Question of a new Dutch Roadster owner

[Logticom]

Hi,

I am Marcel from the Netherlands and I have already been on this forum for hours.
It is great to see how much information about the Tesla Roadster is available online.

Since last week I am also a Roadster owner:

Tesla Roadster Sport Signature 250 VIN #243.

I like the car very much and it feels great to be part of the Tesla Roadster community!

Before buying the car I had contact with 3 Dutch Roadster owners and 1 US Roadster owner.
They helped me very well with what to look at before buying a Roadster, for example:
1) check the CAC
2) check the ideal range
3) export and check the data from the car
4) ask for and check all the maintenance bills
5) Drive the car agressive and check the temp of Battery, PEM and Motor

Besides this I have compared my Roadster, with the 190 Roadster that are on Pluginamerica.org.
Mine is about an average Roadster comparing the CAC and Ideal Range in Standard Mode.
Soon I will also be uploading my numbers to Pluginamerica.org.

But I think there is still a lot to learn and now its time for the next step.
And that is why I am placing this post and the next question:

What do you think are the most important things to keep track off and / or regularly check on my Roadster to drive as many kms as possible with the least amount of maintenance costs?

Thanks for your help in advance.
I am looking forward to your response.

Gr,
Marcel

 

[gregd]

What do you think are the most important things to keep track off and / or regularly check on my Roadster to drive as many kms as possible with the least amount of maintenance costs?

Congrats on the new car, and welcome to the community!

It's yet to be proven how effective this will be, but I grab the logs from the car each month and look for any events that might indicate a problem brewing. Not all of them get reported to the cabin VDS, and taking care of them when they show up might prevent a larger problem in the future. If nothing else, it's a good way to get to know your car's particular personality. Each one is different.

 

[Rolf68]

Welcome aboard

Personnaly, I like to keep the "debug" mode always enabled, so I can see early alerts on the VDS and also read the temperatures in figures on the screen, instead of the blue / yellow / red bars.

 

[Marius]

Purchase an OVMS unit and you can track a lot of info with the OVMS app on your mobile.
All events, also the not critical ones are reported and the real time temp of battery, motor and PEM

 

[Mark77a]

I'd say, and try and do myself, after absorbing info on here and trying to get as much info from experienced roadster Tesla techs: ....

1. Never use high power eg say over 100kw, when the battery is in its lowest 20-30%. / Say 80km remaining range. This is because high power (amps) pulls the voltage down of each cell. Cells (or bricks of cells) are never perfectly equally balanced, especially in the lower % SOC (state of charge).

Low volts is the worst for cell life, along with high temperature, time and number of full charge / discharge cycles.

In other words if you want to 'give it the beans' (accelerate fast), do it after charging, at the start of a journey. And resist doing this completely at end / last 80km.

2. Leave charger plugged in always, but at 'standard' not 'range' mode (as roadster owning Tesla techs do)... This keeps the cells balanced and at 80% SOC (best compromise).

3. Only range charge when needed, and then drive as soon as charged (cells don't like sitting at v high eg 100% SOC for long.

4. After a journey, if the battery is warm (eg over ~30 Deg C or ~3bars) give the car a short range charge (at over 240v/10A ) for about 30 to 60mins to cool the battery (you'll hear the front fans coming on and pushing out heat ..from the batter). But don't forget to reset the charge to 'standard' to avoid going over 80% (as 3 above).

5. If you can, avoid driving in bad rain and damp. Although probably ok, some owners have reported problems withe the 400v converter in the front, the charging socket circuit, and general errors.

6. If not already done, get OVMS - makes all the the above easy to monitor and control.

Finally ENJOY it ... and welcome to TMC, Roadsters.

 

[Logticom]

Thanks for your answers!
I have ordered the OVMS unit.
And will start grabbing and analysing the data every month.
I am thinking about putting some datapoints in a spreadsheet.
And update this every month.

If there is anyone alse in the future with tips.
Please let me know.
Thanks.

Gr,
Marcel

 

[Logticom]

Welcome aboard

Personnaly, I like to keep the "debug" mode always enabled, so I can see early alerts on the VDS and also read the temperatures in figures on the screen, instead of the blue / yellow / red bars.

How can I enable debug mode?

Gr,
Marcel

 

[tvuolo]

Don't forget to check your rear tires regularly. They wear fast! As soon as I replace a set, I'm looking for a sale on the next set.

 

[Logticom]

Don't forget to check your rear tires regularly. They wear fast! As soon as I replace a set, I'm looking for a sale on the next set.

I will, thanks for the tip!