Dead in my driveway....(fixed:12V replaced)

[NigelM]

Thanks for the update John. Please keep us informed.

When people say they called Tesla I do wonder who/where they called. On the two occasions I've had issues I called our local Service guys first - actually as both were out of hours I texted them, but they called me back within minutes and pulled out all stops to get my problems resolved. Local SCs are going to be much more responsive than Tesla central can be.

 

[kevincwelch]

I have a general thought on the subject of how proactive and reactive Tesla should be for its customers.

A couple people have stated that in fact no other automobile manufacture would have dealt with the issue over the weekend. While that is probably true, I think Tesla should be dealing with issues 24-7. They should be responding and fixing 24-7.

This is a car like no other car. Tesla IS different.

If the Model S breaks down, no one can fix these issues except Tesla. As consumers, we have no other choice or options presently.

If my Subaru broke down on Friday night, I could take it to mom and pop's garage on Saturday and they could at least tell me the starter is defective. May not want to have it fixed there, but I could.

There's no other option other than Tesla right now. And while that is the case, I believe Tesla needs to be more responsive to these issues. I'm not sure what that looks like, but the world doesn't stop on the weekend; neither should Tesla at this point. Get the car in; give a rental and if they can't figure it out, replace the car. Tesla will always need demos, test drive cars and loaner vehicles.

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[gg_got_a_tesla]

Well said, Kevin. Tesla Service is the only game in town indeed so, they are or should be on call at all hours over the weekend as well.

I haven't established a relationship with my local service guys - I have multiple options, of course, at the Fremont mega service center at the factory or at Menlo Park - like Nigel has so, that's something to do in short order.

John, glad that things are looking up. Worth updating the title (via mods like dsm363 or NigelM) to "Was dead in my driveway but, is now being resuscitated..." or some such?!

 

[JRP3]

If my Subaru broke down on Friday night, I could take it to mom and pop's garage on Saturday and they could at least tell me the starter is defective. May not want to have it fixed there, but I could.

Unless it's a part they don't have and can't get, which does happen with ICE cars at times. I've had to wait for parts for ICE vehicles, especially on weekends.

 

[kevincwelch]

JRP3-Understand. That does happen with ICE vehicles as well. I'm speaking about a more lofty ambition that I believe Tesla should have as they attempt to disturb the inertia in the automotive industry.

 

[JRP3]

Sounds good but I question the cost vs reward for Tesla paying for 24/7 service support teams. Maybe a call center that might be able to do over the air trouble shooting, but 24 hours parts and service seems excessively expensive, especially for a struggling startup.

 

[Doug_G]

No one is perfect, and perhaps the service people are a lot busier these days, but I've always been beyond impressed with Tesla service. Let me give you an example:

Late one evening I was driving my Roadster home, and was about 150 km from anywhere when I got a "drive train problem" message. I called service and they told me the message indicated the infamous Roadster PEM fan problem (the fans have since been upgraded). If the fans failed I would be stranded on the side of the highway.

He told me to keep driving, but to call if I got stranded and they would help. Also they would come by my house ASAP to replace the fans. Well, I did make it home around midnight. Since it was so late I just emailed to say I was home safe and sound. I got a response back within seconds - he had been waiting up to make sure I got home. Wow!

 

[gg_got_a_tesla]

Tesla Service has definitely been great to Roadster owners all along and to many of the early Model S owners as well.

But, now that there are thousands of Model S on the road (atleast twice as many as there ever were Roadsters), the concerns appear to be

1) availability at odd hours or weekends,
2) breadth and depth of knowledge of service personnel,
3) availability of key parts too.

 

[montgom626]

Really? ANY other manufacturer would have done all that just because you called service with a problem on a Saturday? Which Manufactures might those be? I can tell you that I've owned a Mercedes Benz, Volkswagen, Ford, Toyota, and a Mazda and not one of them would have dropped everything on a Saturday and rushed out to my home with a replacement car and a freakin' coffee mug.

When my AUDI A8L went bad on a Saturday, I waited until Monday for a flatbed. No coffee mug.

- - - Updated - - -

Sounds good but I question the cost vs reward for Tesla paying for 24/7 service support teams. Maybe a call center that might be able to do over the air trouble shooting, but 24 hours parts and service seems excessively expensive, especially for a struggling startup.

