Potentially buying a 2010, need a bit of guidance

[jimmyz80]

Quick question regarding the drive home tomorrow. If I have to stop and charge, is it possible to run the heater or at least the heated seats while the roadster charges? It's going to be below freezing tomorrow evening, so stopping for an hour or two with no heat would be less than fun...

 

[ChadS]

I have done that, and you are right it is no fun.

You can use the seat heaters, but not the hvac while charging.

 

[jimmyz80]

I have done that, and you are right it is no fun.

You can use the seat heaters, but not the hvac while charging.

Thanks!

 

[hcsharp]

I have done that, and you are right it is no fun.

You can use the seat heaters, but not the hvac while charging.

You can also use the music/nav system while charging. In the 2.5 you can watch a movie with the Alpine DVD player. But that's probably better on your computer.

One of my biggest pet peeves about the Roadster is you can't run the HVAC while charging.

 

[Doug_G]

One of my biggest pet peeves about the Roadster is you can't run the HVAC while charging.

Big-time! It's wonderful having that in the Model S. Saved my bacon on one occasion.

 

[spaceballs]

You can also use the music/nav system while charging. In the 2.5 you can watch a movie with the Alpine DVD player. But that's probably better on your computer.

One of my biggest pet peeves about the Roadster is you can't run the HVAC while charging.

I wonder if OVMS can issue an CAN message to turn on the HVAC.. I wouldn't seen a problem charging the ESS while HVAC is working, as long as standard range mode was enabled.

 

[jimmyz80]

Well I made it home and the car is charging soundly in its new home here in NC.

I ended up driving straight through for 169 miles from Richmond, VA to downtown Raleigh, NC where I parked at a J1772 station and had dinner for an hour or so. That hour gave me enough juice to make it home the last 15 miles or so. We did have a bit of an issue come up with the car though. When we tried to load up the trunk with the UMC, soft top, etc, the trunk wouldn't open on one side. Regardless of how many dozens of times we hit the dash button or the fob button, that side just wouldn't give. We tried putting pressure on it while hitting the buttons, and still no luck. I see on the forums here that it's a common issue..arghhh.

 

[ecarfan]

Congratulations jimmy! I wish you many happy years of Roadster ownership. Keep posting about your ownership experience.

Although I am also fortunate enough to be a Model S owner, the Roadster is my best car ever. My spouse remains amazed about how excited I get over driving the Roadster.

 

[Jaff]

Congrats Jim!

The trunk latches get out of sync after a while...always happens at an inopportune time:cursing:

The Rangers can work their magic on it and will easily make it right.

Happy (electric) motoring!

 

[jimmyz80]

I'm kinda afraid to use the roadster as my grocery getter, if it's going to hold a bunch of food hostage until it spoils LOL

 

[wiztecy]

I'm kinda afraid to use the roadster as my grocery getter, if it's going to hold a bunch of food hostage until it spoils LOL

Jimmy, have you tried the manual trunk opening method by using the key only at the rear of the car? I've had mine not release either side and found the only way it would open was via the key since there was too much pressure on the latch from all the stuff inside.

I've also see it get stuck with nothing in there, this happened when I removed the emergency release tab (yellow thing) that's inside the truck. Since I had pushed the cable too far inside the trunk the trunk latches failed to release. I ended up freeing it by just going back and forth between pressing the trunk release buttong and letting off of it activating the latches, that gave enough fudge room wiggling the latch mechanism to release it. Otherwise you'll need to pop the rear wheel off and either just the rear or both of the wheel liners to access it.

NOTE: Beware where you jack the Roadster up. There are designated areas to jack it up on, marked in blue under the car. I use the rear most indicated area since it will lift both the front and back of the car at the same time. If you jack it up anywhere else, the car can be damaged bad or even totaled.

 

[bolosky]

I had a problem with the trunk on my Roadster being very hard to open, regardless of what was in the trunk. I took it in for service, and it turned out that the little stand-off piece had jiggled enough to be set too far, and it was holding the trunk open against the latch, which caused the problem. I don't know if that's what's up with yours, but since it's nearly the world's easiest fix, it doesn't hurt to check. (BTW, when it was stuck, I opened it by pushing down hard against the stuck latch and hitting the key fob; it was tricky, but it worked.)

 

[jimmyz80]

Well I've tried everything with the damn trunk latch and I give up lol. Doesn't work electronically, or by using the key in the tail light, or by putting pressure over the latch, or any combination of these. I even removed the wheel well liner and fiddled with the cabling and pulled it manually. Even with pressure on the lid to take any stress of the latch, and yanking on the cable really hard, it still won't let go. Weird....

I did however get my AX6 pads installed tonight, and that was a breeze. Did a quick 2am "bedding session" on the empty freeway and the car does stop a LOT better now. Woohoo!

 

[jimmyz80]

Figured I'd add a couple photos from installing my AX6 pads.

 

[wiztecy]

Figured I'd add a couple photos from installing my AX6 pads.

I wouldn't put that jack stand where you have it, it'll damage the roadster bad if the jack failed. Its also a false support, there's nothing there and if it did fail the jack stand would push right through the pan and the Roadster would crush you if you were under it.

I put a block of wood under both rotors or you can have one fit for the front mounting area. Jack stands are great for axles but not for roadsters unless they're the padded ones.

Bedding the brakes is fun at night, like the 4th of July. Here's a pic of a Mazda bedding in the CarboTech xp8 brakes:

 

[jimmyz80]

I wouldn't put that jack stand where you have it, it'll damage the roadster bad if the jack failed. Its also a false support, there's nothing there and if it did fail the jack stand would push right through the pan and the Roadster would crush you if you were under it.

I put a block of wood under both rotors or you can have one fit for the front mounting area. Jack stands are great for axles but not for roadsters unless they're the padded ones.

Yeah it wasn't ideal by any stretch of the imagination. My jack and stands are left over from my Z06 owning days, and jacking it up high enough for these stands was easy, and they fit perfectly on the frame rails/pucks of that car. I'll need to find a new solution for the roadster. Where I had that stand was just ahead of the jack point but still aligned with the chassis rail. What exactly makes the marked jacking point stronger than any other point on the same chassis rail? I'm just curious; not doubting your warning.

 

[Doug_G]

It is the intersection of the outer frame rail and the cross-brace.

 

[jimmyz80]

It is the intersection of the outer frame rail and the cross-brace.

Gotcha. Thanks!