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Believe me, the 12v issue is far more painful than on an ICE car. The car becomes completely dead. You can't even move it or tow it as the car is in park mode. Plus, you can't change the battery. And if you want to boost the battery, you have to remove the nose cone which is not trivial the first time you do it.
Plus, Tesla can't even remotely diagnostic the car in that case... It happened to me two times - and one time in the middle of winter.
Good news is that Tesla is prompt in fixing the issue.
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Thanks for the input, but that worries me. You had it happen twice, my S is not even a week old. That suggests that the problem has not been fixed (ie still a design flaw), and I can't trust the car even after they fix it this time.
stopcrazypp
Well-Known Member
Sounds like they will take care of it, but just for reference, the procedure for getting the nose cone out and accessing the 12V terminals to "jump" the the car, are here. You may have to look at later in the thread for the proper procedures for the newer cars (the first post is for a signature model which may not be representative of more recent Model S).
http://www.teslamotorsclub.com/show...-cone-charging-lugs-for-the-12V-battery/page5
I think what happened is that they replaced the battery but it wasn't the real issue so it happened again. I don't have more information, but it was something else in the drive train. I know someone else who had the same issue, and the issue was deeper than just the 12v.
My understanding is that Tesla has a much better knowledge of the various causes now. So I think you'll be fine.
Good luck.
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The 12v problems seem to be persisting. I was contacted by a service rep to let me know that there appeared to be an issue with my 12v. I had picked up my car less than 2 weeks ago. I'm arranging for a ranger to come out later this week to do a swap. The service response is amazing, but I have to say that the need for them to be so responsive so soon is disconcerting.
JRP3
Hyperactive Member
You are 100% correct, it is a design flaw, and frankly I'm quite disappointed that this is still an issue. Tesla keeps blaming the battery supplier, which they supposedly changed, and this is still happening. We know they've had issues with the DC/DC converter and I'd say those issues are ongoing. As I've said before a car with 60+kWh of battery should not be disabled by a 12V battery problem. Come on Elon, you can do better than this.
I agree. I'm surprised that this is still happening to cars that are just being delivered considering how long they've known about this problem. It's not freakin rocket science, and even if it was, Elon is in charge of Space-x and he would've had his engineers figure this out by now. What the heck gives?
Update: They brought a loaner up to St. Helena this morning (a new decked-out P85, same color). He first replaced the 12V battery on mine, which at least started things up. But he had to put the charger on also and wait a bit until the car was on enough to move and drive onto the flatbed to go back to San Rafael. Hopefully I'll find out the details tomorrow.
I'm a long time tech support person, so I'm going to be full of questions about this when the Ranger comes to do the work. My current job deals with tech support of products and I track infant mortality and systemic issues for my product family. Hopefully I won't annoy them too much.....
Update: Well, the 12V warning was a symptom rather than the actual cause so be warned and be prepared for the worse. I got a call tonight that my car is ready with a new battery pack -- everything is new except the casing of the battery according to Tesla. The pack was shipped from CA on Monday according to my understanding and arrived today for the replacement to be completed. I've been driving the loaner (P85+) for the last three days. It's pretty nice with firmer suspension and better traction; however, I did missed my car (P85). I learned two new tricks -- how to jump the 12V and how to release parking brakes manually using 12V source (simply reverse the polarity of the connector pins for the parking brakes).
JRP3
Hyperactive Member
To some degree, yes. The Roadster owners paid $110K+ to be alpha testers. As I future G3 buyer I thank all of you :wink:
Yes! After two 12v incidents, I never drive the car without checking my digital voltmeter.
We received an email that our 12V battery was in need of replacement and TM would come to our house or we could drive in (whichever we prefer and NO we do NOT have the ranger included service). My wife drove the car in and it was replaced. This was a great experience for our household.
I got my car back with new high voltage battery pack this afternoon. Feel new again with the car being been waxed and cleaned inside out and they even included new floor mats -- thank you Tesla Denver Service Center! Best service ever! Still no regrets even for the trouble that I went through not knowing what was going on with my car. According to the technician, the battery pack has the latest revision of electronics which are "a couple revisions" from my early one (took on the risk being an early adopter!). The driving dynamic feels different with the new battery but I need to spend a little more time to verify that...
Release parking brake notes (I don't have solid instruction obviously):
To manually release the parking brakes, use 12V external source on a connector's pins 3 & 4 for the rear brakes on right ear of the car and pins 5 & 6 on the left. You can find one of the DIN connectors near by the base speaker (I believe there are 3 DIN connectors they attached to the electronic module). I can't remember exactly which connector but believe to be the biggest one. Depending on how you apply the 12V (polarity wise), it would tighten or loosen the parking brakes.You may have to experiment a little to find out for sure. Sorry this is somewhat vague but this was the best I could do by starring at a distance. CAUTION: Don't forget to have a woodblock or something to stop the car since it would begin to roll if the parking brakes are released.
Release parking brake notes (I don't have solid instruction obviously):
To manually release the parking brakes, use 12V external source on a connector's pins 3 & 4 for the rear brakes on right ear of the car and pins 5 & 6 on the left. You can find one of the DIN connectors near by the base speaker (I believe there are 3 DIN connectors they attached to the electronic module). I can't remember exactly which connector but believe to be the biggest one. Depending on how you apply the 12V (polarity wise), it would tighten or loosen the parking brakes.You may have to experiment a little to find out for sure. Sorry this is somewhat vague but this was the best I could do by starring at a distance. CAUTION: Don't forget to have a woodblock or something to stop the car since it would begin to roll if the parking brakes are released.
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