All things Tesla

[CincyInDE 3,311]

1 hour ago, murphaph said:

Yep, so it could be that the Tesla has particularly powerful regeneration and this leads to almost permanent one pedal driving

 

this is 100% true.  I didn't fail TÜV when my Model 3 turned 3 years old, but I was warned that my rear discs were beginning to rust.  The "solution" is to turn off regen a week before the inspection and when no one is behind you brake hard.  I also was told to have the passenger side headlight adjusted.  I finally had this done and wow, what a difference (not kidding). 

[murphaph 9,843]

One would hope that an OTA software update could make Teslas occasionally turn the regen off to keep the mechanical brakes in good working order.

[mtbiking 1,904]

A harder braking once in a while is recommended even with a ICE car, specially in one which isn’t driven daily. It’s not really rocket science. I’m a bit more worried about the extra wear of the suspension, etc due to the battery weight. I’d think the car would be engineered for this, but then it shouldn’t be an issue in the first TÜV. It shouldn’t be an issue during the lifetime of the car, in fact.

[murphaph 9,843]

Suspension components should definitely not fail the first TÜV (really nothing should on a modern car). Audi made one of the worst cars ever in the B5 platform (used for Audi A4, VW Passat from 1997-) whereby the complicated multi-link front suspension destroyed bushes with alarming frequency due to over stress of the components. I owned a B5 Passat back then and replaced all the control arms and the anti-roll bar drop links on that car at least once, some twice. The suspension was redesigned in the B6 platform when it returned to a more traditional McPherson strut design. So any company can make a total mess of this. I hope the Model 3 is not as bad as the B5 of course. Hopefully the cars affected by suspension faults are a small subset of the overall failures. 

[Krieg 15,072]

One of the Tesla owners here in the forum reported not long ago having suspension problems with his car.

[mtbiking 1,904]

I’m specially interested in the Tesla Y, sadly for that one there’s still no TÜV data. It’s manufactured in Germany, so I expect an overall better quality.

[catjones 1,702]

49 minutes ago, mtbiking said:

I’m specially interested in the Tesla Y, sadly for that one there’s still no TÜV data. It’s manufactured in Germany, so I expect an overall better quality.

 

Given the highly robotic giga factories, why would you conclude that?

[murphaph 9,843]

According to Wiki there are 22k people employed at Fremont. I assume most are directly involved in building the cars. 

[CincyInDE 3,311]

14 hours ago, Krieg said:

One of the Tesla owners here in the forum reported not long ago having suspension problems with his car.

 

true.  that was me. 

935.96€

[murphaph 9,843]

1 hour ago, CincyInDE said:

 

true.  that was me. 

935.96€

Can you say what the problem was exactly? Was it also a Model 3 in your case?

[CincyInDE 3,311]

Yes, Model 3.

 

The suspension would creak when turning the wheel, accelerating, decelerating, and when I would push the front end of the car down with my hands.

 

left and right wishbone assembly replaced

front left and right control arm assembly replaced

[murphaph 9,843]

Thanks for the details! That's something to watch out for. I hope it's not another VW B5 platform type thing that basically affects every single vehicle. The symptoms were the same, though in the VW/Audi the creak would become a loud clunk after a while.

[mtbiking 1,904]

€900 in repairs after four years and change is not that bad, at least (provided he hasn’t been driving 10,000 km or less per year). The repair cost less than I’d expect, honestly.

[CincyInDE 3,311]

The car had about 90,000 km at the time of the repairs.  Honestly, I've spent much more on tires than on repairs. 

[mtbiking 1,904]

7 minutes ago, CincyInDE said:

The car had about 90,000 km at the time of the repairs.  Honestly, I've spent much more on tires than on repairs. 

 

yep, that’s fine then.

[murphaph 9,843]

Hmmm, there are several of these vids on YouTube so this is a common problem but to be honest the fix is easy for any half competent DIY mechanic. Doesn't even cost anything to fix them and I am actually impressed with how easy the Model 3 seems to work on in this area.

 

[catjones 1,702]

18 hours ago, murphaph said:

According to Wiki there are 22k people employed at Fremont. I assume most are directly involved in building the cars. 

 

Berlin has 8k employees in a factory 70% larger than Fremont.  I don't see the correlation to quality.

[murphaph 9,843]

You insinuated that the cars (worldwide) were put together almost exclusively by robots and that therefore there would be no difference in quality levels between the US production runs and the German production runs (which I suggested there might be). I simply highlighted that the US builds at Fremont were clearly hand-assembled to a significant extent or there would be no need to employ 22k people there. The Grünheide plant seems more automated than Fremont, so that should in fact have a positive impact on build quality, which is what you were disputing originally!

[MikeMelga 7,325]

Regarding those TuV report, would be great to have detailed numbers. As @CincyInDE said, simply by having rust in brakes would make it fail, while simply pressing hard a few times before TuV would make it pass. If that is the main reason they are "failing", then it's all statistical bullshit, due to the very strong regenerative braking, which means you don't use the brake pads at all.

One issue I saw is that at least one SW update reset my TuV-calibrated headlights... but I guess that wouldn't make it fail in the next inspection.

One thing I noticed is that TuV employees don't like to test the Tesla. Unsure if it is due to extra time taken to configure some things, or some general hate towards EVs.

 

Regarding suspension and control arm, it is known that Tesla have a tendency for problems with control arm (although improving), due to weight and being a performance car. What I do to minimize the issue is I change my tires at Tesla and ask the mechanic to have a look on the control arm 2x a year.

 

Regarding repair costs, unless it's an accident, in general Tesla prices are quite good. I'm going to ask how much would replacing the computer would cost, if I had to pay for it. Definitely well below Mercedes costs!!

 

Regarding quality difference between factories, there is a lot. Not only production lines differ substantially, some are in ramp-up, leading to more problems. In general US-made cars (Fremont) are worst than Chinese and German. Having said that, my Fremont-built Model 3 came with zero problems.

[MikeMelga 7,325]

On 3/23/2023, 12:06:29, mtbiking said:

PS: I misread you post.. or are they also replacing the AP under warranty?

They will in principle replace just the AP computer, not the infotainement computer, but they will only confirm when they repair it. Under warranty.

 

In US replacement cost for the AP computer is around $1500. Which IMO is a fair price, anything similar with a Mercedes would cost 2-3x more.