My Model S 85D and Tesla life at 100K miles

Back in July 2018, I wrote this post:

My S85D and Tesla life at 50K miles

Three years and a few months ago, I took delivery of a brand new Tesla Model S 85D. Today its odometer passed 50,000 miles! A few stats (as of the end of the day today): Miles on odometer: 50,069 Lifetime average wH/mi: Somewhere between 312 and 317 (uncertainty due to Tesla technician...

teslamotorsclub.com

It concluded with, "Looking forward to the next 50,000 miles." My car (2015 S85D) passed that milestone (100,000 miles) a little over a week ago! Updated stats (and comparison to prior post):

Miles on odometer: 100,026 (was 50,069 in prior post)
Lifetime average wH/mi: I gave up trying to track this, but the prior guesstimate of 312-317 wH/mi is probably still accurate
Door handle replacements: 5 (was 3)
Half-shaft replacements: 1 (no change)
Unique Superchargers visited: 186 (was 36)
HV Battery degradation: 270 Rated Miles -> 240 RM (was 264 RM)
12V Battery replacements: 2 (was 0)
Software updates: 83 (from 6.2(2.4.160) to 2021.24.28) (was 43)

Notable service issues so far (all covered under original warranty or extended warranty):
* MCU replacement (probably caused by eMMC failure)
* Battery coolant heater replacement [in an earlier version of this post I mistakenly called this a coolant pump]
* Liftgate cinching actuator replacement (2)
* Door handle replacements (5)
An important point is that I've never gotten stranded by any of these problems.

I indulged myself with a few general thoughts on my experience so far in my 50K post. I still think all of those are true, so I won't repeat them. Instead, here are a few things I've learned over the years.

* You need to take it on yourself to be informed about your car. For various reasons, Tesla doesn't do as much in this area as they used to. Nowadays, it's up to you find a trusted source of information (a friend, owners club, TMC). Conversely, try to help others when you can.

* You might know more about your car than the Tesla employee you're speaking to. They can still help you and are still worthy of respect.

* There are no absolute "must haves" when it comes to accessories.

* Make sure you have a plan for charging your car before taking delivery. If possible, try to have home charging or workplace charging. You might need to get creative if you live in an apartment or condo complex, or only have street parking.

* Road-tripping a Tesla can be fun! It's a little different from doing a road-trip with an ICE, so be prepared and develop the right intuition. Don't "fill up" at your charging stops unless you really need to. Work rest breaks or meal stops into charging stops. Have backup plans for charging because charging stations aren't as ubiquitous as gas stations.

* Try to do your own trip-planning if you can. The in-car software, as well as various third-party tools, get the job done, but they probably don't know about the Supercharger with your favorite restaurant, or the one with the cleanest restrooms.

* Remember that all of the Autopilot-type systems from Tesla (including AP, EAP, FSD, and FSD Beta) are driver assist systems. You still need to pay attention but you're supervising the car driving, rather than doing the driving yourself.

* OTA upgrades let Tesla install new functionality or bug fixes. They also allow Tesla to make a change you don't like or add bugs.

* People come to the Tesla brand for many different reasons ("green"-ness, cost savings, performance, tech, etc.). Other owners you meet (on-line or in real-life) might've had different paths to Tesla-hood, and have different needs and wants from you.

* Owning a Tesla can still make you do unexpected things, like competing with other owners to see how many Superchargers you can visit.

Oh yeah, still love the car, things are great.

Bruce.

 

[suraj1194]

Great post! I'm at nearly 99K miles on mine. I've had a total of one door handle done. This is despite all the door handles getting regular use by family. I don't know if it makes a difference but I turned off autopresent within the first couple of months of ownership. Most of the time I depend on fob to unlock, but sometimes also press the handle. I also had to have the (AP1) autopilot camera calibrated at some point while still within warranty.

No other issues - liftgate, DRL, DUs or otherwise. Having said that and now jinxed myself, I'm sure they'll all fail promptly.

 

[DFWBrad]

No brake pad replacements needed so far.

BTW my last car before the Model S was a 2005 Prius. When I dropped it off for trade-in at the Tesla factory parking lot after 10 years and 206K miles, it still had its original brake pads!

Bruce.

That's absolutely amazing just one less thing to worry about!

