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$961 bucks to replace bushings on rear suspension upper control links?

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Suspension bushings are carefully tuned, with different "spring rates" in different directions to optimize both ride and handeling. Urethane probably does not have the material properties needed for production passenger cars. I think a blend of synthetic and natural rubber is used, but I am not an expert in suspensions.

GSP
 
I've not read through all the pages but here are some thoughts-
Tesla does not sell bushings, only arms
They were about $225 each the last time I bought some
Any competent shop can do both sides in less than two hours, probably more like an hour
The newest links still have rubber on the inner joint but use a metal ball style joint on the outboard end. These are by far the best.
If you install them yourself (not a biggie), use the new style arms leaving the inner bolt loose until you jack the upright into a normal ride height position then tighten the inner bolt. This keeps the rubber from being preloaded in torsion during normal operation. Not doing this will cause "premature bushing wear" of the type you have described. This kinda makes me wonder what they did on your first drive line replacement :)

Plastic bushings are not a good choice here as the bushings work as bearings when the suspension moves.
 
Yo

I probably would have changed out the ULs (sorry I missed your am post yesterday) as I think the jury is still out on the expected service life of the various wearable suspension componentry on our instant torque, 2 1/2 ton street barges. Even though I am quite certain (he would have notified me) that "Dr. Monster Mileage" on the other forum with double your mileage has not had his ULs/bushings replaced, his car hasn't spent most of its life on those horrible Christie roads with an insane madman behind the wheel lol.

Since the outside wheel/tire are taking the majority of cornering loads, the outside UL is under tension and with possibly worn bushings the CL to CL distance grows causing the toe to move inwards. This unstable platform with excessive bushing deflection could possibly create an unpredictable and somewhat twitchy rear end tracking during high load cornering/lateral loads (but you can be the judge of that).

btw, it seems that you are now living near the Finger Lakes? The Empress and I enjoy Mirbeau Inn in the winter with no crowds for wine tasting:biggrin:
 


btw, it seems that you are now living near the Finger Lakes? The Empress and I enjoy Mirbeau Inn in the winter with no crowds for wine tasting:biggrin:

yep Mirbeau is walking distance from the house we're building. Been to Mirbeau several times and stayed there a few times in the past few years. extremely nice. and our temp lease until that is done is right there too also walking distance. love that town. still working in NYC though haha so I have a crazier commute than I used to have before (though now during the week I stay in the Poconos to shorten up that commute, I don't do Skaneateles to NYC daily...).
 
you know, i'm so anal about sound now. I no longer have the electrical milling sound, but I tend to focus now on a whooping/chopping type sound when above 45mph. kind of like a helicoptor whoop whoop whoop whoop that gets faster or slower aligned with speed. I would guess based on 0 technical automotive experience that it sounds like it would come more from the tire area than the new drive unit...would the worn bushings that I neglected to have replaced cause a sound like this?
 
you know, i'm so anal about sound now. I no longer have the electrical milling sound, but I tend to focus now on a whooping/chopping type sound when above 45mph. kind of like a helicoptor whoop whoop whoop whoop that gets faster or slower aligned with speed. I would guess based on 0 technical automotive experience that it sounds like it would come more from the tire area than the new drive unit...would the worn bushings that I neglected to have replaced cause a sound like this?

Is this the air buffeting issue that has plagued some builds?
 
The bushings themselves are probably $5 each. You're probably getting entirely new control arms with the bushings already in them for that price. The problem is most grease monkeys can't successfully press out the old bushing without destroying the arm.
 
update: the warnings I got this morning was those stuck contactors (as others have had...). they have the battery pack apart and are replacing the contactor parts under the battery warranty.

regarding the price of the bushings, they said the upper control arm links and bushing are all one part. its around $450 for them parts and about $500 for labor. I opted not to replace them...

What is their labor rate?
 
I made a recording of the noise. would a worn bushing cause this? you can hear it the whole time , maybe it gets a little more distinguishable/clearer around 0:45. and it gets faster with increase in speed and slower with decrease in speed

 
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Right, I thought I recall the statement from Tesla was that they will not be trying to make money on service, providing it at more or less cost to owners. $500 sounds like a lot (I have been charged $150 an hour for work at the Maryland Service center so at that rate this would be for 3 1/3 hours of labor for this job?).

Seems like they were taking the car apart for a bunch of other things so it is a shame that the labor duration could not be reduced given the work they were already doing under warranty. While we've owned a bunch of premium cars, I am personally very averse to unexpected repair bills that are expensive. For this reason I always prefer the peace of mind of an extended warranty and FWIW we've generally had more issues with cars we've owned during the 50K-100K mile period than the 0k-50k period.

Has anyone heard what Tesla would charge to fix a broken door handle out of warranty?

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Right, I thought I recall the statement from Tesla was that they will not be trying to make money on service, providing it at more or less cost to owners. $500 sounds like a lot (I have been charged $150 an hour for work at the Maryland Service center so at that rate this would be for 3 1/3 hours of labor for this job?).

That's an interesting statement though because technically, Tesla is currently loosing money as they are focused on growth as they should be to ramp up production... The thing is they can technically charge whatever they want for service issues at the moment and claim they are not making any money and it would be technically correct :)

The bottom line though is that this is a premium car and unlike most other premium cars, there are no independent shops. You have to take the car to Tesla, pay whatever they are asking for the repair and you really have no other choice for parts or labor. So really the only choice is to either buy the warranty or take a chance knowing you may have expensive repairs and have no choice but to pay whatever Tesla wants...