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Winter Driving Experiences
- Thread starter kevincwelch
- Start date
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- Tags
- Driving Dynamics Model S
Looks like my Californian car gave up in Canadian winters. It was -28C (-18F) last night.
My driver window froze up last night. When opening the door, the motor couldn't pull the window under the chrome finish, the motor gave up and dislodged. I tried exiting through the passenger door, but that motor didn't budge either. So I gently pushed the door open as it forced its way past the chrome trim around the window.
My window is currently stuck in the down position. I can pry it up if I try, but it falls back down into the door with a thunk. Now the motor is completely unresponsive and doesn't react to the button.
My car sleeps outside. I don't feel comfortable leaving it open like that all night.
Update: Toronto Service Centre is sending a ranger and should fix it tomorrow. In the mean time, I'm going to try to find a heated garage somewhere, where the ranger can work. I would feel awful if the ranger had to come replace the window motor in my driveway in temperatures like this !
It's going to be a cold ride back home.
My driver window froze up last night. When opening the door, the motor couldn't pull the window under the chrome finish, the motor gave up and dislodged. I tried exiting through the passenger door, but that motor didn't budge either. So I gently pushed the door open as it forced its way past the chrome trim around the window.
My window is currently stuck in the down position. I can pry it up if I try, but it falls back down into the door with a thunk. Now the motor is completely unresponsive and doesn't react to the button.
My car sleeps outside. I don't feel comfortable leaving it open like that all night.
Update: Toronto Service Centre is sending a ranger and should fix it tomorrow. In the mean time, I'm going to try to find a heated garage somewhere, where the ranger can work. I would feel awful if the ranger had to come replace the window motor in my driveway in temperatures like this !
It's going to be a cold ride back home.
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InTheShadows
Active Member
Try sport in slow turns
Is it like the old 4x4 trucks with out power steering? Both hands on one side if the wheel using your weight to turn them.
mknox
Well-Known Member
That sucks. I take from this that the car opened fine when you departed and was frozen when you reached your destination. Was it ice build-up from snow or sleet on your drive that caused it? So far, my windows seem to be working okay in the deep freeze, but I haven't had them iced up yet.
Wow, that sucks. Any other information about the environment, apart from bloody cold? I have cold soaked my car overnight in similar temps, but no issues when I tried to open the doors. The low was around -17F, but it was -2F or so when I returned to the vehicle, it was also covered with fluffy snow.
Did you preheat the car before this happened? Just wanting to learn from your experience. Having it happen to both windows tells me that it is not a one-off event.
EarlyAdopter
Active Member
You could try leaving the little cloth cover off in the frunk right behind the charge port. As long as you don't have the parcel shelf it might get enough warm air behind the port to keep it from icing over.
Newscutter
Member
My wife (credit where credit is due) suggests tossing a few of those gel/chem glove warmer packs in your glovebox. They are inexpensive and heat up fast, significantly, and gentle enough for plastic/painted surfaces.
As a further step I think an outdoor faucet protector (see link below) could be adapted to run a charge cord through it for those of you who overnight outside. It might even have enough insulative value (if that's a term?) that if you tossed a glove warmer pack inside the enclosure first it might hold off the whatever ice might try to get in all night long.
http://www.amazon.com/Frost-King-FC...388800190&sr=1-1&keywords=winter+faucet+cover
InTheShadows
Active Member
Has anyone else noticed in cold weather the air suspension seems a lot more stiff? So much so that it's almost go cart like over the bumps.
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The car was reporting -28C this evening. The suspension seemed a bit stiff... but that might have been the tires as much as the suspension. I did notice the steering was also a little stiff - nothing uncomfortable though.
Also despite the improved vents I had to put the defog on HI in order to mostly-clear the side windows. Until I did that the outer couple of inches of the windshield was fogged over, and as for the side windows I could only see the rear view mirrors - nothing else. Unfortunately using HI draws something like 3 kW, whereas once the car was warmed up Auto took about 1 kW. The big effect was wind resistance; at highway speeds it was drawing much more than its nominal power draw, even after the pack was fully warmed up (full regen).
