2015 P90D Model S Dying Unable To Drive Out of Power With 4% (8 miles) Charge Remaining

[sabresd]

I’ve been the proud owner of a 2015 Model S P90D for over 7 years. In that time I’ve put on 270,000 miles. It’s been reliable for the most part outside of a drive unit failure, two mcu failures, and 5-6 door handle failures. But now the battery has been giving me problems.

My max range at 100% is a little over 200 miles but now the car dies when the car still reads 8-10 miles of range left. And this number seems to keep going up.

I recently was left stranded five feet from a supercharger and needed 3 tows first to the super charger 5 ft away, then to a parking spot so a flatbed could drag it up, and finally to a service center (the 12v battery died and it got stuck to the supercharger without charging).

This has been a real headache. The service center wanted to charge me $800 for replacing the 12v battery. Then they said that the pack has a CAC imbalance and that it’s not covered by my warranty. My warranty has one year remaining (8 years unlimited miles).

I use my car extensively for a living. The car dying with 8-10 miles of range remaining is unacceptable. This number keeps getting worse and soon it will be dying with 20 miles and 10% charge remaining. Imagine if a plane or helicopters gauges were this innacurate and it told you that you were at 100 feet but instead you were at 50 feet and flew into a mountain in fog.

I looked over my warranty and nowhere does it mention that a CAC imbalance is not covered. As a matter of fact it says that any malfunction is covered. One of the reasons I spent over 120k on this vehicle was because I drive a lot and that 8 year unlimited mile warranty was very appealing to me.

Now I feel like Tesla is trying to avoid honoring the warranty on a battery pack that’s getting worse and worse, because they know the warranty is over in one year.

I’m scheduled to pick up my car today from the service center and I do not even want to pay the 800 for the 12v battery because my vehicle indicated to me it had range and then died right in front of a super charger with no way to put it in neutral and push.

I’d like to hear some input from people on this forum. I’m expecting a lot of biased Tesla fanboys to insist that it’s ok for a vehicle to die with 10+ miles of range remaining, but I will read and take into consideration all reasonable suggestions. Thank you!

 

[jjrandorin]

I’d like to hear some input from people on this forum. I’m expecting a lot of biased Tesla fanboys to insist that it’s ok for a vehicle to die with 10+ miles of range remaining, but I will read and take into consideration all reasonable suggestions.

This is sort of like the equivalent of walking into a room, introducing yourself, then attempting to tell a joke that you are aware is going to insult some people there, so I am not sure why you put this in there (even if you were thinking it).

In any case, there is a 3 page long thread someone else created on a similar situation, that might be of interest to you from a discussion standpoint. You can find it here:

HV Battery Died with 7 miles range left showing on Range display

I've had 2 instances recently where the car died (forced to a stop) even though the battery showed a few miles of range left (7 miles and 4 miles). 2022 Model Y Performance, 38,000 miles. Current max range: 279mi, 6.4% degradation. Purchased new March 2022. Battery is usually set to charge to...

teslamotorsclub.com

 

[swt2c]

$800 for a 12v battery doesn't sound right. Shouldn't be more than 200.

 

[sabresd]

This is sort of like the equivalent of walking into a room, introducing yourself, then attempting to tell a joke that you are aware is going to insult some people there, so I am not sure why you put this in there (even if you were thinking it).

In any case, there is a 3 page long thread someone else created on a similar situation, that might be of interest to you from a discussion standpoint. You can find it here:

HV Battery Died with 7 miles range left showing on Range display

I've had 2 instances recently where the car died (forced to a stop) even though the battery showed a few miles of range left (7 miles and 4 miles). 2022 Model Y Performance, 38,000 miles. Current max range: 279mi, 6.4% degradation. Purchased new March 2022. Battery is usually set to charge to...

teslamotorsclub.com

Yes thank you. I wrote that because I read the thread you linked and saw several people justifying the vehicle running out of range instead of providing valuable input to the poster

 

[sabresd]

$800 for a 12v battery doesn't sound right. Shouldn't be more than 200.

