To borrow a fun phrase from Hollywood
Its been long while since I’ve posted anything more to do with competing hobbies, family and work. Yes, I still have my Tesla Model 3 and yes, it still one of the most fun cars I’ve owned over the years. Our stable of EVs has grown. We have the Tesla, a Pacifica Hybrid and a BMW i3. We just added a 2nd 2019 Model 3 for the soon to be at college student so it’s EVs all around
My M3 has seen some work over the past year. Wiring adapter to enable all the dead speakers since I have a partial premium interior that only used 6 of the 12 speakers. I added fog lights which had been deleted. I added Sexy buttons to control the fog lights, wiper and a few other items in the car, red caliper covers, 20mm wheel extenders, metal skid plates front and back, 2022 Model Y tail lights both inner and outers to get that nice amber turn indicator and lighting upgrades for all interior LEDs.
I removed the spring assisted lift for the trunk after one broke and smashed my rear window. That was just under 1,000 USD in a repair bill for a 20 USD failure.
The best upgrade I did was to add the new Gen 4 charging ECU which gives me CCS compatibility. You need the ECU plus “a bundle of wires” which is a DIY hack wiring harness to enable the adapter to work correctly with the charge port thermal probes. Tesla themselves say they will have something like this out in the near future. The adapter and ECU work great. I have been able to pull 130Kw using Electrify America chargers ( when they work) using my Tesla CCS adapter plug or my A2Z adapter plug. I spent several months getting free juice from a local DCFC that was CCS and free ( only 50Kw but I wasnt complaining). That amount of free charging paid for my CCS adapter plus my Chademo adapter. Even though that charger is gone now, the price difference between EA and Tesla Supercharger at peak is 20 cents so it adds up in a hurry. The gen 4 was 145 USD, 50 USD for the wires and about 45 mins of time. Plus 30 mins to update the car software.
One of the current projects which I just got all the parts for is to swap in a complete front and back Performance brake system. These are the bigger rotors and the bigger RED calipers. When things warm up a bit, I will set aside a day or two and have at it.
I’ll be putting up more stories shortly so stay tuned 🙂