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Unscheduled service: Tire Pressure System Needs Service

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Typically when I get a similar error to “Tire Pressure System Needs Service”, I’ve added air to the tires and it’s been resolved, but all my tires were at 45 PSI this time.

Turns out that one of my TPMS sensors is defective.   Second time this has happened.
Due to incredible Tesla service of picking up car and returning it washed, this will be a minor inconvenience.
Perhaps it would save Tesla and me future hassle of they replaced all the TPMS sensors.
Something similar happened with the door handle. When it got stuck a second time Tesla replaced the others.

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What it’s like to own a Model S

Couldn’t have said it better than this comic from The Oatmeal.

What it's like to own a Tesla Model S

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New battery pack

Symptoms of a dying battery in a Tesla Model S:

  1. Range decreases after full charge. I was seeing around 170 miles range instead of 200+ after a full daily charge. This is for an 85kWh battery.
  2. For 2 days in a row car didn’t charge even though it was plugged in overnight.
  3. Turned off scheduled charge and car said charging was complete even though it was showing battery partially full.

Video of screen jumping between complete and partial charge:


Today Tesla support picked up my car and later called to say they have to keep car overnight to replace the battery pack.

I hope it will be a newer battery pack that will let me take advantage of 120kw super chargers. My current battery pack was limited to 90kw.

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Post supercharge bug?

After the supercharge, the meter since last charge didn’t reset.
Daylight savings time also kicked in a few hours early.

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Supercharger

Fast charging in Barstow
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Tesla Model S 4.2 update

The Tesla Model S 4.2 update arrived today.

It has minor fixes for the panoramic roof, windshield wiper, key and door handle function and minor bugs, as you can see in the screenshot:

4.2 update

Unfortunately doesn’t seem to include the bluetooth fixes I was waiting for. My Galaxy Nexus android phone still doesn’t sync up my call log.

It does remove the reduced power sleep mode, so my electric bill will increase slightly. I wonder how it will handle with 10 days of parking at the airport with no charge.

Upgrade process:

IMG_20130124_093109 IMG_20130124_093235

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Update coming

Since I received the Tesla, my android galaxy nexus Bluetooth connection has been flaky.
My address book and call history haven’t fully synced. Voice connection has been mostly good, but today I had to reset the dash because Bluetooth was sick initializing.
The support rep said that a new firmware upgrade is coming in the next week or two that will help with Bluetooth issues and may have some new features.

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Reboot

As a geek, I could tell the panel needed a reboot. My FM radio wasn’t working, the external temperature was displaying —°, the turn signals weren’t making a noise and the controls for changing the suspension of the car were greyed out.
I called the excellent Tesla support at (866) 998-3752 and got the reboot instructions while in park.
Hold both rotating controls on steering wheel for 10 seconds to reboot central dash display.
Hold both buttons above those controls for 10 seconds to reboot driver display.
I did this and it solved my problems.

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Rear seat floor mat

One of my initial gripes with the Tesla Model S was no rear floor mat.
Problem solved by CoverKing, who have this:

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This is how it looks installed:
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More details about the mat

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LAX parking

Parking is free at LAX, but getting a charge station during peak travel times is impossible.
Ended up parking on the second level of P6. Saw lots of electric vehicles, including a bunch of Teslas.

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