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Problem servicing older vehicles?

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lithium batt will have a different charge profile than SLA. Would not recommend for long term use.

However, any SLA that fits should work...

lithium batt will have a different charge profile than SLA. Would not recommend for long term use.

However, any SLA that fits should work...

That is what I was afraid of. I will stick with the OEM battery when the time comes. Is there a shelf life for an unused new battery.
 
That is what I was afraid of. I will stick with the OEM battery when the time comes. Is there a shelf life for an unused new battery.

If it is topped off every 3-6 months, could be 5 or more years for a SLA. Any SLA that fits and has the approx same A/H capacity will work.

As an alternative, you can buy a 12-18 AH SLA ( I recommend Power Sonic) Keep it in the Frunk with a harness and fuse to connect to the jumper posts on the front bumper, routed through the Frunk light cutout.

I have done this for many years with the daughters Prius, installed in the Trunk. Came in handy three times when she left the dome light on and killed the SLA that powers the cars computer, similar to Tesla.
 
If it is topped off every 3-6 months, could be 5 or more years for a SLA. Any SLA that fits and has the approx same A/H capacity will work.

As an alternative, you can buy a 12-18 AH SLA ( I recommend Power Sonic) Keep it in the Frunk with a harness and fuse to connect to the jumper posts on the front bumper, routed through the Frunk light cutout.

I have done this for many years with the daughters Prius, installed in the Trunk. Came in handy three times when she left the dome light on and killed the SLA that powers the cars computer, similar to Tesla.

As far as I know, Tesla dome lights slowly dim and go out after a few minutes. And again, the 12 v. battery gets topped off from the big battery as needed. I don't think this is like a Prius. Keeping a spare battery in the trunk sounds like a lot of hassle for very little payback. Your daughter might have learned if she'd had to pay for AAA to come out to jump the car. And, yes, I would have let her learn.

I'm on my fourth Tesla car. Never had need of a spare battery in nearly 200,000 miles of driving. Changed 12v. around 4 years in on two of the cars.

Lead acid batteries are stored dry until use, so will last years and years and years until needed, when you add the acid. They do not degrade dry. Of course, if you're storing a car for months, most people just put a small battery charger on it to keep it up.
 
They r over worked and under paid.

I'm not sure about that ... there seemed to be a lot of kids at the delivery center when we picked up our X ... The issue seemed to be training and general lack of workforce experience due to age ... They simply don't know how to act ...

For example: They gave us an S loaner for lunch while they worked out a few things with the delivery. It was an older S and had a leak somewhere that was causing the passenger seat belt to become saturated with water. When we told the employee at the counter, who's head was down in his personal laptop, he responded like he shouldn't have been bothered and told us "we would have to tell service" and immediately put his head back in his laptop. Of course, already having gone above and beyond as the customer, we didn't bother to tell service, so the next guy probably got a wet shirt as well.

This seems to track with the rest of my experiences, even corporate. Occasionally you will find someone who really gets it but most of the time it's this.
 
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I have to admit it's very tempting at times, and I did test it a bit when I first got it. But, I hear you, things will eventually happen it sounds like. The difficulty is everything on the car is super expensive to fix. As I stated in other threads, it will be interesting to see if Tesla helps out those of us with older Model S's with batteries that have been throttled back and do not charge as quickly as when new. Will keep a look out for new posts. Cheers.

The difficulty is... there is nothing to fix. Sure, you might need a door handle (that issue was fixed on warranty) and I had an inverter go out (fixed on warranty) and my center console screen lost connectivity (fixed free at 75,000 miles), so I can't say things are "super expensive to fix". These issues were on several different cars, and were the only problems in tens of thousands of miles. Unlike a gas burner that must have oil and filter changes every 5-10K miles, new plugs, belts, etc. and have hundreds of moving parts that wear and shed metal filings into the oil to be circulated everywhere. I have NEVER spent near as much on maintaining my Teslas as I used to in fixing and maintaining my many previous Toyotas. I think you are mistaken. I will never own a gas car again!

The traction battery is guaranteed for 8 years, and will probably be fine for double that. As to charging, most of us charge at home, at night, in the garage, and as we are asleep, we don't notice if the car is not charging "as quickly as when new". How quickly did yours charge when new? How quickly does it charge now? Most of the "throttling" comes from charging the battery when it has a fair charge in it already. My cars did not seem to be throttled back at nearly 100,000 miles, so I am not sure what you are concerned about.
 
As far as I know, Tesla dome lights slowly dim and go out after a few minutes. And again, the 12 v. battery gets topped off from the big battery as needed. I don't think this is like a Prius. Keeping a spare battery in the trunk sounds like a lot of hassle for very little payback. Your daughter might have learned if she'd had to pay for AAA to come out to jump the car. And, yes, I would have let her learn.