 

[gaswalla]

Originally Model S owner here - finally needed brake pads a few months ago at 275k

 

[GDawg614]

Back in July 2018, I wrote this post:

My S85D and Tesla life at 50K miles

Three years and a few months ago, I took delivery of a brand new Tesla Model S 85D. Today its odometer passed 50,000 miles! A few stats (as of the end of the day today): Miles on odometer: 50,069 Lifetime average wH/mi: Somewhere between 312 and 317 (uncertainty due to Tesla technician...

teslamotorsclub.com

It concluded with, "Looking forward to the next 50,000 miles." My car (2015 S85D) passed that milestone (100,000 miles) a little over a week ago! Updated stats (and comparison to prior post):

Miles on odometer: 100,026 (was 50,069 in prior post)
Lifetime average wH/mi: I gave up trying to track this, but the prior guesstimate of 312-317 wH/mi is probably still accurate
Door handle replacements: 5 (was 3)
Half-shaft replacements: 1 (no change)
Unique Superchargers visited: 186 (was 36)
HV Battery degradation: 270 Rated Miles -> 240 RM (was 264 RM)
12V Battery replacements: 2 (was 0)
Software updates: 83 (from 6.2(2.4.160) to 2021.24.28) (was 43)

Notable service issues so far (all covered under original warranty or extended warranty):
* MCU replacement (probably caused by eMMC failure)
* Battery coolant pump replacement
* Liftgate cinching actuator replacement (2)
* Door handle replacements (5)
An important point is that I've never gotten stranded by any of these problems.

I indulged myself with a few general thoughts on my experience so far in my 50K post. I still think all of those are true, so I won't repeat them. Instead, here are a few things I've learned over the years.

* You need to take it on yourself to be informed about your car. For various reasons, Tesla doesn't do as much in this area as they used to. Nowadays, it's up to you find a trusted source of information (a friend, owners club, TMC). Conversely, try to help others when you can.

* You might know more about your car than the Tesla employee you're speaking to. They can still help you and are still worthy of respect.

* There are no absolute "must haves" when it comes to accessories.

* Make sure you have a plan for charging your car before taking delivery. If possible, try to have home charging or workplace charging. You might need to get creative if you live in an apartment or condo complex, or only have street parking.

* Road-tripping a Tesla can be fun! It's a little different from doing a road-trip with an ICE, so be prepared and develop the right intuition. Don't "fill up" at your charging stops unless you really need to. Work rest breaks or meal stops into charging stops. Have backup plans for charging because charging stations aren't as ubiquitous as gas stations.

* Try to do your own trip-planning if you can. The in-car software, as well as various third-party tools, get the job done, but they probably don't know about the Supercharger with your favorite restaurant, or the one with the cleanest restrooms.

* Remember that all of the Autopilot-type systems from Tesla (including AP, EAP, FSD, and FSD Beta) are driver assist systems. You still need to pay attention but you're supervising the car driving, rather than doing the driving yourself.

* OTA upgrades let Tesla install new functionality or bug fixes. They also allow Tesla to make a change you don't like or add bugs.

* People come to the Tesla brand for many different reasons ("green"-ness, cost savings, performance, tech, etc.). Other owners you meet (on-line or in real-life) might've had different paths to Tesla-hood, and have different needs and wants from you.

* Owning a Tesla can still make you do unexpected things, like competing with other owners to see how many Superchargers you can visit.

Oh yeah, still love the car, things are great.

Bruce.

View attachment 777591

Great review and information (just got my S Plaid last week).

Can you comment on charging? What do you suggest for the maximum charge?
Would charger SLOWER extend the battery life? If so, which amperage?

Thanks again and REALLY APPRECIATE you sharing your experience!

 

[bmartino01]

Great review and info - thanks!

Would you perhaps care to share the details around the battery coolant pump replacement (e.g., how you knew it was going out, what effect (if any) it had on driveability, etc.)? I have a 2015 S85D where the battery coolant pump has a constant loud whine at higher levels of charge (>75%) - I understand part of this is due to recent changes in software that try to protect the battery more, but I'd like to know if my coolant pump is about to die so I can get it looked at and replaced before my CPO warranty runs out! Thanks in advance for any insight!

