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My new Model 3 has faulty battery. Needs replacement...

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#61
Hope you have smoother sailing. Since taking "delivery" on 4-26, I've driven it less than 10 miles on a single day, as I await the painting problems to be corrected (every other day it has spent its entire time with Tesla and body shops; so 1 day out of 6 weeks!). If my drive unit/battery is bunk, I guess I'll be making that discovery at some distant date in the future (I hope not in 115+ degrees).
 
#62
vinnie97 said:
Hope you have smoother sailing. Since taking "delivery" on 4-26, I've driven it less than 10 miles on a single day, as I await the painting problems to be corrected (every other day it has spent its entire time with Tesla and body shops; so 1 day out of 6 weeks!). If my drive unit/battery is bunk, I guess I'll be making that discovery at some distant date in the future (I hope not in 115+ degrees).
Click to expand...

You should start a lemon claim.
 
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#64
UZJedi said:
Final Update: (I hope...)

Got my car back today. I got a new battery, not a loaner battery. Also got my first two annual service visits credited to my account for my trouble. Car was at service center for 17 days out of the 23 I have owned the car.

I love this car. It's more fun to drive and better in so many ways than the P85+ loaner I had. Tighter steering, better suspension, quieter ride. Smaller, more agile car. Better sound system. Better UI and maps. I'm sure if I had been driving a newer Model S that I would have liked it just fine.

Here's hoping I don't have to head back to the service center until that first annual checkup... *fingers crossed*
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Great glad to hear things are looking up for you. In time all of these uncomfortable issues will have faded away and it will be Grinn' days ahead.
 
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#67
vinnie97 said:
Hope you have smoother sailing. Since taking "delivery" on 4-26, I've driven it less than 10 miles on a single day, as I await the painting problems to be corrected (every other day it has spent its entire time with Tesla and body shops; so 1 day out of 6 weeks!). If my drive unit/battery is bunk, I guess I'll be making that discovery at some distant date in the future (I hope not in 115+ degrees).
Click to expand...
Well, that's not a good experience.... Ours also had a paint defect at delivery on 4/29. There was a deep scratch on the driver's door sill. I dropped it off at Palo Alto Service on a Wednesday and was quoted 7 working days. However, I got it back early on the following Monday. I can't even tell how large an area they painted. I was also reimbursed $260 for gas that I put in the Infiniti QX60 loaner that we took to LA and back over the weekend.
 
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#68
^How did you receive that gas refund out of curiosity? I'm waiting for a refund while they had my vehicle in May (they claimed 3-5 weeks). Since my detailer took it upon himself to resolve the cosmetic issues (and get his preferred Tesla-approved body shop involved), I no longer have loaner access. I'm literally on a bike now. More life lessons: Never sell your primary transport before taking delivery of a Tesla.

The trickiness with lemon law is my state of residence is separate from that of state of purchase. It looks like I'll be lucky to drive it home on a 2-month old temporary tag.
 
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#69
vinnie97 said:
^How did you receive that gas refund out of curiosity? I'm waiting for a refund while they had my vehicle in May (they claimed 3-5 weeks). Since my detailer took it upon himself to resolve the cosmetic issues (and get his preferred Tesla-approved body shop involved), I no longer have loaner access. I'm literally on a bike now. More life lessons: Never sell your primary transport before taking delivery of a Tesla.

The trickiness with lemon law is my state of residence is separate from that of state of purchase. It looks like I'll be lucky to drive it home on a 2-month old temporary tag.
Click to expand...
Tesla asked if I really wanted a Tesla loaner and I said it was not necessary. They let me choose between two different Infiniti cars they had on site and said I should keep my gas receipts so that I could be reimbursed. The QX60 I chose only had a 1/4 tank and I returned it nearly full. It took about 2 weeks to get the check after returning the loaner.
 
