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Luda Retrofit Fried My Battery Management Unit

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T

TheGeneral

Member
May 4, 2016
7
4
California
#1
I wanted to let those who are considering/waiting for a Luda Retrofit know that it is not a 100% straightforward upgrade. I dropped my car off last Tuesday and got a call from Tesla service today that during the upgrade process, they hooked up my battery to the battery management unit (BMU) and the BMU began smoking. There was damage to the BMU (which they have offered to replace with a new BMU) and damage to my battery (which they are offering to "repair" at the factory while providing me a loaner). Obviously, this is very concerning and I do not wish to accept a "repaired" battery. The Service Advisor told me that at the time of the upgrade, the BMU and Battery were outside of the car and no other parts of the car could have been affected by the smoke/heat (perhaps fire?). The advisor also told me that the fault laid with a quality issue in my battery.

Obviously, there are many more questions...I am not hitting the panic button yet because the advisor told me he would call me tomorrow with a plan. I hope that Tesla will do what is right here. I am not sure if I am the only one that this happened to, but I wanted to open this thread and let people know what happened, and hopefully share a good resolution to the situation. I love my Tesla, am considering a Model X, and have a deposit down on a Model 3. I just hope that these issues are resolved satisfactorily so I can continue on board.
 
#3
I'd want a new battery. But since they don't make the 85kWh version anymore, you'd possibly, or even probably, get a refurbished one anyway.

The 85kWh battery was discontinued as an option in late January 2016 in Canada, and discontinued in the U.S. around February 7th of 2016. So it's six in one hand, half dozen in the other. They can either refurbish your battery, or give you one that they refurbished earlier. Unless they have a new one which was never installed into a car lying around.

As long as they stand by their work, it would not matter as much to me, as that's what the warranty is for.

At any rate though, at the end of the day, you are the one who has to be satisfied with whatever transpires from here.

Good luck with the resolution of this matter.
 
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#5
I asked the service advisor about where the BMS was located when the issue occurred because I wanted to know if it was close to other parts that may have been affected. He unequivocally said that both the battery and BMS were outside of the car and also "were the only things hooked up" so nothing else could have been affected by the issues. It seems odd to me that they would remove parts from the car and hook them up outside of the car for the retrofit. Any technical insight you all have would be very helpful.

I plan to head down to the service center tomorrow to talk to a manager and check my car out in person.

Thanks for your words of encouragement.
 
#6
They need to have the battery out and open to replace the fuses, so I would expect them to do some testing while everything is still out of the car before packaging it all back together...so it sounds quite reasonable for them to hook things up outside the car.
 
#7
They have to open up the pack to replace the contactors with iconel ones. Probably they dropped a screwdriver and shorted the module, or scraped it with the lid or something. The service guy likely told you too much and got you worried. They'll fix it. It's not open heart surgery.
 
#10
There are 16 modules in the pack, and each one has a BMB (Battery management Board) which helps balance that module in relation to the rest of the pack. All of the BMBs are slaved via a comm buss to the BMC, the main Battery Management Controller. (also in the pack)

The BMC controls each of the 16 BMBs, telling them whether to charge or discharge their module. The BMC is on the car's CAN bus to communicate the pack's status.

I suspicion they shorted the BMC and probably can't fix it at the SC. They might have to give you a loaner and send the blown pack to Fremont.
 
#13
I feel like managing and regulating the cells is pretty important and if something like the BMS malfunctions, it could conceivably cause damage to other parts of the battery. I spoke with the manager today and he said he did not know if other parts of the battery were damaged.

The service advisor said today that the problem happened when they went to "hook up" the battery to the "dongle." No mention of a short.
 
#15
Spoke with the Manager and the issue appears to be resolved. They are not sure what happened with the pack, it is the first time the issue has occurred to their knowledge. They are going to get me a new pack, 85 Ludicrous, by tomorrow. They promised me it is brand new and has never been in another car. My inner peace is restored.

Thanks for all of your replies and insight.
 
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#16
TheGeneral said:
Spoke with the Manager and the issue appears to be resolved. They are not sure what happened with the pack, it is the first time the issue has occurred to their knowledge. They are going to get me a new pack, 85 Ludicrous, by tomorrow. They promised me it is brand new and has never been in another car. My inner peace is restored.

Thanks for all of your replies and insight.
Click to expand...

That's great news General.

Be sure to post up here when it's done.
How Many P85D Owners Have Completed The Ludicrous Retrofit.
 
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