AUDI sent parts my overnight air freight from Germany to Wisconsin.

 

[Norbert]

I'm curious what percentage of Roadster owners have had a problem with the car being dead? Seems like we're getting multiple reports of this with the Model S in the forum (see swegman's thread) and this is just a sampling of Model S owners that show up in the forums, so there must be more in the ownership at large.

Perhaps I'm misunderstanding you, as to me it seems you are seeking to further escalate this issue. However we already know (per swegman's thread) that it is getting high level attention from Elon's and George's office, so I (honestly) wonder where you want to go with this.

 

[johnmodels]

Update.
12v battery was replaced. Tesla let me drop off my rental at the service center and they said they would take it back. I feel they made it right and did they best they could looking in hind sight. My Tesla runs great! I hope it stays that way!

 

[gg_got_a_tesla]

Two thumbs way up!

 

[kevincwelch]

Update.
12v battery was replaced. Tesla let me drop off my rental at the service center and they said they would take it back. I feel they made it right and did they best they could looking in hind sight. My Tesla runs great! I hope it stays that way!

Excellent!

So, what is the deal with the 12v batteries then? At first I thought this was a bad batch issue...then a software issue...still some bad batches out there???

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[Kaivball]

I am surprised as well that we still see fresh 12V problems.

 

[stopcrazypp]

Excellent!

So, what is the deal with the 12v batteries then? At first I thought this was a bad batch issue...then a software issue...still some bad batches out there???

Sent via Tapatalk.

From the 12V battery thread, a bunch were the batch of bad batteries (dead car), some were software (annoying warning message, but no other symptoms), but some were real hardware issues (bad connection or DC-DC converter, in which case the battery is not being charged at all).

 

[johnmodels]

Thank you for the title modification.... All is good, the honeymoon can resume.....

 

[pilotSteve]

From the 12V battery thread, a bunch were the batch of bad batteries (dead car), some were software (annoying warning message, but no other symptoms), but some were real hardware issues (bad connection or DC-DC converter, in which case the battery is not being charged at all).

I had the "cannot drive car" warnings last week and it would only stay in P, no N/R/D. While waiting for my tow truck I did the "power off" from Controls app, then 10 minutes later powered on. It came up with no errors and I dove home OK. Tesla made a service appointment for me for today.

Service center was AWESOME! They found the internal error messages that occurred prior to the car giving these errors. The service manager said "hmm not sure what that error means" so he asked Engineering. About 30 minutes later they emailed saying this error (a problem with the DC-DC converter) is due to a firmware update that cannot be done "over the air".

What engineering described is that when the battery loop coolant (which also cools the motor and DC-DC converter) temperature exceeded 40°C with the old firmware the battery would stop being charged. That in turn resulted in the lower 12V battery warnings and the car interpreted that (overly conservatively IMO) as not safe to drive, hence remain in P.

There is a service bulletin that addresses how to fix this by re-flashing some internal components in the DC-DC conversion system. As mentioned before this requires a special laptop and cable connection, cannot be done thru the normal update mechanism.

Agrees perfectly with my two experiences: long drive (200 mils) followed immediately by charge, or spirited driving (test drives by friends) on a hot day. I love it when a root cause for a problem has (already) been found and remedied by Tesla, it just required my visit to Tesla service to implement it.

Awesome service support from Tesla! I am very pleased that this will not reoccur. They also replaced the 12V battery because I asked them to just to be sure some long term damage was not done from the charge issue.

THIS kind of SERVICE is why I've decided to buy the 4+4 service plan. Well done Tesla :smile:

 

[RDoc]

If there's a known software problem with a known solution, why doesn't Tesla just notify all the affected cars over the air?

 

[Todd Burch]

My question was similar. How do the rest of us know that we don't have the same affected firmware version? Do they proactively notify owners who have this version?

 

[FlasherZ]

I asked that question and my service manager told me that he cannot see the firmware levels in the DC-DC converter until he plugs into the car, so it requires physical presence to see if you are afflicted by the problem. I'm saving up all my goodies for another ranger visit (P85 badging, spoiler, door handle replacement, and DC-DC firmware upgrade).