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12V Battery Just Died - Total battery failure
- Thread starter skraack
- Start date
You can request a new battery from the app I think. If it's not a rush, just put in an appointment and wait for the mobile tech to bring you one and install it.
Are you out of warranty? If so and you have them install it, you will have to pay for installation. You can call the service center to see if they have it in stock first. Or just go to there and tell them you want to buy a 12v battery for your car.
Sharing my dead 12V battery story.
Opened driver’s door, sat down & depressed brake pedal. Oddly pedal popped back up against my foot….weird feeling. Tried to shift to reverse, no reaction. Screen was on then briefly displayed some kind of warning for a split second that my vehicle needed to be charged. (had about 75% charge the day before) Screen went black and all interior lights began pulsing on and off. Then nothing….everything completely dead.
Went on App & scheduled Roadside Assistance. Message came back indicating car needed to be towed to a SC. Said they were able to see multiple notifications on my vehicle stating something like charger had excessive heat and charging rate had to be reduced to prevent damage to the charging system. So a tow was dispatched to my house and to expect wait time of 90 minutes. Luckily, I was at home and my car was in my garage.
Tow driver arrived in about 100 minutes. Car was parked head-in my garage so tow driver popped the front bumper access plug to open the frunk to access the 12V for a “jump”. (Used a metal screwdriver and caused damage to area surrounding the plug
) Was then able to drive the car and load it onto the flatbed tow.
This was on a Thursday morning. No word from SC all day. I sent a message and they replied they have not yet reached a diagnosis. I messaged again Fri AM. Still no diagnosis. I messaged again and they said they needed the weekend to diagnose. No loader was offered. I asked for a loaner and they finally offered one. Provided me with $200 Uber voucher to get to the SC. Picked up a 2020 Audi A5 rental from Enterprise.
Saturday PM I get a message the car is done. I called to find out problem and they told me it was a bad 12V. Told them I couldn’t pick up until Monday.
Returned gas car
and drove my car home. All seems to be back to normal.
I hope this doesn’t turn out to be a repeat issue every 2-1/2 years. Seems much to short a lifespan for a 12V battery.
Opened driver’s door, sat down & depressed brake pedal. Oddly pedal popped back up against my foot….weird feeling. Tried to shift to reverse, no reaction. Screen was on then briefly displayed some kind of warning for a split second that my vehicle needed to be charged. (had about 75% charge the day before) Screen went black and all interior lights began pulsing on and off. Then nothing….everything completely dead.
Went on App & scheduled Roadside Assistance. Message came back indicating car needed to be towed to a SC. Said they were able to see multiple notifications on my vehicle stating something like charger had excessive heat and charging rate had to be reduced to prevent damage to the charging system. So a tow was dispatched to my house and to expect wait time of 90 minutes. Luckily, I was at home and my car was in my garage.
Tow driver arrived in about 100 minutes. Car was parked head-in my garage so tow driver popped the front bumper access plug to open the frunk to access the 12V for a “jump”. (Used a metal screwdriver and caused damage to area surrounding the plug
) Was then able to drive the car and load it onto the flatbed tow.This was on a Thursday morning. No word from SC all day. I sent a message and they replied they have not yet reached a diagnosis. I messaged again Fri AM. Still no diagnosis. I messaged again and they said they needed the weekend to diagnose. No loader was offered. I asked for a loaner and they finally offered one. Provided me with $200 Uber voucher to get to the SC. Picked up a 2020 Audi A5 rental from Enterprise.
Saturday PM I get a message the car is done. I called to find out problem and they told me it was a bad 12V. Told them I couldn’t pick up until Monday.
Returned gas car
and drove my car home. All seems to be back to normal.I hope this doesn’t turn out to be a repeat issue every 2-1/2 years. Seems much to short a lifespan for a 12V battery.
I am not out of warranty yet. My Model 3 is 2 years and 3 months old but based on what I heard about the 12v battery, I just wanna buy a replacement battery just in case.
Sharing my dead 12V battery story.
Opened driver’s door, sat down & depressed brake pedal. Oddly pedal popped back up against my foot….weird feeling. Tried to shift to reverse, no reaction. Screen was on then briefly displayed some kind of warning for a split second that my vehicle needed to be charged. (had about 75% charge the day before) Screen went black and all interior lights began pulsing on and off. Then nothing….everything completely dead.
Went on App & scheduled Roadside Assistance. Message came back indicating car needed to be towed to a SC. Said they were able to see multiple notifications on my vehicle stating something like charger had excessive heat and charging rate had to be reduced to prevent damage to the charging system. So a tow was dispatched to my house and to expect wait time of 90 minutes. Luckily, I was at home and my car was in my garage.
