Need some help figuring out my salvage model S

[zhur0002]

Took the junction box apart. There is no fuses in there just solenoids. My errors change when I disconnect yellow and gray wire the one that is by the pyrofuse. I know that solenoids stay open without that wire connected, that's how the car shuts itself off in event of the accident when the pyro fuse blows. In that pyrofuse circuit there is also a 30amp fuse mine was blown. When I bypassed that fuse car came a live last time, I did not have a fuse in that circuit. Could it have shorted something out? Where does that yellow and gray wire go?

 

[zhur0002]

I unplugged it from the wall, when it first had the problem and stopped charging was able to pull the cable out from the port. Now it just opens the door of the port but never unlocks the port so I can't get the cable plugged in. I had the exact same behavior with that 30amp fuse blown and solenoids open.

No heat, last time I went to connect the 12V battery the DC DC inverter clicked shut and than clicked open again. Weak 12V did not have a battery booster on the car at the time? When I connected the booster still nothing but had a good voltage at the battery 13.3V

 

[wk057]

You may want to disconnect the 12V battery completely for a bit (hour or so) and let things settle down if you haven't done so already. This brought some life into the salvage I was tinkering with (was not mine). The HV battery will be essentially disconnected while the 12V power is gone, also.

In my examinations I noticed there are quite a few tamper switches around the car to prevent certain actions, like taking the cover off the back of the charge port.

The contactors inside that juction box are the ones for supercharging. They allow the charge port to be connected directly to the battery HC+/HV- when properly initialized.

I'm not sure off hand where those wires for the fuse go, but if your fuse was blown and you bypassed it whatever caused the fuse to blow in the first place may now have a problem.

But really, a good old reset (no 12V power for a while) might do some good. Make sure to put a 30A fuse of some kind in that place instead of a bypass, though, before firing things back up. I also suggest checking all of the 12V fuses in all three fuse boxes AND the larger fuses at the 12V battery itself with a continuity tester before reapplying 12V power.

 

[Drtadakichi]

I am going to give you guys some food for thought here. If you manage to get this thing running (which from what I have seen on here so far, doesn't seem likely) then you will have a car that will fail in the future, and you won't be able to replace it. The modules of this vehicle aren't plug and play. If your DCDC goes out you can't just slap another one in without going to the SC. They shut you out of service and charging because they don't know what state you have put the vehicle into, and it makes it a HAZARD for you or anyone else not HV certified to be around. Plus, how do you think public charging stations/Tesla charging station owners would react if your non-certified Tesla blew up their charger because of a fault you weren't aware of? The Tesla Salvage Certification is rough, I won't deny that, but its perfectly reasonable considering they want to protect the rest of the Owner's Charging Infrastructure.

 

[kennybobby]

Did your HV junction box under the rear seat look like the one shown in this thread? If so there are 3 fuses as shown in the schematic, one goes to the DC-DC.

There is a tamper switch for the lid of the HVJB (magnetic reed switch?) that will lock out the pack, so either the lid must be in place or a jumper put in place. Do you have single or double chargers? If single then there is a jumper stowed in the box for the second charger which could be used to 'operate' with the lid open and you might measure the pack voltage off the fat copper buss bars at the rear of the box.

Battery Power-Up After an Accident

i think direct Tesla buyers are not allowed to reverse engineer their cars so there is no information or less on how to fix them, slavage owners are by necessity required to reverse them...

 

[zhur0002]

The car was already running after the accident I got it to turn on and move under its own power. Salvage car is not a bad car, for example, if your car would get a bunch of hail damage insurance would make it a salvage. Estimate to fix car is $45k, insurance estimate that salvage car will sell for $50k at auction market value is $80k. So they write you a check for $80k sell the car for $50k and are only out $30k instead of $45k plus rental car expenses etc. Does this mean that your hail damaged car is HAZARD, tesla will not touch it?

