12v battery must be replaced soon

[Avid]

sorry... but that 400A peak unit is the lowest quality.... get a NOCO GB40 with 1000A and more energy for $99 instead

I have already used it recently when the OEM 12v battery for my Prius v finally died. It worked just fine, I can't ask for it to do much better than to get me home. Considering the 12v requirement for the Tesla, this unit should be sufficient.

If you have a diesel pickup, yes the NOCO would be what I would get.

 

[Silent Ludicrosy]

I replaced my battery with this one from autozone. $80 ($98 with core charge).

Size comparison

Original battery had some swelling from the Phoenix heat.

 

[smatthew]

I replaced my battery with this one from autozone. $80 ($98 with core charge).
View attachment 578515
Size comparison
View attachment 578512 View attachment 578513
Original battery had some swelling from the Phoenix heat.
View attachment 578514

Glad you were able to find a battery locally to get you back on the road!

Size wise, it's a perfect fit. But it's a starting battery, not a deep cycle. I'd recommend dropping by the Tesla Service Center if you have one near you, and ask them to exchange your swollen lumpy battery for one in better health. They should do that for free. Feel free to hold onto the replacement until the Econocraft battery dies, but the Econocraft battery does only have a 3 month warranty.....

 

[Silent Ludicrosy]

Glad you were able to find a battery locally to get you back on the road!

Size wise, it's a perfect fit. But it's a starting battery, not a deep cycle. I'd recommend dropping by the Tesla Service Center if you have one near you, and ask them to exchange your swollen lumpy battery for one in better health. They should do that for free. Feel free to hold onto the replacement until the Econocraft battery dies, but the Econocraft battery does only have a 3 month warranty.....

Yeah, I’m gonna have mobile service swap in a new battery but the earliest appointment was 3 weeks away. It was worth it to spend $80 to have a drivable car for that long. I’ll probably just return the autozone battery for the core charge...

 

[austinmichaeld]

mine crapped out at 21 months leaving me stranded at my daughters preschool parking lot, im starting to see a theme here, good thing my wife had her trusty Jaguar i-pace to come rescue me when the car got towed. whah whah!

 

[toolman335]

mine crapped out at 21 months leaving me stranded at my daughters preschool parking lot, im starting to see a theme here, good thing my wife had her trusty Jaguar i-pace to come rescue me when the car got towed. whah whah!

Did yours die without any previous warnings? That's the part that concerns me. Many people seem to get signs that the end is near, while others get stranded out of nowhere!

 

[austinmichaeld]

Did yours die without any previous warnings? That's the part that concerns me. Many people seem to get signs that the end is near, while others get stranded out of nowhere!

For me, I got in the car at work to head home, the warning was on the screen to replace the 12v battery soon and there were a bunch of errors as well, on the way home I stopped to pick up my little one and when she went to get in the car, her window rolled down and wouldnt go back up and the car wouldnt move and the screen wouldnt turn on at all. After a minute or less all four windows rolled down super slow and I was dead in the water.

 

[SageBrush]

Is it safe/recommended to put a battery minder on the 12v of the Tesla ?
I'm unsure due to the car's independent operation while parked.

 

[Silent Ludicrosy]

Is it safe/recommended to put a battery minder on the 12v of the Tesla ?
I'm unsure due to the car's independent operation while parked.

I wouldnt do it. The main battery is supposed to act as a battery minder. By the time the 12v warning comes on, the battery is shot and a battery minder wont keep you from getting stranded anyway.

Seems like Tesla could fix the stranding issue easily, by not allowing the main battery to power down when the 12v is too low.

 

[SageBrush]

By the time the 12v warning comes on, the battery is shot and a battery minder wont keep you from getting stranded anyway.

If a trickle charger is safe to use in my Model 3, it would have two benefits

• No 'deep-ish' cycling of the 12v, leading to a longer life
• Less 'vampire' drain. I put vampire in quotes because it is actually a combination of energy use the car uses while in its sleep states, and the energy the car uses in its awake state while replenishing the 12v. The car awake is pulling ~ 200 - 300 watts in addition to the power sent to the 12v. That is remarkably inefficient**.

