Failed Thermal Test

[CFinVancouver]

I will make it short and sweet...
I have a 2015 Model S 85D, April 2015 delivery. 36,707 km.
We took a two week trip from Vancouver BC to Phoenix AZ and back with a factory tour in between last July 2016. It was hot, the car performed great in the heat. We hit 50C at the supercharger in Needles on afternoon!
With the heat, the two cooling fans up front screamed while charging.

Funny thing, the front louver on the passenger side would not open during this process. It does cycle when you lock and unlock, connect the charger at home, BUT would not open during this supercharging cycle.

Asked service at the Fremont factory to pull the logs, no issue. Told me to have a thermal test when I return home.
Get home, email local service in Vancouver. Told to add it to the list to investigate when I bring it in for service.
In for Service June 2017, ran the thermal test and it failed for the louver. Louver does cycle as I mentioned earlier, but not when supercharging in the heat.
Service guy says there needs to be a part replacement, BUT part is being "re-engineered" and not ready for release. Car is fine to drive. We will keep you posted...
Scratch my head.
Am I supposed to follow-up with somebody on a regular basis?? I have no official documentation or email regarding this...
Would like to see the car out of beta phase and have this function resolved.

Anyone else have some thoughts or suggestions. I read all the forums regularly and have not seen this issue, nor this explanation. I get the impression each service center operates a little differently and I would like to see a bit more standard level of care (yup, I work in a hospital!) throughout the service system. Thx. Chris

 

[ev-now]

Chris, no information on this - but interested how loud the louver cycle is on yours. My wife drives ours most of the time, so I don't hear it - but sometimes when we come into the garage and it's hooked up - that cycle sounds quite loud (wondering if mine is in a pre-fail state).

 

[DienNguyen]

I came in for my 5th annual service recently and got a similar issue as noted in the service invoice:

"Failed thermal test - left and right radiator shutters will require replacement - can be
addressed in conjunction. with next scheduled visit."

According to service center, they are in short of parts for that. I'm not planning to bring it in for service until the sixth annual service unless something goes wrong -- I'm too a little bit concern as well.

 

[apacheguy]

This sounds very odd. How can the louvers cycle in your garage but not at a supercharger? This does not seem right to me. It's like saying "Well my laptop boots up at home, but not at work."

Actually the only way this can happen is if the car is not telling the louvers to open while supercharging. That would suggest a fault in the THC.

 

[dk1888]

Wonder if there's a easy way get it to open up then unplugging it. At least in the summer.

 

[MP3Mike]

I thought I have seen that someone mentioned that they jammed something in them at SCs to keep them open.

 

[MorrisonHiker]

This sounds very odd. How can the louvers cycle in your garage but not at a supercharger?"

Actually the only way this can happen is if the car is not telling the louvers to open while supercharging. That would suggest a fault in the THC.

I think the louvers cycle (open/close) whenever you first start the car. I got my S90D in December 2016 and noticed some odd noises whenever I would get in my car. The S90D from June 2016 that was also in the garage never made these noises. I found a video online from someone in England which showed the problem. She fixed the issue herself but I just had the Service Center fix it when they took care of my other delivery due bill issues. They haven't made a noticeable noise since.

 

[CFinVancouver]

To clarify, louver works, just not at the right time in all situations. In the heat, both fans would operate at full speed, driver louver open, passenger side closed. The affected louver will cycle, when I walk in to the garage, key in pocket and go to plug in the home charger. I think this is odd behavior, the driver's side does not cycle like this. Maybe the two can operate separately for different situations, something I have yet to deduce.
They are not any noisier than other cars, nor are they in a pre-fail state, the one just operates illogically.

 

[ev-now]

They haven't made a noticeable noise since.

Good to know, I'll keep an eye on it and get them to check it next time it goes to the SC. Thinking about it, I've not noticed it since it's last visit, perhaps they noticed it and dealt with it.

 

[tstafford]

Good to know. I've noticed that my cooling fan seems really loud sometimes when I go in the garage. I was wondering if I'd just never noticed it before or if there was something to it. Guess I'll have it checked next time I'm at the SC.

 

[apacheguy]

To clarify, louver works, just not at the right time in all situations. In the heat, both fans would operate at full speed, driver louver open, passenger side closed. The affected louver will cycle, when I walk in to the garage, key in pocket and go to plug in the home charger. I think this is odd behavior, the driver's side does not cycle like this. Maybe the two can operate separately for different situations, something I have yet to deduce.
They are not any noisier than other cars, nor are they in a pre-fail state, the one just operates illogically.

Yeah, sorry, I'm just not understanding how this can be. If you observe the louver to open normally, it should *always* open normally provided that the THC is instructing it to do so. Your failure mode makes me believe this is an issue with the THC rather than the louver itself. It actually sounds like someone commented out the line in the code that sends out the CAN message to open that louver while supercharging.

 

[apacheguy]

Hmm. Ok. Maybe this is possible. If the louver does a self check each time it is powered on, that is independent of a control message, then this could be possible. Then when the THC sends the control message at a supercharger it fails because it lost comms with the unit.