Nothing vital was damaged on my car from the accident, if your car sat for 10mo with the HV bat disconnected you would probably have same issues like I have with your clean titled car. Additionally there is no risk to the charging infrastructure if there is any problem at all with a car or charger solenoid would open up charging will stop or never even start.

Thanks for the other ideas I will try them. I also have an idea that might wake it up. HV junction box looks like the one in the thread but I could not see fuses in it will take picture of it tomorrow. My car did not have supercharging capability and does not have dual charger option.

 

[ElectricFury]

Sorry to hear about your misfortune!

Now that tesla is making some money ad becoming more popular, i guess they can do what they want...

 

[David_Cary]

I wonder what this attitude by Tesla is going to do to the salvage values. The decisions by the insurance companies are based on getting $40k or whatever at auction. No one who has read these threads will pony up $40k for a salvaged Tesla. There will be a few more buyers but then it will be common knowledge and people might pay $10k just to part it out but even that will take several years to recoup.

 

[Zarwin]

Another data point. My car failed with the same common "12v battery low" errors but the 12v battery was fine. Turned out to be a "pressure switch" in the junction box(possibly the tamper switch mention earlier?). See image below for description

 

[glhs272]

I am going to give you guys some food for thought here. If you manage to get this thing running (which from what I have seen on here so far, doesn't seem likely) then you will have a car that will fail in the future, and you won't be able to replace it. The modules of this vehicle aren't plug and play. If your DCDC goes out you can't just slap another one in without going to the SC. They shut you out of service and charging because they don't know what state you have put the vehicle into, and it makes it a HAZARD for you or anyone else not HV certified to be around. Plus, how do you think public charging stations/Tesla charging station owners would react if your non-certified Tesla blew up their charger because of a fault you weren't aware of? The Tesla Salvage Certification is rough, I won't deny that, but its perfectly reasonable considering they want to protect the rest of the Owner's Charging Infrastructure.

I understand the idea of wanting to keep the public safe. I would be happy to work with Tesla hand-in-glove. But they don't seem to want to work with me. Even if I paid them. If I wanted to install a perfectly good battery, have Tesla inspect said battery to make sure it's good and safe, have Tesla install said battery to keep me from doing it and to keep me safe, they won't do it. They won't even sell me a brand new battery and install it. They have taken a position that we are not owner's of our vehicles, but rather just users.

 

[zhur0002]

Another data point. My car failed with the same common "12v battery low" errors but the 12v battery was fine. Turned out to be a "pressure switch" in the junction box(possibly the tamper switch mention earlier?). See image below for description

View attachment 63580

A little confused I thought there was a junction box is under the rear seat in the middle. What junction box is in the frunk, is it the one with all the connections and fuses that sits above the 12v bat?

After thinking about my issues over night I'm wondering if the only problem that I have is bad ground at the bat. When I first put on my neg terminal and pushed down on it yesterday I heard my solenoids briefly close and open up again. I have not ever tightened my neg terminal for convenience reasons. Its really easy to disconnect 12v bat, and a must if your HV system is not turned on because the 12V bat will die very quickly without the HV system charging it. On the other hand everything works door handles, windows, sunroof so it should have plenty juice.

Another interesting thing happened when the solenoids closed for a second in updated the battery status, went from 35mi of range to 36mi. At this point I think its a connection issue could be a bad connection somewhere and a weak 12v bat. Where could I get a 12v battery that will work? Any tesla owners that want to buy a spare one for their car?

 

[zhur0002]

Insurance company always wins if that was not the case they would be out of business. They decide to make a car salvage or not salvage. I know in Michigan where it is very hard and expensive to become salvage car agent (Need to have a dismantler license and a whole bunch of other stuff, I'm a Michigan Salvage Agent) insurance sells about 75% of their vehicles with clean titles, that way people from other states and non agents can bid on the cars. Some of those "clean titled" cars are so gone they should be part cars. So my guess to get good amount for their salvage insurance will just leave Tesla's clean title and that's when Tesla will pay for it. There will be a bunch of car's getting their batteries replaced under warranties because they sat uncharged for month etc.. and their unlimited mile 8 year warranty will not help them.

