Potentially buying a 2010, need a bit of guidance

[jimmyz80]

So here's a question for the current owners... I'll need to drive the roadster home from Richmond, VA to Apex, NC and google maps is telling me the route is roughly 188 miles. The car reports it has an ideal range of 182 miles in standard mode. If we put a range mode charge into the car, would it be realistic to believe I can make it home if I stick to 60mph or less? I'm used to my LEAF, where the range estimate is totally bogus; but have heard the roadster range estimate is much more realistic?

I can mostly likely stop about 20miles before home to grab a J1772 charge if needed, but it would be nice to not need this stop.

Thanks!

 

[n2mb_racing]

Hi, not to hijack the thread, but this seems relevant. I'm also looking at buying a roadster, but rather a 2008 model that is reporting 169-171 mile range in standard mode. It has about 20k miles on it. That range seems low to me, based on the study. The owner says part or all of the battery was replaced within the last year. Should I be concerned about that range being so low?

The price is good, so I might be ok with that. I might upgrade it to the 400 mile battery in the future...

 

[bonnie]

What kind of elevation changes? Fairly flat?

 

[ecarfan]

You can probably do 188 miles on a range charge if you keep it to 60, and there is no major elevation gain. Go to EV Trip Planner and plug in your route to see.

So here's a question for the current owners... I'll need to drive the roadster home from Richmond, VA to Apex, NC and google maps is telling me the route is roughly 188 miles. The car reports it has an ideal range of 182 miles in standard mode. If we put a range mode charge into the car, would it be realistic to believe I can make it home if I stick to 60mph or less? I'm used to my LEAF, where the range estimate is totally bogus; but have heard the roadster range estimate is much more realistic?

I can mostly likely stop about 20miles before home to grab a J1772 charge if needed, but it would be nice to not need this stop.

Thanks!

 

[ecarfan]

That's not particularly low, in my opinion. Ask the owner to pull the logs and send you the output showing the battery CAC. Also ask for the Tesla documentation to verify what was done to the battery.

Hi, not to hijack the thread, but this seems relevant. I'm also looking at buying a roadster, but rather a 2008 model that is reporting 169-171 mile range in standard mode. It has about 20k miles on it. That range seems low to me, based on the study. The owner says part or all of the battery was replaced within the last year. Should I be concerned about that range being so low?

The price is good, so I might be ok with that. I might upgrade it to the 400 mile battery in the future...

 

[jimmyz80]

What kind of elevation changes? Fairly flat?

It looks like the average elevation change will be a net climb of 200 feet. I flew myself over the route a few days ago when I went to test drive the car, and there wasn't a remarkable hill in sight.

 

[bonnie]

You can probably do 188 miles on a range charge if you keep it to 60, and there is no major elevation gain. Go to EV Trip Planner and plug in your route to see.

Agree. You've been driving electric, so you have a good idea of what to do to maximize range. Just a couple of warnings: there is not a bunch of hidden reserve, so don't push it - and when you get below a certain range (somewhere under 30m?), the car will quit telling you how much range is left. It can be a quit unnerving the first time that happens.

- - - Updated - - -

Charging cables:

If the car is coming with a UMC, make sure to plug it in and test it before leaving. Some are pretty flaky and if you need to stop at an RV park, the UMC with a 14-50 end is great to have.

110 cable is sold with a GFCI plug on the end. Great - unless you're plugging into an outside receptacle which will also have a GFCI. And when one GFCI meets another GFCI, it trips within minutes and the charge stops. Most of us have modified those charging cables and removed the GFCI so that we won't have the problem in the wild.

 

[ggr]

Hi, not to hijack the thread, but this seems relevant. I'm also looking at buying a roadster, but rather a 2008 model that is reporting 169-171 mile range in standard mode. It has about 20k miles on it. That range seems low to me, based on the study. The owner says part or all of the battery was replaced within the last year. Should I be concerned about that range being so low?

The price is good, so I might be ok with that. I might upgrade it to the 400 mile battery in the future...

If there was battery work done recently, it was almost certainly replaced with a refurbished battery from the factory. These are often wildly out of balance and take some time (weeks to months, depending on use and charging) to rebalance and regain their eventual range.

When this happened to me a couple of months ago, I kept a log of the range improvement until it was back to where the original battery was (it's now slightly better than the one it replaced). The notation ###R means it was charged or showing Range mode, all other numbers are Standard mode. Anyway, bottom line is that it was only showing 143 miles standard mode charge when it came back from the service center, but after a couple of nice long drives, it got back to about 175. Hope this makes sense and helps.

