Toolbox Diagnostic Cables

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Type of Diagnostic port/cable required

Tesla’s use different connectors to enable it to communicate locally with Toolbox via your computer’s ethernet port.  Which port your car has depends on the model, year of manufacture – and even region of sale – just to make it extra confusing.

Overall there are 5 different diagnostic part interfaces.

1137658-00-C for the Sumitomo diagnostic port

This diagnostic port/cable was used for the Model 3 & Y between 2017 and Dec 2021.
The port is located in the driver footwell.
Plug the white end of the cable into the diagnostic port in the driver footwell. The ethernet cable end goes into your laptop. 

1137658-00-C

The jack is designed for 5-pins, but only 4 are used.

DIY approach

You can make your own cable if you are in a rush. Make sure your ethernet cables are color coded exactly as in the picture above, as otherwise you’ll have to figure out the color coding yourself (silly old TS458A standard!). 

Cut one end off a ethernet cable.  You will find 8 cables, each twisted in a pair that is color coded.  You can cut away/discard the two pairs of brown and blue cables, leaving you with orange and green pairs. The green pair goes towards the frunk, orange pair towards the driver.

You can either use a 4-pin female header connector (most electrical DIY stores have these), 4 individual GPIO pins (if you are feeling up for a challenge to insert them while hunched over in the footwell), or go for the actual original Sumutomo adapter. Just search for any of these part numbers and you should find it: 6098-3802, 90980-12365, 90980-12366, or 6098-3810,  Remember, while you want the male connector, usually this connector will actually be referred to as the ‘female‘ one, as it denotes the fact that the pins of the receptive port in the car slide into this connector.  So don’t just place your order, make sure it matches the photo.

Off The Shelf Ethernet Cable for the RJ45 port

Congratulations, you’ve hit the jackpot.  Used from about October 2021 to end of 2024 on the Model 3 and Model Y, this is the best connector of all.  Why? Because you’d be hard pressed to find a home that doesn’t have this cable already in abundance.  If you can’t find one at home, steal it from your nephew’s playstation or go to your IT department at work and ask for one.

Standard Ethernet Cable

Also known as internet cable, network cable or patch cable.  Just don’t steal it from your wifi router, as you will need an active internet connection for toolbox (unless you want to hotspot from your phone of course, then go ahead and steal if from there).

Off-the-shelf Ethernet to Type A OBD-II cable for the OBD-II J1962 port

This port/cable is used across all models from approx. December 2023 onwards.  This is a standard OBD-II to ethernet adapter.  If you know anyone that works on BMW, they will likely have one that you can borrow.  We will provide instructions shortly on how to DIY with adapter.

1013230-00-A for the High Speed Data (HSD) port

This cable with part number 1013230-00-A was used 2012- sometime 2021 (depending on Model S or X).

We can provide DIY instructions for this if requested.  You can find plenty of these online though and it’s not really worth making a one-off.

High Speed Modular Twisted Pair Data (H-MTD) — 1669075-00-A AND Powered Media Converter Box

If you have a Oct 2021- Feb 2022 Model X, or Feb 2021 – Feb 2022 Model S, I’m really sorry to have to tell you that this diagnostic port sucks.  Unlike all the other diagnostic cables, these ones are NOT cheap.  We’re talking $700+…  Why did Tesla do this? I don’t know. It’s just so stupid. The set consists of an Ethernet cable, a power cable, a data converter and a power plug for the 12V socket as well as the diagnostic connection cable.  The media converter is a 1000Base-T1 – it translates the gigabit vehicle data to data your computer can understand.

If you can’t source the original from Tesla using the part number 1669075-00-A and wanted to buy the parts individually:

• INTREPID RAD MOON 2 100/1000BASE-T1 MEDIA CONVERTER AUTOMOTIVE (MATENET CONNECT) – $700!
• ix Type A – RJ45 AWG28 CAT6A PVC 1.0m – $30
• Rosenberger H-MTD Connecting Cables – $62

If anyone has instructions on how to DIY this kit, please let us know. We have not yet had time or financial resources ourselves to buy one of these to reverse engineer it just so we can publish the information here for free. I guess this is a great time to mention that we accept donations. 🙂 

You can probably get away with the below, but untested:

• SPEEDLINK SE1001 Pro 1000Base-T1 Automotive Ethernet Interface Module to RJ45  – $130
• Rosenberger H-MTD Connecting Cables

Let us know how you got along if you used any of these or cheaper alternatives.

If you want to DIY any of the cables or start manufacturing these for resale, take a look at these Tesla Diagnostic Cable Schematics.