Preventative 12V battery replacement before road trip?

[jjrandorin]

I ended up deciding to pay tesla to replace mine, proactively. There is still reports of people with model 3s not getting any sort of warning on the failure of the 12v.

I am still WFH a lot, but when i need to go into the office to do something I "need" to get there, and cant really take the time to deal with any potential battery issue. Couple that with the fact that, for a mobile ranger to perform the replacement in my driveway, on my schedule, for an "Out the door" price of $121 and change (which included the battery, labor and tax), seemed more than reasonable to me.

The battery itself was $85, and labor to install it was 19.95. Yes, I know its easy, but having a mobile ranger do it while I was still inside attending meetings (and not trying to do this either during work hours or on the weekend), is absolutely worth $20 to me.

Some people enjoy working on cars, I am not one of those people.

I could have waited for it to fail (or not) and then gotten it replaced on tesla's dime, but will admit that the many reports of "it just failing, with no warning" influenced my decision to do it now, on my dime vs waiting (and possibly being inconvenienced).

 

[doghousePVD]

My understanding from reading most of these threads is, there is supposed to be a message that appears, but for some (many?) model 3 owners impacted by the failure of the 12V, it just fails.

On my 2018 100D I didn’t get a specific battery warning. I did get some “get serviced now” messages. I called the SC (3 hours away) and they wanted to tow it.

to;dr. Tesla was a real cluster F, two trips to Maine, miscommunications and confusion. Eventually resolved.

Lesson: if you get a weird error message get the battery changed!

 

[Silicon Desert]

Mine hasn't been replaced in 4 years. ...... When I go on my next long trip I will proactively replace it in advance.

Gee, I think the Tesla now has ESP and reads minds... well not really.
Responding to my own post above, I decided yesterday that I will proactively replace my 12V battery on the X since it was last replaced 4 1/2 years ago and I will be taking another 4,000 mile trip next month.

Yesterday, I scheduled to have it replaced (on the app) in 3 weeks. This morning I get in the car and I see the message that the battery needs to be replaced ! With this in mind I had the service center change the appointment for tomorrow.
Now I am wondering what is the effective ESP range of the car to read minds. I don't want to think any bad thoughts while I am near it !

 

[Ericbo]

Just got the 12v battery alert and looking to buy a replacement. I am not interested in the lithium version as too expensive. Which lead battery did you buy? Would you recommend? Thank you

 

[jjrandorin]

Just got the 12v battery alert and looking to buy a replacement. I am not interested in the lithium version as too expensive. Which lead battery did you buy? Would you recommend? Thank you

There is nothing you can likely buy that is cheaper than the actual one from Tesla, for $85.

 

[Silicon Desert]

I replaced ours at 2 years due to climate. Rarely do 12V batteries last 2 years in high heat. 1 year in on our ohmuu and it's still strong.

You bring up a really valid point. I would say this is more true of ICE cars than with the Teslas and the reasoning is as you know, in an ICE car, the engine adds a lot more heat to the ambient temperature. After a drive up here, the wife's ice car easily gets above 170F near the battery, yet my X typically sees only a few degrees above ambient temperature.

In the Tesla, the battery is near the "firewall" and gets mostly ambient heat from the air. From the replacement stats, they seem to generally last longer. We might be an unusual situation, yet to say we are a 3 Tesla family. As mentioned, I just replaced the battery on my X after 4 1/12 years, our 2014 S was replaced after 5 years, and the 3rd car is on its 3rd year original battery. Up here we have huge temperature extremes in the "high desert" of Sparks/Reno. Summers are hot like yours. So definitely agree that high heat will kill batteries sooner, though the Tesla seems to fair better with no engine heat. And yea, I would expect that ohmuu to last well past 4 years and maybe another 2-3 years on top of that.

 

[Silicon Desert]

There is nothing you can likely buy that is cheaper than the actual one from Tesla, for $85.

hmmmm, sounds like your prices down there might be a lot better than up here. I thought all SCs charged the same price, but I might be wrong about that.

 

[jjrandorin]

hmmmm, sounds like your prices down there might be a lot better than up here. I thought all SCs charged the same price, but I might be wrong about that.

