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Vendor Preventative Maintenance regarding Battery Failures in early Model S vehicles (2012-2014)

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2016 90D -- still on the older style B2B used car warranty (until june).

The car was sagging overnight; they threw parts at it until they'd replaced the compressor, the central valve block, and both rear springs.

I wouldn't have put up with such madness if it were on my dime -- each of these is a 500+ dollar replacement.

I think the real problem with the air spring system (which I quite like) is that often times, even if there is some reasonable diagnostic process, it isn't followed and what follows is a hideously expensive game of part swapping that can cost quite a lot of money.

You should buy them some cookies to say thank you. You're going to have an almost new air suspension all the way around! I kind of wonder if the local guys don't do that as a sort of gift to their customers. Maybe a way to get around lord Elon's decrees.

Or, they could just be to busy to have time to properly look into things; throw parts at it until the problem goes away!
 
You should buy them some cookies to say thank you. You're going to have an almost new air suspension all the way around! I kind of wonder if the local guys don't do that as a sort of gift to their customers. Maybe a way to get around lord Elon's decrees.

Or, they could just be to busy to have time to properly look into things; throw parts at it until the problem goes away!
Working in the industrial automation field I can tell you pneumatic issues can be notoriously hard to track down. If you have one leak you probably have more…
 
You should buy them some cookies to say thank you. You're going to have an almost new air suspension all the way around! I kind of wonder if the local guys don't do that as a sort of gift to their customers. Maybe a way to get around lord Elon's decrees.

Or, they could just be to busy to have time to properly look into things; throw parts at it until the problem goes away!

Ex first gen allroad owner. I'm certainly happy they replaced all those parts, and I know what they cost new. Still, pretty time consuming to repair correctly without just downloading a whole new suspension, and I know if I keep the car for as long as I think I'll be keeping it I'll be spending a pile of money on repairing it at some point or other.
 
Ex first gen allroad owner. I'm certainly happy they replaced all those parts, and I know what they cost new. Still, pretty time consuming to repair correctly without just downloading a whole new suspension, and I know if I keep the car for as long as I think I'll be keeping it I'll be spending a pile of money on repairing it at some point or other.

So far I am about 7500 in maintenance costs if you include MCU2 and two sets of tires. Not bad but I don’t have air suspension.
 
Put my AC + coolant overflow drain tube in. Should have done the coolant reservoir overflow before filling up coolant post LDU rebuild. Some collant got dumped on the battery seam. The reservoir doesn't like being at MAX for some reason, seems to want puke some back out haha.

This was a bigger PITA than I thought. Mainly because of the poor working angle with many obstructions while pressing your knees on the hexgon tube floor (put the carpet with tunnel end folded up to save your knees)
  • Got a 1/2" elbow (Napa, they brought out a little bag from back store room) and 3 feet (was just enough, maybe buy 4 feet to be safe) 1/2" ID heater hose.
  • ziptied instead of clamp as the tunnel insert pushed all the way up against the drain tube to bolt it along the bottom. Don't use AC much in the Pacific Northwest so skipped searching for the rare hose that would fit over outside of current drain and inside of the 1/2" drain tube extension.
  • Cut 1" off the bottom of current drain tube so elbow doesn't become the lowest point.
  • Routed extension tube to just behind the control arm bolt head
For coolant overflow drain tube, 3 feet of 1/4" rubber tube fits (also ziptied) and routed to exit between the wheel liner and the side of chassis (battery chassis I think)

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Put my AC + coolant overflow drain tube in. Should have done the coolant reservoir overflow before filling up coolant post LDU rebuild. Some collant got dumped on the battery seam. The reservoir doesn't like being at MAX for some reason, seems to want puke some back out haha.

This was a bigger PITA than I thought. Mainly because of the poor working angle with many obstructions while pressing your knees on the hexgon tube floor (put the carpet with tunnel end folded up to save your knees)
  • Got a 1/2" elbow (Napa, they brought out a little bag from back store room) and 3 feet (was just enough, maybe buy 4 feet to be safe) 1/2" ID heater hose.
  • ziptied instead of clamp as the tunnel insert pushed all the way up against the drain tube to bolt it along the bottom. Don't use AC much in the Pacific Northwest so skipped searching for the rare hose that would fit over outside of current drain and inside of the 1/2" drain tube extension.
  • Cut 1" off the bottom of current drain tube so elbow doesn't become the lowest point.
  • Routed extension tube to just behind the control arm bolt head
For coolant overflow drain tube, 3 feet of 1/4" rubber tube fits (also ziptied) and routed to exit between the wheel liner and the side of chassis (battery chassis I think)

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Nicely done. I haven't had any problems thus far w/ my setup, but the smaller hose concerns me for areas that use the a/c quite a bit w/ the potential buildup in the tube.
 
Around the same time as the updates to the pack.


Yes, but the problem is that it's too little too late for cars that already have moisture ingress issues. It would be part of the preventative maintenance setup we're working on, but it's not likely to help if there's already an issue.

The refurb packs are completely hit or miss. I've seen some refurbished wonderfully, and others with even never dates done horribly.


It's not something we're officially offering as of yet.


We'd be able to pull logs and query the pack for diagnostic data to look for signs at that point and be pretty sure one way or another what the issue is. Only definitive way is still a physical inspection, however.

Jason,
My Model S VIN is 31XXX, the car have had a failure BMS_F123 related to "low HV internal isolation" on it... Since the failure is related with the low HV internal isolation when contactors are open, do you think is likely moisture inside the pack and this moisture is triggering such fault? or might be a fisical deformation, moisture or dust in any of the HV buses or conections inside the pack (i.e. contactor harness, DC link, fuse? or might be both causes?

What do you recomend me to find out the internal isolation fault?

By the way I already contacted you via 057 Tech website to ask for information,

Thanks and Happy New Year!
 

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I found a 2013 model S 85 near me for $18,000 with 101,000 miles, but I’m a little concerned after reading about the battery pack and drive unit failure rate. Car has had door handles replaced, new ac in last year, new heater in the last year, and new passenger seat. MCU has been upgraded as well. Battery and drive unit are original to the car.

Car is showing 237 miles on a full charge. Just wondering if it’s worth taking the risk.
 
Possible unsuspecting BMS_u029 reset?
Oh, that's another risk I hadn't thought of, where the battery may have already failed but someone hid the warning. Either way that's kind of what I am getting at. I would personally value the car as if it probably will need a battery replacement in the next year or two anyway. So paying $40K? No way. Paying $10K or $15K? Yeah, maybe.
 
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Oh, that's another risk I hadn't thought of, where the battery may have already failed but someone hid the warning. Either way that's kind of what I am getting at. I would personally value the car as if it probably will need a battery replacement in the next year or two anyway. So paying $40K? No way. Paying $10K or $15K? Yeah, maybe.
You're right. That's what current out of warranty Model S buyers need to realize - when you dish out $20k-$30k, budget another $10k-$20k for replacement pack, drive unit, etc. If none of those happen then consider yourself lucky.
 
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Yeah that’s what I’m worried about. Is there any way to verify this? Or is it not even worth checking out the car? I’ve already got a 2023 model Y, so this was just going to be a beater Tesla to drive around.

Take it to a supercharger? I think if you do any significant amount of charging at those higher current flows, you should see if there are any problems.