Is my battery dead?

[springdaisy82]

Well, my SR plus Model 3 is giving us errors. We are having it towed to the service station as it won't drive.

BMS_A151 and BMS_A035.

Does this mean the battery has died? We are out of warranty, unfortunately.

Also, if we DO have to get the battery replaced, can we upgrade to a longer-range battery while we are at it?

 

[jdcollins5]

Well, my SR plus Model 3 is giving us errors. We are having it towed to the service station as it won't drive.

BMS_A151 and BMS_A035.

Does this mean the battery has died? We are out of warranty, unfortunately.

Also, if we DO have to get the battery replaced, can we upgrade to a longer-range battery while we are at it?

Those are 12V battery alerts, not HV battery.

 

[jjrandorin]

Also, if we DO have to get the battery replaced, can we upgrade to a longer-range battery while we are at it?

As @jdcollins5 says, those are almost assuredly 12v battery alerts, not main battery alerts. If for some reason you happen to have a bad main high voltage battery, the answer to "can I upgrade to a longer range battery while we are at it" is "No", at least not through tesla, and not for any model 3s than I am aware of.

 

[springdaisy82]

Those are 12V battery alerts, not HV bat

I hope you are right. When I called in, the tech initially said "oh, this is the 12volt battery". But when I read her the BMS_A151 and BMS_A035 alerts, she said "oh, you need to get this looked at, it might be more than that". I was considering replacing the 12-volt battery at the time.

Anyway, we had it towed to the service center last night. Hopefully, they will take a look at it right away and let me know what the issue is. I'll report back here with the results.

Thank you, everyone!

-Chris

 

[AlanSubie4Life]

Those are 12V battery alerts, not HV battery.

These are not normal alerts for 12V battery.

A properly detected 12V failure will be indicated as such (with three different cycling error messages about high standby power, etc.). And there is no reason the heating system would be affected.

 

[springdaisy82]

We finally had the diagnostics done. It looks like HVAC, PTC SERVICE ASSY(1107677-00-A), PTC HEATER DUAL ZONE(1088218-00-I), and ASY,12V BATT AND VENT PLUG,M3(1129182-00-B). I have also attached a screenshot of the estimate. Total cost so far in addition to towing is $1,078.50. They did say the estimate is subject to change though.

I am glad that it doesn't seem to be the main battery, but what causes this failure, does anyone know?

The dream for this car is that being electric, there are less maintenance and fewer systems to fail...I guess these next 100,000 miles will tell the story.

Overall I love the car. Just hoping we don't have many of these problems now that we are out of warranty. I wonder if I should try to find a local shop that works on Teslas that isn't Tesla.

 

[jdcollins5]

We finally had the diagnostics done. It looks like HVAC, PTC SERVICE ASSY(1107677-00-A), PTC HEATER DUAL ZONE(1088218-00-I), and ASY,12V BATT AND VENT PLUG,M3(1129182-00-B). I have also attached a screenshot of the estimate. Total cost so far in addition to towing is $1,078.50. They did say the estimate is subject to change though.

I am glad that it doesn't seem to be the main battery, but what causes this failure, does anyone know?

The dream for this car is that being electric, there are less maintenance and fewer systems to fail...I guess these next 100,000 miles will tell the story.

Overall I love the car. Just hoping we don't have many of these problems now that we are out of warranty. I wonder if I should try to find a local shop that works on Teslas that isn't Tesla.

The majority of your Alerts were due to 12V battery failure. 12V battery failures are not uncommon with typical life 3-5 years. Maybe the 12V battery failed in such a way that it caused the HVAC system failures. This is the first post I have seen with a 12V battery failure and a HVAC failure.

 

[springdaisy82]

The majority of your Alerts were due to 12V battery failure. 12V battery failures are not uncommon with typical life 3-5 years. Maybe the 12V battery failed in such a way that it caused the HVAC system failures. This is the first post I have seen with a 12V battery failure and a HVAC failure.

Ok, good to know. I wish Tesla was more communicative about what is going on. Maybe they will give me a better run down once they are done.

 

[springdaisy82]

I asked them for more details, and they said this:

"Diagnosed and found the PTC heater has low isolation resistance. Will need PTC header and 12v battery replaced. 12v battery died due to being unsupported because of the PTC header fault."

 

[springdaisy82]

I asked them for more details, and they said this:

"Diagnosed and found the PTC heater has low isolation resistance. Will need PTC header and 12v battery replaced. 12v battery died due to being unsupported because of the PTC header fault."

I could get a used heater online for under $200. I bet I could actually do this myself. But since I would have to tow it home, it probably isn't worth it.

 

[springdaisy82]

The repair is now complete, so I am picking up the car this evening. No change in the estimate, and nothing else we discovered. The total cost of the repair was $1,078.50 (not including towing).

I am really glad it wasn't anything more serious. However, it seems like the heater dying caused the car to not be able to drive. Doesn't that seem like a poor design? Does anyone understand why this is, or is it more complicated than that?

 

[derotam]

The repair is now complete, so I am picking up the car this evening. No change in the estimate, and nothing else we discovered. The total cost of the repair was $1,078.50 (not including towing).

I am really glad it wasn't anything more serious. However, it seems like the heater dying caused the car to not be able to drive. Doesn't that seem like a poor design? Does anyone understand why this is, or is it more complicated than that?

That is kind of interesting because I think the PTC heater is 450V so why/how it affected the 12V system in that way I don't know.

 

[jdcollins5]

The repair is now complete, so I am picking up the car this evening. No change in the estimate, and nothing else we discovered. The total cost of the repair was $1,078.50 (not including towing).

I am really glad it wasn't anything more serious. However, it seems like the heater dying caused the car to not be able to drive. Doesn't that seem like a poor design? Does anyone understand why this is, or is it more complicated than that?

The way I read the Service Report, the PTC heater had a short/ground fault and disabled the HV battery. With the HV battery disabled, the DC-DC converter was not able to charge 12V battery, resulting in failure.

I do not see this as a bad design, but Protection working as it should.