My cabin heater is not working. What's the easiest way to tell if my battery heater is/isn't working?

[iamthewaughrus]

So Friday, after getting some snow, I went for a drive and noticed that my cabin heater was not working. Another longer drive yesterday confirmed this.

I know it is probably the fuse in the DC/DC, the heater core, or both.

But my question is, how do I tell if my battery heater is currently working? Very cold weather is coming to my area (<7 degrees F) and I don't have a garage, is my battery in danger of damage if my battery heater is not working and it sits outside for a long time in those low temperatures?

If my battery is safe, I will work on the cabin heater issue myself. If my battery heater is broken and my battery health is at risk, I will get my car into a service center ASAP.

 

[rrolsbe]

So Friday, after getting some snow, I went for a drive and noticed that my cabin heater was not working. Another longer drive yesterday confirmed this.

I know it is probably the fuse in the DC/DC, the heater core, or both.

But my question is, how do I tell if my battery heater is currently working? Very cold weather is coming to my area (<7 degrees F) and I don't have a garage, is my battery in danger of damage if my battery heater is not working and it sits outside for a long time in those low temperatures?

If my battery is safe, I will work on the cabin heater issue myself. If my battery heater is broken and my battery health is at risk, I will get my car into a service center ASAP.

Looks like you own a Model S? For the Model 3 Tesla recommends not exposing the car/battery to temps -22F or below for more than two days. I would think you would be safe well below 0F. Maybe a Model S owner will chime in.

 

[iamthewaughrus]

Looks like you own a Model S? For the Model 3 Tesla recommends not exposing the car/battery to temps -22F or below for more than two days. I would think you would be safe well below 0F. Maybe a Model S owner will chime in.

Thank you. Yes, January 2013 Model S 85. I guess what I’m not sure about is at the dangerous temps, is the battery heater running to keep the battery from getting too cold? If my battery heater is broken, does it put my battery in more danger due until I fix it?

 

[SmartElectric]

Hello. As my sig says, 2013 Model S owner.
I have a non-functioning battery heater at the moment. I can confirm a basic way to tell if your battery heater is not working. Simply put, you will not be able to charge the car in temperatures below -5C. I have been working around this by driving the car hard daily for 10 minutes and returning home and plugging in with scheduled charging disabled, ie, charging immediately. If your car is charging in cold temperatures, the battery heater is working. And yes, I opened a service request and am following up with Tesla. Tesla has been unable to remotely diagnose the issue, so I am going to drop it off.

Background : I have had the battery heater core replaced in 2016 and the cabin heater core replaced in 2017, both under warranty at the time.

 

[iamthewaughrus]

Hello. As my sig says, 2013 Model S owner.
I have a non-functioning battery heater at the moment. I can confirm a basic way to tell if your battery heater is not working. Simply put, you will not be able to charge the car in temperatures below -5C. I have been working around this by driving the car hard daily for 10 minutes and returning home and plugging in with scheduled charging disabled, ie, charging immediately. If your car is charging in cold temperatures, the battery heater is working. And yes, I opened a service request and am following up with Tesla. Tesla has been unable to remotely diagnose the issue, so I am going to drop it off.

Background : I have had the battery heater core replaced in 2016 and the cabin heater core replaced in 2017, both under warranty at the time.

Thank you, this helps. I have not had my charging impacted, even when it was 7 degrees F (-14C), so I guess my battery heater is fine!

Any chance you have the part number that they replaced you heater core with? Tesla is telling me 1041265-00-F but 057 Technology is telling me 6007385-00-G.

 

[wk057]

Thank you, this helps. I have not had my charging impacted, even when it was 7 degrees F (-14C), so I guess my battery heater is fine!

Any chance you have the part number that they replaced you heater core with? Tesla is telling me 1041265-00-F but 057 Technology is telling me 6007385-00-G.

We generally try to get your VIN (or at least year) and match with the original build part, unless there's some known issue with the original part that's been updated... in which case we'd suggest the updated part.

The PTC heater hasn't had any revisions that improve reliability or usability, so we would suggest the original part for your particular vehicle.

That said, if you have a specific part number for something that we have in stock we're not going to not sell it to you if you want it...

 

[iamthewaughrus]

I understand. I'm not knocking your process, just trying to understand the difference between the items and which one would be the better choice for me. The label "Gen3" on some of the PTCs made me think that significant improvements have happened, so I was tempted to go with the most recent one, if possible, but if its going to cost me $850 from Tesla, then it better be a heck of a lot better than the older ones I can get for around $200.

(My problem is temporarily solved, since I replaced the fuse in the DC/DC and that got the heat working again, but I want to be prepared to replace the PTC if it goes out again.)

 

[wk057]

As far as I can tell the PTC heaters have just gone through a few suppliers and minor revisions (cord length, for example). Nothing I'd consider putting under "improvements."

 

[David29]

Hello. As my sig says, 2013 Model S owner.
I have a non-functioning battery heater at the moment. I can confirm a basic way to tell if your battery heater is not working. Simply put, you will not be able to charge the car in temperatures below -5C. I have been working around this by driving the car hard daily for 10 minutes and returning home and plugging in with scheduled charging disabled, ie, charging immediately. If your car is charging in cold temperatures, the battery heater is working. And yes, I opened a service request and am following up with Tesla. Tesla has been unable to remotely diagnose the issue, so I am going to drop it off.

Background : I have had the battery heater core replaced in 2016 and the cabin heater core replaced in 2017, both under warranty at the time.

Coincidentally, my car also had a battery coolant heater failure and the heater was replaced about 2 weeks ago. The SC said the coolant pump was also "weak" and replaced that. Solved the problem I had been having all winter of slow charging, or inability to charge at all when it was particularly cold. Oddly enough, there were no warning messages. Seems as if there are monitors that tell you if lots of other things are not working, and the battery heater (and coolant pump) seems pretty important, but I saw no warnings. We had some very low temps (single digits (F)) before the repair, so I hope the battery was not damaged.

 

[David29]

We generally try to get your VIN (or at least year) and match with the original build part, unless there's some known issue with the original part that's been updated... in which case we'd suggest the updated part.

The PTC heater hasn't had any revisions that improve reliability or usability, so we would suggest the original part for your particular vehicle.

That said, if you have a specific part number for something that we have in stock we're not going to not sell it to you if you want it...

Just out of curiosity, am I correct to assume the battery coolant heater is powered from the high voltage battery (350 Volts or so?). What is its power consumption -- something like 6-9 kW?
Thanks!

 

[wk057]

Just out of curiosity, am I correct to assume the battery coolant heater is powered from the high voltage battery (350 Volts or so?). What is its power consumption -- something like 6-9 kW?
Thanks!

Don't hold me to it, but I'm pretty sure it peaks at about 6kW, but draws less as the air warms (the whole PTC aspect).

 

[amiral_sub]

scanmytesla displays 4 kW when only heating is on