Key Fob and Charging problem

[Gu$ G]

So this is a very awkward problem... I bought my first Model S but sure to miliary comitcommit I've been storing it at a friend's house. This is Central California with lows recently in the high 30s or 40s.

The car is not unlocking. The car was hooked up to the charger and the charge port was red. The charger won't disconnect so we suspected a bad key fob battery. Changed the battery and it worked once, but a day later the problem returned and now the batteries don't seem to help.

We've tried placing the key fob against the fender to get it to unlock but no luck.

The charge port lights up red when trying to disconnect the connected charger. It usually clicks like it's looking for the fob and doesn't release. Now, it isn't clicking at all.

The inside of the fob is a little corroded. My buddy tried cleaning it out a bit but that hasn't helped yet.

The main battery was around 100 mile range four days ago, the battery may have charged to 130-150 before the red light came on.

I don't have Tesla app access yet since I'm waiting to finish my miliary move to register the car... So Tesla has refused to register the car to me...

Could this be the 12v battery? Or the fob? I'm trying to talk my friend through this from the other side of the country...

Thanks in advance

 

[murphyS90D]

If the "red" is really orange it means the plug was not fully inserted into the charge port and has a bad connection.

The dead fob battery location to read the chip directly is the base of the windshield on the passenger side. If the HVB got down to 20% or less the car stops charging the 12 volt battery.

Without knowing exactly which car you have I can't tell you how to access the 12 volt battery to charge it directly with a 12 volt battery charger. If it is a 2014 built before October or an earlier car, pop the nose cone off and the battery terminal jump connections are on the steel cross beam. Red for + and a bolt sticking up out of the beam for -. Newer cars don't have the jump posts on the beam.

Has he tried the other fob?

Tell us exactly which car you have.

 

[Gu$ G]

Thank you for the reply!!

The car is a Signature P85, so 2012 and VIN below 500. It has about 100k miles.

It would be great if we had the dead fob battery location wrong. I thought it was different for my early model S? I'll ask him to try the new location.

I'll research the red vs orange charge port light. The cord had been connected for some time and then my friend noticed the light illuminated in passing maybe a day or two later.

The other fob is with me and I'm in Florida with the car in Lemoore, CA. It's awaiting shipment to Hawaii so I wanted to keep a fob on me.That was probably a mistake and I'm planning to mail the fob back to my friend so we can keep them together in the future.

Thanks again. This is a very poor situation I've found myself in but I'm grateful for this amazing resource.

 

[Gu$ G]

A quick update:

I called Tesla. They were able to verify the charge of both the battery pack and the 12v battery as healthy. So that's a relief.

They also remotely unlocked the car to help. Doing so sooner the charging problem, the petp went from red to green.

It appears the key fob is just dead/inop. We were able to drive the car by placing it in the glove box under the 12v outlet.

Perhaps my friends placement of the key fob on the exterior of the car car was just wrong...? I've read elsewhere that it's the front right quarter panel but I'm still unsure.

 

[murphyS90D]

A quick update:

Perhaps my friends placement of the key fob on the exterior of the car car was just wrong...? I've read elsewhere that it's the front right quarter panel but I'm still unsure.

Reread post #2.

 

[S P85D X Plaid]

Hi, I have a Tesla S P85D. The following problem occurred: my touch screen does not light up and when I charge my car it charges up to 40%. The display behind the wheel says it is loaded. I really can't load it more than 40%. What caused this? There is no Tesla service in my country. From 30% up I don't write V (writes 2/13 and 0 V). At the same time it charges the battery up to 40%, up to a maximum of 42%.

 

[S P85D X Plaid]