2015 P90DL Fan Behaviour (Please Save my Sanity)

[David.85D]

David.85D:
But you can charge them to that and beyond.
My Car is silent right now. Battery is at around 87% Charge and still charging.

I know. I can charge mine to 100% but try not to.

I don’t know enough of the chemistry to understand the problem. We (owners) are just guessing what Tesla knows and what they are measuring and looking out for. If nothing is mechanically wrong with your car, then the battery is self heating enough to trigger the maximum cooling protection.

I really hope that your car just has a mechanical issue and will be fixed, because The alternative really sucks - I really hate to think that Tesla knows these batteries are all on the verge of thermal run away and derated them and programmed this crazy cooling *sugar* to avoid warranty claims. But my expectations for what Tesla will or won’t do are quite low these days.

 

[Merle]

25C is ... multiply by two and add 32, about 82F for those Americans.

A warm but not hot day.

* When charging, the fans can indeed kick on to help keep the battery cool. Encounter this plenty often when going from Las Vegas to Death Valley USA (AFB near that town of Beatty, and then up to the depot further north) when it's triple digits. You WILL hear the fans on ... When it is charging.

* When you have the cabin overheat protection on. Again, I hit triple digit temperatures (100F is subtract 32 and divide by half so 34C) periodically and do have the fans kick on when it is hot.

Okay, for your problem - No, never do the fans kick on when it's that temperature and I'm not charging.

* You're not excessively hot
* There doesn't seem to be a justifiable reason for the fans in the vehicle (climate) or on the battery cooling system to blast
* You're not using a supercharger but parked at home
* Do you have the HP dual charger cranking in 80A? You mentioned that dropping it down helps, but here most of us are capped at 32A/40A ourselves depending on the mobile connector, vehicle or wall charger

I think your car has a problem.

PS. I keep mine in Ludicrous (not Ludicrous+ mode) on as standard as well. Charge is between 50% - 80% typically, but at least twice a week I'll take it to >80% for long drives and have one charger set to 32A while another at 40A, without fan noise.

 

[BCTS]

So Vehicle went in to Service to get the Fan Noise etc looked at.
All the Service Techs have indicated nothing wrong, expected behaviour etc etc.. Result on Changes to Firmware etc.

They've basically told me to charge the Vehicle to 80% Maximum and the Fans probably won't kick in.

 

[David.85D]

Stinks. Sorry. Fwiw, I had to be a little below 80% to avoid the pumps running. Not sure where the line is on the fans…

 

[sillydriver]

I've noticed my P85D doing the same thing when I leave it charged 80% or more. I wonder whether the fans are put on to cool the battery to avoid thermal runaway, or whether they are put on simply to waste power and run down the battery state of charge until it's brought below the level where the life of the battery will be reduced and the warranty would ultimately need to be invoked. I am pretty sure it's the later. The reason I say so is that the fans go on at high SOC even when the temperature in my garage is barely above freezing here in the northern winter. And when I get in the car as the fans are running and drive off (at which point the fans stop) the regen is almost completely disabled because the battery is so cold. Regen only returns when I have driven enough to warm up the battery. So much for Tesla's mission of sustainable energy.

 

[BCTS]

I've noticed my P85D doing the same thing when I leave it charged 80% or more. I wonder whether the fans are put on to cool the battery to avoid thermal runaway, or whether they are put on simply to waste power and run down the battery state of charge until it's brought below the level where the life of the battery will be reduced and the warranty would ultimately need to be invoked. I am pretty sure it's the later. The reason I say so is that the fans go on at high SOC even when the temperature in my garage is barely above freezing here in the northern winter. And when I get in the car as the fans are running and drive off (at which point the fans stop) the regen is almost completely disabled because the battery is so cold. Regen only returns when I have driven enough to warm up the battery. So much for Tesla's mission of sustainable energy.

I believe it's completely a method to reduce the active charge in the batteries. If it was a Thermal concern you'd expect the fans to run when the Vehicle is charging, but they never do, even when the charging is at 95% plus.
Thankfully at least I can stop the fans by having the car connected to charging, otherwise I was going to have to sell it because it was keeping the family up all night.

 

[aerodyne]

Reported in the " life since 2019" thread, but a short summary of a test I did...

Charged slowly, (Level 2, 28A @235V) and was able to get all the way to 79% before the cooling pumps came on 100%. This is only about 100w more than normal pumps running at 28-32%.

However, pumps would not shut off, nor would car sleep.

Ran the pack down with climate, and the pumps slowed down at 74.8%. unplugged and the car slept will all pumps off shortly thereafter.

Per a combination Elons old and new guidance, if you keep the 85 packs stored between 50-62%, and operate mainly between 20-80%, you will have the best chance of the pack lasting longest.

Because of the large lower buffer, If you really need the range, operate between 18% and 78%. Charge just before you leave to get the warmest pack and least internal resistance which increases range.

That's what I'm going to do when I travel again..

 

[BCTS]

Reported in the " life since 2019" thread, but a short summary of a test I did...

Charged slowly, (Level 2, 28A @235V) and was able to get all the way to 79% before the cooling pumps came on 100%. This is only about 100w more than normal pumps running at 28-32%.

However, pumps would not shut off, nor would car sleep.

Ran the pack down with climate, and the pumps slowed down at 74.8%. unplugged and the car slept will all pumps off shortly thereafter.

