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My 3-day Old Roadster Towed Back to Store

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A record might have been broken. My roadster was delivered on Oct 10. Yesterday, when I tried to charge it for the first time, I received a "powertrain problem, service required" error (I believe ID was 278). I tried both 13A spare connector and 32A UMC. I also tried dialing down charging current.

Called local Tesla service center, was told that it's due to the humid weather specific to Hong Kong, and was advised to run the heater at max temperature for ten minutes, and I did that. But the problem persisted. They advised another 15 minutes of heating -- problem stayed.

So the ranger came in a very prompt and courteous fashion. They ran the heater for another half hour or so. It still won't charge, same error. During the hour or two when they were here, the car even failed to power up at some point. As it got a bit serious, they decided to tow it back. I was just telling my neighbors how cool the car is (compared to their Ferrari's and Austin Martin's). And then everybody were sarcastically comforting me watching my 3-day old EU #0717 towed away :frown:.

I was told that the repair must be approved by HQ in California. Despite the overtime efforts local technicians have put in last night so that HQ can get the docs early this morning their time, HQ has failed to respond during the full working day. After they fix my car (assuming the wait for a green light from HQ is too not much longer), they have to test drive the car and submit docs and logs to HQ for approval again, before it can be released it to me.

Given it's only 3-day old, and a rapidly growing customer base in Hong Kong (I was told a 8 to 10% monthly growth rate for the local Tesla count), I expected them to put this on high priority.

What concerns me the most is, does every repair job have to get approved by Menlo Park HQ? Or is it a Hong Kong specific protocol?

I was told the car has to be away for about a week :crying:.
 
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And then everybody were sarcastically comforting me watching my 3-day old EU #0717 towed away :frown:.

I feel pity for you. :crying: Like every other car problems are likely to happen the very first days you use them. I had a sensor problem after 3 km of driving, so I can understand you very well. After that issue my car had no faults until now, 7000 km later. Rest assured you will get more than a chance for revenge on the neighbours.
 
I gather there are special procedures for checking out the vehicle if the battery pack has to be serviced or replaced. Do you know what work was done on the car?

As far as I understand a controller near the HVAC became faulty, possibly due to moisture. It affected (fried?) another controller near it which controls some aspects of charging and the HVAC. Thus the car refused to charge. It should be fixed by replacing the two controller boxes.

The technicians here appeared to be very knowledgeable and they assured me it's a small issue. Yet, there was a big hassle documenting and going through the approval process. The problem was worsened by the huge time zone difference and the weekend. Therefore I brought up my concerns about the protocol here.

Did you email your customer advocate (Naomi?) about it?

Actually Mark did it for me, accidentally lol.

As soon as Naomi became aware of the case, everything was sped up. The US team responded after hours last night (US time). The car was delivered just now. Total repair time was under 48 hours vs the 1-week that was originally quoted -- very impressive! :smile:

But I did confirm that all powertrain and some drivetrain issues must go through HQ before HK can work on them.

Thanks again everyone!
 
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With a car as advanced as the Roadster, where a lot of critical knowledge isn't in the common skill set, yeah, if I were Tesla, I'd require checking in for a whole lot more repair issues than you would think. It doesn't surprise me. I hope you get your fun new toy back soon! I _still_ think how lucky I am to drive the future nearly every day.
 
Have the same problem now after driving in the rain. ID is 287. Crap. :frown:

Sorry to hear. Do let us know what Tesla find and repair. Bets are on that little orange 400V converter in the front.

Since this happened to me twice, I've changed to using delayed timer charge. The car comes home wet and hot, and gets plugged in immediately, but I don't charge until several hours later. No problems for six months now, but it has been winter - as it start to get hot and humid again, we'll have to see if delayed charging works around it.
 
Well, the delayed charging is good for when you're at home. On a longer trip this issue can get a real problem.
Today morning the car still didn't charge so i took it outside from the garage and let it "roast" in the sun. The charging just started working again some minutes ago. It sure is a pain in the ass, I was in heavy rains before and never had a problem until now.
 
Have had the issue for the first time last night, after washing the car in about 2°C with the high pressure gun. Arriving at home in our underground parking (currently at roughly 10°C), there was Error #287, Powertrain Problem - Service Required. This morning, charging seems to go fine. I am sure I will have to deal with that again after driving in rain. Certainly a sealing problem. The car is a 2.5, a bit over 3 years old.
Will probably be in trouble when I do the next of my frequent long-distance trips, which, in the worst case is 250 km in the morning, followed by 250 km back in the evening, so without much time for the car to dry...
BTW: I just refused to extend the guarantee due to the horrendous cost, but slowly start to regret...
 
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Have had the issue for the first time last night, after washing the car in about 2°C with the high pressure gun. Arriving at home in our underground parking (currently at roughly 10°C), there was Error #287, Powertrain Problem - Service Required. This morning, charging seems to go fine. I am sure I will have to deal with that again after driving in rain. Certainly a sealing problem. The car is a 2.5, a bit over 3 years old.
Will probably be in trouble when I do the next of my frequent long-distance trips, which, in the worst case is 250 km in the morning, followed by 250 km back in the evening, so without much time for the car to dry...
BTW: I just refused to extend the guarantee due to the horrendous cost, but slowly start to regret...
Is it possible that the high pressure gun pushed water somewhere it didn't belong that rain will never reach? I have seen this often on motorcycles where owner will pressure wash mud and such and so will aim the gun up into the bike or from the rear, places that pressurized water would never reach during normal use.

