Unhappy with Tesla Service, allowed battery to drain

[thelastdeadmouse]

The last few days I'd noticed a few things in my car not working. I could set the cruise control but then couldn't adjust the speed, when using the scroll wheels nothing would happen. If you tapped the + - on the screen it'd flash, but the number wouldn't change. Same if you tried to open the trunk or charge port from the screen, you'd get a flash but nothing would happen.

Saturday I tried rebooting the computer with the scroll wheels, and it went dark but never turned back on. Several attempts with leaving the car in between to allow it to fully power down did nothing. I contacted roadside assistance through the app and then eventually scheduled a tow for that night. The nearest service center is a roughly 3.5 hour drive. I asked if I should disconnect the 12v battery to hard reset and they said no.

I put my phone inside and came out to do some yard work and I noticed the HVAC system was still running in the car. I couldn't use the screen to turn it off, and I couldn't connect to the car through the app. I plugged the car back in to keep the battery from running down and asked support if this would be a problem and they said no.

9am yesterday I sent an email to the service center asking them to at least plug the car in so that it wouldn't drain the battery, given that it already spent 11 hours unplugged with the climate control on (in cold upstate NY) and would spend another 24 hours before their normal open time Monday, no response.

This morning the emailed back saying they were starting work on the car now, and I check the app and it had finally connected, with the battery at 0%. Pretty frustrating to say the least, given that I'd warned them more than 36 hours prior that the climate control was stuck on and that it wouldn't be plugged in once it was towed.

We all know that running these batteries down all the way is bad for their long term health, and with all the other things not working on the car I have no way of knowing if the normal fail safes that would prevent over-draining the battery were still in place. We'll see what the service center has to say once they've been able to diagnose the car, but I'll definitely be monitoring the battery health very closely after this.

 

[Joshan]

Deep breaths, your car will be OK. It is not a Roadster that will brick.

 

[Posti101]

Yes, nothing is going to break or happen to your battery. Did you forget its a 10 year warranty.

 

[T.F.S.]

I thought it was 150k warranty..

 

[Trips]

Your battery that is still covered will be fine and they might have just disconnected it. Even if it was a Roadster you would have three months before major damage would happen.

 

[TLLMRRJ]

LOL, you both got it wrong. Here's the truth:

• Model 3 and Model Y Standard or Standard Range Plus - 8 years or 100,000 miles, whichever comes first, with minimum 70% retention of Battery capacity over the warranty period.
• Model 3 and Model Y Long Range or Performance - 8 years or 120,000 miles, whichever comes first, with minimum 70% retention of Battery capacity over the warranty period.

 

[TomB985]

Just so I understand the timeline, you were expecting someone to plug the car in over the weekend when nobody was there?

I don’t think it hurt anything. If it was left dead for a long period of time perhaps, but you should be just fine. Seems like they are doing what they can, I wouldn’t be upset with them.

Very curious to see what the problem turns out to be.

 

[I<3URANUS]

It will be fine. No worries

 

[Tessaract]

Many of us have run down our batteries to 0 or almost 0% (some even deliberately). Although I try to avoid it, I've run mine down to 2-3 km remaining range on two occasions. No notable battery damage, determined by fully charged range.

My advice: don't sweat it.