 

[nmsno]

I have turned on the driver's door unlock only feature.
What I find is, that it only seems to work sporadically, about 50/50.
I can't quite figure the why and when.

Does anyone else have this happening too?

Same issue with my Model S which is why I switched back to all doors that I don't prefer especially for safety reasons.

 

[David_Cary]

I hit 99k this week. 2015 70D
3 door handles....
One battery heater.
And a MCU2 upgrade.
I also had a gratis repair that I didn't deserve but it was a front driver's door wiring harness failure. They just repaired the 1 wire which was causing intermittent driver's rear door problems.

But just imagine how impressively reliable these mid range (ie post 2014) pre-refresh cars would be if we had mechanical door handles.

 

[lrjay]

Not exactly the subject of this thread of discussion but I'm thinking of buying a used Model S, say 6 years old with a 100 000+ mileage. Since all the respondents here seem to have a model S that is quite close to what I'm looking for I was wondering if you'd be keen to give me some advice for this purchase. Like do's and dont's, traps to avoid, things to check, etc...

Your expertise and knowledge would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Doanster1]

Great review and info - thanks!

Would you perhaps care to share the details around the battery coolant pump replacement (e.g., how you knew it was going out, what effect (if any) it had on driveability, etc.)? I have a 2015 S85D where the battery coolant pump has a constant loud whine at higher levels of charge (>75%) - I understand part of this is due to recent changes in software that try to protect the battery more, but I'd like to know if my coolant pump is about to die so I can get it looked at and replaced before my CPO warranty runs out! Thanks in advance for any insight!

If your pump is going, you’d get various “Power reduced”, “Powering down”, and “Car may not restart” msgs. All while disappearing/going away shortly thereafter. Those are preambles to real Hv battery issues which makes sense because if the pump isn’t working 100%, it would give intermittent errors, but then when it’s working fine, the errors go away.

 

[bmah]

Great review and information (just got my S Plaid last week).

Can you comment on charging? What do you suggest for the maximum charge?
Would charger SLOWER extend the battery life? If so, which amperage?

Thanks again and REALLY APPRECIATE you sharing your experience!

Glad you liked my scribblings! Charging...I used to charge to 90% daily, following the general advice I was given at delivery. (I know the guidance and advice can vary depending on who you ask.) Starting sometime in 2019, Tesla made a software change to cars with the old 85 packs where a coolant pump would run for a long time, maybe hours, after L2 charging above about 78%. So after that point, I made a point of only charging to 75% on a nightly basis, unless I was going to need the range the following day.

I have heard that lower amperage is easier on the battery (the downside is longer charging times). Without any first-hand data, I arbitrarily decided to charge at 32A (I have a 1st-generation UMC on a NEMA 14-50 outlet, which can nominally charge at 40A). Either charging speed is more than enough to replenish (in overnight charging) what I usually would drive in a day.

I wouldn't be afraid to raise the maximum charge or charging rate beyond my "normal" settings if really needed for the next day's driving.

Hope this helps...

Bruce.

 

[bmah]

Great review and info - thanks!

Would you perhaps care to share the details around the battery coolant pump replacement (e.g., how you knew it was going out, what effect (if any) it had on driveability, etc.)? I have a 2015 S85D where the battery coolant pump has a constant loud whine at higher levels of charge (>75%) - I understand part of this is due to recent changes in software that try to protect the battery more, but I'd like to know if my coolant pump is about to die so I can get it looked at and replaced before my CPO warranty runs out! Thanks in advance for any insight!

@Doanster1 already wrote a good answer to this, but first a correction: I mis-remembered the part that actually needed replacement...it was actually "MDL S, DM, THERM SYS, ELEC BATT HEATER(1038901-00-K)" (which I'm told is a battery coolant heater). I'm going to try to use my moderator privileges to fix my original post in a few minutes.

More details on what happened on my car are here (that thread has some other peoples' experiences as well):

2 errors : Acceleration and top speed reduced, vehicle may not restart

Hi, I have a 2016 MS and received two errors today. bms_u008 : Acceleration and top speed reduced. Performance may be restored on next drive bms_w172_sw_drive_iso : Vehicle may not restart. Service required. I turn the car off and restart and get the same errors. Worst part is the next...

teslamotorsclub.com

About the "coolant pump running at higher levels of charge"...my car does that too, and that's why I now normally only charge to 75% unless I know I need more energy in the battery.