This is for the model 3 12v. You have all three vehicles (I think?) and are active in multiple subforums here, but I imagine the pricing on the X 12v you replaced might be different than the one for the 3 I replaced.

 

[Silicon Desert]

This is for the model 3 12v. You have all three vehicles (I think?) and are active in multiple subforums here, but I imagine the pricing on the X 12v you replaced might be different than the one for the 3 I replaced.

Ah, great point as usual that you make. That's encouraging that the 3 battery can cost less. And yes, we have the X, S and 3. Right, we have not needed to replace the battery on the 3 yet. On the X, they put in a "12V,AtlasBX B19, Flooded 1046200- 10-C". I get a discount, so after I factor that out, I calculate the cost to be $165 for the X battery and likely $63 for labor. Even at full price, it is not something I would want to mess with myself. I'd pay them to replace it. Maybe in the future I will consider one of those ohmuu things.

 

[jjrandorin]

Ah, great point as usual that you make. That's encouraging that the 3 battery can cost less. And yes, we have the X, S and 3. Right, we have not needed to replace the battery on the 3 yet. On the X, they put in a "12V,AtlasBX B19, Flooded 1046200- 10-C". I get a discount, so after I factor that out, I calculate the cost to be $165 for the X battery and likely $63 for labor. Even at full price, it is not something I would want to mess with myself. I'd pay them to replace it. Maybe in the future I will consider one of those ohmuu things.

On the model 3, the part on my invoice is: ASY,12V BATT AND VENT PLUG, M3(1129182-00-B) $85.00 , and $29.25 (not $20 like I mentioned earlier) for replacement, with a subtotal of 114.25, then 7.44 tax, for a total of $121.69 "out the door".

 

[Silicon Desert]

On the model 3, the part on my invoice is: ASY,12V BATT AND VENT PLUG, M3(1129182-00-B) $85.00 , and $29.25 (not $20 like I mentioned earlier) for replacement, with a subtotal of 114.25, then 7.44 tax, for a total of $121.69 "out the door".

WOW! nice info and yes, half the retail cost of the X. Thanks.

 

[Rottenapplr]

I'm over 2 years now and 27k miles, and the 12V battery is holding strong. I'd say that's a waste of capital at this point... no need to proactively replace it anytime soon. Just got back from a road trip to Florida and it was fine. To be honest, road trips like that are almost no stress on the 12V battery at all...

I'm two years and 53k. I'll wait on my third year to replace it.

 

[Ericbo]

There is nothing you can likely buy that is cheaper than the actual one from Tesla, for $85.

Great, that means I need to order from Tesla online? visit their shop?

 

[jjrandorin]

Great, that means I need to order from Tesla online? visit their shop?

I dont think they will ship it to you (I havent heard of that). You should be able to just stop by a tesla service center, and ask to buy one for your vehicle (if you want to put it in yourself), or make an appointment for them to replace it for you on your cost (if out of warranty). If your car is still under new car warranty, it likely would be covered under warranty so you could just make an appointment for it to be replaced under warranty your vehicle is still under warranty.

 

[brkaus]

The good news with the 3 is that replacement is super easy. And if in a crunch, can use a leaf battery.
The S/X are much harder to access. Not impossible by any means, but more disassembly. I hear the very early S are very difficult.

 

[Ericbo]

I dont think they will ship it to you (I havent heard of that). You should be able to just stop by a tesla service center, and ask to buy one for your vehicle (if you want to put it in yourself), or make an appointment for them to replace it for you on your cost (if out of warranty). If your car is still under new car warranty, it likely would be covered under warranty so you could just make an appointment for it to be replaced under warranty your vehicle is still under warranty.

Great, will do. It's out of warranty (3+ years and over 50000 miles ...) and I like to do it myself

 

[jjrandorin]

Great, will do. It's out of warranty (3+ years and over 50000 miles ...) and I like to do it myself

Cool. The part number is in a previous post I made in this thread, but you should also just be able to go to a service center, give them your vin and say you want a 12v battery for your car and you are going to put it in yourself.