Model S shut down at 32 miles, leaving me stranded - why?

[MP3Mike]

it seems to be sleeping, but I always have sentry mode on, the tesla-fi app, etc.

If you have Sentry mode on your car isn't sleeping.

 

[eruben]

Teslafi will tell you if/when your car sleeps. Log in to your dashboard and look.

Oh wow. Apparently my car never goes to sleep, on Teslafi I haven't enabled "sleep mode". I assume that's something I should do? Could all of this have been a consequence of my car never sleeping, kind of like a computer that never gets shut down all the way causes bugs?

 

[animorph]

Yeah, I think if the car never sleeps it never completely resets. Enable TeslaFi sleep mode. The standard sleep settings should work fine. And try no Sentry Mode at home, since Sentry will keep the car from sleeping. Maybe this will reset the BMS or something useful.

 

[MP3Mike]

Yeah, I think if the car never sleeps it never completely resets.

The other thing to know about not sleeping is that it will prematurely wear out the eMMC in the MCU. Less of a problem for MCU2s, but is a real issue for MCU1. (How long the eMMC lasts depends upon how many hours the MCU is up and running, and Tesla only replaces the whole MCU so it failing costs ~$2,500 to repair.)

I wonder how many MCUs Sentry mode will end up killing.

 

[eruben]

The other thing to know about not sleeping is that it will prematurely wear out the eMMC in the MCU. Less of a problem for MCU2s, but is a real issue for MCU1. (How long the eMMC lasts depends upon how many hours the MCU is up and running, and Tesla only replaces the whole MCU so it failing costs ~$2,500 to repair.)

I wonder how many MCUs Sentry mode will end up killing.

Yeah, that's the first thing I thought. If sleep is necessary for Tesla's, and someone leaves sentry mode on by default every time they're parked (not an unreasonable thing to do), then won't there be big problems resulting?

 

[neroden]

They already did once, I swear. After the service center did the tests post-shutdown, and said everything looked normal, they put my car on their supercharger. It wouldn't go past 94%, despite hours of trying. I told them that really doesn't seem normal, and they said that's how it works now with superchargers, and that at home it will charge to 100%. Well, it didn't. What gives? With no other centers anywhere close to me, I'm going to have to try again with them....



I'd love to - how exactly do I reach the regional service manager? No Tesla customer service has responded to me, and when I go through the local service center I get nowhere.

At this point, I suggest writing everything down and having your lawyer start sending letters to them. Tesla customer service is the worst on the entire planet, but they do respond to lawsuits. They're required to, legally.

Honestly, it's not worth the aggravation of trying to get customer service yourself. Pay your lawyer to spend the time and aggravation on it, that's what they're paid for.

 

[eruben]

At this point, I suggest writing everything down and having your lawyer start sending letters to them. Tesla customer service is the worst on the entire planet, but they do respond to lawsuits. They're required to, legally.

Honestly, it's not worth the aggravation of trying to get customer service yourself. Pay your lawyer to spend the time and aggravation on it, that's what they're paid for.

Thanks, but I'm pretty sure a lawyer would end up costing more than my $240 tow bill and future recharging efforts. It's hard because I really love my Tesla - I just wish they would improve their customer service

 

[Electricfan]

Thanks, but I'm pretty sure a lawyer would end up costing more than my $240 tow bill and future recharging efforts. It's hard because I really love my Tesla - I just wish they would improve their customer service

I think you can just ask the service people who the regional manager is. But I admit things seem to have changed a lot recently at Tesla. Its still worth a try - any other car company will give you the names of the regional managers. And it lets them know you're escalating - they might reconsider in order to avoid the hassle.

 

[neroden]

If you don't want to call a lawyer, your best bet is to stress your battery until it dies. Because it will. You have, as everyone else said, a bad module, and it's going to kill the battery sooner or later.

 

[Babaron]

My question to the OP (if this has already been asked then I apologize): how do you know it was exactly 13%? If you had range displayed you would had to have switched settings to percentage level in order to verify that it was 13% when it shut down. Did you do that? Or are you just assuming 13% based on the number of miles left in the display when it died? I’m wondering if it was actually much less than 13% but the miles of range left displayed an artificially inflated number due to a computer calculation problem.

 

[eruben]

My question to the OP (if this has already been asked then I apologize): how do you know it was exactly 13%? If you had range displayed you would had to have switched settings to percentage level in order to verify that it was 13% when it shut down. Did you do that? Or are you just assuming 13% based on the number of miles left in the display when it died? I’m wondering if it was actually much less than 13% but the miles of range left displayed an artificially inflated number due to a computer calculation problem.

Yes, I could switch back and forth, and 32 miles of range said 13%. I also checked Teslafi and it reported the same thing, I was at 32 miles/13% and then it switched off and rapidly declined to 0.

So at that point, my range definitely was less than 13%/32 miles, and it was displaying an artificially inflated number for what looks to be a software reason. And though I've seen some weird stuff then and since then (I still can't charge to 100%), the issue with the range lying to me hasn't reoccurred. It's also possible it was a bad battery module as others are saying - I suppose time will tell...

 

[gaspi101]

Yes, I could switch back and forth, and 32 miles of range said 13%. I also checked Teslafi and it reported the same thing, I was at 32 miles/13% and then it switched off and rapidly declined to 0.

So at that point, my range definitely was less than 13%/32 miles, and it was displaying an artificially inflated number for what looks to be a software reason. And though I've seen some weird stuff then and since then (I still can't charge to 100%), the issue with the range lying to me hasn't reoccurred. It's also possible it was a bad battery module as others are saying - I suppose time will tell...

My X died on the highway this weekend, same situation, had 3% at time of shut off, .8 miles from supercharger…it’s now in SC for diagnostics…what ended up happening with yours?

 

[eruben]

My X died on the highway this weekend, same situation, had 3% at time of shut off, .8 miles from supercharger…it’s now in SC for diagnostics…what ended up happening with yours?

Sorry for the delay, gaspi101, I just saw this. After several years of continued normal use, I conclude that it was not a bad battery module that caused the issue, but a software update/issue that resulted in the car showing artificially high remaining miles. Then when I got down to what it said was 13%, I was actually at 0, draining everything. Since I recharged and recalibrated, I've never had the problem again, even when approaching low remaining battery.