Here is an update to this thread with my experience of cleaning the PEM.
I want to start of with thanking
@m0rph and everyboy else contributing to this thread what really helped me doing a PEM clean myself.
I also had help from a car mechanic and someone with a lot of experience with pcb-boards.
My goal of this post is to share my experience with other Roadster owners and ask questions to other Roadster owners who do there own PEM cleaning and maintenance.
Insulation material
This project started out with wanting to take a look at the insulation material in the PEM. The insulation material looked pretty good in my opinion, but we could only see the sides, because we didn’t take the whole PEM apart. Material started crumbling a little bit on the sides (where you can see it, without taking it apart).
Doe anybody have an instruction how to take the PEM apart for replacing the insulation material?
PEM connecters
Taking the connecters of was no problem, but we had a problem putting the connecters back on (the 2 connecters on the right side when you are behind the car). There is only a little space to put them back on and after trying, trying and trying we put the PEM on the side so we could see better and use more force. Still didn’t work. We tried everything but we ended up removing the rubber in the female part of the connecters. After removing that rubber the connecters were easily put back on the PEM.
Did other owners also have problems with putting the connecter back on and had to remove the orange rubbers in the connecters? (see picture for the rubbers)
I am thinking about replacing the current female connecters and making an extra connecter behind the 2 connecters I am going to replace. This will make it easier and safer in the future to remove and clean the PEM.
PEM cleaning (see video)
We used an airgun to clean the PEM. Last Tesla service was about 2 years and 20.000 km ago. I dont think there really was a lot of dirt in the PEM. But I think it is wise to do a PEM clean every 2 years. Besides this, I have a snow dam installed and I think the snowdam helps with keeping dirt out.
Cleaning Motor (see video)
There was a lot of dirt in the motor. It looks like it was a long time ago the motor got cleaned. See video for all the dirt that was in there. I think I will have another look in a year or so or earlier if the motor temp goes up faster again.
Performance and temps after cleaning
After cleaning the PEM and motor I experience that it takes longer for the motor to heat up. But I think the PEM heats up faster. The temp of PEM goes up very fast to 56C when pushing the car hard. (I didn’t get it above 56C yet = last blue bar). I think that maybe now there goes more air to the motor, there is less air for the PEM? I am not sure but I will keep an eye on the temps.
Overall It feels like the car got a little bit more power / excelerating faster. But I am not sure. Maybe my brains just want me to believe so…
Videos
Cleaning PEM:
Cleaning Motor:
My experience
A PEM clean is not very difficult to do. You only need a couple of extra hands and a little bit of experience with nuts and bolts etc. The only problem I had was putting the connecters back on… My next job is to take apart and clean the rear blower.
My questions
1. Doe anybody have an instruction how to take the PEM apart for replacing the insulation material?
2. Did other owners also have problems with putting the connecters back on and had to remove the orange rubbers in the connecters? (see picture for the rubbers)
Please also respond if you have any other thoughts after reading my post
Thanks in advance.