2021 Model 3 Heater blowing cold air

[aardsoft]

Took delivery of my Model 3 on Christmas eve. Minimal mileage since then. Drivers side camera is not working - Service appointment for 14th Jan, Car / phone recognition works erratically which is annoying. Card is needed to unlock the car when returning from shopping. Shouldn't it recognize my phone? Today after about 30 mins on motorway with outside temp -1c the heater stopped blowing warm air. It only blows cold.

Not impressed!

 

[arghx7]

The heat pump equipped cars appear to be having problems with the heat. You're not the first to report that.

 

[JCtx]

Sorry to hear that. On the heat, I read that others having the same issue reported the heater working fine in manual mode. I never use auto mode in my vehicles, so maybe that's why we haven't had any issues... yet. Ha ha. We're going on a long trip next week, and it'll be cold most of the way, since we're leaving early, so a little worried about that issue, but hope all goes well. I'd settle for not getting stranded . Please keep us posted what fixes your heat issue. Good luck.

By the way, my wife has been using 'cabin pre-conditioning', and so far, even when car is not connected, it has worked fine. We only use it for 5 minutes tops, and that brings plenty of regen power, and leaves the cabin nice and warm for my wife.

 

[Gasaraki]

Yeah, you should just return the car.

 

[xtremcarl]

I have had my 2021 model 3 for a few weeks and one day the heat wasn't working. It was about 40F out and not much warmer in the car and it was blowing cold air. I tried switching the hvac on and off and that didn't help. I then turned the heat up to max and heard a sound that I believe was the the heat pump kick on and then started getting hot air pretty quickly. I then turned it back down to my target temp and back to auto and the hot air kept coming out. Only time I have had this issue so haven't been able to test if it works at other points but maybe a sensor issue or something and kicking the heat up high enough fixes it??

 

[stopcrazypp]

I read about this issue also in the 2021 heat pump Model 3s (similar issues have been reported on the Model Y already). I only tested the heat briefly when I picked up the car. Maybe I should do a more thorough test of the heat when I have a chance.

Took delivery of my Model 3 on Christmas eve. Minimal mileage since then. Drivers side camera is not working - Service appointment for 14th Jan, Car / phone recognition works erratically which is annoying. Card is needed to unlock the car when returning from shopping. Shouldn't it recognize my phone?

On the phone app, it has been working solidly for me. What kind of phone and OS have you been using? From previous reading, the issue when it is not recognized is usually the phone has the app or the bluetooth sleeping due to some settings (sometimes battery saving settings).

Personally, I always have my bluetooth off on my phone (to save battery) and only enable it when I get back to the car, so any battery saving/sleep issues do not affect me, given my phone and bluetooth is guaranteed to be fully active as I approach it.

 

[Cleo-n-Company]

Good grief - didn't most car manufacturers conquer the basics of HVAC in the 1960s ?

All - I hope you'll get your heating issues addressed pronto. My family member has a heating pump in her Leaf. I was pretty impressed because it could pump out hot air within 30 seconds or so - much faster than in my Model S.

 

[Cybr.Myk]

Good grief - didn't most car manufacturers conquer the basics of HVAC in the 1960s ?

I’m not an engineer but from what I understand the octovalve is far from basic.

I’m in SK and it hasn’t been cold since I’ve gotten my M3. I think -20 C is the coldest it’s been. So far, knock on wood, my heat pump has been good to go.

I also heard about side cameras not working on some cars. Unfortunately, it seems like maybe you got one with all of the reported issues.

 

[JCtx]

The heat takes a little time to kick in, but nothing too drastic. We try to keep it off once cabin temperature is nice. When pre-conditioning the cabin, it works fine. Hope it stays that way .

 

[Marius A]

There are 2 issues with the heat pump right now.
1) it draws too much heat from the battery and motor in cold climates
2) the high pressure sensors fail frequently. Tesla SC in Norway expect new types/brands of sensors the next few months, meanwhile they're replacing with similar ones. Meaning you could get the same issue several times.

Number 2 is the issue in question here. Owners have reported this happening after driving over 1000 miles, so it's not something you can confirm at delivery (unless already broken)

 

[LeffeP]

Mine lasted 500 miles before breakdown yesterday. Just crap if they cant provide parts that are fixed...

