Just got my Tesla, got a couple questions

[graham]

Graham, are you sure about that pre-heat bit?
My assumption was it just allows them to get hotter when being pushed hard, but pre-heating them doesn't sound right to me.

Nope, not sure of anything - I have not really played with the Performance setting yet.

But it was how it was described to me when I picked up my Roadster. They definitely said that it raised the temperature of the batteries. Perhaps they meant that it allowed the temp to go higher (as is described in the manual) but that was not what they said at the time.

Raising the temp was described as an effort to lower the internal resistance of the batteries to increase the power. So it wasn't just a "we are lowering this battery-life saving threshold". It was an effort to specifically increase performance. But it still might be done passively by just increasing the temp high water mark, I do not know.

 

[TEG]

Thanks, Graham... That makes some sense.
I found an interesting report on battery performance here:
Battery Performance Characteristics - How to specify and test a battery

Some things gleaned from that:
* Internal resistance tends to get much higher when cells are near 'empty' so I would imagine that performance is somewhat limited when your pack is low on charge.
* Internal resistance goes up as the pack wears out, so in 5 years your pack might provide not only less range, but also less performance potential.

(These are just guesses though - I probably don't know all the factors)

 

[ra-san]

When I picked up my car they explained it to me the same way as Graham said, using the term preheating. That was news to me, since I thought it just raised the limit too. That's always the way it had been described to me previously. I should have questioned them more, but it was the "customer advocate" going over it with me, and I didn't really want to distract him from his routine, nor was I sure he'd know for sure if I asked deeper questions, given some of the other answers he gave.

I haven't dug further, nor even tried performance mode yet. Will ask one of the more technical contacts next time I'm talking with them, to try to find out more. Would also like to know what they are now saying the official 0-60 is for the 2008's, and how they are explaining what I understand to be concessions made that bring the time to around 4.1 rather than 3.8/3.9. It's a great car, and the .2 isn't going to make me not enjoy it or anything, just would like to actually hear them explain it, or correct me with good facts if my understanding from other threads on this site are wrong.

 

[SuperB]

I can't see why they would change the acceleration, what would be the point?

 

[TEG]

Over here was some discussion of minor changes to acceleration capability.

Quote from Graham:

...I believe earlier versions of the 2008 firmware did hit these acceleration numbers but were causing other problems and had to be backed out. I know they have been trying to make firmware changes and other things to bring the 2008s to that point, but they have thus far been unsuccessful...

I am not sure what "other problems" meant.

 

[vfx]

Right,

Owners of 2008 Tesla Roadster have cars that only do 0-60 in 4.1 seconds not 3.9 even though it was and is an advertised spec.
The 2009 (2010) cars will apparently fix this issue.

 

[AntronX]

Hey SuperB, is this your GT?

 

[SuperB]

Yep, pretty sure that's it.

I need to take it for a drive this weekend!

 

[AntronX]

Cool, I will wave if I see you on 95.
Stop by Florida Electric Auto Association meeting on Saturday, June 13 in Boca. Florida Electric Auto Association - FLEAA Meeting and Workshop

 

[SuperB]

A couple things I learned from my recent service visit:

My AC is working properly, so I'm in for a hot summer.
The MC 120 charger has problems for most owners and the cause/solution are a work in progress.

I still love the car.:biggrin:

 

[billarnett]

A couple things I learned from my recent service visit:

My AC is working properly, so I'm in for a hot summer.
The MC 120 charger has problems for most owners and the cause/solution are a work in progress.

I still love the car.:biggrin:

I removed the GFI from my 120v charger. And ran a full charge cycle with it (35 hours :-( No problems.

Note: I did not stand in a puddle while handling the cord. I did not stick my fingers in the socket. I did not chew on the cord while it was charging. YMMV

 

[SuperB]

Yeah, I had heard that some owners cut off the gfi to get it to work. Since I don't need it right not, I thought I'd wait a bit longer to see what, if anything, Telsa decides to do.

Seems to me they should provide it without GFI and include a warning to only plug it into a GFI outlet. But then why bother, does the 90 Amp 240 V charger come with GFI, and at that output, would GFI do any good?

Delays and non-answers are par for the course with Tesla, I suppose we should get accept that, but that is where GM when wrong (IMHO).

 

[beepayz]

I've discussed the issue with the MC120 with a Tesla rep. last week. They are well aware of the issue. They also updated my Firmware to 3.3.1 which was supposed to prevent rapid discharge of the battery if the GFI tripped. Still having problems with the GFI. I'm having my electrician come out tomorrow to check out the outlet, don't know if it will help....

 

[SuperB]

Anyone else have a HW error when charging with the home charger?

Some Tesla reps say it's a normal firmware issue they are working on.
Other reps say it shouldn't do this at all.

I wish they'd all get on the same page and tell they same lie, oh, and fix my AC before winter.

 

[SByer]

The "sense mode fault" thing does seem to happen with some frequency. I just tap the screen and ignore it at this point.