Heating "System unavailable or limited"

[MyTmase]

Yesterday, driving home through the snow storm, the car's heat just quit....started blowing cool air, and then received the message saying I was SOL.

I'm pretty sure I was right around 20% SOC remaining, and about 15 minutes from my house, fortunately...this morning, things seemed to be working ok, again until about the last 15 minutes of the drive (with almost 60% SOC...never got a new message this morning, though.

Is this the heating failure/issue that keeps popping up on Google?

 

[damonbrodie]

Open a ticket in the app. When that happened to me, they remotely diagnosed it and were able to determine it isn't a failed part, but instead a firmware issue that was recently introduced.

 

[MyTmase]

Spoke to Service Center this afternoon, and was told they're aware of 'quitting' heaters in extreme cold. They're working with engineers in CA to try and address, but no real solution at the moment.

Said to put a ticket in so things can be documented, and they'll go from there. Have another issue they need to look at too, so going to lump them together and see where it goes.

 

[WattsappMTL]

Happened to me this morning after leaving my garage which was just above freezing point. Pre-heated the cabin for comfort, then after about 10 mins of driving at -22C the heating system quit with "Cabin climate control system requires service" warning. SOC was around 58%. BTW I noticed the cabin fan kept running even though the heat pump wasn't generating any heat, so it would have cooled the cabin down pretty fast if I hadn't manually selected climate control off! Fortunately I wasn't going far and got the car home again before it got uncomfortably cold. I've raised a service ticket to see what Tesla suggests.

 

[damonbrodie]

Happened to me this morning after leaving my garage which was just above freezing point. Pre-heated the cabin for comfort, then after about 10 mins of driving at -22C the heating system quit with "Cabin climate control system requires service" warning. SOC was around 58%. BTW I noticed the cabin fan kept running even though the heat pump wasn't generating any heat, so it would have cooled the cabin down pretty fast if I hadn't manually selected climate control off! Fortunately I wasn't going far and got the car home again before it got uncomfortably cold. I've raised a service ticket to see what Tesla suggests.

I hope this is addressed soon. We're in the coldest part of winter now and could really use a fully operational heating system in our cars....

 

[Velcade]

Had this happen last week. They replaced the three pressure sensors and added refrigerant. The tech said that they've made 3 iterations of these sensors since my vehicle was built. They old style don't last as long in the extreme cold.

There were also two recalls they performed "Reseal Front Control Arm Ball Joints" and "Update Firmware for Trailer Lights".

The heat has been great and the whole HVAC system is much quieter now.

 

[Mylene]

Model 3 2022, my Tesla is definitely NOT done for cold weather. Made for warm weather I guess.

Heating cabin stopped working. Today it was -15 celcius. I Tried to preheat cabin before leaving without success. It gave me a failure message as well. I thought it would warm up as I would drive and ended up to freeze instead.

At that price, not understanding why we have such issues. It is minimum comfort to have a warm habitacle.

 

[WattsappMTL]

Model 3 2022, my Tesla is definitely NOT done for cold weather. Made for warm weather I guess.

Heating cabin stopped working. Today it was -15 celcius. I Tried to preheat cabin before leaving without success. It gave me a failure message as well. I thought it would warm up as I would drive and ended up to freeze instead.

At that price, not understanding why we have such issues. It is minimum comfort to have a warm habitacle.

Not quite, it's something new this year. There's a changeover in heat pump function at -15C, where it starts to draw heat from the battery rather than outside air. Apparently the recent software changes that were supposed to improve cold weather operations have resulted in sudden shutdowns. My failures have been at -16C to -22C, preheated or while driving. Latest failure was enroute from Kingston to Montreal, shut down temporarily in Cornwall then stopped completely 20 km from home. Pulled into the driveway at -18C outside, 0C inside. It seems that Tesla may now have a fix - mine's going in next week. Raise a service request in the app and schedule a visit to the Service Centre. Try to give them date and time it shut down. If it happens again, press the right scroll wheel and say "bug report", then update the conversation in the service booking to mention you did that. It makes it easier for Tesla Service to examine the circumstances of any failure. Then turn off climate control to reduce the amount of cold air coming into the cabin.