Lead acid batteries are stored dry until use, so will last years and years and years until needed, when you add the acid. They do not degrade dry. Of course, if you're storing a car for months, most people just put a small battery charger on it to keep it up.

My daughter did not learn. Mechanical gene is recessive I guess. She had AAA, they were useless when she had a flat tire once. She now knows how to change the tire though.

On the Pruis, the 12 AH 12V SLA fits perfectly in an existing foam tray under the trunk floor, complete with charging cable and harness. It has paid for itself 8 times over already.

Tesla is very much like the Pruis in that the accessories and computer are powered by the 12V. if the 12V goes below 11V, the car won't "start"

My point is for $30, and a set of jumper cables, one gets peace of mind if you suspect the 12V is going (error message) out, and no stock for months on the OEM battery.

To be clear, the Prius, Tesla and many other newer cars use AGM's Acid Glass Matt, a form of SLA's Sealed Lead Acid.

I would not recommend a FLA, Flooded Lead Acid, as described above. Prone to leakage, shorting out, and most important, different charge profile than all SLA's. FLA's are Inferior to SLA's in all respects except for price.

I have Power Sonics 12 years old, daily use with off grid solar, still work with 60% original capacity.
 
The difficulty is... there is nothing to fix. Sure, you might need a door handle (that issue was fixed on warranty) and I had an inverter go out (fixed on warranty) and my center console screen lost connectivity (fixed free at 75,000 miles), so I can't say things are "super expensive to fix". These issues were on several different cars, and were the only problems in tens of thousands of miles. Unlike a gas burner that must have oil and filter changes every 5-10K miles, new plugs, belts, etc. and have hundreds of moving parts that wear and shed metal filings into the oil to be circulated everywhere. I have NEVER spent near as much on maintaining my Teslas as I used to in fixing and maintaining my many previous Toyotas. I think you are mistaken. I will never own a gas car again!

The traction battery is guaranteed for 8 years, and will probably be fine for double that. As to charging, most of us charge at home, at night, in the garage, and as we are asleep, we don't notice if the car is not charging "as quickly as when new". How quickly did yours charge when new? How quickly does it charge now? Most of the "throttling" comes from charging the battery when it has a fair charge in it already. My cars did not seem to be throttled back at nearly 100,000 miles, so I am not sure what you are concerned about.

I agree with you. From your perspective, you are correct. There are definitely fewer parts that require maintenance and fewer moving parts that will wear out over time. What we have in our Tesla's is a lot of technology in that we have an MCU which pretty much runs everything. Maybe I've been reading too many posts about the different issues Tesla owners have encountered and freaked myself out.

I actually purchased my 2015 S 85D with 33,000 miles from a very close friend, who took very good care of the car. I love the car and also am meticulous about my vehicles. I am with you. I charge at home at night and have a set charge ready to go in the morning. However, at the SC I noticed it started at 85 to 90kw then quickly dropped to 60 or sometimes lower. So basically it takes about 30% to 40% longer to charge. I wonder if the slower charging on older Tesla's is to preserve and extend the life of the battery.

Like I said, overall I love the car and will probably never own an ICE car again.
 
I agree with you. From your perspective, you are correct. There are definitely fewer parts that require maintenance and fewer moving parts that will wear out over time. What we have in our Tesla's is a lot of technology in that we have an MCU which pretty much runs everything. Maybe I've been reading too many posts about the different issues Tesla owners have encountered and freaked myself out.

I actually purchased my 2015 S 85D with 33,000 miles from a very close friend, who took very good care of the car. I love the car and also am meticulous about my vehicles. I am with you. I charge at home at night and have a set charge ready to go in the morning. However, at the SC I noticed it started at 85 to 90kw then quickly dropped to 60 or sometimes lower. So basically it takes about 30% to 40% longer to charge. I wonder if the slower charging on older Tesla's is to preserve and extend the life of the battery.

Like I said, overall I love the car and will probably never own an ICE car again.

2015 MS 85D owner here. I have noticed a 22% increase in charging times going from 30 to 80% since before V10, last summer. I believe this could be reduce by taking the car down to 20%, something I have never done (I keep the SOC 30-70% 99.9% of the time) I see no reason why going lower on long trips occasionally would stress the battery.

Like you, I try to take good care of the car. Garaged, covered, store at 55% S0C, avoid SuC.

No doubt, the reduction in DC charge rates, both SuC and Regen, had to do with avoiding HV batt damage. Since I installed a reader and SMT, (Scan my tesla) shows only 2500 KwH of DC charging since new. I have very little degradation (<2%), and Teslafi bears out this is not unusual for my cars age and mileage (<34k)

After 18 months of ownership, I have finally learned to "Stop worrying about the battery and Love the BMS"

Now, about the MCU...planning now for when the warranty runs out in 2.5 years.
 
