Brand new plaid leaking an oily substance

[pootie316]

New to Tesla and how things work. Can't seem to get ahold of a human to figure out what I need to do. Picked up my brand new plaid 7 days ago. Been noticing wet spots under the car and just assumed it was the a/c dripping. Dawned on me last night the spots aren't going away. Upon further inspection, there is an oily, light tan/amber substance leaking from the rear of the front undertray, just fwd of the battery pack. Feel like it's a safety concern and want to get ahold of a live service advisor. Not knowing what it is exactly, i don't know what will happen when there's no more of that oily substance left from where it's coming from. Plus I don't want to cause any additional damage to my brand new car.
Scheduled the earliest appointment and that's 3 weeks out. Sending messages in the app w/ no replies. Nearest service center is 2.5 hours away so I can't just take it down the road. Is this just part of the process? Have to be without a car until your service date when someone will reach out and maybe decide if the car needs to be towed or it's driveable for a long distance? Never imagined I would have an oil leak 3 days into ownership.

 

[pootie316]

Or any tips on how I can get the process accelerated? TIA.

 

[SO16]

If it was really low, the car should give a warning. Could also use the “roadside assistance” option.

I’d probably just drive it there if not much leaked out but you can try the number here:

https://www.tesla.com/support/customer-support#:~:text=Visit%20our%20support%20pages%20or,dedicated%20Roadside%20Assistance%20support%20page.

 

[1965Falcon]

If there are other service centers that are within your range you can check and see if they can get you in earlier. While not common, something may have not been sealed correctly and thus you have a leak. Probably the front drive assembly is leaking oil. If you are only seeing a few drips it's probably not leaking enough to cause concern and it will give you a warning if things get low. Annoying for sure with a new car, but they will fix it for you.

 

[Ostrichsak]

Welcome to the Tesla team!

One quick point I'll give you: Tesla is unlike any other car manufacturer you've ever worked with before. For good and for bad.

One of those ways they differ dramatically is their customer service. If you're used to calling a local service advisor at a service center, that really doesn't work with Tesla. It's one of the biggest frustrations I have with them and I warn everyone who is interested in one so that they understand what they're getting into.

I typically tell people that the cars are the best all-around cars currently being made. Four as good as the cars are though, the customer service support is equally bad. Everything has to balance out with the universe, right?

To that end, and to address your original question, your best bet is going to be to open your app and go through the service option in the app. It really is a nice feature but I don't think it's quite ready to be the only option that customers use. Unfortunately, Tesla doesn't see it that way. They try to direct all of their support traffic through the app so you're going to have the best luck if you go that route. In all likelihood somebody from the service center will reach out to you through the messaging system and, depending on how responsive your local service center is, sometimes those conversations can be pretty quick.

If you have anything that's outside of the realm of normal though, you're kind of SoL. The ability to reach out to an actual human who is local that you have a phone number for and can hold accountable to your issue basically doesn't exist... By design. This is one of the areas where Tesla's 's model greatly differs from the traditional car model.

All that said, if I were in your shoes, I'd pull open the app and go through the service menu to find something in the drop-down choices that closely resembles what you're experiencing. It sounds like you may have liquid leak of some sort between the HV battery pack and the front drive motor. Might have to do with the cooling system or something. If I had to put money on it, probably something to do with the front drive motor itself. Either way, once you open a ticket through that app, somebody will be sure to reach out to you to get more information beyond what you provide in the ticket itself in an effort to get things taken care of.

Good luck!

 

[pootie316]

the big spot is what has me concerned. Like it's getting worse. Similar spots in my other garage bay and probably wherever else I've been the last few days.

 

[j.harris]

Tesla is awful when you have problems and great when you don't! Even worse if you can't troubleshoot on your own.

 

[pootie316]

Tesla is awful when you have problems and great when you don't! Even worse if you can't troubleshoot on your own.

couldn't have said it any better. I fully expected to have some issues, like my driver door rattle, but not an oil leak 3 days into ownership.