Bruce.

 

[bmah]

Not exactly the subject of this thread of discussion but I'm thinking of buying a used Model S, say 6 years old with a 100 000+ mileage. Since all the respondents here seem to have a model S that is quite close to what I'm looking for I was wondering if you'd be keen to give me some advice for this purchase. Like do's and dont's, traps to avoid, things to check, etc...

Your expertise and knowledge would be greatly appreciated.

I'm sure other members have more experience in this area, but a few things to think about are:

Find out the maximum rated range and see if that is workable for you.

All 85 packs had some software changes that can affect the range and Supercharging curve (look up "batterygate" and "chargegate").
Early 90 packs were prone to rapid degradation.

Common computer issues on MCU1 cars: eMMC failures, yellowing on the edges of CID screen, bubbling on IC screen (you can see that in the article picture).

If the car has only 3G connectivity, getting the LTE radio upgrade is strongly recommended.

Originally, Model S options were organized very differently than they are today. There were many more options and combinations of options (for example, headliner, trim, and seat colors were specified independently). Various packages of options existed and went through various iterations, before Tesla eventually settled on making most features standard, and only giving you a few things to decide on. I bring this up because navigating through those earlier options can be somewhat confusing.

Hope this helps!

Bruce.

PS. With my moderator hat on, I might split this topic out to a new thread if there are more than a few other responses.

 

[David29]

Bruce, good summary, thanks for the update on your car.
As others have mentioned, I am also beginning to think about what I will do as my car approaches the 8 year mark. Even though I have only 59,000 miles on my 2015 70D, I worry about being without a battery warranty. In all honesty, I do not "need" a newer car in any other sense. I am retired, drive relatively little, and am turned off by the current prices of the new Model S, but unfortunately do not care for the Model 3. I am content with my coil suspension vs. the air suspension. And like you, I like and mostly trust the simple but mostly reliable AP1 and am wary of the newer AP versions. I have started casually looking at used Model S cars, but am dismayed that it will be hard to buy a car with much if any warranty on it that has a sunroof, which I have and enjoy but were discontinued in late 2018 or possibly early 2019. Also, I do not want FSD and would miss features like Summon and AP with lane change that I have now as part of AP1. In short, I still like my car! I still have a year or so before I really need to make a decision.
By the way, I have also had 5 door handle repairs, with many fewer miles. I mostly drive alone, so in theory I could set it for driver's door only to auto-present, but I find I am carrying "stuff" so much of the time, which I mostly put into the back seat, that I like the convenience of having all four doors unlock. And i hate to dig out my fob to unlock the car -- very annoying! First world luxuries, I guess.

As an aside, out of curiosity, what method do you use to establish your degradation? There seem to be two or three various methods people use. (I have never tried to figure out mine since I rarely drive long enough to draw down the battery for a good check.)

 

[bmartino01]

@Doanster1 already wrote a good answer to this, but first a correction: I mis-remembered the part that actually needed replacement...it was actually "MDL S, DM, THERM SYS, ELEC BATT HEATER(1038901-00-K)" (which I'm told is a battery coolant heater). I'm going to try to use my moderator privileges to fix my original post in a few minutes.

More details on what happened on my car are here (that thread has some other peoples' experiences as well):

2 errors : Acceleration and top speed reduced, vehicle may not restart

Hi, I have a 2016 MS and received two errors today. bms_u008 : Acceleration and top speed reduced. Performance may be restored on next drive bms_w172_sw_drive_iso : Vehicle may not restart. Service required. I turn the car off and restart and get the same errors. Worst part is the next...

teslamotorsclub.com

About the "coolant pump running at higher levels of charge"...my car does that too, and that's why I now normally only charge to 75% unless I know I need more energy in the battery.

Bruce.

Thanks for the reply!