#71
So I have the same problem with faulty battery on my first Tesla 3. Picked up the car on 7/20, 2 weeks later, got an alert message "unable to charge" (at 248 mi). Dropped the car in Sunnyvale Service Center on 8/9, service is done on 8/17. They only had it charged again, but did not verify to pass the 248 mi charged. Error again with message "Battery can not be charged to 100%". Brought the car back again on 8/30 requesting to verify and confirm to charge pass 248 mi and should be at 100% charged. Was provided an old Nissan loaner. After several delays messages when it'll be fixed, called service manager. He said he put in a request for a re-evaluation. Just got a txt message from the advisor that the car is now done. (After 35 days in the shop second time, 8 days in the shop the first time). I wonder should I take the car back? Giving that they have fixed it, but how do I know that the local technicians are equipped to fix this kind of problem?? Saw someone posted here with the lemon law, mentioning about 40 days if they are not able to fix it. What should I do/ask them? They did not offer any comp/perks. Curious what happened to the owner who had the battery replaced in this forum, would you mind sharing if they had offered any comps? Thanks!
 
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#72
hvch said:
So I have the same problem with faulty battery on my first Tesla 3. Picked up the car on 7/20, 2 weeks later, got an alert message "unable to charge" (at 248 mi). Dropped the car in Sunnyvale Service Center on 8/9, service is done on 8/17. They only had it charged again, but did not verify to pass the 248 mi charged. Error again with message "Battery can not be charged to 100%". Brought the car back again on 8/30 requesting to verify and confirm to charge pass 248 mi and should be at 100% charged. Was provided an old Nissan loaner. After several delays messages when it'll be fixed, called service manager. He said he put in a request for a re-evaluation. Just got a txt message from the advisor that the car is now done. (After 35 days in the shop second time, 8 days in the shop the first time). I wonder should I take the car back? Giving that they have fixed it, but how do I know that the local technicians are equipped to fix this kind of problem?? Saw someone posted here with the lemon law, mentioning about 40 days if they are not able to fix it. What should I do/ask them? They did not offer any comp/perks. Curious what happened to the owner who had the battery replaced in this forum, would you mind sharing if they had offered any comps? Thanks!
Click to expand...

I'd see what they did to it, first time and this time. Replacing a battery on an S/X is super easy, a 3 isn't as easy, but very straightforward. I wouldn't worry about a replacement battery or drive unit for that matter. It isn't like replacing an engine in a ICE car.
 
#73
hvch said:
So I have the same problem with faulty battery on my first Tesla 3. Picked up the car on 7/20, 2 weeks later, got an alert message "unable to charge" (at 248 mi). Dropped the car in Sunnyvale Service Center on 8/9, service is done on 8/17. They only had it charged again, but did not verify to pass the 248 mi charged. Error again with message "Battery can not be charged to 100%". Brought the car back again on 8/30 requesting to verify and confirm to charge pass 248 mi and should be at 100% charged. Was provided an old Nissan loaner. After several delays messages when it'll be fixed, called service manager. He said he put in a request for a re-evaluation. Just got a txt message from the advisor that the car is now done. (After 35 days in the shop second time, 8 days in the shop the first time). I wonder should I take the car back? Giving that they have fixed it, but how do I know that the local technicians are equipped to fix this kind of problem?? Saw someone posted here with the lemon law, mentioning about 40 days if they are not able to fix it. What should I do/ask them? They did not offer any comp/perks. Curious what happened to the owner who had the battery replaced in this forum, would you mind sharing if they had offered any comps? Thanks!
Click to expand...
Updated status: just got off the phone w/ service manager, request for purchase back has been approved. They will buy back the car at full price. Will work out the details with paperwork and transfer ownership. Will come back to update more later..
 
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#74
miimura said:
Well, that's not a good experience.... Ours also had a paint defect at delivery on 4/29. There was a deep scratch on the driver's door sill. I dropped it off at Palo Alto Service on a Wednesday and was quoted 7 working days. However, I got it back early on the following Monday. I can't even tell how large an area they painted. I was also reimbursed $260 for gas that I put in the Infiniti QX60 loaner that we took to LA and back over the weekend.
Click to expand...
Interesting. Did it look like this?