It was mostly for labor because I have an after market front bumper (so it looks like newer model s instead of with nose cone)

 

[ucmndd]

Sounds like you’re looking for confirmation that Tesla is wrong and owes you a new battery. That can be debated until the cows come home, but Tesla’s battery warranty covers FAILURE of the battery and that’s it.

Debating here whether your experience counts as battery failure or not is really inconsequential. What I can say is I don’t recall any cases on this forum of someone successfully arguing to Tesla that the symptoms you describe are a warrantable battery failure.

So your choices are:

1) Take the answer you’ve been given
2) Take Tesla to arbitration and try your luck there
3) Take Tesla to court and argue your case there

There isn’t really any other secret sauce.

 

[sabresd]

Sounds like you’re looking for confirmation that Tesla is wrong and owes you a new battery. That can be debated until the cows come home, but Tesla’s battery warranty covers FAILURE of the battery and that’s it.

Debating here whether your experience counts as battery failure or not is really inconsequential. What I can say is I don’t recall any cases on this forum of someone successfully arguing to Tesla that the symptoms you describe are a warrantable battery failure.

So your choices are:

1) Take the answer you’ve been given
2) Take Tesla to arbitration and try your luck there
3) Take Tesla to court and argue your case there

There isn’t really any other secret sauce.

Good post, I agree with most of what you wrote. They dropped my charges from 800 down to 450 for the 12v battery plus labor. Perhaps I will take my car back and just hope the battery completely fails before my warranty expires in 12 months.

 

[Denpok]

I’ve been the proud owner of a 2015 Model S P90D for over 7 years. In that time I’ve put on 270,000 miles. It’s been reliable for the most part outside of a drive unit failure, two mcu failures, and 5-6 door handle failures. But now the battery has been giving me problems.

My max range at 100% is a little over 200 miles but now the car dies when the car still reads 8-10 miles of range left. And this number seems to keep going up.

I recently was left stranded five feet from a supercharger and needed 3 tows first to the super charger 5 ft away, then to a parking spot so a flatbed could drag it up, and finally to a service center (the 12v battery died and it got stuck to the supercharger without charging).

This has been a real headache. The service center wanted to charge me $800 for replacing the 12v battery. Then they said that the pack has a CAC imbalance and that it’s not covered by my warranty. My warranty has one year remaining (8 years unlimited miles).

I use my car extensively for a living. The car dying with 8-10 miles of range remaining is unacceptable. This number keeps getting worse and soon it will be dying with 20 miles and 10% charge remaining. Imagine if a plane or helicopters gauges were this innacurate and it told you that you were at 100 feet but instead you were at 50 feet and flew into a mountain in fog.

I looked over my warranty and nowhere does it mention that a CAC imbalance is not covered. As a matter of fact it says that any malfunction is covered. One of the reasons I spent over 120k on this vehicle was because I drive a lot and that 8 year unlimited mile warranty was very appealing to me.

Now I feel like Tesla is trying to avoid honoring the warranty on a battery pack that’s getting worse and worse, because they know the warranty is over in one year.

I’m scheduled to pick up my car today from the service center and I do not even want to pay the 800 for the 12v battery because my vehicle indicated to me it had range and then died right in front of a super charger with no way to put it in neutral and push.

I’d like to hear some input from people on this forum. I’m expecting a lot of biased Tesla fanboys to insist that it’s ok for a vehicle to die with 10+ miles of range remaining, but I will read and take into consideration all reasonable suggestions. Thank you!

I'm not an expert but would like to share with you my experience. I had the same issue with my Tesla. It all started like this, the imbalance was causing the battery to die on me with 10 miles left on the dash, it was getting worse and in three months I got the BMS029 error. Tesla probably won't do anything until you see an actual error and the range limited to double digits. Just an FYI, this error seems to be very often triggered right after the software update or factory reset, due to the BMS doing a full/deep check on the battery components.

