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New Owner of Used P85 and battery failure just occured a few days ago.

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Hello All,

I have frequented this board quite often and have appreciated everyone's feedback regarding this vehicle. I purchased a Used Blue P85 P13565 with 20k miles fully loaded from Richmond VA on Sept 15th. I have to say your feedback on the car regarding customer service and various repairs have been spot on. So I figured I would finally add to the wealth of knowledge on this site.

On October 1st on began to accelerate on to the freeway from an on ramp when I hear a loud thump with a loss of power (unable to accelerate). Multiple warnings showing up on the display - 12v battery low and service required. I drifted over to the shoulder. My first thoughts are man I bet its the battery as I remember watching a video of a Model S owner who had same problem. But I am not upset and oddly enough not surprised. I expected the battery to malfunction at some point during my ownership. This malfunction happened at 6:40am my service center is roughly 30-40miles away. I call Tesla roadside assistance, she gets my current location then we disconnect so she can call tow truck. Tow truck arrives in 30 minutes but, before the tow truck arrives the 12v battery has been depleted and tow truck operator can't put car in neutral. He calls Tesla and they inform him he needs to remove front grill to access battery terminals. I notice him staring at the grill trying to figure out how to take it off, so I say you need to access the battery terminals (I know how to get there from this sites feedback and various videos) he says yes. So we pop the frunk and I push down on the center right above the grill and one corner pops out I instruct him to pull with a little force a voila. He hooks up external battery pack and the center console comes back to life. I call service center (roadside assistance was unable to reach them at the time because they did not open until 7am) speak with Jonathan in Rockville MD. He says he has me coming in and will have loaner ready. Tesla Manual states to raise vehicle and put it in jack mode for tow but, I am unable to raise the vehicle from standard I select very high but vehicle will not raise. I can however put it in jack mode. After using some boards to help raise vehicle he gets vehicle loaded on tow truck and off we went.

I arrived at Rockville service center where Jonathan came out to meet me. I explained what happened and that I was actually already scheduled to come in on Saturday October 4th to repair the following items under warranty:

1. Clicking noise when turning steering wheel - Found out from other owners reviews it just needs a shim ad retightening of the bolts (Jonathan said he knew exactly what it needed).

2. Drivers seat is loose rocks back and fourth - I don't recall any other owners experiencing this although I didn't do an exhaustive search regarding it.

3. Driver's side rear door window has black sealant on lower part of window on outside. - I explained to Jonathan I know what the sealant is and if you look down in the groove you can see that the plastic back has detached inside the door and is rubbing on the glass when it gets rolled down.

4. Water draining from rubber stops and handles on rear lift gate when opening. This occurs the next day after it has rained or after car wash. Also carpets and padding under carpet in trunk is wet after these events

5. Condensation in reverse lights after rain and carwash

6. Strap on kids 3rd row seat broke off after trying to stow it away.

7. TPMS warning comes on and off sporadically. Some days its on for 10 minutes other days 5 seconds and some days not at all. TPMS failure requires service has also displayed.

8. My UMC gets very hot to the touch at 40amps when charging at home. I have turned it down to 35amps and its warm to the touch.

Jonathan said it would all be taken care of in the next few days. I signed the agreement for the loaner and off I went to work. I left the service center around 9am. I got a call from Jonathan later that day with news that the Positive Contactor in the high voltage battery was defective. They are replacing the battery along with the 12v battery and that my vehicle should be done by tomorrow afternoon. I was very pleased they were able to identify and correct this issue along with all the other issues in such a short period of time. I don't recall any other ICE vehicle service centers working so fast.

So I arrive back to Rockville the next day around 6pm I see my car getting cleaned up when I arrived. Jonathan comes out to greet me again and he ask how I was and if everything was ok with the loaner. I say well, there are actually a few issues with the loaner. I know you guys sell these cars after their time is up so I don't want a future owner to receive this car with issues that can be addressed now. The sunroof gets stuck trying to open and gives up and the passenger side rear door handle appears to be defective. Other than those two things the car was great. He thanked me for pointing those issue out and said they would get them repaired.

So we go over the list of items I had concerns with (we already discussed the issues with the battery).