Good thing I have the 85 kWh pack. I used a lot more power than usual today.
Oddly enough, my right rear door handle, which has been stuck extended for a week, suddenly started working again. Go figure.
Also despite the improved vents I had to put the defog on HI in order to mostly-clear the side windows. Until I did that the outer couple of inches of the windshield was fogged over, and as for the side windows I could only see the rear view mirrors - nothing else. Unfortunately using HI draws something like 3 kW, whereas once the car was warmed up Auto took about 1 kW. The big effect was wind resistance; at highway speeds it was drawing much more than its nominal power draw, even after the pack was fully warmed up (full regen).
Good thing I have the 85 kWh pack. I used a lot more power than usual today.
Oddly enough, my right rear door handle, which has been stuck extended for a week, suddenly started working again. Go figure.
Mayhemm
Model S P85+ "Lola"
Did you inform Tesla about it? I would have thought they'd send a Ranger out within a week.
We scheduled my car's annual service, and THEN the handle failed. Since the car was going in anyway it made sense to wait.
Hello,
I just returned from a one day winter driving course in the swiss mountains. It was snowing in the morning and raining in the afternoon. So we had all kinda fresh snow and slippery. As this is my first driving course ever I'm probably far from an expert driver and I did learn a lot today. This event was excellent to see how the Model S performes compared to other cars. Unfortunately it was quiet sobering. I drive a standard 85 with 19' Pirelli winter tyres with about 1000km on it and they still look like new.
The first excercise was a slalom course, with the traction control it did handle well and without it, it was fun to drive, even thou it's quiet hard to dose the accelration. Also the stabaliser did work a lot while having the traction controll off.
after that we tried to start uphill with the car, wich was impossible with the Model S. Even when it wasn't uphill, just some snow in front of the tires from braking it was hard to get away. I had to be pushed by people 3 times that day, and there was only one other car that needed that and only one time it was because I ended up in a bit deeper snow.
After that we did full brakes a bit downhill around 60 km/h, the Model S needed the most distance to stop from all the cars by about 10m. We also did some manuvering while braking. The ABS system worked flawlessly and I could avoid the excercise object with about the same speed as the other cars.
In the afternoon we had drove through a corse with tight corners. It had 3 Startpoints so we could drive on it with 3 cars at the same time and see who's back first after 2 rounds. Here I got 2 times the 3rd place. While my driving skill probably did matter most in this excersice we also did drive a few rounds with the 2 winners. A skoda oktavia and a BMW (no clue wich one ^^) both with 4x4 and the acceleration and grip on the snow was really something different.
After that we drove through a more street like roundcourse for maybe 15km. Like at the slalom it was fun to drive without the traction control but in the end I didn't really got the hang of dosing the accelerater good enough to really drift nicely and accerlerate good and the car broke out a lot. So I was alot faster and of corse more stable drive with the traction control on.
In the very end we tried to drive kinda fast backwards and make a 180° turn and drive away immediately. I didn't really got the front gear in while breaking and sliding around, it was most likely my missing skill, but maybe the electronics prevented that somehow, no idea.
You can say I suck at driving, that other winter tyres are better but like I said my experiences where sobering. So keep in mind we drive a heavy car wich does have some disadvantes. So drive carefully and don't get overconfident.
I just returned from a one day winter driving course in the swiss mountains. It was snowing in the morning and raining in the afternoon. So we had all kinda fresh snow and slippery. As this is my first driving course ever I'm probably far from an expert driver and I did learn a lot today. This event was excellent to see how the Model S performes compared to other cars. Unfortunately it was quiet sobering. I drive a standard 85 with 19' Pirelli winter tyres with about 1000km on it and they still look like new.
The first excercise was a slalom course, with the traction control it did handle well and without it, it was fun to drive, even thou it's quiet hard to dose the accelration. Also the stabaliser did work a lot while having the traction controll off.
after that we tried to start uphill with the car, wich was impossible with the Model S. Even when it wasn't uphill, just some snow in front of the tires from braking it was hard to get away. I had to be pushed by people 3 times that day, and there was only one other car that needed that and only one time it was because I ended up in a bit deeper snow.
