Energy graph warning symbol?

[Mike_C]

Morning all, and first of all hello - first post on the forum although I've been browsing for a while! I have a late P85+ with AP and really enjoying the car.

However, I have a warning symbol (yellow triangle) appearing that I cannot fathom what it is for. It only seems to appear under hard or continued acceleration, and it appears on the top left corner of the energy graph on the dash (graph on the right, below). I have not been able to find any info for this warning symbol online or in the owners manual, anyone know what it is? It actually brings up the graph as an 'override' until the symbol goes off again.

Incidentally, the outside temperate is hovering around 2'C at the moment, if it's anything to do with that?

Thanks,

Mike

 

[Mike_C]

C'mon, someone must know!!

 

[jerry33]

I looked and I didn't see any warning symbol, just the dot that normally appears.

 

[svp6]

I also saw it when driving in cold weather - the energy graph appeared all of a sudden together with the tiny triangle warning, only to disappear seconds later. I presumed it was because of low remaining range (I arrived home with 18 rated miles left) and cold temp (-5F). I have no clue of the purpose / significance.

 

[Spacela]

The triangle indicates that the car is limiting either regenerative breaking or acceleration. This could be due to cold temperatures or a very high or very low state of charge. If the limitation is due to cold, the triangle and the power limitation will go away as you continue to drive and the battery warms up.

 

[CygnusX1]

If the energy app pops up and the yellow triangle appears at the top end of the power scale just to vanish again a few seconds later, that means that the power train has just limited the amp draw from the battery in order not to exceed the maximum. This maximum amperage draw highly depends on battery SoC and battery temperature (too cold and too hot). Reason is to prevent the brick (cell) voltages of the battery from getting too low due to high discharge current, and to avoid overheating of the cells. Low SoC and low temperatures mean higher internal resistance of the cells and thus higher internal power dissipation which can cause overheating.

Typically this happens when you (try to) use full acceleration under low SoC or low (high) temperature battery condition.

 

[Mike_C]

Thanks guys, that's quelled some fears! I had a decent amount of range (around 150 miles?) and it has only appeared under full-throttle acceleration. It was early in the morning with an outside temperature of around 2-5'C, however I'd been driving for half an hour at this point so would expect batteries to be up to temperature by then (assuming the car will warm them as you drive)? But looks like a combination of cold ambient temperate and maximum throttle applications?

 

[SherSlick]

The little yellow triangle indicates either (or both) that acceleration and/or regenerative breaking are limited. Acceleration gets limited when its colder, and when the SOC is low (less than 10% IIRC). Regen gets limited when its cold and when the battery has been charged to 100% (no room to regen into). The amount either are limited by will be indicated by a dashed yellow line on the sweep, showing the areas the car has blocked out.

The battery is a HUGE thermal mass, it takes a good bit of time for use or the heaters to bring it to optimal temperature.

 

[SomeJoe7777]

The dashed yellow lines on the power meter indicate that there exists a limit on either total available power (usually because of battery temperature or very low state of charge), and/or that there is a limit on regen power (usually because of battery low temperature or a very high state of charge).

The brief appearance of the yellow warning triangle indicates that there has been a change in the limit from what was previously indicated.

If you do not have the power meter displayed on the instrument cluster, the power meter will appear along with the yellow warning triangle (overriding whatever other app you had displayed) for about 10 seconds if it needs to let you know there has been a limit change.

 

[Mike_C]

OK, thanks all. As long as it is not a major issue and just a temporary concern relating to battery temperature or SOC then that's fine, thanks!

 

[Skipdd]

Bump - need advice about the same problem. Going to attach 2 pictures. As you will hopefully see, the car has ~290 miles ranges on it, which is close to the daily full amount, but not high enough to generate regen warning. You can see that with the second pick which shows regen occurring. Temp is 54 degrees F, so shouldn't be an issue either. Based on what I read above, I conjecture that power is being limited. I can't think of a reason for it. I drove from my house to the gym and it sat in the parking lot for about 90 min. It was residential street driving with no fast acceleration. Warning appeared when I got in the car to go home. This has never occurred before. Car is ~2 years old with 40k miles. @SomeJoe7777 @jerry33

Any thoughts? I have a service appt coming up in 2 weeks, but am thinking perhaps this needs to be addressed sooner?

Thanks in advance.

P.S. Sorry for the dirty IC and glare. Baby needs a bath..

 

[jerry33]

Bump - need advice about the same problem. Going to attach 2 pictures. As you will hopefully see, the car has ~290 miles ranges on it, which is close to the daily full amount, but not high enough to generate regen warning. You can see that with the second pick which shows regen occurring. Temp is 54 degrees F, so shouldn't be an issue either. Based on what I read above, I conjecture that power is being limited. I can't think of a reason for it. I drove from my house to the gym and it sat in the parking lot for about 90 min. It was residential street driving with no fast acceleration. Warning appeared when I got in the car to go home. This has never occurred before. Car is ~2 years old with 40k miles. @SomeJoe7777 @jerry33

Any thoughts? I have a service appt coming up in 2 weeks, but am thinking perhaps this needs to be addressed sooner?

