Replacing Xeon headlight bulb on Tesla Model S (2013)

Headlight bulb replacement

On my Tesla Model S (September 2013) the left headlight bulb failed and it had to be replaced. As I like to do such things myself I started to figure out how to do so.

On YouTube I found a great video to do so (you’ll find it below), but I didn’t know which bulbs I needed to order.

I called Tesla and they told me my European Model S from 2013 uses Osram Xenon D8S 25W bulbs. I searched for a local dealer and ordered them. The total was EUR 150,00 for two bulbs.

Order two

You should always replace both bulbs at the same time. As both bulbs have been on for the same amount of time they usually fail within a reasonable time from each other.

Replacing them

It took me about 90 minutes to replace the bulbs. You need to remove the front wheel to access the bulbs. I also had to replace my summer for winter tires, so I could do two jobs at once.

Video

I can try to explain everything, but there is a great video on YouTube about this:

4 years of Tesla Model S ownership

4 years

Last year I wrote a blogpost about 3 years of Model S ownership. Well, it’s a year later, so it’s time to write a post about 4 years of ownership 🙂

Do I still like my Model S? Best car I’ve ever owned!

The numbers

Some numbers about last year:

Last year my Model S had driven 141.466km, and another year later the counter is at 187.058km. A total of 45.592km in one year.
My average energy consumption still hovers somewhere around 200Wh/km.
A full charge (100%) yields 380km and a 90% charge 341km.

Roadtrips

The Model S is still my only car and I still take roadtrips with it. This year I took a few roadtrips:

1.400km roadtrip to the UK and back (SuperChargers at the channel tunnel, yay!)
3.500km to Milan/Rome for a summer vacation.
2.000km roadtrip to Munich for Oktoberfest.

Pictures

A few pictures how my Model S still looks like after 4 years. Personally I can’t find any real signs of wear on the exterior nor interior.

Using a Destination Charger in Tuscany, Italy

Tesla charging stations (22kW) at our new office

Break-in in Rome

While parked in Rome people broke in to the car and stole clothing. And punctured the rear wheels…

Accident in Milan

On the way back from Rome a small truck changed lane and hit us. Nobody got hurt, just some damage to the car.

Conclusion

After 4 years my Model S is still doing just fine! No wear and tear, no severe battery degradation or major failures. The car just works!

I’ll probably keep this Model S until it turns 5 next year and buy a new one. Will I buy a Tesla again? Yes, no doubt!

3 years of Model S ownership

September 26th 2013

On 26-09-2013 the day had finally arrived: Delivery of my Tesla Model S!

In the morning my Delivery Specialist send me this picture asking me if I was ready (with a smiley behind it 😉 ).

It was 3 years since I ordered my Model S, so I couldn’t wait to pick it up! (In the back you see the Blue Model S of my colleague)

Specifications

These are the options I chose for my Model S:

85kWh non-performance (RWD)
Pearl White
All Glass Panoramic Roof
Base 19″ wheels
Black Nappa Leather Interior
Piano Black Décor
Tech Package
Sound Studio Package
Active Air Suspension
Lighting Package
Parking Sensors
Twin Chargers (22kW)

Price: EUR 97.890,00 (Including all taxes)

Afterwards I swapped the 19″ base wheels for the 19″ Cyclone Grey. These wheels are no longer available.

September 2016

Fast forward 3 years and 141.466km: I’m still super happy with my Model S. Best car ever, hands down.

The 100.000km mark was hit at November 14th 2015 as I was almost home. Literally, I was just 200m away from my house. So I could stop I take a good picture.

Now, 3 years later it is well over 141.000km and will probably hit 150.000km somewhere in October.

The roadtrips I did in these 3 years were all over Europe:

3x: Octoberfest in München (DE): 2.000km
3x: To Prague (CZ): 2.2000km
3x: To Berlin (DE): 2.000km
2x: Northern Norway above the Arctic circle: 6.000km
2x: Summer roadtrip to Germany, Austria, Italy and Switzerland: 3.500km
1x: To Swansea in Wales (UK): 1.500km

Each of these trips were with either friends or my girlfriend. Awesome trips, each of them. All powered by the ever expanding SuperCharger network.

Over the Air software updates

Due to the over the Air software updates the car only got better and better in these 3 years. A few things (but not all of them) which were added:

Trip Planner using SuperChargers
Spotify integration (awesome!)
New UI
Calender sync
Slightly improved efficieny

All for free and while my car was parked at home. My other cars never got better over time, they always got worse.

Problems

In three years I’ve driven my car to a lot of places in Europe (see below). From the cold in Norway to the heat of Italy.

Did I have some issues? Yes, but to be clear: I was never stranded! It did not malfunction in such a way that it was disabled.

