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Low Voltage Battery
- Thread starter ChiefMAC
- Start date
Just got this warning today. Almost 3 years and 66,000 miles off the original factory battery. Scheduled a service call, 18 days out and coming to my home. Estimate says $105.50. Im a 4 hour round trip to closest SC so that seems reasonable. Only concern is..will I make it 18 days? Would love to see some specs or documentation on how this battery gets charged by the drive battery.
ATPMSD
Active Member
Turn on Sentry and disable all exclusions. As long as Sentry is on the car will not go to sleep. When the car is awake the HV battery powers the 12V system and charges the battery - the 12V battery is not used to run the car.
18-days is kind of ridiculous, but seems typical of Tesla these days.
Well sir, changing the battery in the older model s is not a simple drop in. Severe risk of getting electrocuted if not very careful.
airborne spoon
Active Member
Are you high? Its just as easy to change the 12v battery in a 2014 than it is in any ICE vehicle in some cases its easier in the tesla. it takes like 15 min to do and that includes taking out the frunk.
electricar
Member
R&R of the 12V battery in a nose cone car is not a trivial task and certainly not a 15 minute job.
AjrUleZ
MS and MX Long Range Plus 21" and 22" OEM
SC is asking me $390 for replacing the battery on my 2016 AP1 Tesla Model S.
I decided to get one from ohmmu Lithium battery and replace it myself.
I run dash cam + dog mode + brighter LEDs
I decided to get one from ohmmu Lithium battery and replace it myself.
I run dash cam + dog mode + brighter LEDs
ucmndd
Well-Known Member
I see your signature says "Dec 2014 P85D".. I think all "D" models have the battery in the easy location, rightly visible when you remove the frunk?
I'm pretty sure @Penn and @electricar are talking about RWD cars when they say "early Model S"..
Here's a Gruber video about changing the battery on those:
A screenshot showing the battery location:
Already a bunch of crap like cabin air intake and fuse box removed to get this far, and the battery is still not out.
Same here. For me it was total of $261 ($165 for the battery) + ~$16tax.
Since it's been ~10 years and I just now got the low voltage warning I figure I'll just pay it given the added difficulty of swapping out the battery on the 2012 models. Note it's not 11 years since soon after I got delivery they replaced the battery for free. 10 years!! If its $300 every 10 years that's not so bad in my view. I can also justify this given all the money I've saved on service in general compared to my prior ICE cars. Literally I've had to do hardly anything over the 11 years.
FYI, I asked and it was the same cost for mobile service vs bringing it in. Also they scheduled the visit for the next day (today). I'm expecting them at the front door before noon.
Just discovered this thread. I inadvertently created a new thread on this topic on Feb. 16, which I'm cross-referencing here:
teslamotorsclub.com
How long after a low 12v battery warning?
Once the low 12v battery warning pops up, how long do you have till it dies? Asking since the first available service date is more than a month from now. The existing 12v battery is 4 years old.
teslamotorsclub.com
aerodyne
2 of 3 EV's - Defect Free!
Correct. The 12v battery locations in the earlier Model S builds are different and tedious to work with. For RWD cars, the 12v battery housing is just ridiculously placed. It’s almost like they designed it so it never needs to be replaced. It took an experienced Mobile Tech exactly 50 minutes to do mine. He said “yeah, when they designed it they weren’t thinking about the technicians!”. There was lots of pushing and shoving of the parts inside that very tight cavity. The posters who say it’s a 5 to 15 minutes job are definitely not talking about the older nose-coned RWD Model S’s and should make it clear when offering advice.
Lasttoy
Active Member
There were 4 guys. We could not get the 12v out. There was zero room for one finger much less two hands. We finally figured it out. U got it all ready to lift. Get a 2 inch tie down strap. Long thin screwdriver. Push the strap under the battery till the middle. Lift straight up.
New cars takes five minutes, up front.
New cars takes five minutes, up front.
geordi
Mr Fusion V.1
Just pulled the 12V battery from my sister's 2013 S..... OMFG what a pain in the ass. This is what happens when idiots design EVERYTHING on a computer and have zero understanding of how something is worked on in the real world.
There was an issue of Popular Mechanics a few years ago where Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman (The Mythbusters guys) were asked to "take over" that issue. Great edition. Jamie wrote a fantastic editorial article, positing the question.... What would a hammer look like, if designed by someone that had never used a hammer? - I hope that issue is available online, so people can read it, it's worth it.
The early design of the S, is clearly a car that was designed by the colored pencil department that had NEVER used a wrench before.
There was an issue of Popular Mechanics a few years ago where Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman (The Mythbusters guys) were asked to "take over" that issue. Great edition. Jamie wrote a fantastic editorial article, positing the question.... What would a hammer look like, if designed by someone that had never used a hammer? - I hope that issue is available online, so people can read it, it's worth it.
The early design of the S, is clearly a car that was designed by the colored pencil department that had NEVER used a wrench before.
geordi
Mr Fusion V.1
I have not - but my understanding is that the 2014 received a new LV battery when they installed the new HV pack at the end of the warranty last March.
vcor
Tech Specialist
I had my 2013 RWD S battery replaced around late 2015. It took them about 15 minutes. I watched them and was quite impressed. It would have taken me at least an hour to figure it out. Lifting the battery out of that hole is a pain too. A big advantage for the techs having done it many times before as they wasted no time. Today, it may take some techs longer as there are far fewer of these early RWD cars around and perhaps more Tesla techs that may have never done it before.
The trick seems to be rotating it first while still in the cavity and then pulling it out sideways. The same trick can be used for installing the new 12v by rotating it first , putting it sideways inside the hole and rotating it again for proper placement. I don't think the mobile tech who did mine did that even though he was reasonably quick with the extraction part. His struggle was to properly put the new 12v in there securely and with reconnecting all those various pieces around the 12v. Something was stuck in there and it took him a longer time to reconnect everything back to the 12v. The total time was 50 minutes for my car.
I agree that newer techs are having difficulties with the older S's since they do not get the chance to work on them that much.
I asked if there were any signs of corrosion around the terminals. He said "not on yours, but on Model 3's ... yes".
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