2015 MS 85D owner here. I have noticed a 22% increase in charging times going from 30 to 80% since before V10, last summer. I believe this could be reduce by taking the car down to 20%, something I have never done (I keep the SOC 30-70% 99.9% of the time) I see no reason why going lower on long trips occasionally would stress the battery.

Like you, I try to take good care of the car. Garaged, covered, store at 55% S0C, avoid SuC.

No doubt, the reduction in DC charge rates, both SuC and Regen, had to do with avoiding HV batt damage. Since I installed a reader and SMT, (Scan my tesla) shows only 2500 KwH of DC charging since new. I have very little degradation (<2%), and Teslafi bears out this is not unusual for my cars age and mileage (<34k)

After 18 months of ownership, I have finally learned to "Stop worrying about the battery and Love the BMS"

Now, about the MCU...planning now for when the warranty runs out in 2.5 years.

Thanks for the post. It's nice to hear from other 2015 MS 85D owners. I agree with you. Aside from the increase in charging times, I need to learn to enjoy this amazing car. I also charge at home and keep in the 80% range you do. I plug in at night and it's ready in the morning.

It will be interesting to see how Tesla treats us as our warranty get closer to ending and what type of resolution they come up with regarding the battery and MCU. If you are not having any issues, they may not do anything. We shall see. Cheers.
 
Thanks for the post. It's nice to hear from other 2015 MS 85D owners. I agree with you. Aside from the increase in charging times, I need to learn to enjoy this amazing car. I also charge at home and keep in the 80% range you do. I plug in at night and it's ready in the morning.

It will be interesting to see how Tesla treats us as our warranty get closer to ending and what type of resolution they come up with regarding the battery and MCU. If you are not having any issues, they may not do anything. We shall see. Cheers.
There is a dual motor group on TMC, not much content though.

If Tesla lets us down, I am sure with 100k cars, there will be third parties stepping up to provide service and parts. Not sure if this will be a 20 year car, but I am not going to part with it easily, even if it gets parked and used as a powerwalls.
 
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Pic of SuC charging profiles for my car.
 
There is a dual motor group on TMC, not much content though.

If Tesla lets us down, I am sure with 100k cars, there will be third parties stepping up to provide service and parts. Not sure if this will be a 20 year car, but I am not going to part with it easily, even if it gets parked and used as a powerwalls.

I think with the cost of batteries dropping and technology continuing to advance, we may have the option to swap our existing battery for a new more advanced battery for a few thousand dollars. Or as you stated, third party servicers may offer the same. I tend to keep my cars for the long haul, so we shall see. I just hope Tesla adds a service center in Boise soon.
 
I’m actually surprised that a 2015 holds up as well as they do. Model S vehicles have only been made since 2012. The first car Tesla built from the ground up. Not exactly a lot of history to go on here. There is usually a risk when being such an early adopter. Including reducing the charge rate for older vehicles. The history just wasn’t there to see how well the cars could handle that rate of charge. I’d rather have a safer vehicle than one that charges quicker. That’s just me I guess. Probably 2022 is where I’d say that Tesla is no longer considered a young car company since they will have made the Model S for 10 years. By then there is enough history to get things right.

I have a 2015 and it has held up pretty well in my estimation. I had gotten the impression some time ago that the 2015 models were basically solid cars, because Tesla had "figured it out" by then. Plus mine was built before the introduction of Model X and Model 3.

But looking at the latest reliability statistics reported by Consumer Reports in their April 2020 issue is a bit sobering. The 2015 Model S has a worse than average overall reliability rating (worse than the average for all cars, not the average of just Teslas). Interestingly, the 2013 and 2014 have average overall reliability, so possibly some of their problems have surfaced and been resolved. Low points on the 2015 models are listed as Drive System, Noise/Leaks, Body Hardware, Power equipment (stuff like cruise controls, keyless entry, wiper and washer motors, and lighting), and In-Car electronics (audio systems, cameras, entertainment, etc.). It does not take too much knowledge of what you read in this forum to know some examples of problems in those areas.

The 2016 Model S has higher-than-average reliability according to CR's data, and the 2017 model is average. Reliability tends to decline with age, of course, so the 2016 and 2017 ratings may drop next year.
 
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I would not put too much stock in CR. They were valid before the internet, but like many magazines and printed media, not really accurate nor relevant now.

MCU1 is a watch item. When I get close to warranty expiry, will be on the lookout for a used unit that I will get rechipped. Might be lots of those as some will get the new MCU upgrade..
 
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