Almost Brodered my Car!

Well last night was really close. I have never really even been close to being out of range since I got the car in December but I tested that to the limit last night.

Started of Friday when wife was late plugging the car in for a range charge for our weekend trip to Niagara falls. So left with 405km of range instead of 425km. Trip down mostly uneventful but high winds did reduce range a bit. Arrived with about 215km. The car was mostly parked all weekend and the parasitic loads and ridiculously cold temperatures reduced the range to 177km when we left at 1pm yesterday. No problem, all according to plan so far. Went to the pub in Niagara Falls for lunch. This pub has a Sun Country charger which we had used before. Flashing green on charge port when we went in. Leisurely lunch, came out and no flashing! I had let my son plug the car in and either he did not shove it tight or someone had played with it but it had only charged back to 195km. Hmmm. No problem plan still in works. Off the the nearby Laura Secord homestead where there is another sun country charger. Daughter doing a project on L. Secord so did the tour and read all the interesting history while the car charged. Left for mothers day dinner in Toronto -160km to go. 240km in the 'tank'. Traffic horrible on QEW and 401. Wicked winds and hail. 3 degrees C. Missed 407 to 403 turn off adding 7km of distance. Arrived for dinner with 35km range and 30km to get home after dinner. Trickle charge on 120V at 4km/hr. Leave at 8pm with 42km. Decide to take 404 (@100km/hr) instead of city roads home (not sure which is better). Watch as 42km range and 30km distance becomes 5km range and 12km distance. Hmmm. Really interested to see if I can make it but wife NOT interested so pull into friends house with zero range (charge now! message) and trickle charge at 6km/hr while watching the rest of the Leaf game. Unexpected social event - very nice hosts! Leave with 12km range and 8km to go. Make it home with 4km. Phew. So what are the bets? Would I have made it? I was at 0km range with 8km to go. 2 Degrees C and windy. Wish I had tried but 8pm on a Sunday is not a fun time to brick the car. One kid loved the adventure one was not so sure.

Went the whole trip in Range mode and no climate for the last 20km. So heed Doug_G - leave range for the unexpected! Lots of things piled up against us (no complete range charge, parasitic losses, faulty charge at pub, missed turn, horrible traffic, horrible weather, unexpectedly very cold).

Doug_G said:

Sorry, I just edited your thread title. As others have pointed out, "bricked" has a rather more serious meaning than running out of power. I substituted the word "Brodered" - hope that's okay. If not let me know what title you want.


He didn't push it in hard enough. That's what happens when the pilot signal pin doesn't engage - the car charges at minimum current. On road trips I recommend always staying with your car until it ramps up to full current.

Also the current firmware version will only go to 60A at a 70A charger unless you manually push it higher (due to the problems with HPWCs - the car can't tell it's a J1772 because they function identically), so that's another good reason to hang around until you hit full current.


Personally, I would have taken the 404 and drafted the slowest truck I could find. Failing to find a slow truck I would have just got in the right lane and driven like an old fogey.

I wouldn't have taken the risk going below 0 km. Sometimes you get more, sometimes you don't.

Click to expand...

'Brodered' is fine. I meant 'brick the car' and of course knew that is was not permanent. 'Brodered' makes the point. :smile:

Interesting about pushing the connector hard enough - did not know that. It was definitely flashing green when we went in the pub but solid blue when we came out.

So as far as we know 0km pretty much means zero. Makes sense - no reason for Tesla to give 'bonus' km when they would be better including them in the advertised range.