A/C condenser failure (battery cooling)

[Sudre]

I did a search and didn't see anything come up on the forum. That seems to tell me that an A/C condenser failure isn't all that common. I am only posting this to see if anyone has noticed many posts about it because I haven't. Admittedly I don't follow the forum posts that much.

After having my car in for some minor body repair at a shop (paint repair only), I got the car back and the condenser is not working. Tesla service is fixing it right now. Condenser is out and the DC converter will need to be replaced.
I have Feb 2013 Model S60 so not under warranty.

NOTE... This is not in any way even a thought against Tesla at all. I have had almost no issues with the car and service in my area from what I can tell must be the best in the country. Even tho they have a 2 week backlog on service appointments they are squeezing me in for this repair. I expect things to break on cars over 60K miles and relatively speaking the fix is at an expected cost after Google searching repairs for a car in this class.

 

[GreenT]

so not under warranty.???

Why not? Did you not pay the (exorbitant) EW? If so the deductible is a mere $200.

 

[dpodoll]

I'd ask Tesla if there is any evidence that the car was jacked up off the floor improperly. Might be a body shop bill to pay

 

[SMAlset]

I did a search and didn't see anything come up on the forum. That seems to tell me that an A/C condenser failure isn't all that common. I am only posting this to see if anyone has noticed many posts about it because I haven't. Admittedly I don't follow the forum posts that much.

After having my car in for some minor body repair at a shop (paint repair only), I got the car back and the condenser is not working. Tesla service is fixing it right now. Condenser is out and the DC converter will need to be replaced.
I have Feb 2013 Model S60 so not under warranty.

NOTE... This is not in any way even a thought against Tesla at all. I have had almost no issues with the car and service in my area from what I can tell must be the best in the country. Even tho they have a 2 week backlog on service appointments they are squeezing me in for this repair. I expect things to break on cars over 60K miles and relatively speaking the fix is at an expected cost after Google searching repairs for a car in this class.

You might want to read through the following thread. There's two 2013 owners, Lu Ann and Reddy, who had some AC work done recently on their S. I'm not knowledgeable about AC repairs so not sure this applies to your situation. Most of the thread is about new owners experiencing cooling issues. Check your AC

 

[Sudre]

Mine was a short in the compressor that also blew a fuse inside the sealed D.C. Converter. Both parts had to be replaced. It doesn't sound like a problem at the body shop in that case, just my luck. I've been out a car for around two months and I get it back with a non-functioning AC which I am positive worked when I turned it in. Rally sucks but at least Tesla service gave me a P85D loaner with auto-pilot to drive around on goodwill while they fixed the AC. But that also sucks because now I want an S with auto-pilot and that's going to run more than the compressor

Service will not give me any logs which annoys me a bit. It's a Tesla corporate policy. I'd have to go up higher to attempt to get them but I doubt the body shop could have burnt up the compressor since it appears it is an AC unit and it all should be sealed. There were no cut or pinched wires, nothing crushed or distorted.

The amazing thing is the AC compressor replacement cost was the only reason I felt the extended warranty would have been worth the cost... SEE how my luck works. I even thought tom myself the only reason I would think about getting the warranty is if there were a lot of reports about the compressor going out. The other items that I heard about just didn't add up for the infrequency of failure. Now I have spent the same cost at the warranty would have been. I guess we shall see if anything else breaks. Then I'll be in the negative.

 

[Lasttoy]

I have NO heat. SC said valve Bad? No estimate, so i passed.

 

[Julienx2k2]

Adding my own experience here in case someone needs a data point in the future.

Have a P85+ 2013 model, driven 200.000km

Noticed during our latest european road trip that esp in hot climates, or after several hundred kms during the day:
-supercharging speed (kW vs %SoC) was highly variable depending on the charging event
-supercharging speed was in general drastically reduced (in some cases the speed dropped to 2kW at 82% SoC; sometimes had a plateau at 35kW early during charge)
-we got warnings about reduced AC power
-we got warnings that AC was redirected from cabin to the battery


Doing a simple stop/start test during SuC (stop charging, wait 10 mins with the car off, start charging again) it was possible for me to check that stgh was wrong with cooling of the battery, since upon restarting (at same SoC) the kW was significantly higher

After diagnostics, Tesla came back with request to change the left AC condenser.
That came with a price tag of about 1000 USD, all labour and 25% taxes included.

 

[WhistlerS]

We have a 2015 model s 85D. Had no aircon last year so took it in for service. $2000 for replacing two condensers.
now a year later, the exact same errors are coming up. No cooling air, no dog mode, not working on app either. Anyone else have similar issues?

 

[WhistlerS]

We have a 2015 model s 85D. Had no aircon last year so took it in for service. $2000 for replacing two condensers.
now a year later, the exact same errors are coming up. No cooling air, no dog mode, not working on app either. Anyone else have similar issues?

Should say, less than a year later. Original repair done in August 2020.

 

[Gtech]

Replaced both my condensors due to a leak. You could see a 'wet' spot on the condensor too because the compressor oil spreads out of the leak over the condensors. Also replaced some O rings because they also show the same wet spots.

Because there are so much leaves, sand and water gathering there the condensors go bad so regulair cleaning could prevent this, to bad you need to get the front bumper off to do this. I see this wet spots all the time when pulling someone's bumper for repairs so I would say yes this happens often.