Thanks in advance.

P.S. Sorry for the dirty IC and glare. Baby needs a bath..

View attachment 472889 View attachment 472891

12 C is certainly cold enough to trigger the lower power warning. I don't see anything wrong here. To help reduce this, set the charging start time so that it will finish at about the time you start to drive. Also running the heat (using the app) before starting helps as well. The screen shows that the battery is almost warm enough to get full regeneration.

 

[Skipdd]

12 C is certainly cold enough to trigger the lower power warning. I don't see anything wrong here. To help reduce this, set the charging start time so that it will finish at about the time you start to drive. Also running the heat (using the app) before starting helps as well. The screen shows that the battery is almost warm enough to get full regeneration.

Thanks for the reply! I just haven't ever seen this behavior in ~4 years of ownership and 2 cars. I'm used to it when it is in the 30s, F. When it is that cold I almost turn on the car to warm it up for 30 min - 1hr. Thanks again.

 

[SomeJoe7777]

Later versions of the firmware have limited regen at higher ambient temperatures than previous versions.

 

[Skipdd]

Later versions of the firmware have limited regen at higher ambient temperatures than previous versions.

Thanks, that explains a lot. i missed that in the various threads about release impacts.

 

[bonklaus]

I've been having the same issue with the yellow dotted lines AND the yellow warning triangle appearing on my MS. Regardless of whether I precondition the car, whether it's cold or warm, or on a long or short drive - after roughly 5 seconds of full throttle, I get the triangle and dotted yellow lines appear which progressively decrease the power until I lift off. The yellow lines also appeared today on the top of the energy graph and stayed there for around 10 minutes and then just disappeared. At the time I was driving sedately on my way home. the strange thing is I very rarely have my regen limited unless I've charged close to 100%. any ideas?

 

[KalJoMoS]

As others have described that warning sign and the coloured dotted lines do indicate that the car is limiting its full functions.
If the indication is on the upper section of the power graphic then it’s limiting the maximum torque you can use (just seeing the warning sign does indicate the conditions have changed). If there are dotted lines in conjunction of the warning then the limitations are present as long as the situation improves.
If the indication is on the lower section of the power graphic then it’s always about the battery temperature and the limitations if batteries are fully charged. It’s always good to start to precondition your car prior the drive as if the ambient temperature is lower than 15°C outside will get the indication on the dash.
You might ask why do you need to precondition (or to turn the heating on) your car as it would use your SoC in the battery? If you choose not to warm up the car then you will eventually use grater amount of energy on the initial part of your drive and the situation will be the same. I prefer to start with warmer car and cabin if it’s winter season.
Now your concern might indicate that there is not all quite correct on the car as if I use cabin heating for around 15-25min prior my drive in around freezing temperatures, I do not have the issue you describe. Does the vents give you any warm air inside the car?
p.s. Looking at your avatar I have the same specification and year model.

 

[bonklaus]

As others have described that warning sign and the coloured dotted lines do indicate that the car is limiting its full functions.
If the indication is on the upper section of the power graphic then it’s limiting the maximum torque you can use (just seeing the warning sign does indicate the conditions have changed). If there are dotted lines in conjunction of the warning then the limitations are present as long as the situation improves.
If the indication is on the lower section of the power graphic then it’s always about the battery temperature and the limitations if batteries are fully charged. It’s always good to start to precondition your car prior the drive as if the ambient temperature is lower than 15°C outside will get the indication on the dash.
You might ask why do you need to precondition (or to turn the heating on) your car as it would use your SoC in the battery? If you choose not to warm up the car then you will eventually use grater amount of energy on the initial part of your drive and the situation will be the same. I prefer to start with warmer car and cabin if it’s winter season.
Now your concern might indicate that there is not all quite correct on the car as if I use cabin heating for around 15-25min prior my drive in around freezing temperatures, I do not have the issue you describe. Does the vents give you any warm air inside the car?
p.s. Looking at your avatar I have the same specification and year model.

Thanks @KalJoMoS - Something not quite right was my thinking, as it doesn't matter what the temperature is, the length of drive etc, literally all variables you could think of... the dotted line still appears when using full throttle shortly followed by the yellow triangle next to it. Living in the UK, preconditioning is a god send yet even with it in use, those lines still appear. The vents, yes, they give me lovely warm air, so surely it can't be because the car hasn't preconditioned?

 

[KalJoMoS]

IIRC there has been discussion here about the DC/DC converter that might limit the maximum power and torque settings that you describe you have encountered. And there has been discussion about the HV battery fuse that might start to fail, but this was very specific for the performance models that had the Ludricious package installed. Perhaps someone can give you better answer.

 

[bonklaus]

You could well be right. Hopefully I can find a definitive answer from somewhere, as I highly doubt it's normal behaviour. In the mean time, I'll sift through threads and see what I can find. I've sent Tesla some bug reports from the car, so let's see if they give me an answer it's just come back from them and whilst it was there, they said there was nothing wrong with the battery and that it was 'perfectly healthy'... good wording, but anyway, I appreciate your help!