Tesla Roadside Service comes through for road trip

[Bound466]

Just wanted to share this success story.

We are on a road trip from California to Indiana in our beloved Tess. Just 2 days in we are in Grand Junction CO, and got to our hotel as planned. Loved the trip planner feature in v6.2. As we park, we get the dreaded 12 volt battery error. Car is unable to drive, and need to call service. Ugh!!

So I get online with Tesla Service right away. Bottom line, they really took care of us to make sure our road trip was not affected. They got us a rental vehicle that morning, and got Tess to the Denver Service Center without a blip on our schedule. We'll pick Tess up when we return.

I was sure stressed out by the situation, but Tesla came through and got us back on the road without any delays. They will pick up the gas cost too so we will be made whole. No more stress, and we can enjoy our trip. Sure we miss Tess, but it's the best outcome given the circumstances.

Thank you Tesla!!

A couple notes of interest:

(1) We saw a grey Tesla in a charging spot at our hotel when we arrived. Cool. But it was still there into the morning. And was NOT plugged in. Not cool. It's not a parking spot people!

(2) Make sure to account for weather impacts on range in the Trip Planner module in v6.2. We had to charge to a SOC to get us to at least 30% destination SOC to account for light to moderate rain. And watch that destination SOC frequently. Every 5 minutes at least, to make sure you can adjust your speed to get it back into a safe range. We would try to keep it between 10-15% until we passed 2/3rd of the way to the next SC or destination. In which case you can start to let loose more and more since the distance is much shorter. This may be only an issue with an S60 due to the shorter range.

Happy Travels!

 

[efusco]

That is outstanding service. Have had several trips in non Tesla vehicles delayed due to issues. Glad yours was not. Thanks for sharing.

 

[MsElectric]

Sorry to hear about your incident buy glad they took care of you. What kind of a rental did you get?

 

[alin3]

That is truly outstanding service.

Although...what I get from this story is anxiety, not about range, but about the dreaded 12V error that can leave one stranded! Honestly, this would be a major negative in taking my incoming 70D on a longer road trip rather than our trusty diesel Q7...

 

[ChadS]

It often gets mentioned on the forums when it happens, but I don't think it happens that much. I've got about 100k Tesla miles and I've never hit it. I would think a flat tire would be a more likely issue to delay your trip.

 

[gg_got_a_tesla]

Great to hear.

Curious to hear if you ever got your original 12V battery changed? Your car was produced at about the same time as my early S60 and I got the battery replaced within a couple of months after folks reported issues with those early batches of 12V batteries; the Tesla service folks could see some errors in the diagnostic logs at that time although the battery never quite quit on me.

Would have been even better if they could spare a Model S loaner for your roadtrip. A gasser is no fun when you really intended to enjoy driving your MS on such a long roadtrip.

 

[Bound466]

Thanks everyone for the well wishes for our trip.

Because we packed so much into our Model S, and because it holds so much (it's huge of course), we got a Yukon to hold everything. We had luggage for almost 3 weeks of travel for four, plus camping equipment too. We also brought a spare 21-inch tire in the frunk, since those tires are harder to find in some of the smaller towns we are traveling through. I kept one just for super long road trips like this one, otherwise it stays in the garage. I also discovered I really hate pumping gas and trying to find a gas station at night. I feel much safer at SuperChargers.

Tesla Roadside pretty much gave us an open ended deal with Enterprise in order to keep our trip moving as scheduled. We were able to pick any vehicle, and drive it anywhere, drop it off anywhere. The only restrictions were we couldn't do anything illegal with it.

I did try to push for a loaner, to possibly pick up at another service center location along our route, but that was not to be in the cards. Tesla Service said they don't want to have their loaners gone that long. I think they also don't want to have folks putting 3000 miles on them over a week or two either. Makes sense though, and again I have to commend Tesla for providing the rental vehicle to finish out the trip.

I also asked if they could flatbed our car to us once it was fixed, to a location along our route ( e.g. in Chicago or Indy). I figured that was a stretch, and that request was also turned down. No surprise they did, but I thought I'd ask. We really miss the ride and features of our Model S. But we will be able to have her delivered to our hotel when we get back to Denver next week, and I know she is being well taken care of.

We did have the 12 volt error occur about 6 months ago, but I can't remember if they replaced the battery or not. What I think happens is that the 12 volt battery issue arises from several different root causes. The root causes happen to manifest themselves with this same error. The reason I think this is that Tesla Service is still diagnosing the error.

We have almost 70k miles on our car. We can't wait to do another road trip again. With her We are thinking of taking the southerly route next time, like the 10 freeway, when they complete the SuperChargers all the way.

 

[No2DinosaurFuel]

Yeah funny how people fail to mention the tesla not charging parked in the charging spot. There should be penalties or ways to tell owners to move their tesla. Like a move your car notification in the tesla app.

Or better yet have thw autopilot move the car autonmously.

 

[Cyclone]

We have almost 70k miles on our car. We can't wait to do another road trip again. With her We are thinking of taking the southerly route next time, like the 10 freeway, when they complete the SuperChargers all the way.

I was already very impressed by what I was reading about Tesla's service, but this just put it over the top. Do you have the extended warranty or did Tesla continue the white glove treatment for an out-of-warranty car? Or does the 12v battery get included with the 8-year/unlimited mile battery and drivetrain warranty?

 

[Kbsilver]

Is this failure always just the 12V battery or the DC-DC converter? If it's just the battery I would think they would figure out by now how to change it in the field.

 

[apacheguy]

@OP - Has yours been in for the proactive power supply/switch TSB?

 

[Bound466]

I was already very impressed by what I was reading about Tesla's service, but this just put it over the top. Do you have the extended warranty or did Tesla continue the white glove treatment for an out-of-warranty car? Or does the 12v battery get included with the 8-year/unlimited mile battery and drivetrain warranty?

We didn't get the extended warranty.

 

[Bound466]

@OP - Has yours been in for the proactive power supply/switch TSB?

Wow, I wasn't aware of that one. I don't think so, but it's had some of the service bulletin fixes when we bring it in for the annual service. I will definitely ask about it when Denver SC calls again. Thanks.

 

[Gizmotoy]

Is this failure always just the 12V battery or the DC-DC converter? If it's just the battery I would think they would figure out by now how to change it in the field.

It's more commonly the battery, but can be either (or both). Batteries are frequently replaced in the field, so either they didn't have any room in the schedule to come to them for an emergency swap, or they saw something in the logs that indicated it was more serious.

 

[Bound466]

It's more commonly the battery, but can be either (or both). Batteries are frequently replaced in the field, so either they didn't have any room in the schedule to come to them for an emergency swap, or they saw something in the logs that indicated it was more serious.

Update: The Service Center said it was a blown fuse in the main battery. Already fixed now, and Tess will need to sit tight there in Denver until we return next week.

 

[Gizmotoy]

Update: The Service Center said it was a blown fuse in the main battery. Already fixed now, and Tess will need to sit tight there in Denver until we return next week.

That's a pretty big one. Glad that's all it was, though. As far as things that could have been wrong, that's a pretty minor one. Presumably they determined it was a faulty fuse?