2012 Tesla Model S P85 - the dreaded HV battery problem

[pepsundar]

Replaced RDU last April as the car failed to start after an OTA in the previous night. Out of warranty so had to spend $8k for RDU replacement. Also upgraded the infotainment.

Now with just 69k miles, I got a bms_u018 error. I had 170 miles when that happened, but unable to charge beyond 90 miles.

Tesla did remote diagnostics and said the HV needs replacement. Sent a quote for a reman batterypack (same 85kwh capacity - part 1088815-01-b). Quote is ~$15k. I asked what went wrong and here is what they messaged: "The BMS in your vehicle has detected one or several cells that exhibit a weak short pattern, this is why it is limiting charge. We do not perform any repairs on the models or cell themselves and a HV battery replacement is the only way to resolve this".

I'm in bay area (Fremont) and have reached out to evsRepublic at Roncho Cordava and waiting for their response.

Spending $10k last hear and now sitting on another $15k repair quote for a car with 69k miles just sucks. What options do I have? Does Tesla accept trade-ins of cars that need HV replacement? Anyone tried it and how much was it worth?

Thanks.

 

[islandbayy]

www.057Tech.com For Replacement or Upgrade to larger pack. Best Quality Replacement & repairs.

www.ReCell-EV.com For replacement. Half the price of tesla for a remanufactured pack.

 

[pepsundar]

www.057Tech.com For Replacement or Upgrade to larger pack. Best Quality Replacement & repairs.

www.ReCell-EV.com For replacement. Half the price of tesla for a remanufactured pack.

Thank you. I wish there is a shop around in California with so many Teslas on the road.

 

[NewbyMaybe]

There's probably a shop in your area but like all the other options they are dealing with backlogs.
If I find myself in your situation I'll be tempted to buy another EV to use until the Tesla is fixed.

 

[islandbayy]

Thank you. I wish there is a shop around in California with so many Teslas on the road.

There are, but out of all of the shops in N. America, these two are the most trusted.

 

[CB198]

100kWh pack out of a salvage Tesla mobile service vehicle would be your best bet. Honestly, just link up with LayZ for programming and find a shop that will let you use their lift and be done with the battery.
You will be so happy after you did.

BTW, that’s a 2015 MS with a 100 pack from Tesla....

23039

$15000​

Donut Auto Dismantling USA-CA(Rancho-Cordova) Request_Quote 916 346-4073

This is from car-parts.com so call them and ref 23039 part number. Get a Home Depot rental truck so they can fork lift it in and drive the battery to a shop to install it in your Tesla. California has to be loaded with places that will do this. Then rent a dump trailer from Home Depot and bring the old battery to your garage and scrap the modules on Facebook market place to recuperate your costs. Get some old tires to catch the battery off the dump trailer. Then you can take it apart on your own time.

 

[Rocky_H]

Thank you. I wish there is a shop around in California with so many Teslas on the road.

But there's no need to be so averse to shipping a car either.

 

[gaswalla]

Reach out to ev-fixme in Orange County

 

[pepsundar]

But there's no need to be so averse to shipping a car either.

The ONLY reason I'm a bit reluctant to ship it out of state is - if something goes wrong on the replaced battery, while the shop will cover the repair/fix, I am responsible for shipping the car out and in which will cost me $3k for a round trip. Whatever saving I'm getting by going with such 3rd party companies, will be wiped out with just one failure that would require the car to be shipped to them again. If it's a local shop, I wouldn't spend any money in shipping during warranty period.

 

[pepsundar]

Reach out to ev-fixme in Orange County

Emailed to them and waiting for their response. Their website doesn't indicate that they do HV battery pack replacements. Let me see what they have to say. Thanks.

 

[Arctic_Fox]

Tesla will still give their total trade-in value. At least that is what they told me when my pack died.

 

[pepsundar]

100kWh pack out of a salvage Tesla mobile service vehicle would be your best bet. Honestly, just link up with LayZ for programming and find a shop that will let you use their lift and be done with the battery.
You will be so happy after you did.

BTW, that’s a 2015 MS with a 100 pack from Tesla....

23039

$15000​

Donut Auto Dismantling USA-CA(Rancho-Cordova) Request_Quote 916 346-4073

This is from car-parts.com so call them and ref 23039 part number. Get a Home Depot rental truck so they can fork lift it in and drive the battery to a shop to install it in your Tesla. California has to be loaded with places that will do this. Then rent a dump trailer from Home Depot and bring the old battery to your garage and scrap the modules on Facebook market place to recuperate your costs. Get some old tires to catch the battery off the dump trailer. Then you can take it apart on your own time.

This sounds too adventurous to me, and I'm not sure if I can handle it by myself.

 

[pepsundar]

Has anyone dealt with EV's Republic here at Roncho Cordova? EV'S REPUBLIC - Electric Vehicle Service & Community

 

[pepsundar]

Tesla will still give their total trade-in value. At least that is what they told me when my pack died.