9/30    143     charged upon return
9/30    145     when I changed to charge on plugin
10/1    144     took out plug
10/2    118     after Pat drove
10/2    149     Standard mode, pre-drive
10/2    8/32R   long drive, then cool down, then Range Mode charge
10/3    194R    after full charge. Unplugged, sitting there.
10/4    182R    still sitting, balancing.
10/5    173R    still sitting, balancing.
10/5    148>146 Short drive, scheduled for overnight standard charge
10/6    96      didn't charge overnight? Pat took it out.
10/7    156     standard charge overnight
10/8    159     top up charge
10/9    161     overnight
10/10   160     drove to dentist, overnight
10/11   163     drove downtown, overnight
10/11   10R     drove Mt Palomar, then range charged
10/12   212R    next morning, unplugged to balance
10/13   200R    continued balancing unplugged.
10/13   120     drove around a bit then plugged in for overnight
10/14   170     standard charge
10/15   167     after overnight charge
10/16   169
10/17   171     declared good
10/18   170     down to 50%, overnight
10/18   5       start range charge 2pm
10/19   215R    charge and balance after long drive
10/20   205R    rebalance unplugged
10/20   140     after Pat drove
10/21   175     after overnight
10/22   173     afternoon
10/23   176     Pat drove downtown, overnight
10/24   175     ditto

 

[n2mb_racing]

Thanks! I'll ask about that.

With all of these battery replacements, is Tesla still covering these to be nice? Or are they charging the full price. I imagine a new full pack would be expensive, around $35k... But, I guess replacing one sheet with refurbished cells shouldn't be nearly as much, right?

I'm just worried about buying this car and finding in a year that the pack has degraded to the point of not being usable... I know it is unlikely, but still worrisome.

 

[jimmyz80]

You can probably do 188 miles on a range charge if you keep it to 60, and there is no major elevation gain. Go to EV Trip Planner and plug in your route to see.

Maybe I'm not using that site correctly, but even if I tell it I'm going to do 0.75x the prevailing speed and keep the cabin at ambient temp, it's still going to burn 402 RM. Does that mean I'll only make it 1/2 way? :/

 

[wiztecy]

@n2mb_racing - you may want to start a new thread. There can be cross talk for Jimmy in his thread and I believe he has many questions to ask. Mods can move your existing thread over if requested. Thanks!

@jimmyz80 - Use the "Estimated" miles given on the Speedo cluster for the pack. It uses your past 60 miles of your driving behavior to get the most accurate estimate on how far the Roadster can go. Its very accurate when you allow it to adjust, especially if you're going a constant speed where you're not punching it and being sporty. If you do it right with conscious driving you can get your ideal miles on your VDS screen to match your estimated miles. Just make sure to have a charging station 2/3 to 3/4 available just in case you need a bump. If you have the UMC you can find a NEMA 14-50 at an RV park to grab a quick charge. Also if you use plugshare, you can identify some 14-50s at random places. 110v will take too long so don't even try. Also you can see if there's a Roadster owner along your route, possibly they have a Roadster HPWC or mobile charger connected to their house you can bum some watts off of.

 

[jimmyz80]

Charging cables:

If the car is coming with a UMC, make sure to plug it in and test it before leaving. Some are pretty flaky and if you need to stop at an RV park, the UMC with a 14-50 end is great to have.

The current owner just bought a new UMC a month or two ago since the previous one got flaky; so this one should hopefully be reliable. Included in the sale is a "can" adapter also, so I should be able to pull 30A at a public station if necessary. I honestly couldn't care less about the 100v cable. I've driven the LEAF for two years and the 110v EVSE for that car is still in its shrink wrap in the trunk. I just never drive long distances (except in this case when I have to get the car home lol).

 

[wiztecy]

The current owner just bought a new UMC a month or two ago since the previous one got flaky; so this one should hopefully be reliable. Included in the sale is a "can" adapter also, so I should be able to pull 30A at a public station if necessary. I honestly couldn't care less about the 100v cable. I've driven the LEAF for two years and the 110v EVSE for that car is still in its shrink wrap in the trunk. I just never drive long distances (except in this case when I have to get the car home lol).

You have the CAN JR., then no need to worry!

 

[jimmyz80]

You have the CAN JR., then no need to worry!

I'm still worrying, LOL! BTW, say hi to Santa Cruz for me; I'm a UCSC alumnus.

 

[n2mb_racing]

Jimmyz80... I'm moving to Durham, NC. Any other roadsters for sale in the area? I'm considering one that's pretty far away and would have to ship it.

 

[jimmyz80]

Jimmyz80... I'm moving to Durham, NC. Any other roadsters for sale in the area? I'm considering one that's pretty far away and would have to ship it.

The next closest one I saw that was on my radar was 800mi south in Florida. Navy blue 2010 with a tan interior, soft top, and I believe it had the adjustable suspension. It was on ebay and cars.com I believe. Let me know when you get to the area; we can geek out and enjoy some of the great food up there in Durham. BTW, the J1772 infrastructure in the triangle area is really impressive. Downtown Raleigh has stations in pretty much every parking deck.

 

[wiztecy]

I'm still worrying, LOL! BTW, say hi to Santa Cruz for me; I'm a UCSC alumnus.

I also recommend getting on the list for the CAN SR. The CAN is the best tool I have in the Roadster. I can find many J1772 chargers, either with ChargePoint or Blink. I presume you have both those accounts setup. If not do so before your trip.

Will do about Santa Cruz. We've been getting the Arctic Chill. I like it since I'm originally from the East Coast, outside of the Philly area. Miss the cold. Cut some wood over the holidays and setup with the fuel for my wood stove which is burning strong.

