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Near annual replacement of 12V battery is typical according to Tesla Service Tech

apacheguy

S Sig #255
Oct 21, 2012
5,071
1,238
So Cal
Having my 12V replaced today ... not covered under ESA, $235 expense, unfortunately. Are these replaceable outside of Tesla?

It’s a $125 part. And if you have a 1st gen there is a considerable amount of work required to extricate the old 12v and realign all the connectors. Plus you get a 1 year warranty with Tesla. Not that bad of a deal IMO.
 
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PaulusdB

Mayor Gnomus Vintage Limb
Jul 12, 2013
6,602
6,183
Europe
Just try to find C&D Technologies DCS 33 UNCR or RIT

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Just one thing to be aware of : Tesla chaned the type of battery at one point... and if you replace the old one with the new model, it requires a configuration change in the car... and this can only be done by them.

I'm not sure which one is new or old (model number)... but someone could probably dig it up.
 
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ohmman

Plaid-ish Moderator
Feb 13, 2014
9,895
17,891
North Bay, CA
Just one thing to be aware of : Tesla chaned the type of battery at one point... and if you replace the old one with the new model, it requires a configuration change in the car... and this can only be done by them.

I'm not sure which one is new or old (model number)... but someone could probably dig it up.
I missed this. What configuration change is necessary? Did they move from traditional sealed lead acid to AGM or gel? Is it a discharge cycling thing?
 
I missed this. What configuration change is necessary? Did they move from traditional sealed lead acid to AGM or gel? Is it a discharge cycling thing?

I'm not sure exactly what changed. Capacity changed for sure but I think that it's still sealed lead acid. As for the config, it's a config on the gateway like everything else.

I'll see if I can dig out the info.
 

zwede

2013 P85+
Jan 17, 2014
631
322
Plano, TX
I got a warranty replacement in Feb '16 and they changed the config to "C&D type" (C&D is the manufacturer of the new battery). Exactly what changes with "C&D" config I don't know.
 

ohmman

Plaid-ish Moderator
Feb 13, 2014
9,895
17,891
North Bay, CA
Likewise closing in on 4 years. It’s interesting how it varies so much. I have to think it is related to usage/driving pattern more than anything.
 

CSFTN

Member
Aug 24, 2014
917
506
Memphis, TN
P85D March 2015 owner here .... I am very punctilious, and always kept my car plugged in, never deep discharges, almost never full recharges ... my battery warned it was going to die at 10 months old, replaced at 11 months old. Never a problem since. I had no car modifications or aftermarket additions at that point. Same settings on a power feed then as now
 

Naonak

Member
Dec 22, 2015
796
1,153
Kansas
P85D March 2015 owner here .... I am very punctilious, and always kept my car plugged in, never deep discharges, almost never full recharges ... my battery warned it was going to die at 10 months old, replaced at 11 months old. Never a problem since. I had no car modifications or aftermarket additions at that point. Same settings on a power feed then as now

I'm just the opposite. I never plug my car in (I use CHADeMo when I need a charge) and I deep cycle the HV pack regularly, running it down to low single digits and charging to 90% (or more) on a regular basis. Never had a problem in any of my cars. One just turned 110,000 miles, another at 40k, and yet another at 25k.
 

Doug_G

Lead Moderator
Apr 2, 2010
17,877
3,337
Ottawa, Canada
I met an owner who went around measuring the 12V on a lot of cars at one of the early annual TMC events. He found a wide variation in the battery voltage, with a good number overcharged. At my subsequent service the Ranger reprogrammed the 12V charger from his laptop - apparently not remote loadable. So my conclusion is that some early cars may not have been set up properly at the factory.

IIRC in 4.5 years my 2012 S85 had three replacements. The first one was quite early, and the others were about two years apart.
 

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