Older threads recommend a 4 Amp trickle charger to match 12v losses but those recommendations are for the Model S from a few years ago. I think the Model 3 these days pulls less about 5 watts from 12v in its deep sleep mode so a 1 Amp trickle charger should be more than enough.

** I vaguely remember the 12v is charged at ~ 4 Amps from the traction battery. So about 50 watts to the 12v, up to 300 watts to be awake. 15% charging efficiency of the 12v by the car. I'll have to verify my recollection of the charging Amps.

 

[iwannam3]

When you replace the battery do you have to do any resetting?

 

[SageBrush]

When you replace the battery do you have to do any resetting?

RTFM first.

https://34c9c8a1-7edd-4e5b-8d85-78f...a10dd8bd324d1bb3b0537bf065ea86.pdf?index=true

 

[toolman335]

For me, I got in the car at work to head home, the warning was on the screen to replace the 12v battery soon and there were a bunch of errors as well, on the way home I stopped to pick up my little one and when she went to get in the car, her window rolled down and wouldnt go back up and the car wouldnt move and the screen wouldnt turn on at all. After a minute or less all four windows rolled down super slow and I was dead in the water.

How many miles have you put on in the 21 months? Sorry to hear about this. That's crazy.

 

[Silent Ludicrosy]

How many miles have you put on in the 21 months? Sorry to hear about this. That's crazy.

I don’t think miles have anything to do with it. Mine failed at 23 months and 12000 miles. I suspect long periods of sitting idle probably cause more problems from deep cycling. And heat.

 

[PNWLeccy]

I'm at 26 months/ 13k miles so I'm afraid this will happen any day now. It's concerning since I've been doing lots of camping trips in more remote spots each weekend and really don't want to be stranded.

Even those who actually received warnings, it sounds like the 12v failed pretty quickly afterwards so it's not like I could plan around it much. If we received a warning ~1 week before failure then you can plan accordingly/go to a Service center and have it replaced but this is really frustrating.

 

[talononeguy]

I got the message today, and mine's a 2020. 6,500 miles. Took delivery this past December.

 

[one2many]

It is a basic design flaw. Full HV battery and car is dead ??

 

[golfcart]

I had the "12v battery must be replaced soon" message when I went to pick up my kid from school last month. I spoke with the service manager, grabbed the kid, made sure I could get roadside assistance if needed, and drove to the service center to get it checked immediately. The service center swapped the 12V battery out for me and made sure the car was fine before they sent me on my way. I think I sat around for maybe 15 minutes before they were done. All and all it was a pretty painless process but I am lucky to have a really good service center manager that was willing to squeeze me in due to the urgency of the issue.

Car is a September 2018 delivery and this occurred in July 2020 so the battery lasted 22 months and 34000 miles. I have typically always gotten 5+ years out of a battery in my ICE cars so it was a bit of a shock to have the battery go bad that quickly. The vehicle is used almost daily (though for very short trips since COVID has made me a full-time teleworker) so I doubt it was for lack of use.

 

[talononeguy]

I got the message today, and mine's a 2020. 6,500 miles. Took delivery this past December.

After reading golfcart's message, I drove up to the Pensacola SC. Floyd said he had a pallet full of batteries. From the time I pulled up to the time I left was 25 minutes. Sure beats the appointment I had for September 15th! Great service here.

 

[wtwieder]

I purchased my RWD LR TM3 in August 2018. I have only 11,900 miles on it.
I have had no warnings yet, but stopped by my SC and asked if they could check my battery. Remotely, the SC told me my battery was showing 14.5 volts. He thought I should be good for quite a while. However, some people are experiencing sudden battery failure with no warning. When this happens, are these batteries that have a sudden catastrophic cell failure, rather than gradual degradation? If so, my service center's reassurance gives me little comfort.