12V Battery Needs Service
After a period of calm and low mileage driving in recent months, I have unfortunately encountered a few problems with my Tesla. This blog post will be a 3 part series of completely unrelated incidents that just happened in quick succession.
I was innocently driving along and encountered a warning on my dash:
I have had my battery replaced only once before back in early 2014 when my car was in for service. The nice part about the 12 Volt Battery replacement is that it is not an urgent matter. If the car needs to do so, it might shut down some auxiliary electronics, but you can safely drive around for a period of time.
Ranger Service
What was also very nice, is that for no additional charge, if you live within a 10 mile radius of my service center, a ranger will come to your location.
The battery change took about 20 minutes, and just out of curiosity I watched the process. The process is only a bit slow because there is quite a lot of screws and parts to remove. I asked the ranger, and he said the Model X is not any more serviceable than the Model S. Hopefully the model 3 designers will consider serviceability a little more during the design process.
This ranger service also deals with tire issues and door handles, things that can be accomplished easily at remote locations. This service is a win win for Tesla and the customer base. Instead of the hassle for the owner to drive to the service center and get a ride to home or work, the ranger can easily just move around town and address any issues at the owners convenience. I am not sure if this service is available in all locations, but it worked great for replacing the battery after about 45,000 miles and 3 years.
Ranger Replacing the 12V Battery
TESLA OWNER 
Never heard of this 12 volt battery problem? Would that not be covered under warranty?
Yes it was covered under warranty.
Lucky you.. The replacement of my 4year old Roadster-battery costed me $11.000= and the car was 2 months in the Tesla-servicecetntre
$11,000 for the 12 Volt or the main battery?
Was that $11,000.00 or $11.00 ??
Thanks
I had my 12V battery replaced at 18K miles. I’m at 76K miles now and still on that second battery. I think in the earlier builds there was an issue they addressed. No ranger service here though, I’m 50+ miles from the SC. Back then getting service was a nightmare. There was no loaner, the car wasn’t done on time etc. Things have improved a lot since then.
My first battery was changed out quite early too, and this was 3 years since then.
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I’m on my 6th battery in 5 years, 9 months on my Model “S”!!! Very frustrating!!! And yes, it’s plugged in 98% of the time, or all but driving…