A happy Tesla is an unplugged Tesla

[henderrj]

For all the years I've owned my S85 I've kept it plugged in every chance I got. Now, it won't be quiet unless I leave it unplugged. Sometimes it doesn't whine, but usually it's making a noise when it's plugged in. Not sure what they did. Cost me 75 bucks to be told it is normal and it has to do with keeping the battery healthy. It's hard to imagine how come that would need to run for hours on end. Still, I now unplug my car as soon as it's at a reasonable state of charge. Don't really be wanting to buy an air conditioning pump if I don't have to.

 

[GHammer]

For all the years I've owned my S85 I've kept it plugged in every chance I got. Now, it won't be quiet unless I leave it unplugged. Sometimes it doesn't whine, but usually it's making a noise when it's plugged in. Not sure what they did. Cost me 75 bucks to be told it is normal and it has to do with keeping the battery healthy. It's hard to imagine how come that would need to run for hours on end. Still, I now unplug my car as soon as it's at a reasonable state of charge. Don't really be wanting to buy an air conditioning pump if I don't have to.

It shouldn't matter if it's plugged in or not. The pump runs at a charge level of 78% or above. I've gone to setting my daily level to 75% and no pump whine.

 

[henderrj]

It shouldn't matter if it's plugged in or not. The pump runs at a charge level of 78% or above. I've gone to setting my daily level to 75% and no pump whine.

That's what they told me too, so I tried it. It doesn't work. in fact I've set my charge level below 70%. The pump runs almost continuously whenever plugged in. All I have to do is unplug it, it runs almost not at all.

it may be important that I have an older 85 with over 200,000 mi on it. It's also been supercharged many hundreds of times.

I am interested in other people's experiences, of course. Might help me out in some way!

 

[whitex]

I keep my 85 plugged in, but found that the level I need to keep it down to in order to keep the pumps quiet varies based on weather (and some updates make it worse). I'm at 73% today, but when there was a couple of hot days, even 70% didn't help. The worse part is that the pumps drain the battery, which in turn kicks in charging, which heats up the battery more, and the cycle continues.

Out of curiosity, anyone had the pumps go bad and what they cost to replace? I'm hoping they last a long time (I recently got rid of a cheap window variety 13 year old A/C unit which was running 24/7 since new, cooling my server closet, and still in working order, so it is possible for things to be built to last).

 

[BigNick]

Try lowering the charge level to 60% if that is sufficient for your commute. If that doesn't silence the pumps, try 55% or even 50%.

It would also be interesting to see ScanMyTesla or TM-Spy data for your battery.

 

[snellenr]

That's what they told me too, so I tried it. It doesn't work. in fact I've set my charge level below 70%. The pump runs almost continuously whenever plugged in. All I have to do is unplug it, it runs almost not at all.

it may be important that I have an older 85 with over 200,000 mi on it. It's also been supercharged many hundreds of times.

I am interested in other people's experiences, of course. Might help me out in some way!

6-1/2 year old P85 with ~90,000 miles on it.

I plug it in when the range is down in the 170s or so, but I’m anything but religious about it. I don’t get excited about fan/compressor noise at all - figure it’s doing what it’s supposed to be doing...

If I parked it in my living room, the noise might be an issue.

 

[dark cloud]

It shouldn't matter if it's plugged in or not. The pump runs at a charge level of 78% or above. I've gone to setting my daily level to 75% and no pump whine.

With my car I know for a fact one day charging from 69% to 70% (at 7 kW) caused the pumps to turn on, and a week later supercharging to 91% and arriving home with 83% and parking in the garage the car had no pump noise.

Sure as hell as soon as you figure it all out, depending on car use/ambient temperature/humidity factors the next update Tesla will change it all again anyway...

The coolant pump wearing out unnecessarily reminds me of my right louver opening and closing at all hours for no reason at all; I was sure it would have worn out the motor prematurely, but it is still working...I ran it by the mobile technician last time he was at my house and he said his car does it too.

