Model S battery not charging all the way

[goodbyebmw]

Hey everyone,

I experienced something that was rather unique and worrisome on my end. I have a 60 kWh, and generally get 177 miles of range on a 90% charge. I was charging at a Supercharger late Sunday evening and the 90% charge only gave me 156 miles of range. I moved my charge limit to "trip" and back to "daily" to see if that would alleviate the issue, but that did not help either.

I called Tesla support, and the rep suggested I cycle power the Tesla, but it did not help. He saw the same issue as me, a 90% charge with only 156 miles. He made a note to have my local service center call me in two days.

I couldn't find any threads of owners experiencing this issue. Any thoughts on your guys' end?

 

[Electric700]

You could try charging all the way to 100% to see what happens. It could take some time at an hour or more if you decide to do that at a Supercharger, due to battery balancing. Also, do you have your car set to Rated?

 

[BEEZR]

Hey everyone,

I experienced something that was rather unique and worrisome on my end. I have a 60 kWh, and generally get 177 miles of range on a 90% charge. I was charging at a Supercharger late Sunday evening and the 90% charge only gave me 156 miles of range. I moved my charge limit to "trip" and back to "daily" to see if that would alleviate the issue, but that did not help either.

I called Tesla support, and the rep suggested I cycle power the Tesla, but it did not help. He saw the same issue as me, a 90% charge with only 156 miles. He made a note to have my local service center call me in two days.

I couldn't find any threads of owners experiencing this issue. Any thoughts on your guys' end?

Yes -- I'm experiencing the exact same problem; I have a 60 kWh as well. I just picked up my CPO three weeks ago and immediately noticed my 90% was only 165 consistently. After reading several threads I tried to run the battery to below 10% and then charge up to 100%. However, it stopped at what appeared to be 92-93% (not showing full). Contacted my Service Center on Monday (they asked for pictures, too).

Yesterday I received this message from the SC:

"We have engineers working on this case. I have been informed that the good news is that the battery is actually charging to full capacity. The issue you are experiencing lies within a slight inaccuracy to the state of charge that is being displayed. Engineers are working to understand the cause of the issue and will imply a fix via firmware that will be sent over the air. Please let me know if there are any questions in the meantime, thank you!"​

Send me a PM if you want to connect. I will post any updates I receive from the SC.

 

[scottm]

..well that's promising.

Sometimes Tesla forgets all the models when doing software releases, and bugs arise on a limited range of cars for reasons that are unique to those cars. Vintage 60's are probably a rare enough breed by now, they didn't do the test case. Or maybe they crossed it up with the new 60's, which are based on 70 packs. And the math got skewed for display purposes shows wrong values.

It's probably not firmware, but just application software. I'm a stickler for what is really 'firmware' in the car, and what is 'application' software. Widgets that show on center console or either side of the instrument cluster... and even the battery indicator in both places... are apps. They probably got the math wrong in the app. The "firmware" in the BMS probably won't change when they download the fix.

 

[goodbyebmw]

Hi everyone, thanks for your inputs! My local SC called and said their engineers reviewed the logs this past Sunday and saw the issue. The rep said that the engineers are working on a fix via a firmware update, but provided no timeframe on when it may roll out. I asked the rep if this was perhaps a calibration issue or a bug, and he couldn't give me a straight answer.

I got lucky; after noticing the issue and bringing it up to Tesla engineers, my vintage 60 kWh charged back to 178 miles on a 90% charge (which is what I normally would see).

@Electric700, I have my car set at "rated range." I also toggled between Ideal and Rated, but there was no change on my rated range.

I feel like the vintage or classic Model S owners are forgotten about now.

 

[scottm]

What would be real interesting is with the bug in place, take the car down to zero miles / percent being reported on battery.
Then keep driving.. and record how many miles achieved below zero. Driving circles around a nearby charger of course.
You'll probably get to drive 20 miles ... before hitting the real zero. So driving for 10 miles below reported zero is probably doable without deep concerns. But see what the car does in that zone. Depending on how the bug is implemented, it might show negative values of battery percent remaining when it goes below zero. That would be priceless to see! Flip between %, rated, and ideal reports. See what the energy graph does. Pick a destination that is 20 miles away and see what the trip predictor does..

Too fun.

 

[Electric700]

Hi everyone, thanks for your inputs! My local SC called and said their engineers reviewed the logs this past Sunday and saw the issue. The rep said that the engineers are working on a fix via a firmware update, but provided no timeframe on when it may roll out. I asked the rep if this was perhaps a calibration issue or a bug, and he couldn't give me a straight answer.

I got lucky; after noticing the issue and bringing it up to Tesla engineers, my vintage 60 kWh charged back to 178 miles on a 90% charge (which is what I normally would see).

@Electric700, I have my car set at "rated range." I also toggled between Ideal and Rated, but there was no change on my rated range.

I feel like the vintage or classic Model S owners are forgotten about now.

Good to know that yours is charging to a normal level now. I wonder if it is because you switched between Ideal and Rated? Also I don't think the classic Model S owners will be forgotten. The people that got those were the Model S pioneers (the same applies to the first Roadsters and Model Xs) If anything, I think that this will indicate that the older Model S versions, including the Model S 40, need to be fully covered during testing. Even then, issues can still come up.

@scottm, your suggestion is interesting but I don't think I will try that. It probably is not very good for the battery to let it go to zero or lower, and I have seen that some owners have had theirs shut down right at zero.

 

[BEEZR]

What would be real interesting is with the bug in place, take the car down to zero miles / percent being reported on battery.
Then keep driving.. and record how many miles achieved below zero. Driving circles around a nearby charger of course.
You'll probably get to drive 20 miles ... before hitting the real zero. So driving for 10 miles below reported zero is probably doable without deep concerns. But see what the car does in that zone. Depending on how the bug is implemented, it might show negative values of battery percent remaining when it goes below zero. That would be priceless to see! Flip between %, rated, and ideal reports. See what the energy graph does. Pick a destination that is 20 miles away and see what the trip predictor does..

Too fun.

The only way I would consider doing this is if my car were on blocks in the garage (like in Ferris Bueller's Day Off), so when it stopped I could just plug in. However, we know what happened to the car in the movie...

 

[scottm]

I don't know if the Tesla would spin the wheels in a powered way unless they met with some road resistance, like it would if put on a dyno.