$22k HV Battery Damage Not Covered. Help!

[bobby g]

Yeah, BMW F series cars and their infamous flat mounted oil cooler. yeah, let's put the oil cooler right at the bottom of the car at the very front so if you so much as ride hard over a curb stop, you'll rip the cooler / lines open and immediately lose all your oil. Potentially toasting your engine. Great design BMW.

Sorry this happened to you. Totally freak accident for sure!

Of course sometimes there's a reason. Front mount or to mount intercoolers. Front is more efficient but raises last and insurance.

 

[OrbiterTI4]

...
I know of no one (old or not) that would say to drop collision once the car is paid for. That is stupid - I mean what if you buy your cars in cash?
...

My coworker was telling me, he is saving up his COVID stimulus payments and IRS refund for a new car to pay in full with cash.

The actual conversation: "We're hoping to buy the vehicle outright so we don't have a lien on it or have to pay for full coverage. All the cars I've had in the past I've bought from individual sellers and for cash, so it's never been thing until we got the family car with a loan. Forced us to get full coverage. I just didn't like the fact that I HAD to get full coverage."

I think I convinced him that carrying comp/coll was in his best interest, but he's the sole earner for a family of 7, so he is very much of the mindset, "an accident is hypothetical, the insurance premiums leaving my bank account over and over is real."

 

[anom]

Hey all! OP here.

Appreciate all the help! Sorry for the delay in responding.

It's always interesting posting on the internet. Lots of people projecting a lot of suspicion, but generally the conversation has been super helpful! Thanks!

A few people have been asking for photos. I didn't want to post the photos to prevent doxxing myself against Tesla (since I'd still like to maintain a good relationship with my service rep) but it's the least I could do for the help:

The soap bubbles are because the shop said they used it to check for a coolant pressure leak. (Honestly as an engineer it seems a bit sus, how would I know the difference between just pumping air into the pack vs coolant system? Does the coolant run against the bottom shell of the pack?)

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Also wanted to respond to the people who are "sure" it was "impossible to notice" when I ran over something, which was actually the main response in the thread I linked, as well as others I've seen.

Don't be so sure: Everyone assumes the damage was graphic and I ran over the balls of Chuck Norris himself, but as you can see I'd say the scratch was relatively small. We run over that kind of thing all the time: highly convex driveways, tall speed bumps. I'm just a stranger on the internet but while I might have heard a scratch I definitely have no clue when or where this scratch happened, which means even if I did hear something I passed it out of my memory like a pebble hitting your windshield.

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Also want to reply rq to #20, who wrote the longest reply.

No one "forgets" to get collision coverage, you have to actually decline it.​

Funny to me you put "forgets" in quotes when neither me nor the post you replied to said or implied that. Before he changes the narrative, I own that I am a dumbass and didn't elect collision coverage. I was planning to sell the car and wasn't driving it often, so thought I could get away with it. Still appreciate the feedback

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Anyways, I'll definitely contact Gruber and see what my options are, never knew they existed. (Thanks goodbadboys9!) Also will check later today if I never cancelled my old policy though that's a hail mary. Worst case I'll just bite the bullet and pay for the new pack.

Open to other suggestions and DMs. (I get emails for DMs so that'll prod me to come back to the thread)

Cheers all, and love you if you made it this far!

 

[anom]

Oh yeah, someone asked: I have a 2016 90D

 

[Palmtree]

So is that a crack in the corner of the shell? You're right, it doesn't look like much. Makes me want to grade my driveway.

 

[anom]

So is that a crack in the corner of the shell? You're right, it doesn't look like much. Makes me want to grade my driveway.

Looks like it. Also surprised it could have nuked my entire battery.


Going to contact Gruber but they're in AZ and the car is in Los Angeles (though I live in SF). If anyone has any third party shop suggestions in Los Angeles I'll gladly take them. Thanks!

 

[MP3Mike]

@anom The pictures don't show up for me...

 

[dark cloud]

Can you guys see these photos? All I see is this:

 

[mspohr]

I am surprised that Tesla doesn’t provide any kind of protection for the battery....

you figure road debris is commons...

They do... it's called "collision insurance". The OP declined it.

 

[anom]

@anom The pictures don't show up for me...

Here's an imgur link: imgur.com

 

[dark cloud]

OHHHH! This was you!

 

[rsg123]

Ouch. Sorry to be a Monday morning quarterback but I don’t care how old my Tesla gets, I won’t ever decline collision.