 

[tekknoschtev]

Noticed the same thing when I first picked up my Tesla. Had the charge set to 80%, and the pump would be running constantly. The noise itself didn't bother me but after reading threads here I realized that for my typical commute I don't need even 20% of that range. I now charge to 60% and haven't yet heard the pump running at that level.

 

[whitex]

6-1/2 year old P85 with ~90,000 miles on it.

I plug it in when the range is down in the 170s or so, but I’m anything but religious about it. I don’t get excited about fan/compressor noise at all - figure it’s doing what it’s supposed to be doing...

If I parked it in my living room, the noise might be an issue.

The issue is no the noise, it's the fact that the cooling pumps running are wearing out your car:

1. Cooling pumps which were designed to run a 2-4 hours a day are now running 12-24hrs hours a day - increased wear on the pumps
2. The main battery keeps on discharging and charging when plugged in in order to top off the 12V battery to keep the cooling pumps going - increased wear on the battery while car is parked
3. The contactor (the giant "switch") which connects/disconnects the main battery is now switching many more times per day than it was designed to do so - those are not cheap to replace.
   
4. The DC-to-DC converter which converts the main battery power to 12V is running a lot more too - those also die

Bottom line, way increased wear on the car. Of most of the cars doing it today are out of the 4 year warranty, with only the 8 year main battery warranty remaining. This additional wear prolongs the life of the main battery (which Tesla would have to pay for repairing) in exchange for higher wear on the parts out of warranty (which you will have to pay for).

 

[TravelFree]

I never hear this whine noise. Even listened with stethoscope. In the official Tesla support forums they say if the pumps are not shutting down you need to get it into service.

I'm running tests now- After 20 hours of TeslaFi Deep Sleep mode, I woke it up with my iphone app.
When it went into Deep Sleep Mode at 4PM yesterday, the range was 336.77 miles. At noon today, the range is 336.76 miles. ( 85% of full charge)

This is great. Now testing to see the impact of waking it up to check using my iphone app.

This test is giving me what I want for minimal range loss without needing to keep it plugged in. Next I will test the Cabin Overheat set to on even though temps now will probably never activate the AC. Finally, let's see what the Sentry on does for range loss per hour. Last I checked it was pretty significant. Like 30 miles range loss per day. Nice feature but expensive to run. Best used for brief times while at a shopping center parking lot but not to leave on while in long term parking lot for a week unless we can park the car and plug in 24/7.

 

[AmpedRealtor]

I have a 2013 P85 and pumps run for a little bit after finishing charging at 90%, but eventually shut off. My car has been plugged-in and sitting at 90% SOC for two days without any noise whatsoever. In fact, the car lost only 1% of charge in the last 24 hours. No added strain on anything, and no 12v depletion. I'm on my original rev B battery, too!

Let your cars do what they do. Don't obsess. Enjoy.

 

[GHammer]

I never hear this whine noise. Even listened with stethoscope.

You wont with a 2020LR, this behavior only applies to the older batteries. Dont know why @AmpedRealtor doesn't see this, it seems everyone else with 85 batteries saw this change in behavior with an update a while back.

 

[Zuikkis]

It depends on the temperature. At +2C (35F) the fans didn't start at all, and I charged all the way to 100%. But in warmer weather it sure gets noisy after 80%

 

[David.85D]

I (and I think others) that this change is due to whatever Tesla learned during its batterygate investigation - an effort to avoid battery fires. Doesn’t seem desirable to me to defeat this protection. Are you trying to trigger a battery fire? Just don’t care?

Of course, it would be even better if Tesla was open about the problem and did a recall or reasonably priced battery replacement.

 

[TravelFree]

So, if this is outside temperature related and only on the older Battery (85KW) and earlier(I guess). Why would Tesla make this change to an 85KW battery vs the 100KW battery? I thought both were only different in number of 18650 cells to achieve higher KW.

I don't disagree that owners have observed this with a software update, but Tesla seems to believe those complaining need to get into service for a repair.

