I am an early adopter of Tesla. I bought my Model S in Feb of 2015, laying out close to 90k for a car – which is something I would have never dreamed of doing previously. But I believed in the mission, I believed in the car – so I traded in my Kia Optima and subjected myself to this grand experiment. This was the days where the masses really didn’t know what Tesla was – I would get stopped in parking lots and get strange looks on the road – and I gave makeshift mini-presentations about how this was the future of transportation.
Fast forward 8 years and 3 months later…. After Supercharging I received an error on my screen that said “maximum battery charge level reduced” and gave the code BMS_029. After 8 years and 85k miles of very happy ownership – dealing with the usual door handle replacements, window regulator breaks, new MCU, new front dash screen etc – I now realized I was faced with something much more serious.
I planned on keeping my car indefinitely. I love the car. I have never loved a car, but I do love this car.
3 months after my battery warranty expired, I have this error that is going to limit me to about 35% charge, and from everything I read online it is basically a battery death sentence. The Tesla equivalent of the “blue screen of death”. I went to the Tesla Service App, and explained the error and a screenshot – and got back a 15k estimate. No phone call, no options, no offer of repair, no diagnostics - just give us 15k and we will fix it.
Thank goodness for the online community. I found a Facebook group dedicated to this, and lots of help at Teslamotorsclub. I am not an engineer. I am simply a normal consumer. I feel like that needs to be said because if not for the amateur Tesla engineers out there, and aftermarket technicians – I feel like there would be zero information about this because Tesla isn’t talking or explaining. They simply text you back an estimate in an app, with one option – pay us or your car is dead – bricked.
So after doing lots of reading online – and talking to several experts – these are the options:
Option 2 and 3 are very similar – really just warranty differences. But in the end, if you can get a brand new battery for 4k more, and you plan on keeping the car for a long time, ReCell and Tesla need to do a better job of educating the average consumer (like me) that a reman battery with 8-10 year old cells has a value proposition vs a brand new battery. I fully support ReCell and their mission, because they are doing what Tesla does and beating them on price – and for the right person – it is a great option.
I chose option 4. I hate that I am laying out 19k to basically get back to where I was before the error. But at the same time – with the limited information I have – especially from Tesla – and very limited options – it is the best decision for me. My car is at Tesla right now sitting waiting for the work to be done.
Tesla needs to do a much better job addressing this, and develop a program that has better education and options. Are they trying to get the early cars off the road? Are they trying to get the unlimited supercharging cars off the road? They are getting my battery as part of the 19k repair – and they will remanufacture that and sell it to someone else for 15k. How much work and cost goes in to the remanufacturing? What if it is a circuit board or a few cells or even a module on my battery – that costs them close to nothing in comparison to the 15k they will flip it for – is that fair that I pay 19k on a car that is only worth 30k, and they ALSO get my battery?
Tin foil hat time…. I don’t necessarily believe any of the following to be true – but as Elon likes to say on Twitter – “I am just asking the questions”. What if there was a company that could press a button and send an error to a car fresh out of warranty, and essentially brick it knowing that they then would charge between 15k and 19k to replace it, and in return get a battery that they will sell to the next person they send the error to?
It seems a lot of cars are getting this error just after 8 years. Tesla – isn’t it in your best interest to be more transparent about issues, education, and options? Do you not care that the people this is happening to are the same people who in part built the company to what it is today? I have probably sold 20 people over the years on buying cars, and I have bought a MY. I am not suggesting Tesla owes us anything – but it just seems like a smart business decision to better handle this.
There are lawsuits already out there. Who knows. One persons opinion… This experience has seriously diminished my faith and experience in Tesla. I am biting the bullet – spending 19k on a car that will only be worth 30k when done – but I will always wonder if the BMS_029 error was just a software glitch, a $50 circuit board, a real problem that just happened to occur at 8 years and 3 months – or something much more sinister.
Come on Tesla, you can and need to do better.
"2014 Tesla Model S" by harry_nl is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.