1. Clicking noise resolved with addition of shims and retightening of the bolts.
2. Driver seat repaired by replacing 4 tilt assist springs.
3. Driver side rear door repaired by replacing door handle backing plate
4. Water entering rear lift gate was repaired by replacing lift gate left tail assembly
5. Condensation in reverse lights were repaired by replacing a detaching lift gate applique
6. Only way to replace strap on 3rd row seat was to replace entire seat. Jonathan had a pull off from a new vehicle and replaced mine with that one.
7. TPMS warnings and failures came on because all my tires were low DUH... Jonathan thinks (I don't think they wrote down the pressure they were at) they were in the high 30's so they filled to 45psi
8. UMC was replaced with a new UMC.
9. They did a goodwill service inspection.

This post is getting really long. So to sum things up. I made it back home and noticed my auto-tilt didn't work, thanks to Jonathan he provided instruction on how to reset them.

TESLA ROCKS!!!

Service was smooth, quick and met my expectations based on other owners feedback. If I didn't read the feedback it would have greatly exceeded my expectations. Again thanks to all who have taken the time to post.

Rahine

- - - Updated - - -

I noticed a bunch of typos after posting but I'm not sure how to edit the post my apologies.
 
Rahine
Thanks for taking the time to document all this. It is always helpful to understand others experiences. I also had the clicking in the steering wheel a month after we took delivery. Service in Tampa fixed it while I waited. My interactions with the service team have been excellent so far.
 
Thanks for the detailed report!

One observation...
6. Only way to replace strap on 3rd row seat was to replace entire seat. Jonathan had a pull off from a new vehicle and replaced mine with that one.
This part I find a little troubling. The vehicle donating the seat will now have a history of being on its second 3rd row seat. Probably not a big deal, but seems like an odd choice to me -- rather than order another seat separately
 
It was the Positive contactor in the main battery pack that failed. So to repair they replaced the entire pack including the 12v battery

- - - Updated - - -

Thanks for the detailed report!

One observation...

This part I find a little troubling. The vehicle donating the seat will now have a history of being on its second 3rd row seat. Probably not a big deal, but seems like an odd choice to me -- rather than order another seat separately

I should rephrase. The 3rd row seat was not wanted on the vehicle it came from. So that vehicle will not have the seat replaced.
 
Rahine:
What type of service and maintenance did your S come with? And have you, or are you. contemplating adding extended service and/or maintenance based upon your experience?

Quick Answer: Based on my experience with vehicles, yes I plan on purchasing the extended warranty but not the service plan.

Long answer: Below

This vehicle came with no service plan or extended warranty. I planned on purchasing the extended warranty before these issues presented themselves. I also suspect that these issues could have been resolved by previous owner if there was a service center relatively close to Richmond, VA which there aren't. The previous owner did not mention any of these issues nor did I notice them during my inspection and test drive.

UMC would have only been noted if previous owner mentioned it.
Rear facing seats strap broke when my wife and I tried to showcase them during National EV day in Poolesville MD
Rear window I didn't notice during inspection car was detailed. Also not something your looking for windows rolled down and up with no noise looked good to me.
Drivers seat- Wife test drove vehicle and she didn't notice it. I am a pretty large guy and noticed it after we got it home.
Water issues we didn't notice until first car wash.
Clicking issue during steering wasn't apparent until I heard feedback from other owners regarding steering then I went and checked and noticed it.
Main battery issue I expected at some point in time. But that was a non-issue for me since there is Unlimited miles warranty for 8 years on malfunction (not degradation).

I think previous owner should have noticed some of these issues and had ranger come out and repair them since service center is so far.

I am going to contact Tesla Service and see if they would provide me with what these repairs would have cost outside of warranty. At $150 an hour labor plus parts self pay repairs could end up costing as much as the $4k extended warranty cost pretty quickly. So for me the risk is not acceptable especially since I plan on putting A LOT of miles on this vehicle. I average 35-40k miles a year in my commute. You can wait up until 30days before your warranty expires to purchase the extension. So if you average less than 15k miles a year then you have plenty of time to decide if you want to keep the car for life (whatever length of time or mileage that is for you) and purchase that insurance policy(warranty).