So what did I experience?

Humming drivetrain. It was replaced 3 times under warranty
Main contactor failure in battery. Reboot of car worked and contactor was replaced.
Fogging rear lights
Slave charger failure. Causing reduced charging speed with AC charging
Window washer pump failure.

Again, none of these issues left me stranded along the road. They were also all fixed under warranty except for the window washer pump. That was EUR 100 in total.

Maintenance

In total my S went for service 3 times. I figured once every year would be enough. I paid two invoices of EUR 700,00 each. The other ones were discounted from the referral credit I have at Tesla.

Including the washer fluid pump my total expenses on service and maintenance were EUR 800,00. Not bad I would say!

Energy Consumption

About 70% of my charging is done at home, the rest at SuperChargers and other (public) chargers.

There is a kWh meter in front of my charging station at home and I’ve used about 20.000kWh. Judging from my 70% ‘charge at home’ assumption my total energy usage in 3 years was roughly 28.000kWh.

28.000kWh / 141.000km = 198Wh/km, which is about what I see in my general consumption in the car.

Roadtrips

As I wrote above I undertook multiple Roadtrips in the three years, but the best trips I did were the trips to Wales, Norway and to Slovenia. I wrote blogs about two of them:

I didn’t write a blogpost about my roadtrip through Europe in June 2015, but you can see the route below (Prague, Austria, Slovenia, Austria, Germany, Netherlands).

I tried to draw the routes I’ve driven on a Google Maps overview.

Highlights

In the threee years I still think my trips to the Arctic are the highlights for me. However, there were more highlights, so I gathered a bunch of pictures I took and added them below in a random order.

Route 74 between Norway and Sweden:

Stuck on the arctic circle in Norway:

On the Lofoten Islands in Norway:

Octoberfest in München: (I’m the green blouse)

Charging at Fastned using 50kW CHAdeMO.

In the Belgian Ardennes:

On a train in Austria going towards Bad Gastein:

At the Slovenian <> Italian border:

Conclusion

After owning a Audi A3 2.0TDI (2007), Toyota Auris Hybrid (2011) and BMW M5 E39 (1999) I can saw that Model S is the best car I’ve ever owned. I love driving it and still enjoy every KM. (Except when stuck in traffic….). Even without Autopilot it is still an amazing car!

People still come up to me to ask things about the car and are really interested.

As I said. Best car ever. Period. I will never by a car which burns fossil fuel again.

My deposit for Model 3 was made at the day they opened. Waiting!

Back home from Norway

Ferry from Lofoten

As I wrote in my previous post we took the ferry from Moskenes to Bodø at 07:00 on Friday.

We left the cabin at 04:30 to make sure we got there on time. It was just 89km, but Google Maps told me it would take me 1 hour and 30 minutes. Due to the snow, wind and darkness it took us 1:48 to get there. In time for the ferry!

After 3 hours and 15 minutes we arrived in Bodø to head towards the SuperCharger in Grong. A 512km drive.

To Grong

The trip to Grong was long. Nothing really special to mention. Ice and snow on the roads, that is mainly it. A exhausting and long drive mainly.

Fiskevägen all over again!

We took the Fiskevägen route. This time from Grong to Krokom where I took it the other way around last year.

The 240km trip took us 4 hours and 30 minutes. We took it slowly since the view is just awesome!

Halfway we stopped in Rötviken to take a break and charge. Just as last year it was just a 3,6kW charger. It added only 4km of range while we took a break. We did it mainly for the show.

Free 50kW CHAdeMO charger

Getting from the Krokom (Sweden) SuperCharger to the one in Mora (Sweden) is over 300km and I don’t like such long stretches. At home I already found a free CHAdeMO charger in Sveg which is a small town along the E45 from Krokom to Mora.

I should be just a matter of plug in and hit the start button. It was!

This charger is also part of the Green Highway. Much better than the 3,6kW charger in Rötviken!

We stayed in a Hotel in Sveg. So during our dinner in Sveg the car could fully charge.

‘Almost’ Home

From Sveg we followed the E45 towards Göteborg and down to Malmö and into Denmark. Slept in Bremen and drove the last 600km home.

This part of the trip was not that special. We just drove for 2 days 🙂

Energy Consumption

When I left home I hit the reset button for both trip counters. The end result is 5.571,3km with a total energy consumption of 1,179kWh. That averages to 212Wh/km.

Last day before we head back

Aurora Borealis

One of the things we can for was the Aurora Borealis, also called the ‘Northern Lights’.

For two nights we had clear skies and saw a beautiful display. You can find enough pictures on the internet, so I won’t post all of them!