They quoted 11k to 14k as trade-in value for mine. I will lose big time if I take it. Not sure how to calculate the market value of my car. 2012, P85, 69k miles, RDU was replaced last year with 3 years of warranty left, Infotainment replaced/upgraded with premium connectivity with one more year of warranty left and free supercharging for life, tech package, active suspension.

 

[Electric700]

www.057Tech.com For Replacement or Upgrade to larger pack. Best Quality Replacement & repairs.

www.ReCell-EV.com For replacement. Half the price of tesla for a remanufactured pack.

057Tech offers a warranty. I have seen costs in the $5k range for main battery repair, and they can help you arrange for vehicle transportation to their facility.

 

[pepsundar]

057Tech offers a warranty. I have seen costs in the $5k range for main battery repair, and they can help you arrange for vehicle transportation to their facility.

I've written to them @wk057 via the contact form in their website and am waiting for their response/quote.

 

[snowphoenix]

100kWh pack out of a salvage Tesla mobile service vehicle would be your best bet. Honestly, just link up with LayZ for programming and find a shop that will let you use their lift and be done with the battery.
You will be so happy after you did.

BTW, that’s a 2015 MS with a 100 pack from Tesla....

23039

$15000​

Donut Auto Dismantling USA-CA(Rancho-Cordova) Request_Quote 916 346-4073

This is from car-parts.com so call them and ref 23039 part number. Get a Home Depot rental truck so they can fork lift it in and drive the battery to a shop to install it in your Tesla. California has to be loaded with places that will do this. Then rent a dump trailer from Home Depot and bring the old battery to your garage and scrap the modules on Facebook market place to recuperate your costs. Get some old tires to catch the battery off the dump trailer. Then you can take it apart on your own time.

This is not an original combination of year and capacity. 100s were first available in summer 2016 in the P100D. As a 2015, this one pre-dates that, and the MCU photo shows P85D badging. I am somewhat surprised the Tesla Mobile Service badging was left on the car. My guess is it was crashed while being used as a service vehicle.

Maybe Tesla did an in-house upgrade for this former Tesla Mobile Service fleet vehicle, similar to upgrades @wk057 is capable of doing. This would make sense if Tesla was trying to reuse older cars for fleet purposes yet still give their technicians as much range as possible.

I wonder if a similar in-house usage scenario lead to the straight up 100 becoming a thing supported by newer firmware. I'm not sure what customer warranty replacement scenario would have resulted in a RWD Model S with a failing 60/70/75/85/90 pack receiving a 100 pack instead of one of those newer 350v 14 module style 90 packs. Possibilities there include:
Maybe a customer was able to push the issue that a 350v 14 module 90 pack has a lower peak kW power limit than a 400v 16 module 85/90/100 pack.
Maybe a heavily degraded 100 was deployed as a warranty refurb replacement for a totally failing 60/70/75/85/90.
Maybe it was just done to simplify things in the firmware (so any 350 or 400v pack can go in any legacy car).

More photos of the car: 2015 Tesla Model S Battery-Stock# 23039
And link to the search results where those photos came from: Search Results

Edit: added search results link

 

[henderrj]

In case you haven't read some of the other threads, Tesla has put a brand new 90 replacement pack in some cars, when they didn't have any refurb packs available. Still for the refurb price. Even if they don't, you get a 4-year warranty on the refurb, if I'm correct. So you might get another chance at winning the lottery and getting the 90. They do restrict it to 85 kilowatt hour but, I think they offer a paid upgrade to allow use of the full 90 should you want.

If you're looking at longevity in the car, or resale, a Tesla replacement will probably be the best bet. Other than that I'd go with Jason hughes, 057tech.

 

[pepsundar]

Re/Cell promptly sent their quote with three different battery pack options (as they published in their website).

Waiting for a response from 057tech, it's been over a week. Sent another follow up yesterday.

Since bms_u029 says 'maximum battery charging levels *reduced*' I presume Tesla forces this limit upon using their firmware. Is there a way to override this 'restriction' (of course by a 3rd party) so the car can charge to the same level that it used to before this error appeared (and after an OTA update)?

For now, I've been charging the car for my daily commute as I'm able to charge up to 90 miles (75 to 90 is super slow at 8a speed) and pretend I'm driving a Nissan Leaf with limited range.

 

[NV Ray]

Re/Cell promptly sent their quote with three different battery pack options (as they published in their website).

Waiting for a response from 057tech, it's been over a week. Sent another follow up yesterday.

Since bms_u029 says 'maximum battery charging levels *reduced*' I presume Tesla forces this limit upon using their firmware. Is there a way to override this 'restriction' (of course by a 3rd party) so the car can charge to the same level that it used to before this error appeared (and after an OTA update)?

For now, I've been charging the car for my daily commute as I'm able to charge up to 90 miles (75 to 90 is super slow at 8a speed) and pretend I'm driving a Nissan Leaf with limited range.

Yes, reset of the alert is an option some folks have gone with. EvFixMe

I opted for new pack from Tesla. I do not recommend the reset option unless the reason for the alert has been addressed.

@Recell and @wk057 do not recommend. Remember, the alert is there for a reason.