 

[Bulletproofas]

My 2021 LR AWD with 2000 km's failed yesterday in -5 degree weather her in Ontario. Tesla service diagnosed problem as hardware related and I'm in a loaner for "at least a week" while parts are shipped to dealer in Oakville.

 

[leonar40]

i was really excited about the heat pump. All these posts are making me glad i went with a used model instead with the regular heat.

 

[Marius A]

This is not uncommon in any business. Some parts provider delivers a component which cannot live up to it's requirement, and the product suffers for it.
HP had a whole line of laptops with bezels that couldn't live up to the specifications. They had to provide a 3 year extended warranty for all laptops built over almost 2 years.

 

[MarsOrBust]

My understanding is it is not the heat pump. It is a batch of sensors that are bad, 15 min to replace and it should be good to go till it fails again. Once they get a better sensor the problem should go away. This should be a recall item once they get the good sensors but I suspect it will not be. It's only those in colder weather areas with issues not all so they are to getting massive complaints about this yet.

 

[Marius A]

My understanding is it is not the heat pump. It is a batch of sensors that are bad, 15 min to replace and it should be good to go till it fails again. Once they get a better sensor the problem should go away. This should be a recall item once they get the good sensors but I suspect it will not be. It's only those in colder weather areas with issues not all so they are to getting massive complaints about this yet.

There are 2 issues with the heat pump right now.
1) it draws too much heat from the battery and motor in cold climates
2) the high pressure sensors fail frequently. Tesla SC in Norway expect new types/brands of sensors the next few months, meanwhile they're replacing with similar ones. Meaning you could get the same issue several times.

Number 2 is the issue in question here. Owners have reported this happening after driving over 1000 miles, so it's not something you can confirm at delivery (unless already broken)

 

[JCtx]

Oh man. We're going on a long trip next week; hopefully it won't crap out on us. So where exactly that 'high pressure sensor' goes? But glad to hear is not the heat-pump itself, but just a sensor. And does it fail after prolonged use, or when it very cold? Hopefully the latter, but what exactly means 'very cold'? It rarely freezes where I live, but we drive often in the 40s, which obviously requires using heat. I typically have the temp at 72, and use fan in #1 most of the time. I avoid using the seat heaters, since I think they use a lot of energy (right?). I haven't heard of wide-spread issues with the heat pump, so hopefully isolated incidents. Or where temps are waaaay colder than where I live .

 

[run-the-joules]

but we drive often in the 40s, which obviously requires using heat. I typically have the temp at 72, and use fan in #1 most of the time. I avoid using the seat heaters, since I think they use a lot of energy (right?).l

You're doing it wrong.

you're better off putting a lower air temp, and using seat heaters. Also having fan on 1 means the car isn't moving much air around the cabin, which means it has to run the heater more to maintain that temp.

 

[Marius A]

Oh man. We're going on a long trip next week; hopefully it won't crap out on us. So where exactly that 'high pressure sensor' goes? But glad to hear is not the heat-pump itself, but just a sensor. And does it fail after prolonged use, or when it very cold? Hopefully the latter, but what exactly means 'very cold'? It rarely freezes where I live, but we drive often in the 40s, which obviously requires using heat. I typically have the temp at 72, and use fan in #1 most of the time. I avoid using the seat heaters, since I think they use a lot of energy (right?). I haven't heard of wide-spread issues with the heat pump, so hopefully isolated incidents. Or where temps are waaaay colder than where I live .

You should check out Bjørn Nyland's video where he does a lot of range testing in -16C
Gives you a lot of good info on energy use for heating, also using seat heater

 

[Cleo-n-Company]

Oh man. We're going on a long trip next week; hopefully it won't crap out on us. So where exactly that 'high pressure sensor' goes? But glad to hear is not the heat-pump itself, but just a sensor. And does it fail after prolonged use, or when it very cold? Hopefully the latter, but what exactly means 'very cold'? It rarely freezes where I live, but we drive often in the 40s, which obviously requires using heat. I typically have the temp at 72, and use fan in #1 most of the time. I avoid using the seat heaters, since I think they use a lot of energy (right?). I haven't heard of wide-spread issues with the heat pump, so hopefully isolated incidents. Or where temps are waaaay colder than where I live .

Don't live like a monk in an attempt to squeeze out an extra mile or two or range. If your cabin is cold enough to chill Vodka, we have a problem.