 

[cleverscreenam]

For future reference, you can jump-start your Tesla 12v battery with any other car or jump-pack. Then your screen will boot up and you can enable tow mode to release the parking brake and push the car. A jump-pack purchase is cheaper than just 1 tow.

Might I suggest you switch your range display from miles to battery percent? Seeing the battery at 1% or 2% should motivate you to take drastic action much sooner than seeing 8-10 miles remaining.

 

[David_Cary]

You know this is a pretty common battery issue of all types. My 4.5 year old Samsung phone will die with 30% remaining.
Pretty standard stuff that as batteries age, the SOC becomes harder to estimate.

You have a year left so you will likely get a total failure. I am not sure why you come in with a bit of an attitude. Tesla sucks and lots of us regret our purchase. But that doesn't mean they want to replace batteries under warranty - nor would any manufacturer.

I had to file a complaint with my state's AG to get Honda to replace my battery on my 2008 Civic Hybrid (in 2011 under warranty). It would recalibrate every 15 minutes while driving which meant low power and no regen. Honda said it was within specs. I think I also filed with the NTSB because the sudden loss of acceleration was a safety issue. Took 3-4 months to get Honda to do the right thing and that was for probably a $2k battery. My next step was court but it takes just a few minutes to file online with the AG.

So this issue predates Tesla by a few years ... and has been known to this poster for 12 years.
I have a 2015 70D with 110k miles. I don't let it go below 10 miles but I did when the car was newer. This is just common sense. And yes, your number should now be 20 miles. It doesn't seem like anyone has had an issue above 20 miles even with old batteries.

 

[vcor]

Battery temperatures make a huge difference at low SOC. If the battery is hot and remains hot (i.e. 100F outside temperatures), you're likely to keep that low SOC range. Let the battery cool (15 minutes is all it takes) in colder weather and those last 20 to 30 miles of range will disappear. This is normal and expected behavior from Lithium-Ion batteries, even if new. They don't have as much energy when cold. If you could heat them back up, the range would reappear.

That's exactly what is done at higher SOC. Let's say you are at 50% SOC and you stop and the battery gets cold. Tesla can use the battery power to heat the battery and recover the range that would be lost due to cold temperatures. That doesn't work when the battery gets to 0% SOC and it has no power to heat itself up again and recover that last few miles of range.

 

[Electric700]

Sorry that happened. Can they correct the imbalance and reset the readout so zero is really zero and not some number above that? I was told that the packs automatically balance themselves when charging to 90%.

Some people have been able to go a little bit farther even with the display at zero. It would be great if they could do that for you too, but generally try to keep it between about 10% - 90% for better battery health.

 

[Lasttoy]

My experience. Driving south on 95. Car said 60 miles left on charge. Car dies at 80 mph. Get tow to supercharger. All day. Help desk couldn't figure it out. 6pm. Lady at help desk in Draper Utah says.
""" Your 12volt battery is dead"". "" Need a super jump"". WTF is that?? She says 14+ volts. I'm 75, never heard that. I called wreaker. He came ,hooked up his cables, reved motor. 15 minutes later Tesla came alive. He stayed connected for 30 minutes. Battery said 14 volts with meter. I plug in supercharger cable, filled up car came home to Florida. Bought new 12 v battery, $180. Installed it myself. No one at SC had a clue what happened.
My son has 2021 S, he's run it 25 miles past red. And he's run out once. He pushes it.

 

[SBK2013]

I’ve been the proud owner of a 2015 Model S P90D for over 7 years. In that time I’ve put on 270,000 miles. It’s been reliable for the most part outside of a drive unit failure, two mcu failures, and 5-6 door handle failures. But now the battery has been giving me problems.

My max range at 100% is a little over 200 miles but now the car dies when the car still reads 8-10 miles of range left. And this number seems to keep going up.

I recently was left stranded five feet from a supercharger and needed 3 tows first to the super charger 5 ft away, then to a parking spot so a flatbed could drag it up, and finally to a service center (the 12v battery died and it got stuck to the supercharger without charging).