Route home

The route home from the Lofoten Islands is going to be 3.000km. Our guess is that it will take us 4 to 5 days. Not due to the charging, but because you simply can not drive very fast through Norway and Sweden.

Ferry from the Lofoten

We will be taking the ferry from Moskenes to Bodø. The Hurtigruten from Stamsun to Bodø was not an option this time as it leaves late at night.

This part of the trip probably won’t be very special. I hope that Fiskevägen will be as nice as it was last year. Besides from that we are not expecting any highlights anymore.

Snow performance of a RWD Model S

Waking up with snow

When we went to best last night the forecast said there would be 1 to 2cm of snowfall. Well, this morning it showed differently. It was 20 to 30cm!

At first it all looked good, the sun was shining and we wanted to go out for a hike through the mountains in the fresh snow.

More snow

The weather turned however and more and more snow came down on us. No hiking yet, so we started to play some cards.

After a few hours the father of the house owner showed up with his tractor to clear the driveway. We could go out!

Eventually we had about 30cm of snow over a period of 14 hours.

RWD in the snow

Most people (including Tesla) talk about the snow performance of the Dual Motor Model S. Mine however is a RWD 85kWh from September 2013.

With the Hankook i-cept Evo 2 (W320) tyres it however performs just fine. Sure, it sometimes slips and traction control has to kick in quite often, but overall it works just fine.

Eventually we went out hiking and to get there we had to drive through fresh snow. Not a problem at all.

Obviously the Dual-Motor is a no-brainer when you live in these conditions, but a RWD Model S probably outperforms most other RWD vehicles, if not all.

Frozen charge port

After we went hiking we drove back to the cabin. At the cabin I wanted to plug in again, but the charge port would not open. It was frozen.

It are just a few drops of water which can cause the port to freeze. The solution is simple. Take any credit card format plastic card and use it to force the port open. Simple as that!

Trondheim to the Lofoten Islands

Hurtigruten

We love driving the Model S, but after driving for over 72 hours it is also nice to be ‘driven’.

That’s why we took the Hurtigruten ferry from Trondheim to Stamsund. Stamsund is a port on the Lofoten Islands just 21km from the house we rented on the Lofoten through Airbnb.

On Tuesday we boarded the MS Nordlys at 11:00 and arrived in Stamsund the next day around 19:00.

Getting of the ship was tight. With only centimeters to spare and guiduance of the crew we were able to manouvre the Model S off the ship. Yes, it is a wide car!

‘Our’ house

After leaving the ship it took us roughly 45 minutes to drive to the house in Valberg. A beautiful house at the coast looking over the fjords. What an amazing place!

We are going to stay here for a few days to see the Aurora Borealis before we continue more North on the Lofoten.

Non-studded tyres

Just as last year I’m driving non studded tyres. Why? We have to pass through Germany and Denmark and studded tyres are not allowed there.Last year I used Nokian Hakka R2 tyres which were great! This year I’m driving Hankook i-cept Evo 2 (W320) tyres and they work very good as well. The last 500m to the house is pure ice and you notice that the tyres have a hard time keeping traction. The traction control in the Model S works exceptionally good however and it works just fine.

Keep in mind: I drive a RWD Model S from September 2013. It is not a new Dual-Motor AWD Model S!

230V network

Most of the part of Norway have a 230V instead of the 400V we have in the Netherlands and other parts of Europe. This means that my UMC (Universal Mobile Connector) does not work here. This is a safety measure of the UMC.

In Norway you can recognize this by the Blue 230V label on electrical installations.

The UMC performs a check if there is 0V between Ground and Neutral, but here that’s not the case. There is 120V between GND and N which makes my UMC show a red light. It thinks there is a ground leak, which is a bad thing.

There is a special Norwegian version of the UMC, but I built my own using Smart EVSE. It does NOT perform a Ground check, but it allows me to charge.

My Model S is happily charging at 13A right now.

This means I have a new charging POI on my Model S’s screen!

Time to relax!

After being on the road for 5 days it is time to relax. Watch the Aurora, go out hiking and do nothing.

From Middelburg to Trondheim

To Hirtshals

Last Saturday we left at 08:00 from Middelburg for the 1.100km drive to Hirtshals, Denmark. From there we would take the ferry to Larvik, Norway on Sunday morning.

It took us 14 hours to reach Hirtshals. Traffic was bad, very bad starting at Hamburg towards the border. Roadworks and border controls made it stop and go over almost 100km!

A short night followed since our ferry left at 08:00.

Lier South SuperCharger

After arriving in Larvik our first SuperCharger in Norway was Lier South, 100km from Larvik.

It was busy! After we parked all 8 stalls are occupied. Other Model S had to wait in the queue.

A queue is bad, but it also shows that the infrastructure is used! It’s not a charger which is rarely used. From what I understood it was also a vacation period, so that might have caused the spike in traffic.

