Safe to drive long distance with failed battery coolant heater?

[TezzaB]

I have a 2015 Model S 70D and am currently around 810 miles (1300km) from home visiting my parents in another state (but rest of my family including my wife with some health issues) is at home. On drive down the car through the BMS_u008 (Acceleration and top speed reduced) and BMS_w172 (Vehicle may not restart) errors. Car was still drivable and I made it to my destination but with reduced power and no regeneration (annoying but really not much of an issue on the drive I am on as it is all highway with not many hills). Called Tesla and they did their remote diagnostics and have sent me quote for replacement of the coolant heater. The problem is it is holiday weekend here in Australia and the earliest they can look at car is Tuesday but it could be Wednesday or Thursday due to workload at the small service centre in the city I am in but I really need to be home for my wife and original plan was to drive home on Sunday.

Question is would it be safe to drive car 810 miles with no coolant heater? My understanding is it is only used on cold mornings or to precondition battery for supercharging. Temperature range for the Sunday is from around 60F in the morning (and car will be in garage overnight before the drive on AC charger) to 90F during the day so I can't see that lack of heating will be a big issue initially and I rarely if ever see the battery precondition message on this drive as I assume the long distances and outside temperatures mean battery is usually in correct range for supercharging anyway (and I wouldn't care if charging sessions take a little longer anyway). The Tesla guy on the phone said they did not recommend it and I should just hang around for the service appointment here (but the guy I was speaking to was not a tech so couldn't answer any questions - he was just relaying messages).

Just wondering if anyone has driven for a while with the battery heater issue and had any problems? Basically I just want to get home so can take my wife to her hospital appointment on Wednesday and then can get car serviced at our local (much bigger) service centre (and we have a second car I can use if it takes a few days). Only other option I can see is to rent a car here to drive home and then drive back to collect my car but that is going to be costly in time and money.

 

[brainhouston]

Do u still have errors or did it go away?
If u put the car in range mode it won't use battery heater at all till super cold weather
It will still try to use heater for super charging unless batteries already warm after long driving
I'm driving my X with heater that gets isolation error but it goes away after a bit so not exactly the same but no issues, I just try to minimize the usage
I'm inclined to say u should be fine but if the errors always present u never know, car might get stuck somewhere down the road...

 

[TezzaB]

Do u still have errors or did it go away?
If u put the car in range mode it won't use battery heater at all till super cold weather
It will still try to use heater for super charging unless batteries already warm after long driving

Yes errors are still showing. Thanks for the tip on Range mode - I will do that if I try the drive. I do that drive fairly regularly and I never see the "battery preconditioning" message when approaching a charger except occassionally at the first stop in winter but it's still pretty warm here and didn't see it at all on the way down. Getting caught out halfway with a car that won't start is the thing I am concerned about given there is a pretty big stretch with no Tesla service centres (so a tow could be expensive) but I am leaning towards trying.

 

[TezzaB]

Just an update in case anyone with similar issue finds this in the future. Error did end up clearing the day I posted the question and I did the 810 mile trip home without any issues. Put the car in range mode the night before and then for each leg of the trip I navigated to somewhere near the supercharger rather than the supercharger itself so that car would not try to precondition battery. That enabled me to get home without it putting up the error again as I think that stopped it turning on the heater (may not work in a colder climate but here it seems to be fine). Now booked in at our local service centre for a few weeks time when it is more convenient.

 

[KalJoMoS]

Consider yourself been lucky. It was nice advise to plan that trip in Range mode and frankly very brave from you to attempt this! There was a reason from the service for not taking that long drive. Here are the code’s description where you can see the possibility to be halted in between if the sequences have been met:

 

[brainhouston]

@KalJoMoS are u looking these up in Toolbox?

 

[KalJoMoS]

No, it’s from a website that I once found here within the endless discussions. It worked a little time but then was withdrawn suddenly as if by someone’s order. Surprisingly I found it again, in the discussion here and it seems to work so far… This was the post that I found the last working one…




here