 

[CaptainSqua5h]

Bruce, good summary, thanks for the update on your car.
As others have mentioned, I am also beginning to think about what I will do as my car approaches the 8 year mark. Even though I have only 59,000 miles on my 2015 70D, I worry about being without a battery warranty. In all honesty, I do not "need" a newer car in any other sense. I am retired, drive relatively little, and am turned off by the current prices of the new Model S, but unfortunately do not care for the Model 3. I am content with my coil suspension vs. the air suspension. And like you, I like and mostly trust the simple but mostly reliable AP1 and am wary of the newer AP versions. I have started casually looking at used Model S cars, but am dismayed that it will be hard to buy a car with much if any warranty on it that has a sunroof, which I have and enjoy but were discontinued in late 2018 or possibly early 2019. Also, I do not want FSD and would miss features like Summon and AP with lane change that I have now as part of AP1. In short, I still like my car! I still have a year or so before I really need to make a decision.
By the way, I have also had 5 door handle repairs, with many fewer miles. I mostly drive alone, so in theory I could set it for driver's door only to auto-present, but I find I am carrying "stuff" so much of the time, which I mostly put into the back seat, that I like the convenience of having all four doors unlock. And i hate to dig out my fob to unlock the car -- very annoying! First world luxuries, I guess.

As an aside, out of curiosity, what method do you use to establish your degradation? There seem to be two or three various methods people use. (I have never tried to figure out mine since I rarely drive long enough to draw down the battery for a good check.)

If you like and enjoy the car why worry about the battery warranty? New or reman batteries are $10k-12k, from some quick research. Wouldn’t that put extra life in your Model S for another 150k+ miles?

 

[Droschke]

New or reman batteries are $10k-12k, from some quick research.

~$20K for new (excluding the applicable taxes).

 

[bmah]

As an aside, out of curiosity, what method do you use to establish your degradation? There seem to be two or three various methods people use. (I have never tried to figure out mine since I rarely drive long enough to draw down the battery for a good check.)

Hi David, sort of a variety of means. One (which I do a few times a year) is to actually charge to 100% and see what the rated miles are. Usually I'd do this at home prior to some long-distance drive. I presume that's the most reliable. The other was to see what TeslaFi estimates the range at 100% is (it uses some data from the API but I'm not sure if there are other calculations involved or not). More recent versions of the mobile app now tell you a range when you slide the charging limit control.

(I'm in the "display your battery state in percentage" camp, so I don't normally see a number of miles.)

Cheers!

Bruce.

 

[Droschke]

I'm in the "display your battery state in percentage" camp, so I don't normally see a number of miles.

This ^ I've always struggled to feel comfortable with in my seven years of ownership. It seems to me you always need to translate percentage to miles to make sure you can make A to B distance. So, why using the percentage then?

 

[bmah]

This ^ I've always struggled to feel comfortable with in my seven years of ownership. It seems to me you always need to translate percentage to miles to make sure you can make A to B distance. So, why using the percentage then?

The percentage is really useful in two places. The Y axis on the energy graph on the CID is always in %SOC. The quantity on the Nav directions pop-up where they tell you how much energy you have left at to your destination is also in %SOC.

The number of rated miles you have left doesn't take into account changes in elevation in whatever direction you're going, or the effects of wind or temperature. So "rated miles" is fictional anyway, it doesn't necessarily correspond to actual miles you travel. Same for "ideal miles".

(I defer to you about what fiction might be applied to any of these numbers for battery-gated cars, although I'm guessing neither of us wants to rehash that topic here.)

Bruce.

 

[OrbiterTI4]

This ^ I've always struggled to feel comfortable with in my seven years of ownership. It seems to me you always need to translate percentage to miles to make sure you can make A to B distance. So, why using the percentage then?

When I used to travel beyond one-charge-worth's of distance, the rated miles displayed at the start of the trip were so wrong, I just started using percentage. (The exact experience was being at 100% at the SuperCharger, rated display of 265 miles, next SuperCharger was 191 miles away. Due to a temp drop of 65°F to 25°F, rated miles plummeted, so with 60 miles left, had to turn off all HVAC and drop 10 mph. Arrived with 2 rated miles remaining.)

Now, I rarely leave town in the Tesla, and it didn't take long for me to grok how much % regular driving uses up (i.e. my daily commute is 10%, to/from the airport is 25%, to/from my favorite gaming store is 60%, etc. etc.).

Also in my specific degradation case, the math also works out cleanly. City driving gets me 2 mi each 1% (aka 100% = 200 mi) with a boost of 30 mi for all-interstate-AP1 driving (as of a summer 2021 road trip...my next road trip is next month to see if that figure still holds or has gotten worse).