 How often do you find the dual chargers useful?
@@BenjaminNelsonX not often. Used to be more before i got ccs2 support
May I ask how many kilometres this model car has?
I has about 150,000 miles or 240,000 KM
@@BenjaminNelsonX finally i would like to ask, Have you experienced battery or motor failure? Have you had to replace the battery for any other reason? How is the health of the battery now?
@@erginyilmaztenor This is a used car which I purchased not long ago. I got a good deal on it because it wasn't running. It turned out that the reason it didn't run was because water got in to the fuse.
OTHER than that, the battery and motor seem to work great.
Please see the playlist on this project to get the big picture.
ruclips.net/video/2QbOsc3BRLw/видео.html
so YOU caused the problem. 😉😆
I guess that if you really want to get technical.... So strange though that everything else worked. No other problems, no other errors. Just supercharging not working. I had no reason at all to think it was that connector!
4:05 this is common in China
We're never going to know the price are we.. lol
@@calholli $5k
@@BenjaminNelsonX Oh man.. You struck gold. :) .. high risk, high reward. Bravo
mice are the worst
Just the thought of drive a nest of mouse on a long trip …..😵💫😵💫
Who is driving with 300MPG and how and with what?
@@commonsense4you In 2007, I built an electric motorcycle. It got the equivalent of 321 MPG.
I rounded DOWN to the nearest hundreds when naming my blog.
You’re good on story telling. You’re not a technical man and you’ll be confusing Tesla owners.
There is no way these connection could’ve survived multiple battery swap without any issues plus imagine doing this in winter conditions and the salty slush falling into the connectors you saw the amount of crud around the connections they only made it easier to swap in order to get more ZEV credits from the government but the the rules changed so Tesla lost some credit and then suddenly the dropped the hole idea.
👍👍👍👍🙏
This video could have been 30 seconds long.
Why? The man spent tons of time/effort researching and solving an obscure problem and you're bitching about the amount of details he went on explaining to others? You're always free to move on after 30 seconds if you don't have the patience nor interest.