 

[ucmndd]

couldn't have said it any better. I fully expected to have some issues, like my driver door rattle, but not an oil leak 3 days into ownership.

Things break when very old or very new. Pretty normal.

In cases like this your best bet is to simply drive it to a service center, talk to an advisor in person, and drop it off. They will generally accept cars with drivability issues like this on the spot.

 

[Ed243]

It's probably gearbox fluid. 2024's are using 1.8 liters of KAF1 fluid in there which is amber color. It sucks when you pay all that money and there's a problem right off the bat. Tesla says the older fluids (red or purple) can be mixed in with KAF1 (amber). Probably just a loose filler cap or oil filter or just a damaged o-ring causing the drips.

 

[pootie316]

It's probably gearbox fluid. 2024's are using 1.8 liters of KAF1 fluid in there which is amber color. It sucks when you pay all that money and there's a problem right off the bat. Tesla says the older fluids (red or purple) can be mixed in with KAF1 (amber). Probably just a loose filler cap or oil filter or just a damaged o-ring causing the drips.

Tesla needs to hire you to work their service dept. That's pretty much the conclusion I came to after looking at pics in the service manual. There's a filter right where my drips/puddles are coming from.

Finally got ahold of a live service advisor and he swears up and down that it's condensation. Said the color was from the dirt from raining water splashing around. Told him the car hasn't seen rain and he started back pedaling. Essentially said there's nothing wrong because the car would give an alert if that were the case. I'm over here trying to save them money in repair costs and they're telling me to drive it till it breaks. Haha. Going to throw it on the lift tomorrow and take pics to upload and prove it's not water.

 

[NeuroRad]

Tesla needs to hire you to work their service dept. That's pretty much the conclusion I came to after looking at pics in the service manual. There's a filter right where my drips/puddles are coming from.

Finally got ahold of a live service advisor and he swears up and down that it's condensation. Said the color was from the dirt from raining water splashing around. Told him the car hasn't seen rain and he started back pedaling. Essentially said there's nothing wrong because the car would give an alert if that were the case. I'm over here trying to save them money in repair costs and they're telling me to drive it till it breaks. Haha. Going to throw it on the lift tomorrow and take pics to upload and prove it's not water.

That’s par for the course with Tesla service. Guy clearly has no clue what he’s talking about and probably has zero mechanical background. Best of luck to getting your car repaired asap

 

[j.harris]

Hopefully just that filter is loose.

 

[pootie316]

Hopefully just that filter is loose.

Sadly, it appears the oil pump is leaking. Tray was holding quite a bit of fluid. Came raining down when I angled the back side down.

 

[Hank42]

Sadly, it appears the oil pump is leaking. Tray was holding quite a bit of fluid. Came raining down when I angled the back side down.

Not so sure.. looks like the drip is coming dripping down the plastic portion and collecting at the metal lip. Sure there's nothing above that could be leaking on to the pump?

 

[Ed243]

The few service advisors at Tesla I've dealt with have minimal mechanical experience. I wouldn't drive it much and save the oil for the 2.5 hr trip. Talk with the technician that works on it so you are comfortable with how they make sure the right amount of oil is in there when they're done.

Sucks it's 3 weeks out. Maybe you can ask the advisor to get scheduled sooner when there's a cancellation.

 

[pootie316]

The few service advisors at Tesla I've dealt with have minimal mechanical experience. I wouldn't drive it much and save the oil for the 2.5 hr trip. Talk with the technician that works on it so you are comfortable with how they make sure the right amount of oil is in there when they're done.

Sucks it's 3 weeks out. Maybe you can ask the advisor to get scheduled sooner when there's a cancellation.

the advisor i spoke to was some random guy who picked up the phone at another dealership. still waiting to get any sort of reply in the app which they say is the way I have to proceed. said they're allowed 72 hours to reply.