Electrical system error -- dashboard notification -- anyone else experience this? -- resolution - defective 12v battery

[thecoloradokid]

@PanameraFrank It will be interesting to see what settings my car will keep after the battery replacement. But, I agree with you, I am planning to reduce the number of charge setting I have in the car - I have 3 now, but will consolidate down to one.

@KensingtonPark You certainly bring up a good point. The funny thing is that I owned 4 different Tesla's over the past 4 years, and an Audi e-Tron for 4 months, but none of them every had this issue that I am experience with my new Taycan.

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[wemct]

@PanameraFrank I would trust Porsche more than I trust Jaguar. That being said, I am hoping that the new battery, keeping the setting adjustments to a minimum, and not logging into the app very often, will help keep the 12v battery from continually firing up and draining.

I did buy a Porsche trickle charger that I plan to experiment with to see if it will charge the battery a little.

I keep my Taycan on a battery tender to avoid any surprises. The challenge for me will be when I start traveling again on a regular basis and I leave the car in the airport parking garage on the airport supplied L2 charger (free chargers at Atlanta airport).

As far as obtaining the 12V batteries from Germany, I'm curious how they will be shipped. Typically, air travel and lithium batteries are not a great combination.

 

[thecoloradokid]

@wemct Can you elaborate on what trickle charger you use for the 12v battery and how you manage that process? I think your insight would be helpful for me moving forward, since I do not want a repeat of what I am experiencing currently.

I have confirmation that my 12v battery replacement is supposed to arrive on July 28th. So, it will arrive 10 days after it was ordered. I am guessing there is some special protocol to have these things shipped.

 

[porsche_coyote]

There must be something about electric cars and their system batteries (i.e., not the propulsion battery) that presents a weird challenge from a design standpoint. Every electric propulsion car I have owned (Volt, Tesla, Volvo) went through a period where the system battery failed and bricked my car. My Volvo had it happen three times over a two year period. Eventually, the problems were resolved and the cars worked fine. Whatever these manufacturers are learning, they don't appear to be sharing their insights with others.

Yeah. My wife's e-Golf had a failed 12V battery that bricked the car about three weeks ago. Fortunately there's nothing exotic about that battery, and the dealer was able to replace it the same day. The BMW i3 forums are full of people with 12V battery issues. This is clearly a serious problem in the EV world, and I suspect that the real fix is to start building a way to power low-voltage systems from the high-voltage battery. I doubt that will happen in any big way until EV volume is a much larger slice of the total vehicle output.

 

[Gogs]

Is this only happening in the US?

 

[thecoloradokid]

@Gogs honestly, I am not sure how many owners have been affected by this 12v battery issue. I do know there are 4 or 5 different threads within this forum alone on 12v battery failures - including the epic "Don kills his Taycan" thread on this board. All of us who have posted issues are US based, so I am hoping we get input from our Europe based owners if they have been experiencing issues as well. The more we can gather data on this issue and present to Porsche, the sooner we can have them address, and fix, this issue.

 

[Miwa]

Has anyone with a dead battery not used the app?

 

[louv]

@PanameraFrank It will be interesting to see what settings my car will keep after the battery replacement. But, I agree with you, I am planning to reduce the number of charge setting I have in the car - I have 3 now, but will consolidate down to one.

@KensingtonPark You certainly bring up a good point. The funny thing is that I owned 4 different Tesla's over the past 4 years, and an Audi e-Tron for 4 months, but none of them every had this issue that I am experience with my new Taycan.

My car kept most, but not all, settings when they swapped my 12v battery.

My wife has a Model S that went through three 12v batteries in the first year of ownership.

I’m just guessing here, but I’d say the two week delay is because they are replacing enough 12v batteries that they have screwed up the supply chain. This is unexpected. Their supplier probably was delivering Just In Time quantities, and and few extras they had planned for have now been consumed.

The 12v is Lithium Ion, so there are strict transportation regulations (read: mostly ground transport)

 

[porsche_coyote]

My car kept most, but not all, settings when they swapped my 12v battery.