I look at the car because that's what I drive, not the title and tesla should do the same. It is still a tesla even if it had an accident and tesla should support it just like any manufacturer does. Unless tesla thinks that their $100k cars are disposable.

- - - Updated - - -

Maybe Tesla should stop supporting their car's after their warranty expires also, it could be an issue with body getting tired and the battery getting older could be a safety issue if it just fails in the middle of a highway?

 

[Zarwin]

A little confused I thought there was a junction box is under the rear seat in the middle. What junction box is in the frunk, is it the one with all the connections and fuses that sits above the 12v bat?

I'm not sure, I only know what they told me, "you had a bad sensor", and what was on the invoice. The car was charging and cut off long before completing the charge. Got into it to see the low 12v battery (and other messages) and the car would not go into drive, had to be sent via flatbed to the SC where they quickly repaired it.

 

[K5ING]

A couple of the pictures you posted on that link show the car on a dolly. Did you tow the car with the back wheels on the ground for any distance? I didn't think you could do that unless the car could be put into "tow mode". Could that have messed something up that's causing some of the error messages you're getting?

If you can't get it going, you might be better off just parting it out. You might get some good $$$ for them since parts seem to be so hard to get from Tesla. The battery could to to someone wanting to do a home solar power storage project.

 

[zhur0002]

Of coarse the car is tow mode, wheels would be locked up if it was not with the brakes applied. Car on the dolly only goes between our shops about a mile, and does not exceed the speed of 20mph. I already have some good $$$ in this car it would be a shame to part out the car its almost a brand new car with no structural or electrical damage on it. After all its not magic, something is causing it not to turn on I'm hoping something simple since it turned on already once and ran. I know the SC would probably have it figured out with in an hour. I have a few Nissan Leaf's in my junk yard that have batteries could be used for solar projects, it would be a lot cheaper for one to connect 3 leaf batteries than get 1 tesla bat.

 

[curt_toolman]

I hear that Pep boys sales a battery that is made by Bosch. I don't know the specs but it look like a Tesla battery to me. Bosch MM370, maybe someone else can confirm.

http://www.pepboys.com/product/details/9456161/00073?isPayInStoreOnlyStore=false

 

[Dchint]

Am I missing something here? You bought a salvage Tesla instead of a brand new Tesla because you were presumably trying to save a buck...and your pissed off and bad mouthing Tesla because they won't work with you?

 

[spaceballs]

Am I missing something here? You bought a salvage Tesla instead of a brand new Tesla because you were presumably trying to save a buck...and your pissed off and bad mouthing Tesla because they won't work with you?

Sounds like your having a hard time seeing it from his view point, most people here can understand.

 

[JohnQ]

Am I missing something here? You bought a salvage Tesla instead of a brand new Tesla because you were presumably trying to save a buck...and your pissed off and bad mouthing Tesla because they won't work with you?

I wouldn't jump to conclusions. While monetary savings may have had something to do with it, it sounds like the OP has some experience and enjoys repairing cars. Let's not derail the thread on this topic, there's another one where this was hashed out.

 

[abasile]

Am I missing something here? You bought a salvage Tesla instead of a brand new Tesla because you were presumably trying to save a buck...and your pissed off and bad mouthing Tesla because they won't work with you?

Whoa. I'm not picking up any "bad mouthing". He's just telling it like it is. People buy and fix "salvage" vehicles all the time, and there's nothing wrong with saving a buck. I'd personally be happy to buy a "salvaged" Tesla if it were significantly cheaper, in good condition, and I could get it serviced as needed.

When I do buy a Tesla, I expect it will be used, and I'm not bothered by cosmetic damage as the appearance of my cars is not a high priority for me. I just want an EV with lots of range and great Supercharging infrastructure.