Green charge-port door in the morning???

daniel · Apr 1, 2012

This morning when I went to the garage, the car was humming, and the charge-port door light was green. The same thing happened a few days ago, but usually the car is silent in the morning until I open the door, and the charge-port door light is off.

I have the car set to start charging at 1:00 a.m., so it was fully charged (Standard mode) and showed 185 miles ideal range.

Should I be concerned about the green light, which I think is supposed to mean "ready to charge," but is not normally on in the morning; or about the humming, which normally does not start in the morning until I've opened the door? It's chilly in the garage these mornings, but not nearly as cold as in the winter, and it didn't do this then.

Thanks.

NigelM · Apr 1, 2012

Solid green simply means charging is complete. However, this only stays on for a while (don't know how long exactly) and then turns itself off. The hum is usually just the battery coolant pump; I often hear it running for a while after charging. Hard to imagine why you should see anything different to previous experience....did you change your clock to DST?

bonnie · Apr 1, 2012

I sometimes see the green light in the morning if I started charging at a lower SOC - I've just always assumed the green light was still on because it just finished charging. It's not anything to worry about.

strider · Apr 1, 2012

Yep, just means it recently finished charging. As Nigel said, check your clock as it may be starting its charge an hour later due to the time change.

daniel · Apr 2, 2012

I don't put that many miles on the car. Maybe I had driven 15 miles. It starts charging at 1:00 a.m., and this would have been around 8:30 a.m. So it should have finished charging six hours before and had plenty of time to cool the pack back down. And in the chilly (but not freezing) garage, the battery would not have needed cooling by that time.

I'm not really worried. I'm just wondering.

vfx · Apr 2, 2012

Some have gone for years and never saw the mysterious green light from their Roadster.

You already drive a unicorn, now you have seen the magical leprechaun.

smoothoperator · Apr 2, 2012

If you see the red light then you have to start worrying :scared:

Doug_G · Apr 2, 2012

vfx said:
Some have gone for years and never saw the mysterious green light from their Roadster.

You just have to be at the car when it finishes charging. My suspicion is that the light stays on until the car fully powers down, and that may mean waiting for the cooling fans and pumps shutting down completely.

W.Petefish · Apr 3, 2012

smoothoperator said:
If you see the red light then you have to start worrying :scared:

And if it is red and flashing w/ a "Powertrain Problem Service Required" message on the VDS accompanied by a RED Fault light on the instrument cluster, Call Tesla IMMEDIATELY!!

ViperDoc · Apr 3, 2012

As has been pointed out, the green light doesn't stay on for hours. However, I have seen it on in the mornings once in a while. I believe what is happening is that even after the car is charged, occasionally the car powers itself back up (either battery maintenance or running a system to heat/cool the battery), and then it charges again to get back to its charging goal. So sometimes you might catch it after one of those "re-charges" and find the green light on in the morning.

daniel · Apr 5, 2012

Thanks, Doc. That sounds reasonable.

aki009 · Apr 20, 2012

Charging interrupted message...

FWIW, just a few days ago I for the very first time had a message about charging having been interrupted when getting in the car in the morning. I frankly did not pay attention to the light (if any) on the charge port when disconnecting. I have charging set up to start at 9 pm, and there was no obvious reason for it to still be charging 10+ hours later. (i.e. no unusual amount of battery use, etc.)

Just saying, in case the firmware bug squad is looking for something to squish.

tennis_trs · Apr 20, 2012

aki009 said:
FWIW, just a few days ago I for the very first time had a message about charging having been interrupted when getting in the car in the morning. I frankly did not pay attention to the light (if any) on the charge port when disconnecting. I have charging set up to start at 9 pm, and there was no obvious reason for it to still be charging 10+ hours later. (i.e. no unusual amount of battery use, etc.)

Just saying, in case the firmware bug squad is looking for something to squish.

Don't you think the interruption happened several hours before and it just doesn't clear that error (or had there been no error on the display before you removed the cable)?

smoothoperator · Apr 20, 2012

aki009 said:
FWIW, just a few days ago I for the very first time had a message about charging having been interrupted when getting in the car in the morning. I frankly did not pay attention to the light (if any) on the charge port when disconnecting. I have charging set up to start at 9 pm, and there was no obvious reason for it to still be charging 10+ hours later. (i.e. no unusual amount of battery use, etc.)

Just saying, in case the firmware bug squad is looking for something to squish.

Were you charging off a HPC? Mine sometimes cuts out and pops up the same message but then turns back on after a few seconds/minutes. Never had this problem with a UMC.

The_User · May 1, 2012

If it's cool or cold enough, the pump will run to keep the battery pack warm. During the winter months I noticed that quite a few times. The garage would get down into the 30's and the "coolant" would be circulating and warm.

Doug_G · May 1, 2012

smoothoperator said:
Were you charging off a HPC? Mine sometimes cuts out and pops up the same message but then turns back on after a few seconds/minutes. Never had this problem with a UMC.

The HPC (actually a Clipper Creek) auto-retries after a fault. That explains why it comes back up.

W.Petefish · May 1, 2012

smoothoperator said:
Were you charging off a HPC? Mine sometimes cuts out and pops up the same message but then turns back on after a few seconds/minutes. Never had this problem with a UMC.

Did that happen when your roadster was charging at full power?

smoothoperator · May 1, 2012

W.Petefish said:
Did that happen when your roadster was charging at full power?

yep 70a

W.Petefish · May 2, 2012

Have the power coming to your house analyzed. You may have the same issue that I did. Waiting too long may result in a burned out PEM line fuse.

Specifically have your electrician look for line spikes.

Lloyd · May 2, 2012

Look for a cogen plant on your local grid. One next to me was responsible for spikes some time ago.

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