18 Months: I must be doing something wrong

[CharleyBC]

Handling and tire wear are other factors to consider. Also my car was built the month they started the tent production line so I had my concerns.
View attachment 500529

And my wear has been very uniform side-to-side on each tire. (Rears wear faster, but that's to be expected, and why I just rotated this morning.)

 

[Atari2600]

And my wear has been very uniform side-to-side on each tire. (Rears wear faster, but that's to be expected, and why I just rotated this morning.)

I have winter and summer performance tires so I rotate twice a year. Did not see any indication I should do anything. I pretty much just wanted to check it.

 

[rawrguthlaf]

A year and a half ago today, Wattney, our Model 3, came into our lives. Today she is just a few miles short of 30,000. And nothing has gone wrong. The car has never been in for any warranty service. Okay, I lie a little. One time an OTA update got stuck, and they unstuck it for me remotely. But that's it.

I see all the stories of people taking their Model 3s in for this or that warranty repair. And we all get to read the stories of how delighted or disappointed they are with Tesla service. I have no opinion on Tesla service since I have no experience. I feel left out.

What am I doing wrong? This car is too darn good.

This car is truly amazing as far as basic maintenance goes. And many Model 3 parts don't seem as badly priced as other luxury cars.

I would suggest bringing it in for some kind of service though (tire rotation?), as there are courtesy checks and service bulletins out that they proactively address regardless of the reason you are there. Recently when I was in, they swapped out charging pins with more sturdy ones as apparently they are prone to break. At a previous visit in July, they did something with the Frunk latch to prevent possibility of it freezing in place.

So depending on your specific manufacture date, there very well could be small things like this.

 

[crackers8199]

I haven't actually done 100% in ages. But when I bother to do the arithmetic from a lower SOC, it extrapolates to around 307-318.

yeah, i don't do 100% often but we just did a road trip this past weekend so i did. i was shocked to only see 294 at 100%.

i guess i might have to call support and see if this is normal.

 

[APotatoGod]

Similar experience to many of you here, I've been to the (on my way to work; very local) service center a few times just for minor issues (like the charger door magnet mentioned by @TheOtherPete), but never had any major issues or service center headaches.

Getting new tires soon, 25,000 miles and 1.5 years in. I've actually never charged to 100%, never had a need to, as superchargers are plentiful.

 

[Vaillant]

When I picked up my AWD Model 3 (August ‘18) it had some paint issues (Red) that I noted and they said would get fixed. A couple of months later they took my car and had it for three weeks while it was resolved. In the meantime, I was rolling around in the 100D X loaner car they gave me, a car worth twice my 3.

Since then, I have almost been sad there aren’t any other problems because I want a Model S or X loaner again! The Model X felt futuristic, with the auto opening and closing front door, plus the Falcon wings.

Only non-paint issues I’ve had were a random audio problem and the rear camera black screen, but they’ve cleared themselves with software updates. Love this car!

 

[dmurphy]

yeah, i don't do 100% often but we just did a road trip this past weekend so i did. i was shocked to only see 294 at 100%.

i guess i might have to call support and see if this is normal.

Set your charging to 90% for a week or two and it should square itself away. The key is to do it for several days in a row - even up to a week.

 

[Glamisduner]

Sadly it's a lot less. Teslas are well known for their bad paint which is why I was so surprised he didn't have any chips at 29,999k.

Don't look at the paint by the rockers too closely

Mine had a ton of problems up front, which only created more and more problems... Factory scratches in paint and crooked panels lead to broken door clips over and over which lead to scratched windows etc.

Once all those kinks were worked out it's been ok though.

 

[crackers8199]

Set your charging to 90% for a week or two and it should square itself away. The key is to do it for several days in a row - even up to a week.

Why 90%? I have always done 80% because I don't drive that much...

 

[dmurphy]

Why 90%? I have always done 80% because I don't drive that much...

Here’s why ... in a nutshell, battery rebalancing only happens at above about 85%. Set it to 90% and forget it ... easy cheesy.

What's your daily charge rate and how many miles until you feel you need to recharge?

 

[derotam]

Here’s why ... in a nutshell, battery rebalancing only happens at above about 85%. Set it to 90% and forget it ... easy cheesy.

What's your daily charge rate and how many miles until you feel you need to recharge?

I think it is more correct to say BMS re-calibration can only be forced to happen by charging over 85-90%. Battery rebalancing happens in a much wider range.

 

[dmurphy]

I think it is more correct to say BMS re-calibration can only be forced to happen by charging over 85-90%. Battery rebalancing happens in a much wider range.

Sorta-kinda. The actual brick balancing happens when:
∆V is > 5mV
Minimum brick voltage is over 4.0V (that's about 85% state of charge)
Vehicle is in standby mode (pack contractors are open)

Otherwise... I don't believe brick balancing runs at lower voltages. At least I can't find anything that's not anecdotal that says it does.

 

[derotam]

Sorta-kinda. The actual brick balancing happens when:
∆V is > 5mV
Minimum brick voltage is over 4.0V (that's about 85% state of charge)
Vehicle is in standby mode (pack contractors are open)

Otherwise... I don't believe brick balancing runs at lower voltages. At least I can't find anything that's not anecdotal that says it does.

