Where to get the Battery coolant to top off reservoir?

[Monkey]

Teslas are *not* supposed to do that. Are you sure you don't have a pinhole leak in one of the radiators?

No leak, perfectly normal, which surprised me the first go around. Both our Model X and now our Model Y have done this. It will vent if given enough pressure. I have only had it happen twice on the X, once on the Y. Happened when supercharging and all three times the outside temp was rather cold -- like -7F and colder. We're also at altitude which makes the vapor/boil point of the coolant (and water and everything else) lower. And yes, the cooling system on these cars do have pressure release vents. They're required to have them. Service tech even showed me a picture of one on our Model X because I promptly took it in for service the first time this happened.

Our Model X went away a bit over a year ago... Model Y has almost 50K miles on it and was recently in for a check-up and to address a few things. I raised the issue with them again, all normal and it's usually a charging in extreme cold weather thing. High altitude makes it even more likely. But under more reasonable temperatures, it should not happen unless the battery is overheating and driver should be getting warnings in that situation. Pressure and coolant test all came out normal and they're not recommending the coolant flush for the 3/Y at 50K miles anymore, now saying better at 5 to 6 year or 75K miles.

Moral of the story: I wouldn't trust Tesla to give you the straight dope about this kind of problem on their own cars, and definitely wouldn't analogize it to a Ford...

Yeah, I get it... I've seen enough reports of crappy Tesla service people. Met one or two myself over the past 7 years of owning a Tesla.

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[Replika]

This is what mine looked like around 8,000 miles, a couple hours after a drive around town.
I'm also noticing that I never get 150 kW on DC chargers, let alone 170 kW. 138 kW is the typical max. In case that's related.

 

[rdr854]

Was at my dealer for service on my 10 day old truck and they casually mentioned to me they have a truck that just loses coolant, and they had no idea where it was going. it's waiting on parts. No one would have found it had the guy mark sharpie ticks every day on his reservoir. It just kept going down, they said. And there were no leaks anywhere.

I have the exact same problem, but no solution other than to refill when it gets back down to the min line. First time was at about 2K miles and I now have 5K miles.

 

[Pitbull2o08]

I have the exact same problem, but no solution other than to refill when it gets back down to the min line. First time was at about 2K miles and I now have 5K miles.

i'm guessing evaporation

 

[rdr854]

i'm guessing evaporation

But why? Is it not a closed system? I know it cools the electric motors and battery.

 

[Pitbull2o08]

But why? Is it not a closed system? I know it cools the electric motors and battery.

No i don't believe it is. The batteries get extremely hot. I think Tesla had a similar issue as well.

 

[GDN]

No i don't believe it is. The batteries get extremely hot. I think Tesla had a similar issue as well.

Tesla runs a closed system - it is not servicable, nor even checkable. Tesla has never had an issue like this, at least not since the 3 and Y have been introduced.

 

[Pitbull2o08]

Tesla runs a closed system - it is not servicable, nor even checkable. Tesla has never had an issue like this, at least not since the 3 and Y have been introduced.

Did a quick google search and it was the model X.

 

[JC688]

Mine was delivered new with the coolant at the minimum line. I bought the motorcraft coolant from Amazon and top it off. Now at 1,000 miles, no drop in coolant level.

 

[TaxmanHog]

Mine was delivered new with the coolant at the minimum line. I bought the motorcraft coolant from Amazon and top it off. Now at 1,000 miles, no drop in coolant level.

I'm guessing that minor pockets of air in the system are finding a way out of all that plumbing.

 

[HaroldCal]

I'm guessing that minor pockets of air in the system are finding a way out of all that plumbing.

That is exactly the answer that the Shop Foreman gave me when I asked about it.

 

[Steve_A71]

I wonder if the battery has threaded plugs on the bottom of the pack shell to sample for potential in-pack leaks, damaged connections between cooling plates, or the plates themselves?

No, it's a sealed unit; there is a procedure to conduct a leak test on the battery. The front and rear drive units can be tested from the degas bottle.

 

[cal]

Checked the manual and of course I couldn't find a pic showing the coolant overflow expansion tank location. Not saying it's not there, just that I can't find it. I do see a blue capped reservoir on what I assumed was the windshield wiper fluid tank. Do you have to pull the Frunk panels off? I was shocked to find out this is an open system and I'm supposed to keep an eye on it.

As stated earlier Tesla's are sealed and you can't do anything to them. I typically do my own maintenance and found that Telsa's system requires multiple connections an a computer controlled sequence to drain and refill. Not a stopcock and a bucket. But I was lucky and never had a coolant related problem.

 

[Amps]

Not saying it's not there, just that I can't find it.

It’s kind of hard to miss near the driver’s side frunk strut, kind of inside/behind the charging port. While looking there, notice the emergency CCS lock release that stores on the side of the expansion reservoir.

 

[cal]

Thanks I never noticed the embossed writing. Not sure what else it's saying but I'm about an 8th inch below the low line at least after sitting for a few hours since last drive. No low coolant message though.

Guess I'll stop by the dealer tomorrow to get a top off or just buy a gallon for the future.

Thanks again. Now I'm wondering what else I might be missing.

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