 

[Mylene]

Not quite, it's something new this year. There's a changeover in heat pump function at -15C, where it starts to draw heat from the battery rather than outside air. Apparently the recent software changes that were supposed to improve cold weather operations have resulted in sudden shutdowns. My failures have been at -16C to -22C, preheated or while driving. Latest failure was enroute from Kingston to Montreal, shut down temporarily in Cornwall then stopped completely 20 km from home. Pulled into the driveway at -18C outside, 0C inside. It seems that Tesla may now have a fix - mine's going in next week. Raise a service request in the app and schedule a visit to the Service Centre. Try to give them date and time it shut down. If it happens again, press the right scroll wheel and say "bug report", then update the conversation in the service booking to mention you did that. It makes it easier for Tesla Service to examine the circumstances of any failure. Then turn off climate control to reduce the amount of cold air coming into the cabin.

Thank you! I raised a service request. Hope will be fixed quickly. Earliest Service appointment only in 2 weeks.

 

[WattsappMTL]

Thank you! I raised a service request. Hope will be fixed quickly. Earliest Service appointment only in 2 weeks.

If it's a serious problem, call Service directly or go to the SC and talk to them. They may be able to fit you in or hold the car and give you a loaner. Tesla policy is to supply a loaner if repair will take more than 3 hours. Unforunately all the loaners available now are ICE and you have to pay for gas. Also its really hard to find the number to call, used to be on Tesla website but I had to use Canada411 in the end.

 

[Velcade]

Thank you! I raised a service request. Hope will be fixed quickly. Earliest Service appointment only in 2 weeks.

Send a message in the appointment saying "Other than freezing my ass off is there any damage or concern with driving the car with the heating system is broken?" They'll move you up to next day.

 

[WattsappMTL]

Send a message in the appointment saying "Other than freezing my ass off is there any damage or concern with driving the car with the heating system is broken?" They'll move you up to next day.

That works too, just not as quick as a phone call or SC visit. It's what I did the night I got home as cold as an icicle. They answered the next morning and offered an immediate slot. I decided to wait till next week because I need the car for a road trip this weekend, fingers crossed it will be warm enough to avoid heat pump shutdown.

 

[Velcade]

That works too, just not as quick as a phone call or SC visit. It's what I did the night I got home as cold as an icicle. They answered the next morning and offered an immediate slot. I decided to wait till next week because I need the car for a road trip this weekend, fingers crossed it will be warm enough to avoid heat pump shutdown.

It worked for me immediately. Sent the message at 7pm and had a 7am appointment right away. They monitor the message system 24/7

 

[Pianewman]

It worked for me immediately. Sent the message at 7pm and had a 7am appointment right away. They monitor the message system 24/7

Regional differences apply here. Service Centers don't all respond in a timely manner, similar to ICE dealerships.

 

[WattsappMTL]

It worked for me immediately. Sent the message at 7pm and had a 7am appointment right away. They monitor the message system 24/7

Good to know but maybe not everywhere, as @Pianewman has suggested. I had an outstanding question in the same thread asking how to purge the V11 software download before it installed, and they never responded. A simple "not possible" would have been more helpful than leaving me wondering if they'd seen my message. Also there was no comment on the original complaint either, although the appointment was still 2 weeks away. The way the app works, you can't have 2 service requests open at the same time, have to add new topics to the original one even if there's no relevance.

 

[Prax]

Thank you! I raised a service request. Hope will be fixed quickly. Earliest Service appointment only in 2 weeks.

Also file a complaint with the Canadian DOT/NHTSA.

 

[DanDi58]

I know when these heat issues were occurring last winter, before I had my car, people said to just drive to the SC immediately - since it's s safety. You can't safely drive a car when the windows frost up and you can't defrost them. IIRC last year's issue was more hardware-related vs this year, where it's at least partially firmware-related in some cases.

 

[Exped1ter]

Just got my car back with new heat pump and on .7 firmware. Anyone have this happen again since .7 AND with brand new pump? I’m wondering if some recent failures are from previous damage to pump from a bad software update and the issue has not been mitigated with recent updates.

 

[Exped1ter]

Just got my car back with new heat pump and on .7 firmware. Anyone have this happen again since .7 AND with brand new pump? I’m wondering if some recent failures are from previous damage to pump from a bad software update and the issue has not been mitigated with recent updates.

Meant to say “ and the issue has now been mitigated with recent updates”

 

[WattsappMTL]

I'm on .7 and started yesterday's road trip at -16C (after parking overnight outside). I didn't have any shutdowns like I have previously experienced at that temperature. The car is still going in to the SC next week and Tesla said they have "ordered parts" to deal with my problem. I had previously read that the shutdowns had to do with air inlet door freezing open, but SC told me that the earlier firmware changes have caused heat pumps to overheat and shed material into the coolant circuit. Anyone know more about that failure mode?