@Silicon Desert would you like to explain the reasoning for your disagreement?

 

[mservoss]

Hey everyone!

Having an unfortunate week.

New to the forums, but I have a similar story to some folks. I must have run over a rock or something without realizing, but I got a "Vehicle may not restart" message the other day. Sure enough, the vehicle didn't restart and Tesla Roadside helped me tow it to a shop.

After a few days of diagnostics, the shop sends me pictures of a crack in the underside of my battery pack. They say the damage caused a coolant leak which nuked the battery, and quotes me $22k ($20k parts + ~$2k labor), which isn't covered under warranty.

Here's the kicker: I recently switched to Tesla Insurance, and as I am the world's most braindead human, I didn't elect collision coverage, which road debris is under. I know, I know, flame me now.

I know there are a lot of awesome helpful folks here, so I'm wondering: do I have options or am I *sugar* out of luck?

Feel free to DM me as well, happy to share pictures or kickback some money for anyone who helps me save some of the 22 grand. Thanks!

What model and year Tesla do you have? I'm almost 100% certain that you must carry collision insurance at

No one "forgets" to get collision coverage, you have to actually decline it. This OP declined it on purpose (they are side stepping that by calling themselves "brain dead" as if they forgot somehow but they didnt forget, this was a conscious choice in order to save money on insurance because collision is the most expensive portion of coverage.

They dont say what year this vehicle is, but its likely the declined collision to save money thinking they didnt need it anymore due to the relative cost of the vehicle.

There are no pictures in this thread anymore, but based on responses I can tell some of you have seen them. Based on the responses it sounds like the damage was visible. Its impossible to run over something and have it hit the car and not know it, that would cause that much damage. Its possible a person didnt see it because they didnt want to look, but not possible to hit something like that and not know you hit it if you were driving.

So, OP knows they hit something, knew it was leaking (may not have known what they hit, but knew they hit "something") probably continued home and parked. The "didnt realize it" can be partially true as maybe they didnt know what they hit, but they know they hit something.

They then took the vehicle in, hoping and praying it would be either covered under warranty, or be able to be billed under comprehensive coverage, but neither of those is the case.

Now they need options.

For those saying "maybe it was covered under the old policy", that might be the case if this happened before the insurance swap over. Its not legal in california to be covered by two different insurance policies on a vehicle at the same time (not sure about other states). Policies always end at midnight and start at like 12:01am. There would not be a time when the vehicle was covered by both policies, it could be covered by the old one if the accident happened then, but if that was the case, OP would know this already.

So, as @ucmndd says, this is likely squarely on OPs dime, through the choice of neglecting collision coverage on a car which has a part which is still north of 20K to repair in it. The choices @ucmndd laid out seem to be OPs options to me.

I would either reach out to one of the aftermarket repair companies or just sell for scrap and start over. I am going to guess there isnt a loan on the vehicle because the OP didnt elect collision coverage, so the choice is to decide if the car "is worth" the amount it costs to repair the battery, or would that money be best put into a different car.

Since we dont know year of vehicle, just taking a guess because OP didnt elect collision coverage on purpose (you have to uncheck that selection, so it cant be an accident, its a choice that happens to have backfired, it happens), I am going to guess the answer to "is the vehicle worth repairing for a cost of 20k?" to be "no".

You are exactly right, and furthermore if your going to invest on one of the most advanced electric cars thus far, buy insurance to cover everything! Right now, Tesla SC's have you by the balls for repairs. You can't take a Tesla to your corner mechanic! Insure it properly and stop trying to save a buck. Eventually, the Tesla mechanics will open there own shop, give it time.

 

[ucmndd]

What model and year Tesla do you have? I'm almost 100% certain that you must carry collision insurance at

You are exactly right, and furthermore if your going to invest on one of the most advanced electric cars thus far, buy insurance to cover everything! Right now, Tesla SC's have you by the balls for repairs. You can't take a Tesla to your corner mechanic! Insure it properly and stop trying to save a buck. Eventually, the Tesla mechanics will open there own shop, give it time.

This thread is a year old. But, thanks for weighing in I guess?

 

[whitex]

2k labor? Someone should remind Tesla of the battery swap video that shows a battery pack being replaced in minutes by Tesla.

Just like the Full Self Driving video in 2016, all fake, designed to take people's money, In the battery swap case, it was not just the customers who purchased Tesla thinking they will get the battery swap capabilities, it was also done so that Tesla qualified for government grants.