Tow driver arrived in about 100 minutes. Car was parked head-in my garage so tow driver popped the front bumper access plug to open the frunk to access the 12V for a “jump”. (Used a metal screwdriver and caused damage to area surrounding the plug
This was on a Thursday morning. No word from SC all day. I sent a message and they replied they have not yet reached a diagnosis. I messaged again Fri AM. Still no diagnosis. I messaged again and they said they needed the weekend to diagnose. No loader was offered. I asked for a loaner and they finally offered one. Provided me with $200 Uber voucher to get to the SC. Picked up a 2020 Audi A5 rental from Enterprise.
Saturday PM I get a message the car is done. I called to find out problem and they told me it was a bad 12V. Told them I couldn’t pick up until Monday.
Returned gas car
I hope this doesn’t turn out to be a repeat issue every 2-1/2 years. Seems much to short a lifespan for a 12V battery
I thought once the contactors close and the dc-dc is powered you could still drive the car…even without a 12v? Do you think it had enough power to open the doors but once it tried to close the contactors the 12v completely died? Did you hear the contactors close?
Gotcha. You can Just go to the service center and buy one there. I was going to do the same…but will probably just get an Ohmmu battery once my warranty is up. Until then my “just in case” is the a23 batteries in the bumper, hulkman jumper in the frunk and tesla changing the battery under warranty. The hulkman is same price if not alittle more expensive than an oem tesla Battery….but its got more uses than a spare tesla battery, is smaller and lighter to keep in the frunk. I wouldn’t want a spare flooded lead acid battery sliding around in the frunk.
This is the reason I replaced mine before it died with an Ohmmu lithium. Now I don’t worry about finding my M3 bricked in a mall parking lot when it’s 115F outside!Sharing my dead 12V battery story.
Opened driver’s door, sat down & depressed brake pedal. Oddly pedal popped back up against my foot….weird feeling. Tried to shift to reverse, no reaction. Screen was on then briefly displayed some kind of warning for a split second that my vehicle needed to be charged. (had about 75% charge the day before) Screen went black and all interior lights began pulsing on and off. Then nothing….everything completely dead.
Went on App & scheduled Roadside Assistance. Message came back indicating car needed to be towed to a SC. Said they were able to see multiple notifications on my vehicle stating something like charger had excessive heat and charging rate had to be reduced to prevent damage to the charging system. So a tow was dispatched to my house and to expect wait time of 90 minutes. Luckily, I was at home and my car was in my garage.
Tow driver arrived in about 100 minutes. Car was parked head-in my garage so tow driver popped the front bumper access plug to open the frunk to access the 12V for a “jump”. (Used a metal screwdriver and caused damage to area surrounding the plug
This was on a Thursday morning. No word from SC all day. I sent a message and they replied they have not yet reached a diagnosis. I messaged again Fri AM. Still no diagnosis. I messaged again and they said they needed the weekend to diagnose. No loader was offered. I asked for a loaner and they finally offered one. Provided me with $200 Uber voucher to get to the SC. Picked up a 2020 Audi A5 rental from Enterprise.
Saturday PM I get a message the car is done. I called to find out problem and they told me it was a bad 12V. Told them I couldn’t pick up until Monday.
Returned gas car
I hope this doesn’t turn out to be a repeat issue every 2-1/2 years. Seems much to short a lifespan for a 12V battery.
Guys I'm new here, but familiar with this. My car is an early LR 3 8/2018. Returned this July from family visit to find Mikey dead. Service was very responsive and took care of dead 12 V battery no charge. However they claimed that this was an issue with early M3's, newer models have Lithium batteries, which they claimed were not available for mine. Any advice and help would be appreciated. live in Houston
Gauss Guzzler
Safety Score = 42
New models still use the same old lead acid battery but hopefully they have fixed the software flaw that causes them to die. They should easily outlast the life of the car.
The only Tesla to use 12V lithium is the 2021 Plaid Model S and there have been some, uh, major issues with the 12V system on that car.
The only Tesla to use 12V lithium is the 2021 Plaid Model S and there have been some, uh, major issues with the 12V system on that car.
JCtx
Member
It absolutely is. I was talking about replacing it with an AGM, but not sure one exists. L-Ion batteries are not good for a ICE vehicles IMO, especially if it gets cold, like where I live. But maybe it's fine with Teslas. My only worry is if the car would charge it properly, since they require a different charging cycle than lead-acid batteries, and as far as I know, there's no way to change that ourselves, right? My question to the experts is if replacing the crappy OEM battery with an L-Ion one (which one?) lasts longer than the stock one. Thank you.