Lillehammer

After charging in Lier we headed to Lillehammer. We would stay the night there and charge again.

Fortum CHAdeMO

While heading to Lillehammer I stopped at a CHAdeMO from Fortum to see if I could charge there. The people from Fortum told me that I could use my Dutch phone and send a SMS to active it.

Well, that didn’t work. I borrowed a RFID tag from somebody else as a backup. On the Lofoten Islands I will need to use a Fortum charger, so I wanted to know if it worked. Lesson learned. It doesn’t.

Busy times at Lillehammer

On the E6 to Lillehammer we already spotted a lot of Model S coming from Lillehammer, so I expected the SuperCharger to be crowded.

It was! 9 of the 10 stalls we busy, so we parked at the last stall available.

As we were charging we saw more Model S arrive. We still had 100km left in the battery and we would leave the next morning. We vacated the stall and to decided to charge the next morning for the 155km drive to Dombas and Trondheim.

We checked in at the hotel and went for a dinner in Lillehammer.

SuperCharging with a cold battery

The next morning the car had been in -8C for the night. When I switched to ‘Drive’ a warning indicated that regenerative braking had been disabled. This was due to the battery being cold.

SuperCharging didn’t go very fast. When I just started it would charge with 17kW and slowly climbed to roughly 30kW before we had enough to leave for Dombas.

This was a similar experience as last year at the Krokom SuperCharger in -22C.

The picture below shows that we were charging with 24kW where under normal conditions it should have been about 80kW.

To Trondheim

From Lillehammer we drove to the Dombas SuperCharger. After a charge and lunch there we headed down to Klett (near Trondheim).

Nothing really special on this part of the trip. The temperature was about -5C and the (road) conditions were good.

To the Lofoten

Our destination is a house we rented through Airbnb on the Lofoten Islands.

From Trondheim we are taking the Hurtigruten ferry to Stamsund on the Lofoten. This will take 2 days.

From Stamsund to the house it is just 21km. Time to relax!

Energy Consumption

The tripmeter shows 1861km and a total usage of 391kWh. That’s 210Wh/km. Not bad at all!

Fully electric to Norway, again!

Last Year

In the beginning of 2015 I drove a 5.500km trip with my father to the most Northern Tesla Motors SuperCharger. For a few reasons:

To see the Aurora Borealis
To prove it can be done with an electric car
Because I like roadtrips and travelling

This winter I’m going it again!

My Model S

I have a ‘classic’ Model S from September 2013. No Auto-Pilot features or All-Wheel drive. It’s a 85kWh RWD model.

The ODO currently displays 110.000km and when we get back it won’t be long before I hit the 120.000km.

Still enjoying this car every time I drive it.

Lofoten

My girlfriend also wants to go to Norway to see the Aurora Borealis. She heard me telling her all the stories for over a year about how great it was and how much I like Norway.

So I said: “Why don’t we go there?”

This year the destination will be the Lofoten Islands. From what I’ve seen and heard it is about the best place to watch the Aurora Borealis!

Route to Lofoten

Our route will take us from Middelburg (Netherlands) to Hirtshals (Denmark) where we take the ferry towards Larvik (Norway). Following the Tesla SuperChargers we will drive to Bodø from where we take the ferry to the Lofoten Islands.

On the Lofoten there are no Tesla SuperChargers, so I’ll be using the CHAdeMO chargers using the CHAdeMO adapter to charge my Model S there.

I found these CHAdeMO chargers on elbil.no’s Hurtigladekartet and on uppladdning.nu.

Route back home

We’ll drive back through Sweden where I want to take Fiskevägen again. What a beautiful route!

The total route should be about 6.000km

Preparations

Since I did almost all the preparing last year already I still have about everything I need.

Making sure we have enough water, food, heat and proper winter gear with us. We should be fine!

To Norway and back using just Tesla SuperChargers

I had never seen the Aurora Borealis and with the growing SuperCharger network of Tesla Motors I’ve driven my Tesla Model S from the Netherlands to the North of Norway using just SuperChargers.

A 5412km roadtrip going through Germany, Denmark, Sweden and Norway using just the Tesla Motors SuperCharger network.

An amazing trip through snow, ice, rain and -22 Celcius. Driven 100% electric and without a single problem.

I’ve written multiple blogposts about my trip:

Energy Consumption

Everybody always talks about how much more EVs start consuming in the cold. To see if this was true I kept a detailed triplog of every leg of the journey.

The sheet is on Google Docs and shows that over 5412km I used 1197kWh of energy. That comes down to 221Wh/km or 22kWh/100km.

That is 10% more then the ‘Typical Range’ (Tesla terminology) the car tells me.