Image added for Blog Feed thumbnail
Fast forward 8 years and 3 months later…. After Supercharging I received an error on my screen that said “maximum battery charge level reduced” and gave the code BMS_029. After 8 years and 85k miles of very happy ownership – dealing with the usual door handle replacements, window regulator breaks, new MCU, new front dash screen etc – I now realized I was faced with something much more serious.
I planned on keeping my car indefinitely. I love the car. I have never loved a car, but I do love this car.
3 months after my battery warranty expired, I have this error that is going to limit me to about 35% charge, and from everything I read online it is basically a battery death sentence. The Tesla equivalent of the “blue screen of death”. I went to the Tesla Service App, and explained the error and a screenshot – and got back a 15k estimate. No phone call, no options, no offer of repair, no diagnostics - just give us 15k and we will fix it.
Thank goodness for the online community. I found a Facebook group dedicated to this, and lots of help at Teslamotorsclub. I am not an engineer. I am simply a normal consumer. I feel like that needs to be said because if not for the amateur Tesla engineers out there, and aftermarket technicians – I feel like there would be zero information about this because Tesla isn’t talking or explaining. They simply text you back an estimate in an app, with one option – pay us or your car is dead – bricked.
So after doing lots of reading online – and talking to several experts – these are the options:
- Error removal through software. There are people out there who will (for about $500), simply remove the error so that you can go back to where you were the day before this dreaded error showed up.
- Pay anywhere from 8k to 9.5K to ReCell or another 3rd party for a remanufactured battery. You will get a battery pack from a car that they previously replaced, and remanufactured for you. Your battery will then be remanufactured and sold to someone else. You will get a battery pack that is dated anywhere from 2012 to 2015 and a 2 year 25k warranty.
- Pay Tesla about 15k for exactly what ReCell does, but get a 4 year 50k warranty.
- Buy a brand new 90KWH battery from Tesla for about 19k, and get a 4 year 50k warranty.
Option 2 and 3 are very similar – really just warranty differences. But in the end, if you can get a brand new battery for 4k more, and you plan on keeping the car for a long time, ReCell and Tesla need to do a better job of educating the average consumer (like me) that a reman battery with 8-10 year old cells has a value proposition vs a brand new battery. I fully support ReCell and their mission, because they are doing what Tesla does and beating them on price – and for the right person – it is a great option.
I chose option 4. I hate that I am laying out 19k to basically get back to where I was before the error. But at the same time – with the limited information I have – especially from Tesla – and very limited options – it is the best decision for me. My car is at Tesla right now sitting waiting for the work to be done.
Tesla needs to do a much better job addressing this, and develop a program that has better education and options. Are they trying to get the early cars off the road? Are they trying to get the unlimited supercharging cars off the road? They are getting my battery as part of the 19k repair – and they will remanufacture that and sell it to someone else for 15k. How much work and cost goes in to the remanufacturing? What if it is a circuit board or a few cells or even a module on my battery – that costs them close to nothing in comparison to the 15k they will flip it for – is that fair that I pay 19k on a car that is only worth 30k, and they ALSO get my battery?
Tin foil hat time…. I don’t necessarily believe any of the following to be true – but as Elon likes to say on Twitter – “I am just asking the questions”. What if there was a company that could press a button and send an error to a car fresh out of warranty, and essentially brick it knowing that they then would charge between 15k and 19k to replace it, and in return get a battery that they will sell to the next person they send the error to?
It seems a lot of cars are getting this error just after 8 years. Tesla – isn’t it in your best interest to be more transparent about issues, education, and options? Do you not care that the people this is happening to are the same people who in part built the company to what it is today? I have probably sold 20 people over the years on buying cars, and I have bought a MY. I am not suggesting Tesla owes us anything – but it just seems like a smart business decision to better handle this.
There are lawsuits already out there. Who knows. One persons opinion… This experience has seriously diminished my faith and experience in Tesla. I am biting the bullet – spending 19k on a car that will only be worth 30k when done – but I will always wonder if the BMS_029 error was just a software glitch, a $50 circuit board, a real problem that just happened to occur at 8 years and 3 months – or something much more sinister.
Come on Tesla, you can and need to do better.
"2014 Tesla Model S" by harry_nl is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.
Image added for Blog Feed thumbnail