I use my car between 30-70% charge levels and my cell imbalance as reported by the CANbus data this morning was 6mv. It is consistently around this value every time I see it.

 

[dmurphy]

I use my car between 30-70% charge levels and my cell imbalance as reported by the CANbus data this morning was 6mv. It is consistently around this value every time I see it.

I love the instrumentation you've got!

That's exactly what I'd expect. If you charged to 90% for a few days or so, you should see that drop. One day isn't enough - probably an entire week.

\When in the state I mentioned above (over 5mV imbalance, > 85% SOC, vehicle in standby) - the battery controller will shunt a resistor across the highest brick in the pack. That bleed resistor should reduce the imbalance by about 1mV every 24 hours or so.

You should see that "live" over a few days if you set your charging to 90% ... If you choose to do that, would you mind reporting back?

 

[SageBrush]

I love the instrumentation you've got!

That's exactly what I'd expect. If you charged to 90% for a few days or so, you should see that drop. One day isn't enough - probably an entire week.

\When in the state I mentioned above (over 5mV imbalance, > 85% SOC, vehicle in standby) - the battery controller will shunt a resistor across the highest brick in the pack. That bleed resistor should reduce the imbalance by about 1mV every 24 hours or so.

You should see that "live" over a few days if you set your charging to 90% ... If you choose to do that, would you mind reporting back?

IIRC Bjorn Nyland tried this balancing act and found no difference in reported range.
It also I think makes sense since a ~ 4.2 mv max cell deltaV is at most a 0.1% difference (and likely much, much less) in pack capacity, so about 0.3 miles

 

[derotam]

I love the instrumentation you've got!

That's exactly what I'd expect. If you charged to 90% for a few days or so, you should see that drop. One day isn't enough - probably an entire week.

\When in the state I mentioned above (over 5mV imbalance, > 85% SOC, vehicle in standby) - the battery controller will shunt a resistor across the highest brick in the pack. That bleed resistor should reduce the imbalance by about 1mV every 24 hours or so.

You should see that "live" over a few days if you set your charging to 90% ... If you choose to do that, would you mind reporting back?

I could try it just for the curiosity, haha...I'll try and remember and start next Monday...wait, Tuesday. I'll set the charge limit to like 91% and my low every day should be about 60-65%

 

[dmurphy]

IIRC Bjorn Nyland tried this balancing act and found no difference in reported range.
It also I think makes sense since a ~ 4.2 mv max cell deltaV is at most a 0.1% difference (and likely much, much less) in pack capacity, so about 0.3 miles

There’s 4 modules, 2x23 bricks and 2x25 bricks. So 96 bricks total in an LR battery. So once you get the “top” brick down, it can balance the next one in each module, so on and so forth. So the ∆v is from the highest brick to the next-highest in that brick. So you may have to balance multiple times, in multiple modules.

Remember, range calculations are based on the capacity of the *lowest* brick in the entire pack. So by the time you get all bricks in all modules balanced, it could be a multi-mile difference, easily.

 

[SageBrush]

There’s 4 modules, 2x23 bricks and 2x25 bricks. So 96 bricks total in an LR battery. So once you get the “top” brick down, it can balance the next one in each module, so on and so forth. So the ∆v is from the highest brick to the next-highest in that brick. So you may have to balance multiple times, in multiple modules.

Remember, range calculations are based on the capacity of the *lowest* brick in the entire pack. So by the time you get all bricks in all modules balanced, it could be a multi-mile difference, easily.

So far as I know, charging stops when any cell reaches a pre-determined maximum (~ 4.2v).
Cells that are less than 4.2v are then 'incompletely' charged, and our task is to estimate how many Ahr we did not put into the battery.

How many additional Ahr would a cell take up from 4194 to 4200 mv ?
I wrote above ~ 0.1% but this is incorrect because delta V and delta Ahr are not linear, or even proportional.

I don't have a chart handy so I do not have a number. Anybody ?

 

[Joshan]

A year and a half ago today, Wattney, our Model 3, came into our lives. Today she is just a few miles short of 30,000. And nothing has gone wrong. The car has never been in for any warranty service. Okay, I lie a little. One time an OTA update got stuck, and they unstuck it for me remotely. But that's it.

I see all the stories of people taking their Model 3s in for this or that warranty repair. And we all get to read the stories of how delighted or disappointed they are with Tesla service. I have no opinion on Tesla service since I have no experience. I feel left out.

What am I doing wrong? This car is too darn good.

Gotta love the 2 thumbs down for just saying you have had no issues with your car. I guess you would get a 2 thumbs up if you stated you had been in the shop 5 times? /boggle...

 

[dmurphy]

So far as I know, charging stops when any cell reaches a pre-determined maximum (~ 4.2v).
Cells that are less than 4.2v are then 'incompletely' charged, and our task is to estimate how many Ahr we did not put into the battery.

How many additional Ahr would a cell take up from 4194 to 4200 mv ?
I wrote above ~ 0.1% but this is incorrect because delta V and delta Ahr are not linear, or even proportional.

I don't have a chart handy so I do not have a number. Anybody ?

Spot on, and unfortunately I don't have a chart either. That would have to come from inside TSLA since - as you said - it's not really linear.

But I'd suffice it to say that the closer to in-balance we can get, the better for all situations ...