[Midlife crisis]

Two questions:

New 90D. The warranty has the following exclusion

• Maintenance services, including, but not limited to, the following:
• Standard 12 month or 20,000 km (12,500 mile) service and diagnostics checks;
• Wheel alignment or balancing;
• Appearance care (such as cleaning and polishing); and
• Expendable maintenance items (such as wiper blades/inserts, brake pads/linings, filters,
etc.)

Is the lead acid battery covered? Unless actually faulty it would be a classed as a consumable in other vehicles. I could imagine Tesla replacing as a good will gesture, especially if the service plan has been pre-paid,but it does not appear that they have to from the warranty supplied with the new car.

Second question. For those that have had the 12V lead acid battery replaced recently, how long did it last before failure? Months and miles is probably the best way to express this to capture vehicles that cycle the 12V lead acid battery frequently.

 

[arg]

Mine failed just short of 2 years, 14k miles. Covered under warranty (explicitly "warranty" rather than "goodwill" - they have those categories on the invoice, the battery was "warranty" while checking the tyre pressures and the wash they would have done if I wasn't in a hurry were "goodwill".)

Factors making my usage worse than average in terms of stress on the 12V battery:

• I don't commute and most of our local transport is by bicycle, so low overall mileage and the miles I do compressed into few days - quite a few days when the car sits doing nothing, draining away on the 12V.
• The car is parked right outside the front door, and my wife carries the keyfob in her handbag. So every time she leaves the house on foot/bicycle, the car wakes up and extends its handles etc - using 12V power.
• There was some sort of bug in 6.x software causing the car to remain awake, silently playing music (I could tell from watching WiFi activity), again wasting 12V power.

Edit - to be clear, mine didn't actually "fail" - the warning message came on saying it needed replacement, apparently triggered by the charge/discharge interval becoming shorter, implying the 12V battery has lost capacity. Not clear how much longer I could have gone on before it actually did fail (waited about 5 days from message to repair in this case).

 

[Simon Mac]

Mine lasted the same as @arg's . But my usage is opposite to his, I commute daily in the Tesla, and don't do big miles in it often. (It's basically a posh Leaf)

Saying that I believe they relocated it and did some other tweaks with the D cars, compared to our early RWD examples.

 

[mgboyes]

I never had an issue with the 12V battery in my first Model S (24k miles / 17 months when I traded it in, driven locally every day with occasional long trips).

Fairly sure Tesla consider it a warranty item just like any other, not a consumable.

Worth noting that (in the UK at least) TM include all the consumables (wiper blades, filters, brake pads, fluids) within the cost of a service. Tyres, alas, you always have to pay for.

 

[Mark B]

I thought brake pads were included initially but under the new revised service schedule and pricing pads had become not included.

 

[mgboyes]

I thought brake pads were included initially but under the new revised service schedule and pricing pads had become not included.

Oh, I'm not aware of a revised service schedule and pricing. You could well be right!

Edit: you are. Service plans

 

[Mark B]

When we ordered our car the service plan stated that pads were included which amused me as the pads should last years given the level of regen braking. About the time our car arrived (mid March) the service plan pricing was revised (i.e. Increased) and the statement that pads were included was omitted. It now states "As an electric car, even brake pad replacements are rare...." but there is no mention of them being included.

 

[mgboyes]

When we ordered our car the service plan stated that pads were included which amused me as the pads should last years given the level of regen braking. About the time our car arrived (mid March) the service plan pricing was revised (i.e. Increased) and the statement that pads were included was omitted. It now states "As an electric car, even brake pad replacements are rare...." but there is no mention of them being included.

They are now explicitly excluded: "Your brakes will be inspected. If the brake pads are outside of recommended specifications, they can be replaced for an additional charge."

 

[Mark B]

That was the wording I could remember but failed to find earlier. Early onset dementia?

 

[Simon Mac]

@Mark B they may not be used for stopping,but they are used for electronic traction control.

My rear wheels get far more brake dust on them than the fronts!

 

[Mark B]

Whereas with a D I have almost forgotten what brake dust is! But of course I do drive like a nun.

However, the regen braking is certainly less aggressive since the last software update.

 

[Simon Mac]

I drive like a nun too, just one that's late for mass