This has been a real headache. The service center wanted to charge me $800 for replacing the 12v battery. Then they said that the pack has a CAC imbalance and that it’s not covered by my warranty. My warranty has one year remaining (8 years unlimited miles).

I use my car extensively for a living. The car dying with 8-10 miles of range remaining is unacceptable. This number keeps getting worse and soon it will be dying with 20 miles and 10% charge remaining. Imagine if a plane or helicopters gauges were this innacurate and it told you that you were at 100 feet but instead you were at 50 feet and flew into a mountain in fog.

I looked over my warranty and nowhere does it mention that a CAC imbalance is not covered. As a matter of fact it says that any malfunction is covered. One of the reasons I spent over 120k on this vehicle was because I drive a lot and that 8 year unlimited mile warranty was very appealing to me.

Now I feel like Tesla is trying to avoid honoring the warranty on a battery pack that’s getting worse and worse, because they know the warranty is over in one year.

I’m scheduled to pick up my car today from the service center and I do not even want to pay the 800 for the 12v battery because my vehicle indicated to me it had range and then died right in front of a super charger with no way to put it in neutral and push.

I’d like to hear some input from people on this forum. I’m expecting a lot of biased Tesla fanboys to insist that it’s ok for a vehicle to die with 10+ miles of range remaining, but I will read and take into consideration all reasonable suggestions. Thank you!

I’ve been the proud owner of a 2015 Model S P90D for over 7 years. In that time I’ve put on 270,000 miles. It’s been reliable for the most part outside of a drive unit failure, two mcu failures, and 5-6 door handle failures. But now the battery has been giving me problems.

My max range at 100% is a little over 200 miles but now the car dies when the car still reads 8-10 miles of range left. And this number seems to keep going up.

I recently was left stranded five feet from a supercharger and needed 3 tows first to the super charger 5 ft away, then to a parking spot so a flatbed could drag it up, and finally to a service center (the 12v battery died and it got stuck to the supercharger without charging).

This has been a real headache. The service center wanted to charge me $800 for replacing the 12v battery. Then they said that the pack has a CAC imbalance and that it’s not covered by my warranty. My warranty has one year remaining (8 years unlimited miles).

I use my car extensively for a living. The car dying with 8-10 miles of range remaining is unacceptable. This number keeps getting worse and soon it will be dying with 20 miles and 10% charge remaining. Imagine if a plane or helicopters gauges were this innacurate and it told you that you were at 100 feet but instead you were at 50 feet and flew into a mountain in fog.

I looked over my warranty and nowhere does it mention that a CAC imbalance is not covered. As a matter of fact it says that any malfunction is covered. One of the reasons I spent over 120k on this vehicle was because I drive a lot and that 8 year unlimited mile warranty was very appealing to me.

Now I feel like Tesla is trying to avoid honoring the warranty on a battery pack that’s getting worse and worse, because they know the warranty is over in one year.

I’m scheduled to pick up my car today from the service center and I do not even want to pay the 800 for the 12v battery because my vehicle indicated to me it had range and then died right in front of a super charger with no way to put it in neutral and push.

I’d like to hear some input from people on this forum. I’m expecting a lot of biased Tesla fanboys to insist that it’s ok for a vehicle to die with 10+ miles of range remaining, but I will read and take into consideration all reasonable suggestions. Thank you!

I just had a similar experience. I have a 2013 Model S 60, just hit 170k miles. I'm the original owner so I'm used to managing the range. But, this week, I was navigating to a supercharger (only 30 miles away with 60 miles on the car- but up some slope), and my nav system said I would make it with 2% left, my dashboard said I still had 5 miles on my battery, and the car just stopped .5 miles from the supercharger. I've never had that happen before. Is this more common than I'm aware of? My previous experience, the nav system and milage readout are usually pretty accurate or err on the conservative side. Curious to other experiences like this? Is this a new occurance with more recent software?