As for the service plan I don't really see Tesla offering or needing to do much in regards to service to justify roughly $600 a visit. When the time comes I will come in to get the fluids (brake and coolant) changed out. Other than that I don't expect to need anyone to tell me when I need tires, brake pads or windshield wipers. I am capable of doing that minor maintenance and inspection myself. I am also ok with a local shop doing tire rotations I will just inform them to torque the lug nuts to 129lbs and we're good.
 
As for the service plan I don't really see Tesla offering or needing to do much in regards to service to justify roughly $600 a visit. When the time comes I will come in to get the fluids (brake and coolant) changed out. Other than that I don't expect to need anyone to tell me when I need tires, brake pads or windshield wipers. I am capable of doing that minor maintenance and inspection myself. I am also ok with a local shop doing tire rotations I will just inform them to torque the lug nuts to 129lbs and we're good.

Yep. For future Tesla's that I own, I'm certainly not buying the service plan. Wish I had known what I know now way back when the service plans were first offered. We were the guinea pigs.
 
With the amount of miles you drive the extended service plan would be gone in just over 2 years. Not sure it's worth it considering the fact that you have to pay a deductible for each out of warranty item too. I guess if you group them together you might get away with one deductible payment.
 
With the amount of miles you drive the extended service plan would be gone in just over 2 years. Not sure it's worth it considering the fact that you have to pay a deductible for each out of warranty item too. I guess if you group them together you might get away with one deductible payment.

It's definitely a gamble if I don't. I have at least 6months to decide. I definitely would group all the repairs together if needed.
 
Great you got everything fixed and good service!

A tip: The SC can pull the service history on the car and email it to you as a PDF. I had them do it for my inventory car (7 months old, 5,800 miles). Mine hadn't had any major stuff done, but I did notice a replaced UMC and lift gate activator. Always good to know the history of the car.
 
Great you got everything fixed and good service!

A tip: The SC can pull the service history on the car and email it to you as a PDF. I had them do it for my inventory car (7 months old, 5,800 miles). Mine hadn't had any major stuff done, but I did notice a replaced UMC and lift gate activator. Always good to know the history of the car.

I never thought about getting a history report. Thanks for the tip.
 
Thanks Rahine for taking the time to document your experience. As an excited but financially concerned X reservation holder, stories like this give me a great deal of needed confidence that our worst case fears would be handled satisfactorily, at least during the warranty period.

The one concern that lingers is what it would cost if a battery were to die in year nine or a bit later, i.e., after the warranty expires but much before a battery is expected to fail (in the catastrophic, not degradation sense). Elon has commented that he doesn't think everyday users will be able to drive the battery into failure, and he cites a lab car with 500k miles on it, but your experience shows that it is at least possible among the outliers. Hopefully such a defect would show itself within the first eight years but I don't know enough about battery manufacturing to say whether or not that's true.
 
Hello All,

I have frequented this board quite often and have appreciated everyone's feedback regarding this vehicle. I purchased a Used Blue P85 P13565 with 20k miles fully loaded from Richmond VA on Sept 15th. I have to say your feedback on the car regarding customer service and various repairs have been spot on. So I figured I would finally add to the wealth of knowledge on this site.

On October 1st on began to accelerate on to the freeway from an on ramp when I hear a loud thump with a loss of power (unable to accelerate). Multiple warnings showing up on the display - 12v battery low and service required. I drifted over to the shoulder. My first thoughts are man I bet its the battery as I remember watching a video of a Model S owner who had same problem. But I am not upset and oddly enough not surprised. I expected the battery to malfunction at some point during my ownership. This malfunction happened at 6:40am my service center is roughly 30-40miles away. I call Tesla roadside assistance, she gets my current location then we disconnect so she can call tow truck. Tow truck arrives in 30 minutes but, before the tow truck arrives the 12v battery has been depleted and tow truck operator can't put car in neutral. He calls Tesla and they inform him he needs to remove front grill to access battery terminals. I notice him staring at the grill trying to figure out how to take it off, so I say you need to access the battery terminals (I know how to get there from this sites feedback and various videos) he says yes. So we pop the frunk and I push down on the center right above the grill and one corner pops out I instruct him to pull with a little force a voila. He hooks up external battery pack and the center console comes back to life. I call service center (roadside assistance was unable to reach them at the time because they did not open until 7am) speak with Jonathan in Rockville MD. He says he has me coming in and will have loaner ready. Tesla Manual states to raise vehicle and put it in jack mode for tow but, I am unable to raise the vehicle from standard I select very high but vehicle will not raise. I can however put it in jack mode. After using some boards to help raise vehicle he gets vehicle loaded on tow truck and off we went.