My interest or curiosity is that if what everyone is saying is true, then I need to be more cautious about accepting updates as one day Tesla may break something that worked on my 2020LR+. Probably unintentional.

Sandy Munroe mentioned recently that the Model 3 has had 13 hardware revisions in 3 months not well publicized. With that many revisions on just one model, And my March mfg Tesla had a battery revision between April and May from a F series to a G series, who knows what else. It seems the software people may not be testing what they do on so many combinations of hardware they have out there.

On my 2020LR+:
I know of one battery letter revision update that allowed the G version to take higher charging power than the F version with the 250KW cabinets. The charging curves info from owners is scant and varies all over the map so it is hard to see a pattern.

I guess those who are complaining with older Teslas having the pump problem will never know until it is either fixed in another software update (bug fix) or take it into service and they fix something because they are aware of a fix that addresses the problem.

 

[whitex]

So, if this is outside temperature related and only on the older Battery (85KW) and earlier(I guess). Why would Tesla make this change to an 85KW battery vs the 100KW battery? I thought both were only different in number of 18650 cells to achieve higher KW.

There are few reasons I can think of:

1. Main reason is age. 85 batteries are much older that 100. There are no 8 year old 100 batteries, there are 85's. The oldest 100 batteries are what 3 years old? Once the 100 batteries start reaching 5+ years, we'll see how they will behave and what adjustments Tesla has to make to keep them from catching on fire or dying within the 8 year warranty.
2. Tesla has been changing the 18650 cell chemistry over time. 2012 18650 is no the same as 2020 18650.
3. The battery pack design has been changing too, there were few versions of the 85, few versions of 100's too. As Tesla learns, they improve the design. I would imagine newer designs are able to keep the batteries at optimal temperatures better than the older designs, which might have an effect on the battery life.
4. Tesla has been experimenting with different battery management strategies and learning which ones work best. The experiments which ended up damaging the batteries, so sometimes it requires curbing the wounded battery capabilities to keep it alive.

 

[whitex]

I guess those who are complaining with older Teslas having the pump problem will never know until it is either fixed in another software update (bug fix) or take it into service and they fix something because they are aware of a fix that addresses the problem.

Oh no, many have complained about it to service, and there was even a group of owners who files a lawsuit over Tesla's limiting of older batteries - those are not bugs, even Tesla says those changes are for safety and optimal operation of the batteries.

 

[BigNick]

I'm sure a there were a lot of changes between a 1908 Model T and a 1927 Model T other than the removal of polished brass.

BUT if maintained properly, in 1935 a 1908 Model T would still be perfectly usable as a car and not nerfed to hell!

The Model S, albeit at much smaller production numbers, is nearing its tenth model year (2012-2021), nearly half the run of the T.

 

[Mirlen]

When my 2017 cooling pumps stayed on it turned out to be a pump failure. I believe there are 3 pumps, the one under the rear seat failed and the others kept running I guess as a failsafe. I would verify that you do not have a pump failing. Tesla was able to identify the failure remotely and replaced the failed pump and the problem ceased.

 

[Ostrichsak]

I'm sure a there were a lot of changes between a 1908 Model T and a 1927 Model T other than the removal of polished brass.

BUT if maintained properly, in 1935 a 1908 Model T would still be perfectly usable as a car and not nerfed to hell!

The Model S, albeit at much smaller production numbers, is nearing its tenth model year (2012-2021), nearly half the run of the T.

You're comparing it to a vehicle that had 20 horsepower and a top speed of 45 mph... Downhill with a strong back wind. It's hardly a fair comparison and considering how far we've come in terms of technology and power output I'd say that we can expect a few setbacks when dancing on the razor's edge of those categories.

That said however I'm not supporting the way Tesla is going about this at all. This situation desperately needs more transparency if they're going to sell us one thing and then remove it without any notification down the road. At a minimum they need to tell us exactly what they're doing and explain why it's imperative to safety.