6741B9B1-CFBE-4323-BCCC-C0D547272683.jpeg
 
#78
UZJedi said:
Each day, since I took delivery last Wednesday, I faced my morning commute with a smile on my face and preset 80% charge in my new Model 3. As a first time Tesla owner I was thrilled to be driving my dream car. Rush hour traffic is no longer a dreaded experience when you're gliding in this magic machine. Each day at work I got compliments on my new wheels, answered questions, and got requests for test drives. The more I drove it the more I loved it. That is, of course, until I went to leave work after only 6 days of ownership and had the following scary notifications on the touchscreen.

"Power reduced"
"Unable to charge"
"Car needs service"

The car has less than 300 miles on it. I'd had 0 issues aside from minor phone key imperfection prior to this. I drove the car straight to the closest service center per the instruction of roadside assistance. They would send a tow truck if it broke down on the way there... The car drove ok, though the complete lack of regenerative braking was a shock at first. The service center wasn't answering their phone since they had just closed, so they looked at me a little funny when I walked into the open garage. To their credit, as soon as I told them my issue and they realized I was an owner they treated me like royalty. I got a pre-autopilot P85+ loaner and went home. It's pretty obvious how far Tesla has come in the last 6 years. This P85 has some kick, but I much prefer my 3. This all happened yesterday.

Today they failed to call me around 1 or 2pm with an update like they said they would, so I waited until shortly before they closed and called. They told me the battery had a fault. They have to send it off to be refurbished and a new replacement battery would be shipped to Seattle and installed. According to the rep I spoke to, it'll be their first Model 3 battery swap in Seattle. When I asked how long it might be for the replacement to get here, he said he didn't know. For the S and the X, it can take anywhere from a week to a couple months. A couple months! I hope they put some priority on this considering how new the car is.

Now, I realize these are first world problems and there is still a Tesla in my garage. But man... when you spend more than 50k on a car, you expect it to last more than 6 days. My wife and I had planned to take it on a road trip to Portland, OR in a couple weeks to visit family and friends and show the car off while we're at it. But now I'm not even sure I'd want to take it (or the loaner) on a road trip with my kids when our Toyota minivan is bigger and clearly more reliable. I realize I am an outlier and this big of an issue is rare so early on. I'm sure I'll get over it after the highs and lows of the past week wear off and I have my car back in working order for a while.

As a Tesla fanboy, I can choose to look on the bright side and joke about this as my initiation into the Tesla family. Everyone gets an unwanted loaner eventually... but the stories I am hearing about problems with brand new Model 3s are worrisome. Once Tesla gets deeper into these reservations, buyers are not going to be quite so forgiving. Not everyone is a day 1 reservation holder who's been biting their nails in anticipation for the past two years. Not everyone reads in detail about all the problems some Tesla owners have and decides to reserve a car they haven't even seen yet anyway. I drove my previous car, a 2011 Mazda6, for 6 years and 95k miles with no issues other than predictable, scheduled maintenance and a broken sunglasses holder. This is what your average car buyer expects from a new car, especially one this costly. I can't imagine all of this post production rework is more cost effective for Tesla than slowing down and getting their QA and manufacturing optimized before they start pumping out cars. Maybe that's just the nature of the beast when you are pushing the envelope with cutting edge engineering. I don't know. I know it's a huge undertaking. But I can't help but think that they should eat a little humble pie and learn from what other car manufactures have done to get a handle on this instead of acting as though they're all dinosaurs with no vision. I really, really hope they can figure this out. Because the car is freaking amazing... when it's working.

Have any of you required a new battery on your 3 or know of someone that has? Thanks for reading. Rant over.
Click to expand...
 
#79
I’ve had my Model 3 for a week. Left home on my first long range drive with 300 mile left on the battery. Drove 150 miles but only had 90 miles left on the battery when I charged the battery again. The return home battery life was even worse. Anyone else having a problem similar to this? Any advice.
 
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