I arrived at Rockville service center where Jonathan came out to meet me. I explained what happened and that I was actually already scheduled to come in on Saturday October 4th to repair the following items under warranty:

1. Clicking noise when turning steering wheel - Found out from other owners reviews it just needs a shim ad retightening of the bolts (Jonathan said he knew exactly what it needed).

2. Drivers seat is loose rocks back and fourth - I don't recall any other owners experiencing this although I didn't do an exhaustive search regarding it.

3. Driver's side rear door window has black sealant on lower part of window on outside. - I explained to Jonathan I know what the sealant is and if you look down in the groove you can see that the plastic back has detached inside the door and is rubbing on the glass when it gets rolled down.

4. Water draining from rubber stops and handles on rear lift gate when opening. This occurs the next day after it has rained or after car wash. Also carpets and padding under carpet in trunk is wet after these events

5. Condensation in reverse lights after rain and carwash

6. Strap on kids 3rd row seat broke off after trying to stow it away.

7. TPMS warning comes on and off sporadically. Some days its on for 10 minutes other days 5 seconds and some days not at all. TPMS failure requires service has also displayed.

8. My UMC gets very hot to the touch at 40amps when charging at home. I have turned it down to 35amps and its warm to the touch.

Jonathan said it would all be taken care of in the next few days. I signed the agreement for the loaner and off I went to work. I left the service center around 9am. I got a call from Jonathan later that day with news that the Positive Contactor in the high voltage battery was defective. They are replacing the battery along with the 12v battery and that my vehicle should be done by tomorrow afternoon. I was very pleased they were able to identify and correct this issue along with all the other issues in such a short period of time. I don't recall any other ICE vehicle service centers working so fast.

So I arrive back to Rockville the next day around 6pm I see my car getting cleaned up when I arrived. Jonathan comes out to greet me again and he ask how I was and if everything was ok with the loaner. I say well, there are actually a few issues with the loaner. I know you guys sell these cars after their time is up so I don't want a future owner to receive this car with issues that can be addressed now. The sunroof gets stuck trying to open and gives up and the passenger side rear door handle appears to be defective. Other than those two things the car was great. He thanked me for pointing those issue out and said they would get them repaired.

So we go over the list of items I had concerns with (we already discussed the issues with the battery).

1. Clicking noise resolved with addition of shims and retightening of the bolts.
2. Driver seat repaired by replacing 4 tilt assist springs.
3. Driver side rear door repaired by replacing door handle backing plate
4. Water entering rear lift gate was repaired by replacing lift gate left tail assembly
5. Condensation in reverse lights were repaired by replacing a detaching lift gate applique
6. Only way to replace strap on 3rd row seat was to replace entire seat. Jonathan had a pull off from a new vehicle and replaced mine with that one.
7. TPMS warnings and failures came on because all my tires were low DUH... Jonathan thinks (I don't think they wrote down the pressure they were at) they were in the high 30's so they filled to 45psi
8. UMC was replaced with a new UMC.
9. They did a goodwill service inspection.

This post is getting really long. So to sum things up. I made it back home and noticed my auto-tilt didn't work, thanks to Jonathan he provided instruction on how to reset them.

TESLA ROCKS!!!

Service was smooth, quick and met my expectations based on other owners feedback. If I didn't read the feedback it would have greatly exceeded my expectations. Again thanks to all who have taken the time to post.

Rahine

- - - Updated - - -

I noticed a bunch of typos after posting but I'm not sure how to edit the post my apologies.

It was my battery pack failure video you watched. My failure was the same, contactor while accelerating on the freeway.