Battery Fixed by Electrified Garage

[Msolomi]

Im the Original owner of a 2013 model s w 90k miles. Last winter I got the dreaded MAXIMUM BATTERY CHARGE LEVEL REDUCED message on my car. Teska said I needed a new battery and wanted $20k plus. Electrified garage had the car for about five months bc of problems w Tesla not allowing the car to be accessed through another non Tesla software. Two battery modules were changed and now after $7k my car is charging at 240 miles from its previous 80 miles

UnFortunately I cannot log into the car using the Tesla app and they have instructed me to access the car through a cars.ccitesla.com portal. Is anyone familiar w this portal? I do not have the ability to unlock/lock the car or remote start through that portal as such features do not appear to work. Is anyone familiar w this.

Also, while I I can still supercharge for the life of the car for free, The speed of charging is definitely significantly reduced.

Any comments appreciated.

 

[DerbyDave]

If Electrified Garage did not let you know you would lose Tesla access to your car, or limit certain functions after a repair, that seems a problem they should remedy if possible, or compensate you for the loss. Did you know you would need to go through this special web portal to access your car? If not, why is it necessary? The speed of charging should have already had been reduced by Tesla, and it seems that this is to protect the battery. If further reduction occurred after EG repairs, they should tell you why, and fix if possible.

 

[Msolomi]

Agree. I was not aware of the loss of remote access until the car was ready. I did not supercharge enough to know if Teska had reduced the charging speed before they got the car but after reading the boards here im
Sure that was the case.

 

[henderrj]

Please keep us updated. Other shops have said that this type of repair is not a long lasting repair. That within 2 to 6 months you'll need to have the battery replaced or repaired again. I'm very curious to see if this is actually successful.

Also that software thing? I don't get it. Why should you not be able to use Tesla firmware?

Thanks!

 

[Msolomi]

Please keep us updated. Other shops have said that this type of repair is not a long lasting repair. That within 2 to 6 months you'll need to have the battery replaced or repaired again. I'm very curious to see if this is actually successful.

Also that software thing? I don't get it. Why should you not be able to use Tesla firmware?

Thanks!

Because Tesla through software essentially bricked my car to prevent it from charging over 90 miles they had to do a work around to allow the battery to be able to charge at the full range after they replaced the two modules that were defective. They are concerned that if Tesla is giving access to the car that they will brick the car again.

Why do you think that this type of repair when modules were actually replaced and the battery was balance is not a long lasting repair?

 

[DerbyDave]

Tesla Hacker Says Replacing Battery Pack Modules in Model S Doesn’t Work

Tesla always chooses the easiest path for repair in its cars despite the cost for its customers. That said, it will give them a $16,000 estimate for a repair that could cost $700, as we have already told you. It also provided a customer with a $22,500 estimate (without taxes) for something that...

www.autoevolution.com

 

[henderrj]

According to Jason Hughes getting the balance perfect between modules is almost, if not absolutely, impossible. (Tesla themselves never replaces modules, only full battery packs, as far as we know.) He says what happens is the balance starts to get worse and worse and then eventually, you're restricted in power again.

Last I heard Jason and crew had fixed over 700 Tesla's with battery issues, some of them from other shops that did this kind of work. I would agree with those who say that no one outside of Tesla knows more about Tesla batteries than he does.

 

[Msolomi]

Tesla Hacker Says Replacing Battery Pack Modules in Model S Doesn’t Work

Tesla always chooses the easiest path for repair in its cars despite the cost for its customers. That said, it will give them a $16,000 estimate for a repair that could cost $700, as we have already told you. It also provided a customer with a $22,500 estimate (without taxes) for something that...

www.autoevolution.com

The car has gone through at least five cycles already and supercharged at least 4 times and still working well. Will continue to update

 

[DerbyDave]

If we keep out Teslas long enough, we will all have to do something with the HV battery. I am trying to keep up with what alternatives are available and successful. Keep us advised of the pluses and minuses in your case over time. Thanks.

 

[Msolomi]

If we keep out Teslas long enough, we will all have to do something with the HV battery. I am trying to keep up with what alternatives are available and successful. Keep us advised of the pluses and minuses in your case over time. Thanks.

