That very loud and painful "clunk"

[SCW-Greg]

Forgive me for being clueless, but how does one determine which generation (A,B,C,D) battery our car has? I checked out the wiki battery table, and my VIN is somewhere in between the A and Bs.

Turn your front wheels all the way to the left. Get out and look behind the right front wheel, down low. You'll see the pack number just underneath the front well skirt. It will end with - A, - B, - C, or - D.

 

[JakeP]

I asked for a Non A pack but even the techs gave me a blank stare.
My car with A pack has 36,000 miles.

I was at 55 on a 2 lane road and attempted to pass a slower car. Once I hit the juice i got a clunk, a ton of errors and a dead car.

I immediatly put it in tow mode and shut down. I could not go into very high on the suspension it was greyed out and said air suspension needs service.

Yep, same thing here...hit the accelerator to pass/merge, clunk, same story. SC was also unaware of the pack differences, to them they are all 85kWh batteries, with different part numbers. This was the first such failure the Columbus SC had seen, hopefully these are extremely rare and limited to early VINs. Tell your SC to contact Engineering, they know the pack differences. Don't know if you will have the same luck in getting a B pack, as I started with a B pack and asked for a replecement B or better up front.

 

[FlasherZ]

Tell them you want the battery part number to end in B (or higher) not A.

Just as a point of clarification for everyone - different part numbers have different revisions. 60 kWh packs only come in a couple of revisions, while 85 kWh packs have additional revisions. In theory, comparable refurbished packs could have a different revision -- e.g., REFURB-00-F could be equivalent to NEWPAK-00-D, if the refurbishing process addressed issues in -D and -E. Then, on top of that, a new part number gets to start over with revisions, so you could end up with NEWPK2-00-A being better than NEWPAK-00-D.

So be careful when comparing revisions from different part numbers.

- - - Updated - - -

Yep, same thing here...hit the accelerator to pass/merge, clunk, same story. SC was also unaware of the pack differences, to them they are all 85kWh batteries, with different part numbers. This was the first such failure the Columbus SC had seen, hopefully these are extremely rare and limited to early VINs. Tell your SC to contact Engineering, they know the pack differences. Don't know if you will have the same luck in getting a B pack, as I started with a B pack and asked for a replecement B or better up front.

My service center knew the question was coming and I educated them on the differences (they, too, didn't really know about the differences in the revisions and prior to that would have unknowingly put an A pack in a car that came with a D, if that's what they had on hand). That said, as heavy and expensive as those things are, it's not like you get much of a choice if you want your car back immediately. They can give you what they have or you can make the case to wait longer.

- - - Updated - - -

Turn your front wheels all the way to the left. Get out and look behind the right front wheel, down low. You'll see the pack number just underneath the front well skirt. It will end with - A, - B, - C, or - D.

There are multiple numbers. You want the Tesla part number, format is AAAAAA-BB-C, where "A" represents the part number, "C" represents the revision. I don't know what the BB is, but from my experience I suspect "B" represents the supplier, in case of multiple suppliers for the same part, but that isn't confirmed.

 

[JakeP]

My service center knew the question was coming and I educated them on the differences (they, too, didn't really know about the differences in the revisions and prior to that would have unknowingly put an A pack in a car that came with a D, if that's what they had on hand). That said, as heavy and expensive as those things are, it's not like you get much of a choice if you want your car back immediately. They can give you what they have or you can make the case to wait longer.

Thanks for the clarification, FlasherZ. This is definitely what happened with my car...they had one battery pack in stock, it was an A rev. I got my car back, and a week or two later when the requested B pack arrived, my car went back for a second swap. I am very grateful for this, as I would not have wanted to be be without my car for a week or two.

 

[SCW-Greg]

Thanks Flasher!

 

[JakeP]

My saga continues. After two successful drives with the vehicle to get the windshield replaced, they did one final test drive before sending her home. Heard loud clunks and diagnosed that the drive unit needed replacement. Hoping to get her back today, planning to leave on a long trip to Madison, WI tonight, and have a friend in town who was with me when I finalized my order in Sep 2012, and has been wanting to see Tess ever since. Timing could not be worse (or perhaps better, when I consider I may have gotten the clunk en route to Wisconsin).

 

[gg_got_a_tesla]

Jake, how did it go? Are you en route to WI in your car?

 

[Newscutter]

Jake, how did it go? Are you en route to WI in your car?

I don't know that he'll be on TMC over the next couple days, so I'll pass along the thumbnail rather than leave you in suspense: Drive Unit was stated to be making "popping" sounds at low speeds (neither of us had ever noticed it). Based on the invoice specifying motor mount replacement we were thinking those are somehow related to the "popping" the tech heard. They replaced the drive unit, battery and windshield and he had the car back last night in time for his trip. He's checked in a couple times (enjoying the Supercharger highway!) and all seems good. Main pack is charging over 90 kw, like before the whole thing started.

 

[JakeP]

Thanks Newscutter for the very accurate update. Currently on our third and last Supercharge stop in Aurora, IL en route to Madison, WI for the weekend.

 

[JakeP]

Tess is doing fine, though we have had two SpCs stop mid-charge. Columbus has been monitoring my progress and confirms the issue was with the SpC in both cases. Switching stalls to a different SpC did the trick, second stall charged uninterrupted to my desired charge level.

 

[Newscutter]

HEY -- both hands on the wheel, you!

 

[JakeP]

I was parked at a Supercharger!

 

[hvb]

Has it been determined that none of the A-packs can charge a over 90kwh and all B-packs can charge at 120kwh?

 

[jerry33]

Has it been determined that none of the A-packs can charge a over 90kwh and all B-packs can charge at 120kwh?

Yes.

 

[VolkerP]

It appears my car is next in line. The driver reported "pull over safely" and "car needs service" messages, but no mention of a clunk. The car got flat bedded to the service center. A high voltage insulation error was indicated. Tesla service says it could be pack cooling/heater, and consider a pack swap. Fremont has to clear this.

And no I am not happy for having an "A" pack swapped. I don't even have a "B" pack, I have one of the first 60kWh packs delivered in Germany. I want the car back on the road as soon and as reliable as possible. If contradictive, I prefer the reliability bit :wink:

 

[JakeP]

Sorry to hear it, VolkerP! I wonder if yours is the same cause, if you didn't hear the loud "clunk" sound. Best of luck on the repair.

 

[gg_got_a_tesla]

Ouch, Volker; sorry to hear. If I'm not mistaken, this sounds like the first 60 pack failure - clunk or not - reported here on TMC.

 

[JRP3]

If the motor wasn't under load, or if the load was light, it might not clunk. It also might be a different issue.

 

[VolkerP]

Car is back on the road with a new 60kWh battery pack. I have no additional information on what went wrong.

And I need a new group membership icon

 

[Chris1howell]

After about 8,000 miles my REFERB-A is not doing so well. I just returned from a Coast to Coast Supercharger roadtrip. Two of the last legs were full to empty legs.

Max Charge on my old pack was ~250.
Last L2 40a charge from empty to full is 220 miles...