Air Conditioning Blowing Hot Air

[davie_100]

'13 S 60kw. 52k miles (2 weeks CPO).

During the fathers day heat wave, we had a horrible experience. Sunday morning the A/C was working fine. We parked outdoors for about an hour and a half during the weekend heat wave. When we were back in the car, it would only blow hot air. Ext temp 113F. Vehicle interior temp 125F. I toggled every climate control button and nothing fixed it. Range mode off. A/C on Lo and all Auto.

Drove the hour in the ridiculous heat, free way driving. It just kept pumping out hot air. Actually stopped by a SC to get help and they were unable to help me on a Sunday. Ran all the reboots and no change. Kept on driving in the heat...

This morning the A/C is working just fine again and my SC appointment isn't until Friday.

I've read on thread like this, but their hot air was persistent, their A/C didn't recover like mine. Hope there is enough data in the vehicle that Tesla SC can figure out what happened. Anyone else experience this?

 

[Gizmotoy]

I can't say I've read of any experiences like yours. I'd note that if it happens again in the future, it might not be a great idea to drive the vehicle. The AC cools not only the cabin, but also the battery, so it might be possible to damage the battery by driving in hot weather with malfunctioning AC.

The above is speculation, though. You should ask the SC what you should do if it recurs before they can diagnose the issue, or if they can't reproduce it and thus can't fix it.

 

[davie_100]

That's a good point. I'll check with them Friday. My main issue was getting my wife and daughter out of the car because it was ridiculously hot. Which I did, they ended up going in another car with A/C.

 

[CHG-ON]

Complete speculation here...I wonder if the car shunted all cooling to the battery.

 

[davie_100]

Maybe so but not cool... Literally. Not being able to handle SoCal weather is not acceptable. Appreciate the speculation because im clueless.

 

[Chris TX]

I had that happen two years ago. The DC-DC converter had issues with the ~300VDC tap for the AC compressor. Replaced the DC-DC converter.

 

[ZBB]

I had the exact same issue on Sat -- also on a '13 S60 with just about 52k miles. In AZ and temps were about 110 when it happened.

We were charging at a destination charger while at a movie. I turned the AC on from the app after the movie and noticed the car was not cooling down. When we got back to the car, I noticed hot air blowing from the vents. We drove home with the windows down, and stopped for gelato about half way home. After gelato, the AC worked again and it's been ok since.

I emailed my service advisor today asking if they could check the logs...

 

[davie_100]

I had the exact same issue on Sat -- also on a '13 S60 with just about 52k miles. In AZ and temps were about 110 when it happened.

We were charging at a destination charger while at a movie. I turned the AC on from the app after the movie and noticed the car was not cooling down. When we got back to the car, I noticed hot air blowing from the vents. We drove home with the windows down, and stopped for gelato about half way home. After gelato, the AC worked again and it's been ok since.

I emailed my service advisor today asking if they could check the logs...

Cool if you hear anything please post. Hopefully Friday they'll have an answer for me.

 

[Sam Gabbay]

I had the same issue. It was 80* outside and inside the car it was 110*. Opening he windows didn't help at all. Frustrating part? It went away by itself. What goes away by itself, comes back by itself.

 

[Leland]

Happened to us today as well. 2013 P85 with 35k on the odometer. Car was sitting outside for about 4 hours in 115 degree weather at a family members home. Started down the road and only had very warm air coming out of the vents. Pulled off the street and rebooted both systems, it didn't help. Once we drove the 40 miles home and plugged into the HPWC at our house, I started the remote climate conditioning and the air conditioning quickly cooled down the interior of the vehicle.

 

[ZBB]

So... 3 of us had this happen this weekend. All on 2013s and in 110+ temps. In all 3 cases, the AC came back after parking and turning the car off for a little while.

I also rebooted the screens to no avail. Seems like the car has to cycle off and on. Perhaps it's a bug with sleep mode?

 

[Fxyz]

Exactly the same thing happened to me today. I used the AC in the morning when it was still relatively cool. At 4:30PM the temperature was 110 Deg and the AC stop working; nothing but hot air. Drove an hour in 110 deg heat with windows down to get home. Check on the Car AC this evening when the temperature dropped below 100 deg and the AC started working again.

Called Buena Park service center at 5:00PM and left a message. Hopefully SC can tell me what is going on. I hope there is no software setting to cut off the AC when temperature is above 100 deg

 

[ZBB]

With more reports, this seems like a bug. This is my 4th summer with my S and I never experienced this before. Summers here are 100+ form June to Sept/Oct.

Edit -- common things seem to be parking outside in 110+ temps. Parking and letting the car cycle off (or go into sleep mode?) and then turning it back restores AC. Mine came back with the temp at 108.

Perhaps only uncovered parking is the problem -- I was parked at work today, temp was 114 in the shade when I left the office with no issue, but my spot at work is covered. On Sat, we were parked in the sun and it was 110-111.

 

[victusw]

Had similar AC issue over the past two weekends with my 2015 S70D. Outside temperature in Seattle was 70 - 81 with interior temp always set to 67 and AUTO on all other settings. Car was fully charged and driving at or near speed limit all the time. Warm air was blowing regardless of what was set. Needed to open all windows while driving back home. Left the car power off for about 5 - 10 minutes and then restarted, cold air returned without any change to AC settings.

 

[Leland]

Took the car in this morning to the Service Center. Service Advisor said it was a know issue with the low side pressure sensor for the A/C system on older Model S. Tech installed a dummy sensor and updated the firmware (2.24.30). Advisor told me newer vehicles don't have this sensor. Not sure when the change was made, since there was a 2015 above with the same issue. Sorry, didn't get paperwork yet to give you guys the part #.

 

[davie_100]

Took the car in this morning to the Service Center. Service Advisor said it was a know issue with the low side pressure sensor for the A/C system on older Model S. Tech installed a dummy sensor and updated the firmware (2.24.30). Advisor told me newer vehicles don't have this senor. Not sure when the change was made, since there was a 2015 above with the same issue. Sorry, didn't get paperwork yet to give you guys the part #.

Thanks for the info! Can you say which Service Center you went to?

 

[Leland]

It was Cathedral City.

 

[AmpedRealtor]

My AC pooped out for about 5 minutes on June 4th when I was driving from Las Vegas to Phoenix. It was about 110 degrees, on average, and the dropout was brief but noticeable. It started cooling again on its own, so I assumed it was the battery pack sucking all the AC power. 2013 P85 here approaching 50,000 miles.

 

[Leland]

Work order was emailed over. Here's the part description and part #

REFRIGERANT PRESSURE SENSOR DUMMY PLUG ASSEMBLY (1021029-00-A)

 

[ZBB]

Tesla responded to my email this morning and asked me to stop by if I could. I stopped in on the way home from work, and they confirmed that there was an issue with a sensor and that it could be fixed in about an hour. While there, 2 other owners came in with the same issue. Sounds like a combination of age, heat and possibly firmware.

Here's the description from the service receipt (there was not part number listed):
"Found suction sensor out of range. Performed sensor delete and performed control unit reset. Verified proper a/c performance at this time."

So that's 2 of us with a sensor issue...