I graduated in 2000 from UCSC with an Information Systems Management Bachelors of Science degree. Was the 1st and only for that year since it was a new major. Its rare to get a BS from that school. After graduating there stayed since its epic being blocks from the ocean and having beautiful sunny days 90% of the year.

So back to your Roadster, just note you're Estimated miles will start off lower and then climb when you're easy on the accelerator. If you're doing it right it'll meetup with your Ideal miles.

So when you range mode and drive off the regen will be shut down for about 15 miles. That's to protect the battery. Get ready to not stop! Regen helps you stop big time and you still have the crappy brembo stock pads. Press the VDS screen to switch over to Standard mode as soon as you start. That way the extra 20 miles in the lower end that the Roadster has stashed away for Range mode can be used as your emergency tank / reserve. Otherwise you may gobble that up being too optimistic then get into a bind. I always do that as a habit and its a good one to have. Hey, and 20 miles after driving the Leaf is quite a bit of range! So you'll do fine.

 

[jimmyz80]

I also recommend getting on the list for the CAN SR. The CAN is the best tool I have in the Roadster. I can find many J1772 chargers, either with ChargePoint or Blink. I presume you have both those accounts setup. If not do so before your trip.

Will do about Santa Cruz. We've been getting the Arctic Chill. I like it since I'm originally from the East Coast, outside of the Philly area. Miss the cold. Cut some wood over the holidays and setup with the fuel for my wood stove which is burning strong.

I graduated in 2000 from UCSC with an Information Systems Management Bachelors of Science degree. Was the 1st and only for that year since it was a new major. Its rare to get a BS from that school. After graduating there stayed since its epic being blocks from the ocean and having beautiful sunny days 90% of the year.

So back to your Roadster, just note you're Estimated miles will start off lower and then climb when you're easy on the accelerator. If you're doing it right it'll meetup with your Ideal miles.

So when you range mode and drive off the regen will be shut down for about 15 miles. That's to protect the battery. Get ready to not stop! Regen helps you stop big time and you still have the crappy brembo stock pads. Press the VDS screen to switch over to Standard mode as soon as you start. That way the extra 20 miles in the lower end that the Roadster has stashed away for Range mode can be used as your emergency tank / reserve. Otherwise you may gobble that up being too optimistic then get into a bind. I always do that as a habit.

That's a good tip on switching modes before departing. Doesn't range mode change the driving parameters at all, to limit current draw, etc.? I know in the LEAF "eco" mode reduces performance and does stretch the range a bit. Also, how slow do you find you need to go on a level road before you see the estimated miles get close to the ideal miles? 60mph? 50mph? Less?

We share a major. I graduated in 2005 with a BS in ISM as well. My claim to fame is being in the first class of Mechatonics that was offered at UCSC. We got to design and build autonomous robots for a competition. I believe mine is still on display there somewhere in the engineering building. It most definitely is an incredible town though!

 

[wiztecy]

That's a good tip on switching modes before departing. Doesn't range mode change the driving parameters at all, to limit current draw, etc.? I know in the LEAF "eco" mode reduces performance and does stretch the range a bit. Also, how slow do you find you need to go on a level road before you see the estimated miles get close to the ideal miles? 60mph? 50mph? Less?

You're correct, driving in range mode controls a person's "lead foot" by power limiting. However if you're driving on a long trip and conscious you want to get the most out of your miles, you can control your "lead foot" just fine. I also want to have access to all the power the Roadster has in case I need to get out of a situation on the road. I use my accelerator more than my brakes to get out of a bind on the road. Since the Roadster is so nimble when dial right it'll save you over the brakes. The way the brakes are so bad on the Roadster, especially stock, braking is unpredictable where as acceleration is very predictable. I don't want the Roadster to tell me I can't have all the power hence where switching to standard mode early on is better (at least for me).

As for the ideal miles you can do 60-65mph just fine and have them connect. Its more about being consistent and even with the pedal. When on the highway I set the cruise control on. If you don't know how to set it, don't worry and don't fuss with it. I found it to be more of the difficult ones to set. I then stay in the slow lane and target 60-65mph depending on traffic. There are times I have to pass and accelerate more, but that's ok and won't take much out of your estimation.

We share a major. I graduated in 2005 with a BS in ISM as well. My claim to fame is being in the first class of Mechatonics that was offered at UCSC. We got to design and build autonomous robots for a competition. I believe mine is still on display there somewhere in the engineering building. It most definitely is an incredible town though!

Very Cool! I'll take a ride up there sometime on my Zero FX motorcycle and see if I can spot the robot.

 

[hcsharp]

I'm still worrying, LOL! ...

First, congratulations on your new family member! You shouldn't have any problem getting it home.

I recently drove 204 miles on a single charge to bring somebody to the airport. 90+% of the drive was highway and the average ambient temp was 35 deg F (outside). I set the cruise control to 63 on the highway, used the seat heater and a little defrost, but very little. I drove about 6 miles in the nebulous "Unknown number of miles remaining" zone. In the summer I can do the same trip at 65 with the AC on and I usually get home with over 25 miles remaining.