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Air conditioning maxing at 7-Not Extended Range Mode

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Being in FL in the middle of a really hot summer, it is strange that when I go out to my car and start driving it never seems to go above 7 for fan speed when set to AUTO fan. I can manually turn it up to 11, but then I have to adjust it back down once it cools and that is annoying because I have to keep notching it down until it is 7 or below at which point I can just go back to AUTO.

I am not in extended range mode or anything like that and it never seems to go up to full speed although that is necessary to really cool the car down when it has been outside my office all day in 90+ degree sun.

Is this normal for everyone else or something that needs serviced?
 
Being in FL in the middle of a really hot summer, it is strange that when I go out to my car and start driving it never seems to go above 7 for fan speed when set to AUTO fan. I can manually turn it up to 11, but then I have to adjust it back down once it cools and that is annoying because I have to keep notching it down until it is 7 or below at which point I can just go back to AUTO.

I am not in extended range mode or anything like that and it never seems to go up to full speed although that is necessary to really cool the car down when it has been outside my office all day in 90+ degree sun.

Is this normal for everyone else or something that needs serviced?

Closest thing we had to that was while we were supercharging on a hot day. Limited ac for about 5-10mins. Basically cooled the battery then went back to cooling cab.
 
This is apparently the new normal behavior, until such time as a firmware update changes it. There is at least one other thread here talking about exactly this problem... I would expect the fan to ramp up to gale force 11 until the interior cools down... especially if the interior is stinkin' hot. Mine doesn't and I gather this is a common complaint.

See also http://www.teslamotorsclub.com/showthread.php/48653-How-s-your-AC/page9
 
Yes, that's unfortunately normal behavior. Tesla could really improve their software in this area. And it is purely a software thing--the hardware is certainly capable of chilling the place like a refrigerator.

It didn't used to be like this (like a year+ ago), but some software update changed to this behavior. I'm hoping it's a bug that's on their list to tackle. It is really strange. I've seen it get up to 8 sometimes on auto, but IMHO it should blow full on until the target temp is reached.

Behavior should be : Blow coldest possible air (the car won't blow as cold air if set on 68 vs. LO) and at the highest fan temp until target temp is reached, at which time fan speed and compressor power decreases to a steady state to maintain set temperature. That's *not* what happens.
 
Yep. The other day it was 115 degrees inside the car and the AC was set to 69 and the max it would go to on auto was 7. I've also seen it go to 8 a few times. Like Todd said, this wasn't like this last summer so they broke something in a release between then and now. Hopefully will be fixed soon.
 
I just turn the temp down to Low until it is cooled to a comfortable level and then to the temp I want. I find it much easier than fiddling with the annoying slider bar, which I find almost impossible to pin to a certain fan speed. I agree, the logic should be improved.

To be honest, I just long for the days of manual A/C, when I could just pick what I wanted and it did it without arguing. Every auto climate I have had has always had an annoying amount of inaccuracy: either too cold, too hot, too much or too little fan.
 
Today walked out and it was 92 all day. Drove home with the AC set to 64 and it would never increase above fan speed 7 and actually kept the compressor in the low mode the entire time. The air wasn't even really that cool coming out the vents.

Switched it to LO and it jacked the fan up to full blast and put the compressor in max mode which finally started sending cold air out the vents. It is insanely bad right now and it was not like this last summer at all. I can't believe they don't push out a bugfix just for this ASAP as having to constantly tune the LO and fan speed stuff is really kind of crazy for a car of this price range.
 
Today walked out and it was 92 all day. Drove home with the AC set to 64 and it would never increase above fan speed 7 and actually kept the compressor in the low mode the entire time. The air wasn't even really that cool coming out the vents.

Switched it to LO and it jacked the fan up to full blast and put the compressor in max mode which finally started sending cold air out the vents. It is insanely bad right now and it was not like this last summer at all. I can't believe they don't push out a bugfix just for this ASAP as having to constantly tune the LO and fan speed stuff is really kind of crazy for a car of this price range.

Did you call your service center or send an email to servicehelpna (a t ) teslamotors.com ?
 
No I hadn't yet as it seemed like this is happening across the board to others too. Would probably be helpful though to call the service center so at least they can track the number of people this is effecting.

I sent an email last night to the servicehelpna address, not really the response i was looking for

Thank you for contacting Tesla Motors Technical Support. I have forwarded your concern to your local service center and you should expect to hear from them in the next 24-48 hours. If you have any further questions or concerns please feel free to contact Technical Support 24/7 at [email protected] or by phone at 1-877-79-TESLA (83752).



Regards,
 
Did another test today. It was 101* in the car and put my AC to 71. The fan spun up to 7. Then dropped it to LO and it went up to 11. Then I backed it off to 64, 65, 66 and each time the fan went down 1. I have no idea what the logic is.
 
Did another test today. It was 101* in the car and put my AC to 71. The fan spun up to 7. Then dropped it to LO and it went up to 11. Then I backed it off to 64, 65, 66 and each time the fan went down 1. I have no idea what the logic is.

So you're saying the temperature control was essentially a fan control? That's bonkers.

Tesla, how on earth are you botching this so badly?
 
Last edited:
So you're saying the temperature control was essentially a fan control? That's bonkers.

Tesla, how on earth are you botching this so badly?

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So you're saying the temperature control was essentially a fan control? That's bonkers.

Tesla, how on earth are you botching this so badly?

I just wanted to see what it did. I would think that on Auto the fan would spin up to the highest setting until the desired temperature and slowly back off as it reached the desired temp. This was not the case.
 
I looked today too and car interior temp from app was over 100 degrees when I left. Thirty minutes later on auto and interior temp was still 94 degrees because it was using the low compressor mode and fan speed of 7. I had the interior temp set to 64. So I don't see how it thought that cooling down maybe 10 degrees in 30 minutes is a reasonable air conditioning response in auto mode when the target temp was 64. Also, it does when going from LO to 64, the AC compressor and fans actually shut off for a second and then start back up. There is a major bug that everyone in hot climates must be experiencing. Even California would have pretty hot cars during daytime and experience something similar I would imagine.
 
Because ServicehelpNa contacted the service center, I spoke with them for a bit this morning. I was told that with 6.1 there was a change made and there have been multiple complaints about the auto fanspeed. I was told a feature request will be created and if enough people ask for a feature it normally gets the engineers attention.
 
Best thing you FL owners can do is send email/feature requests to Tesla. Remember most of the product managers and engineers for Tesla are in Cali. They don't understand what hot summers are :)