Keep your eye on it but maybe be careful w/ the pressure washing :)
 
A high pressure washer / gun is not recommended for the Roadsters! They're too delicate, especially the 1.5's. I really wouldn't expect anything else but an issue cropping up when using one. The only thing I trust a HP wash on is my sidewalk / driveway.

Tesla tried their best on the Roadster to protect against the elements, evolved even more in the 2.x, but the elements they engineered for didn't include a high pressure washer system to be injected into various areas.

The best love you can give to the Roadster is a regular garden hose, soapy water, personal love, and no hose water in the vents, the rear diffuser area, or any where it can make it into the PEM or charging areas. The Roadster will shut down to protect YOU and itself from a short caused by water.
 
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The best love you can give to the Roadster is a regular garden hose, soapy water, personal love, and no hose water in the vents, the rear diffuser area, or any where it can make it into the PEM or charging areas. The Roadster will shut down to protect YOU and itself from a short caused by water.

When using the HP gun - about 8 times so far in 3 years - I try to keep the gun away from these delicate areas, so that water is not entering at high pressure and not in larger quantities than during a trip in a medium sized rain shower. But I will definitely change these washing "habits" after what happened on Fri.
The garden hose and especially the personal love when it's snowing outside aren't that easy, though:wink:.
 
can anyone post a picture of this 400v regulator in the front , it appears to have inadequate water sealing ??
That way we can either 'plastic bag' it wrap it or use a bit more sealant.


Here is Roadster 2.5:
hv1.jpg


Old 1.5 is totally different...
 
This Thread is VERY interesting as roadsters get older ...

can anyone post a picture of this 400v regulator in the front , it appears to have inadequate water sealing ??
That way we can either 'plastic bag' it wrap it or use a bit more sealant.

It has been two years now since we've seen this. Tesla sourced a replacement that doesn't suffer from the problem, and things seem much better now.
 
It has been two years now since we've seen this. Tesla sourced a replacement that doesn't suffer from the problem, and things seem much better now.

I had a similar problem (or another problem, leading to this problem) happen within the last 3 months on my 2010 2.0 Roadster Sport.

Background: I moved my Roadster from Virginia to Guam almost 3 years ago. Guam is very humid during the rainy season (not sure whether Hong Kong or Guam is worse, humidity-wise) and fairly humid the rest of the year. On Tesla's recommendation (due to the humidity concern), I got them to upgrade my 400V controller when they made their first service trip to Guam a little after I had been here one year. For my first 2 years on Guam I had the Roadster in a normal 2 car garage and ran a dehumidifier in the garage, so it was usually between 35-60% humidity. This year I moved and the Roadster is now in a common garage under our townhouse units. The garage is large, with open ends, so my Roadster is sheltered, but there is no way to run a dehumidifier. My Roadster failed after about 6 months in the new garage.

Failure: I first got "Power Failure Do Not Charge Contact Tesla Service" ID:1138, Data:0x00002000 VDS errors while driving. It would recur and make the bing noise every 5 seconds or so, but it drove fine to get home. So on Tesla's advice I didn't drive or charge and they looked at logs and had me try a few things, including running the AC or heater and trying charging (all charging attempts failed) and sending logs after trying things. The next time I tried to drive it after the charging attempts, it wouldn't start and had the "Powertrain Problem Service Required" ID:278, Data:0x00200000 VDS error.

Fix: during the service visit, the Tesla Tech first determined that the 400V controller was dead and replaced it. The Roadster then started and charged and drove fine for the first day, but then we got errors again the next day (I believe they pointed to moisture issues). He cleaned out the PEM using forced air and used the AC and heater to try to dry up the AC/heater system (including jacking up the rear driver's side so that the AC condensate tube was all pointed down, since it runs approximately parallel to the ground for the last several inches). After that the errors were gone and stayed gone for the 200 miles we cumulatively put on the Roadster before he returned to the mainland. No problems yet after about 2 weeks since his departure. I have driven it most days. The humidity and rain hasn't been too bad since its been fixed but it has been fairly normal weather.

Conclusion: I may try to find a portable (i.e., tent) garage that I can put in my garage and run a dehumidifier. I will definitely also try the delayed charging (isn't it just timed charging? Does the OVMS have delayed charging? I haven't run my OVMS in a while, since I let my SIM payments lapse too long and need to get another SIM for my OVMS unit. Regardless, I never need to charge much, so I can just set the start time later than I'll pretty much ever park it).

Tesla support for my Roadster way out here in the middle of nowhere has been great (but obviously expensive; which I knew ahead of time); I was worried when I moved my car out here that Tesla would have no time to spare service people from Model S support to be able to support me, but I am very happy with their responsiveness and their results.

markwj, or anyone else: any updates or new related info?

I'll try to remember to revisit and update this thread, even if it is good news and no problems recur.
 
Glad to have located this thread, as my Roadster 1438 is going through the same issue.
ID's 276 and 278 began showing up after attempting to charge the morning after I took delivery of the car. Not even 9,950 miles on the clock. Not even after 60 miles driven by me after taking ownership.

The Dallas SC determined a 400V controller fault, and quoted me $1,200 to replace it.

Am I wrong to be extremely disappointed in a fault on something that seems to be poorly engineered / not retrofitted like most other cars? My 2.5 I owned for a year before this saw immense amounts of rain and never threw a single error code. Hmm...