Does anyone park outside in the cold?

[sub]

Does anyone regularly park outside in cold climates? I don't mean California Cold, I mean weather ~0F or colder. If so, have you experienced any problems that you attribute to the cold?

I normally park in my garage which isn't heated but rarely gets below 20F. But I parked outside for the first time last week and 5 minutes into the first (and only) post cold-soaked drive the vehicle complained about a motor failure and went into turtle mode limiting me to 42MPH.

After crawling back home, I parked in the garage and the next day the error message was gone and the vehicle seems to be driving fine now. Rivian says they analyzed the logs and were unable(or unwilling) to explain why the vehicle freaked out, but claim that nothing is wrong with it. I don't really want to deal with the hassle of taking it in for service so I should be happy with the easy fix. But I am also somewhat afraid to drive it now. It was scary crawling home on the interstate at 1/2 the speed of the surrounding traffic.

Did the cold cause it? Unrelated random freak-out? Also, why does a motor failure limit you to 42MPH? With 4x 200 HP motors, 1 motor failing should still leave me with 600HP. Surely that is more than enough to maintain regular highway speeds. Even with 3 of the 4 motors down it should be able to do better than 42.

• I had been parked outside for a week, and during that time the highs were around 5F each day and the lows around -5F at night
• I had pre-conditioned the cabin for a long time before starting the drive.
• All 4 motors were around 50F. The battery was 35F.
• Battery was around 50%
• I was in "snow" mode, which I have been using 90% of the time this winter.
• After the failure it would not let me change modes.
• After the failure, only the front 2 motors were being used.

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[portdirect]

We only park outside - though doesn't get as cold here (STL) typically as it does for you. In the time we have had our Rivian's have not seen anything like you describe, though a bunch of other things to watch out for:

• The frunk becomes a no-go zone in winter, without using a credit card to cut between the rubber seal and plastic tub surround - it ices up, and prevents the funk opening - our R1T actually put visible divots in the hood last year trying to open when iced up.
• Need to set the mirrors to not auto retract when locking - they will freeze closed otherwise.
• Cant pull the windscreen wipers off the screen due to where they are positioned when 'retracted' - so sometimes some water is required to help free them.
• On the R1T the tonneau cover seal will freeze to the tailgate trim, so care is required when opening.
• Brake blending to support regen is really useful - otherwise the drive will be super inconsistent until the motors and battery are up to heat.

We are seeing some charging issues with our Gen2 Max pack battery (super slow charging) - that i think is cold related, but too early to tell.

 

[windblowlc]

I parked my gen 1 R1T Quad outside for 2.5 years and two freezing winters with zero problem. No issue with my current gen 2 R1T either.

 

[hroussel]

I'm parking my R1T in my driveway. However it's always plugged to the charger, and from time to time I know it uses some juice to recharge a bit (and keep thermals in check).

Coldest I've seen so far is -17C (1F) outside temp during a night. In the morning my battery was at -9C (16F), and motors at 0C (32F). No issues going on a drive.

 

[Donald Stanfield]

Had mine outside in the Cold in WI. Didn't have an issue.

 

[bfilippo]

First winter with my Gen2 R1T here in Maine. I park in front of my garage because that bay is filled with stuff going into our addition that will hopefully be done this winter. Other bay is the Tesla because my partner does more daily driving.

No issues except the freezing issue of the frunk mentioned, but that was after a pretty crazy ice storm situation.

 

[sub]

Thanks for the responses. Sounds like it wasn't caused by parking outside and it was just a coincidence.

I'm not sure that makes me feel any better about it though. Motor failure due to cold weather is not great, but It is easier to avoid parking outside(since I have a garage) than it is to avoid random temporary failures with no cause.

 

[R1TandMe]

We only park outside - though doesn't get as cold here (STL) typically as it does for you. In the time we have had our Rivian's have not seen anything like you describe, though a bunch of other things to watch out for:

• The frunk becomes a no-go zone in winter, without using a credit card to cut between the rubber seal and plastic tub surround - it ices up, and prevents the funk opening - our R1T actually put visible divots in the hood last year trying to open when iced up.
• Need to set the mirrors to not auto retract when locking - they will freeze closed otherwise.
• Cant pull the windscreen wipers off the screen due to where they are positioned when 'retracted' - so sometimes some water is required to help free them.
• On the R1T the tonneau cover seal will freeze to the tailgate trim, so care is required when opening.
• Brake blending to support regen is really useful - otherwise the drive will be super inconsistent until the motors and battery are up to heat.

We are seeing some charging issues with our Gen2 Max pack battery (super slow charging) - that i think is cold related, but too early to tell.

Mine is parked outside also. Had a cover for the windshield. Frunk was frozen shut but a little washer fluid took care of that. Also sprayed on door handles and outside mirrors. But there is so much ice on the frunk it won’t stay open.

 

[srnyoung]

Not THAT cold in PNW but last year during our big ice storm, the charge port flap got frozen shut requiring using my propane heater for ~30 minutes to get it open. Then, the next day I had to repeat the process to get it closed again.
There was a whole thread on Reddit about this over the weekend. Some ingenious covers...

 

[Dark-Fx]

Last year my 12V battery needed to be replaced after an extended stint in the negatives. Vehicle didn't really seem to care about that happening either, still drove normal.

 

[ThirteenElectrics]

I haven't experienced this, but the windshield heaters are inadequate to melt ice, and none of my charge port door buttons have ever worked at 32 degrees or colder.

 

[Jim4]

I’m in CT so it doesn’t get that cold, but it’s regularly in the 20s at night and I haven’t had any issues parking outside.

 

[Red Shirt Wookie]

Yep, no issues in northern CT either. But hasn't gotten very cold. Fwiw

 

[Megavolt]

I parked my gen 1 R1T Quad outside for 2.5 years and two freezing winters with zero problem. No issue with my current gen 2 R1T either.

New Jersey here, I park outside, but I leave it plugged in. That way in the morning it's toasty and the windows are defrosted

 

[Rural1T]

I park my Gen 1 R1T outside in Montana and have had multiple nights with single digits temperatures and a couple of nights below zero. I haven't had any major problems with the cold so far. A couple of key points:

1) I always keep the vehicle plugged in at home so it can use shore power to maintain the battery.

2) I always schedule a charge to complete in the AM right before I plan to depart in the morning. Charging the vehicle for 2-3 hours prior to driving in the cold heats up the battery and the motors and driving performance and efficiency are significantly better.

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