My wife has a Model S that went through three 12v batteries in the first year of ownership.

I’m just guessing here, but I’d say the two week delay is because they are replacing enough 12v batteries that they have screwed up the supply chain. This is unexpected. Their supplier probably was delivering Just In Time quantities, and and few extras they had planned for have now been consumed.

The 12v is Lithium Ion, so there are strict transportation regulations (read: mostly ground transport)

Yes. The US stock of spare parts is almost certainly based on some sort of reliability forecast, and an unforeseen issue like this can really screw things up.

 

[louv]

Yes. The US stock of spare parts is almost certainly based on some sort of reliability forecast, and an unforeseen issue like this can really screw things up.

You would think that by now car companies would be warned: when Don buys a car, weird and unusual things will go wrong. I can’t help it.

 

[thecoloradokid]

Don, I was going to ask you how your car is doing after your battery saga in April? Did they ever replace the battery, or does yours stay charged now? I was wonder if how often you connect it to the lithium battery charger to add a little juice to the 12v battery? My replacement batter does not arrive in Denver until next Tuesday, so I am trying to figure out routine 12v battery maintenance routines in advance of getting my 4s back.

I am sorry if you have shared this previously in the other "Don breaks his Taycan" thread, but that one evolved into a Homer sized epic in regards to length and plot.

 

[louv]

Don, I was going to ask you how your car is doing after your battery saga in April? Did they ever replace the battery, or does yours stay charged now? I was wonder if how often you connect it to the lithium battery charger to add a little juice to the 12v battery? My replacement batter does not arrive in Denver until next Tuesday, so I am trying to figure out routine 12v battery maintenance routines in advance of getting my 4s back.

I am sorry if you have shared this previously in the other "Don breaks his Taycan" thread, but that one evolved into a Homer sized epic in regards to length and plot.

Nice classical reference there.

So, yes, they eventually replaced my 12v battery. I had run it down six or eight times, purposely trying to invoke the “bug”. They thought that running it down that many times damaged the 12v battery. It was holding a charge, but kept reporting an error every time I drove.

I have purposely avoided situations that I thought would trigger the bug. And I haven’t had a 12v problem since.

I do not use a trickle charger. I don’t think it harms anything, but it would potentially mask the problem for my “tests”. I wanted to see if my theory was right. So far, either I’m right, or I’m coincidentally not triggering it. I hope to someday know the answer.

Every time you drive the car (or even turn it on?) the 12v battery gets a boost (if needed) from the 800v battery.

I don’t change settings (via the smartphone app) while it is charging, or plugged in waiting to get a Timer’d charge. I charge, and then disconnect the next morning.

So, in summary, my car has been great.

 

[thecoloradokid]

Don, thanks for the feedback. Since your car is working great since the 12v battery replacement, I will probably follow your example in regards to how I interact with the vehicle charging settings once the new battery is installed in my car.

It has been a full time job keeping up with the numerous threads on the board concerning the 12v battery issues, so I am hoping that the new battery I get will just work.

 

[wemct]

Don, thanks for the feedback. Since your car is working great since the 12v battery replacement, I will probably follow your example in regards to how I interact with the vehicle charging settings once the new battery is installed in my car.

It has been a full time job keeping up with the numerous threads on the board concerning the 12v battery issues, so I am hoping that the new battery I get will just work.

I'm sure you are anxious to get your car back. I used to live in the Denver Tech Center area. It is such a great time of year. Hot, no humidity, gorgeous scenery, driving an awesome car that isn't affected by the high altitude.

 

[struther]

I have what may be a stupid question. I have seen the need for a special LiFePo4 trickle charger. I have Noco battery booster to boost my ICE car when the battery dies - happened more times than I care to admit since I don’t drive much. If my battery dies on the Taycan, can I use the Noco booster to get it going or do I need something else when I don’t have access to a plug to recharge the 12v battery? Really hoping this never happens though.

Like many, EVs are new to me and I never really considered that it may not “start” when it is potentially sitting on a giant 93kwh battery full of power.

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