Per a combination Elons old and new guidance, if you keep the 85 packs stored between 50-62%, and operate mainly between 20-80%, you will have the best chance of the pack lasting longest.

Because of the large lower buffer, If you really need the range, operate between 18% and 78%. Charge just before you leave to get the warmest pack and least internal resistance which increases range.

That's what I'm going to do when I travel again..

Or my method will likely be charge to 100% because I need the range....bring it down to 10-15% and charge again... And do it over and over enough to bring my battery to below 70% life and get it replaced under warranty.

 

[BCTS]

Battery was at 85% tonight and started the fans again loudly whilst I was in bed.

Seems like the non charging limit is around 75%.

I'll be setting up the Decibel Meter tomorrow to get official noise level readings if I take it further.

It's just a frustrating catch 22... Tesla want me to exist at 75% charge to extend their battery life, but due to degradation I can't use the car with that little range. (I regularly drive 250km+ daily)

 

[domodan]

Battery was at 85% tonight and started the fans again loudly whilst I was in bed.

Seems like the non charging limit is around 75%.

I'll be setting up the Decibel Meter tomorrow to get official noise level readings if I take it further.

It's just a frustrating catch 22... Tesla want me to exist at 75% charge to extend their battery life, but due to degradation I can't use the car with that little range. (I regularly drive 250km+ daily)

I have a 2016 P90D, and have never experienced this. Maybe I’ve just not noticed? I usually charge to 70%, but sometimes will charge to 90% or even 100% if going on a trip.

I may do a test and see what my car does. If I want to test this you’re saying I should just charge to >80%, unplug the car and wait? That’s when this horrific noise that keeps your family awake occurs?

 

[jaitch]

I don't have an issue of fans running, that I have noticed anyway (spec in sig below). What I do have is the coolant pumps running for one minute every 5 minutes. I recently updated from 2020.20.1 (June 2020) to 2020.48.37.1. Sitting at 50% currently. Last charge was to 80% or so over a week ago. Haven't driven the car for weeks. Wifi connection seems to be permanently on as well. Disconnecting wifi in car does just that for approx 10 seconds then it reconnects. Turned off router and car is still running the pumps for exactly one minute every 5 minutes. I am wondering if this is related to the BMB fault diagnosis issue recently highlighted for the 85 and less packs. Clearly not as wk057 would have said maybe (assuming he knows everything of course!).

Makes no sense to me. I will go to Tesla and ask (waste of time) but wondering if anyone else in same position. Not a huge issue - is obviously consuming my electric at about 1 mile per day - but interested if this is some 90 V1 pack check that means something.

James

 

[cousin_IT]

I never heard the fans kick in on my P90DL but once when I was at a SC. They never kicked in when charging at home either. Perhaps the OP can start to collect some data such as manufacture date, battery pack type, MCU version and even some stats from ScanMyTesla from the people on this forum to better understand the condition and the cars it applies to.

 

[BCTS]

Link Below is the Video Link on what it sounds like from Outside. It's louder than when the Car is charging at a Supercharger.
It will do this for long periods if the Car is above 70% Charge and NOT currently charging.

As you can imagine it's a nightmare at night sleeping near it. Wakes up all the kids etc.

Youtube Video

 

[domodan]

Link Below is the Video Link on what it sounds like from Outside. It's louder than when the Car is charging at a Supercharger.
It will do this for long periods if the Car is above 70% Charge and NOT currently charging.

As you can imagine it's a nightmare at night sleeping near it. Wakes up all the kids etc.

Youtube Video

Whoa - that’s insane!

 

[BCTS]

Whoa - that’s insane!

domodan:
No.... It's completely Ludicrous

 

[dannycamps]

Wow the only time my car sounds like that is when it's at a supercharger.

 

[BCTS]

Wow the only time my car sounds like that is when it's at a supercharger.

I haven't used the supercharger much myself, however we have some 350KW DC Alternative Fast Chargers in Australia (Using CCS2) and yes.. that's the closest I get to this same level of sound. However it's probably still less than this from memory. Maybe 75% as loud.

 

[BCTS]

Some readings from my Cheap MT-901A Sound Level Meter at Home.
Ambient: 36dbA
Fan Noises: 74dbA

These were measured from the same distance on the Side of the Car where the Video above was taken.

74dbA on the Comparison Charts I see around the Web is comparable to a Vacuum Cleaner.

 

[cousin_IT]

Link Below is the Video Link on what it sounds like from Outside. It's louder than when the Car is charging at a Supercharger.
It will do this for long periods if the Car is above 70% Charge and NOT currently charging.

As you can imagine it's a nightmare at night sleeping near it. Wakes up all the kids etc.

Youtube Video

I can concur with the others here: Only had this experience once at a SC. Just my $ .02, if a fan kicks in at full speed there can be only 2 reasons:
1. The fan is broken and short-cirtcuits
2. It receives a signal to do so

It's probably #2, I would start with ScanMyTesla and capture the battery pack temperature and the fan speed. I would try correlate any of the signals on the CAN bus to the start and stop of the fan.

 

[46&2]

Does it occur while charging also?

Keep below 78%. If you need the full charge for your trip, charge just before leaving. Means: time the charging in a way, it reaches 98, 99... percent as you're about to go. Charging, it won't "waste" energy - it'll start to do so, once charging has finished.

This is NOT cool - but it's the way Tesla re-programmed our elder cars to 'work', as of 2021