Really? How careless. You pop it up with your freaking fingers; they should know that. Geez. I'd demand the damage fixed, for their stupidity.tow driver popped the front bumper access plug to open the frunk to access the 12V for a “jump”. (Used a metal screwdriver and caused damage to area surrounding the plug
Next time just 'jump' the car yourself, so buy either an A23 12V battery, or a rectangular 9V battery (which is what I have), and a L-Ion jumper battery, which I store in the frunk. I inserted the 9V battery into the bumper hole, so I don't need any tools to open the frunk. Oh, and I also threw a 10mm ratchet open wrench in there, in case I need to change the battery on the road.
My question for those who have this 'kit' is if the A23 battery is better than the 9V one. Just curious. Didn't know about the A23 battery until somebody here mentioned it. Thanks.
JCtx
Member
There's no way a lead-acid battery would last more than 5 years tops... but definitely more than 2-1/2. After 4, you're on borrowed time, but with the battery away from a hot engine compartment (like Teslas), it's possible for them to last 5, assuming they're not low on water. But since the car just shuts down with a bad battery, I'd never gamble with the battery lasting 5 years. I'll replace it every 3. It's cheap enough to have that piece of mind. But I'd prefer to replace it with a L-Ion one, if there's no need to change the charging algorithm, AND it lasts longer than the OEM. I would never put a Li-Ion battery on an ICE car, since it gets cold where I live, and they give you trouble. But Teslas require much less current to power the car, so maybe they're okay in that application. I'd just like Tesla to give us the option to switch to Li-Ion charging from the menu, so we don't cook it with a lead-acid algorithm.
Red Ryder 3
Now known as: "REDAZY22"
So I got in the 20 month old M3 SR+ with 6599 miles and received the "12V Battery WARNING."
Mobile service can't come for a week.
Is the car safe to drive in the city, OR could I drive it to the Service Center?
Thanks
Herb Hodes
Phoenix
Mobile service can't come for a week.
Is the car safe to drive in the city, OR could I drive it to the Service Center?
Thanks
Herb Hodes
Phoenix
I drove mine to the SC with the warning but only after I checked the battery voltage wasn't too low and the SC is not far away so I could take only local roads without much traffic.
If you want some peace of mind, you could turn sentry on and keep it on(even at home). That way the car won’t sleep and won’t have any issues getting stranded if it completely fails before it’s replaced. Just make sure to keep the battery higher than 20% as sentry won’t stay on if the battery is lower than 20%.
Here is a cross post to the thread for how to open the frunk with a small battery when the 12V lead-acid battery dies:
The thread also contains a lively discussion if alkaline or lithium. Post #23 and #26 has photos and shows my four CR123 lithium batteries (about 13 volts) and how the little battery box tucks into the tow-hook compartment.
Scott
--
MYLR | Red ext | White int | 19" | 5 seats | tow | no FSD | made/delivered Oct 2021
The thread also contains a lively discussion if alkaline or lithium. Post #23 and #26 has photos and shows my four CR123 lithium batteries (about 13 volts) and how the little battery box tucks into the tow-hook compartment.
Scott
--
MYLR | Red ext | White int | 19" | 5 seats | tow | no FSD | made/delivered Oct 2021
Optima’s and some other better AGM’s can easily last far longer, the Prius we traded for our model 3 had an almost 10 yr old Optima battery in it, Optima makes a deep cycle yellow top for the Prius, Prius has odd sized terminals, but anyway the Prius use of a 12v battery is similar to a Tesla’s.
I would think a Yellow top Optima would be ideal for a Tesla. For those that aren’t familiar with Optima’s, the Yellow top is a deep cycle battery, if you want a starting battery their battery for that is a red top.
It just seems a quality deep cycle AGM would fit the Tesla duty cycle.
You pay for what you get though.
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If our group size is a 51R, the R is important as the Pos and Neg terminals are reversed from a regular 51
Oh a LifePo4 AKA LFP is a Li-ion battery, there are many chemistries all grouped under a common name of Li-ion.
You can “trickle” charge any Li-ion pack, but the charge should be terminated once the pack is full or bad things can occur.
However you can float a li-ion battery as long as float voltage is below the fully charged voltage, but why would you want to do that?
If for some reason you had to leave the car in storage for a longtime unplugged, wouldn’t you want to disconnect the 12V battery, that should preserve it and way more importantly the large traction battery?
You can “trickle” charge any Li-ion pack, but the charge should be terminated once the pack is full or bad things can occur.
However you can float a li-ion battery as long as float voltage is below the fully charged voltage, but why would you want to do that?
If for some reason you had to leave the car in storage for a longtime unplugged, wouldn’t you want to disconnect the 12V battery, that should preserve it and way more importantly the large traction battery?
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