Correct. It seems that many of the 2013 cars like mine were intentionally breaked by Tesla to be able to conserve the battery long which meant that they reduce the ability to supercharge as fast before and with some of them like mine they simply reduced the range entirely because of what they perceive to have been a bad module

 

[bedoig]

Definitely not an expert, but from what I've read about in the past, they got root on your car, did some kind of repair and reconfig, and blocked Tesla access (hence why you're now going through their servers for any kind of control). If you weren't aware of this they did a very bad job explaining or you didn't really grasp what you were signing up for (no offense intended). I'd also be curious how this pans out in the future. I'm assuming you're still on MCU1 as most of these types of hacks seemed to be limited to exploits on the original Tegra board.

 

[Msolomi]

Definitely not an expert, but from what I've read about in the past, they got root on your car, did some kind of repair and reconfig, and blocked Tesla access (hence why you're now going through their servers for any kind of control). If you weren't aware of this they did a very bad job explaining or you didn't really grasp what you were signing up for (no offense intended). I'd also be curious how this pans out in the future. I'm assuming you're still on MCU1 as most of these types of hacks seemed to be limited to exploits on the original Tegra board.

No offense taken. No, I’m very tech savvy and very familiar w the work and battery situation but I was never told that this was going to be an issue until the very end regarding not having access through the app. Yes MCU1

 

[bedoig]

No offense taken. No, I’m very tech savvy and very familiar w the work and battery situation but I was never told that this was going to be an issue until the very end regarding not having access through the app. Yes MCU1

Others probably know more than me, but yes, you now won't have any access through the official Tesla app, your car won't receive updates, Tesla likely won't service your car, etc. You're officially disconnected. You may be fine with not having future updates, and may even be happier on an older software version they may be able to load for you. I'm kinda shocked they let this come as a surprise to you though. I could be totally wrong on your specific situation, but from what you've posted it doesn't seem that way.

 

[Msolomi]

Less than a year after THE ELECTRIFIED GARAGE fixed or allegedly fixed my 2013 battery, in the first long range trip of the car, the car suddenly stopped with 60 miles left and said it could no longer be driven. See attached. It had to be towed to the Fort Myer service center. Will keep everyone posted but obviously not happy that I’m out $7000 and the battery appears broken. Let’s see if the electrify garage honors their one year warranty.

 

[DerbyDave]

Even a new battery can go bad, but your experience will be very informative. Please keep us posted. PS - sorry this stranded you on a trip.

 

[Msolomi]

Here’s a pic of my modules. Does anyone know how to read this

 

[MP3Mike]

Less than a year after THE ELECTRIFIED GARAGE fixed or allegedly fixed my 2013 battery,

Sadly, this seems to have played out almost exactly like @wk057 predicted it would. Did you get your car back in July, meaning that it was about 8 months before it failed again? (They must have gotten modules that were fairly well matched for it to last that long, unless you normally just don't drive much.)

 

[Msolomi]

Sadly, this seems to have played out almost exactly like @wk057 predicted it would. Did you get your car back in July, meaning that it was about 8 months before it failed again? (They must have gotten module that were fairly well match for it to last that long, unless you normally just don't drive much.)

Correct. We have our car in a second location and it was only driven 900 miles since the fix.

 

[MP3Mike]

Correct. We have our car in a second location and it was only driven 900 miles since the fix.

That seems sort of weird. In July you said this:

The car has gone through at least five cycles already and supercharged at least 4 times and still working well. Will continue to update

A cycle is a 100% charge, even if it is made up of 5 different 20% charge sessions, so if you get ~180 miles on a charge that would mean you had driven at least ~900 miles, and then you Supercharged 4 more times. And essentially not driven it since. (So I am guessing that at that point you just had ~9 fairly small charge sessions.)

But what wk057 has said it that it is miles driven, or charge cycles, that would cause packs repaired this way to fail again, not time. He has also said that a long trip alone would cause it, because a trip doesn't allow time for the balancing to work between charges so it goes out of compliance much faster. (I'm probably wrong, but I think he said it would take ~48 hours after each charge cycle for the BMS to try to bring things back in to balance.)

 

[Msolomi]

Not weird. What I meant by cycles is that I had to supercharge four times from the location where the car was fixed to the final location where the car is situated. I have only use the car one time each month for not more than 100 miles each time except for this trip where we have been on the road for 150 miles. This was the first trip we took since it was fixed.