After that we did full brakes a bit downhill around 60 km/h, the Model S needed the most distance to stop from all the cars by about 10m. We also did some manuvering while braking. The ABS system worked flawlessly and I could avoid the excercise object with about the same speed as the other cars.
In the afternoon we had drove through a corse with tight corners. It had 3 Startpoints so we could drive on it with 3 cars at the same time and see who's back first after 2 rounds. Here I got 2 times the 3rd place. While my driving skill probably did matter most in this excersice we also did drive a few rounds with the 2 winners. A skoda oktavia and a BMW (no clue wich one ^^) both with 4x4 and the acceleration and grip on the snow was really something different.
After that we drove through a more street like roundcourse for maybe 15km. Like at the slalom it was fun to drive without the traction control but in the end I didn't really got the hang of dosing the accelerater good enough to really drift nicely and accerlerate good and the car broke out a lot. So I was alot faster and of corse more stable drive with the traction control on.
In the very end we tried to drive kinda fast backwards and make a 180° turn and drive away immediately. I didn't really got the front gear in while breaking and sliding around, it was most likely my missing skill, but maybe the electronics prevented that somehow, no idea.
You can say I suck at driving, that other winter tyres are better but like I said my experiences where sobering. So keep in mind we drive a heavy car wich does have some disadvantes. So drive carefully and don't get overconfident.
Odd, I've never noticed any steering stiffness either and I'm on Sport and regularly driving at sub-20c temps. One recent experience that I had trying to conserve range at -22c was that driving at 50-65kph is not enough to heat the battery and thus consumes *more* battery than driving at 80kph.
Cliff Hannel
Member
For those of you planning trips in cold weather or at high altitude, please try our new (not-yet-published) version of EVTripPlanner as it compensates better for those things. Let us know how accurate it is for your trips. Thanks - and enjoy!
Cold weather/altitude-adjusted planner: http://evtripplanner.com/planner/carview_beta2
Reference sheets & calculations (PDF and XLS): http://evtripplanner.com/calcs.php
We have thousands of users each week now...think Tesla will integrate energy planning into Nav soon????
Cold weather/altitude-adjusted planner: http://evtripplanner.com/planner/carview_beta2
Reference sheets & calculations (PDF and XLS): http://evtripplanner.com/calcs.php
We have thousands of users each week now...think Tesla will integrate energy planning into Nav soon????
SamGarber
S85 "Whale Shark"
Just took a quick trip to the park nearby and was using something like 590kWh just doing 30mi/hr. Crazy! It is about -2C/27f out and it even turned off regen on start.
Sam, We live in the same 'neighborhood' (greater Philly). I have found if the battery is warm and I have pre warmed the cabin I average about 390-400. If I just drive from a 'cold' start I am up in the 500s pretty easily on short errand trips.
@ChrisgG, if you're running the standard Pirelli snow tires then please be advised that they are crap. They are "performance winter tires" and I'm thoroughly unimpressed with them.
SamGarber
S85 "Whale Shark"
That's what I figured... I don't really mind since I am headed to the KOP mall to get some shopping done and my energy loss will be recouped
Agreed. I have always put Blizzaks on my vehicles during the winter months (even the AWD Audis) and found them great in the snow. Blizzaks don't come in 21" so I have SottoZero3's
(Yea, Pirellis..but no choice if you want 21's now) and have been surprised at how well the car handled in snow. My wife refuses to drive in the snow without AWD (poor me..I have to drive the Tesla now
) ) I believe what would help the car most, other than AWD, would be the ability to keep the car raised in the highest setting up to 25-30 mph. No car can plow snow for long periods of time, especially uphill.- - - Updated - - -
That's what I figured... I don't really mind since I am headed to the KOP mall to get some shopping done and my energy loss will be recouped
Your energy supply may be recouped but your wallet will be lighter! :biggrin:
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