Model S(2017)75D Air conditioning not working cause battery temperature

[jorobsand]

Oh I get it... the bioweapon button cranks the fan to 11 and puts on outside air. I have my air on LO and auto which cranks the fan to 11 and puts on recirculating air... however it feels really weak. My wife’s Ford Escape will blow like a hurricane and be ice cold... my fan on 11 feels mildly breezy at best.

Yea, that really sounds like the coolant/refrigerant to me and not necessarily the fan. That's how it felt with my issue. Fan speed was all the way up but the air just wasn't as cold as expected. The AC on the Tesla can absolutely blow ice cold, just like other cars. I would take it in to a service center to have them check it out.

 

[Saghost]

If you have Tesla Remote or a similar app that shows power usage during preconditioning, you might be able to see if the compressor is being limited by refrigerant issues.

On a hot day, I believe it should ramp up to 6kW of draw within the first minute or so and stay there until the temps come near the target.

If it doesn't hit 6kW, or gets there and then drops back immediately, that's an indication that the compressor is being limited by something - probably the refrigerant pressure limits due to a reduced refrigerant volume.

 

[houstonian]

Had this issue with my S:

2017 S75D AC issues here too.

Symptom: HVAC struggled to cool cabin air. No issues with fan control.

Frequency: Twice, ~6 months apart. Oddly enough, both after the car was parked & plugged in for a few days (airport).

Diagnostic Problem: Each time it happened I called into Tesla so they could pull logs. The first time the situation resolved itself the next day and the SC reported upon followup this was a known issue and they were working on a firmware patch. The second time the same thing happened (issue resolved itself after ~24hrs) but I noted the AC seemed to struggle to keep up with Houston's heat. Made an appointment with SC for manual inspection.

Further observation of the car prior to the SC appointment revealed if the AC was switched on via the app to pre-cool the car, the cooling fans would be on FULL blast (think Supercharger level!) just to cool from ~100 to ~77. Certainly not normal and did not match up to my experience the prior summer where you would hear the fans operating, but not at that level.

SC Diagnostic: the valve (or whatever the thing is called) regulating outside air (HOT) vs using inside cabin air (COOL) was partially faulty. Faulty component was replaced. Specifically asked if the logs showed any issues with battery temperature, SC reported they did not. The system appears to be working normally now.

Further comments: I've noted when I pre-cool and start driving, the outside temperature gauge will shoot up by ~10 degrees and then slowly start to come back down. This only seems to happen when I do pre-cooling. Unsure if this is normal or not.

Hope it helps - here's exactly what they did:

View attachment 328914

No issues since then but I aim to always park in the shade and/or leave the HVAC on in the mid 70’s when out and and parked. Paranoid about my gen 1 MCU melting/yellowing.

 

[jlv1]

Did popping off the trim cause you any headaches, or was it pretty simple? Like I said the video I watched of the dude doing it made it seem as though it was a stressful process.

I suspect you watched this video, which is the one I followed (the replacement is the same for the X and facelift S). The guy in this video a terrible time with the clips. Mine were not that bad -- it maybe took me 5-10 minutes total using a similar pry tool as he has in the video, and I went extra slow. It probably helped that my dash had been disassembled twice before (one for the MCU replacement and Tesla had replaced the air filter at 1 year).

It also helped that I was told "It’s going to sound like you’re breaking things but it’s ok. Those clips sound horrific" by Chris Salvo (of EV Tuning and The Electrified Garage in NH; he formerly worked in Tesla Service).

 

[houstonian]

Follow up - think I may be having the Intake Actuator (1139238-00-A) failing again. Very similar symptoms to what I experienced in 2018. Will schedule a service appointment and report back when I've got more info.

Edited to add - there's a similar thread here as well: A/C not keeping up?

2017 S75D AC issues here too.

Symptom: HVAC struggled to cool cabin air. No issues with fan control.

Frequency: Twice, ~6 months apart. Oddly enough, both after the car was parked & plugged in for a few days (airport).

Diagnostic Problem: Each time it happened I called into Tesla so they could pull logs. The first time the situation resolved itself the next day and the SC reported upon followup this was a known issue and they were working on a firmware patch. The second time the same thing happened (issue resolved itself after ~24hrs) but I noted the AC seemed to struggle to keep up with Houston's heat. Made an appointment with SC for manual inspection.

Further observation of the car prior to the SC appointment revealed if the AC was switched on via the app to pre-cool the car, the cooling fans would be on FULL blast (think Supercharger level!) just to cool from ~100 to ~77. Certainly not normal and did not match up to my experience the prior summer where you would hear the fans operating, but not at that level.

SC Diagnostic: the valve (or whatever the thing is called) regulating outside air (HOT) vs using inside cabin air (COOL) was partially faulty. Faulty component was replaced. Specifically asked if the logs showed any issues with battery temperature, SC reported they did not. The system appears to be working normally now.

Further comments: I've noted when I pre-cool and start driving, the outside temperature gauge will shoot up by ~10 degrees and then slowly start to come back down. This only seems to happen when I do pre-cooling. Unsure if this is normal or not.