Clunking sound is costing me a bundle to fix out of warranty

[scaesare]

Interesting.

A bit ago I had a battery pack failure while out of "regular" warranty (about 95K miles ~ 4 yrs old) and got a replacement under the longer pack warrantee. I also had some slight driveline lash and they went ahead and replaced that for me as well.

Now I have the car back and get a significant driveline clunk that wasn't there at all the day before I had the drive unit replaced. I'm told I need hub/bearing assemblies as well. When I questioned why the sound happened literally over night, they took a second look and confirmed it was normal wear, and it was just coincidental timing that it occurred at the exact same time my drive unit was replaced.

I'm going to look at those other referenced threads, and dig out the repair quote again.

Thanks for posting this topic.

 

[hmmm]

No car is still with service. Best part is service is telling me this may or may not fix the problem.

FWIW, I had the exact same issue with less than 10k miles on the clock. I get the fact that you were out of warranty etc and that Tesla is not the Salvation Army, but that reflects extremely poorly on the company as this a significant manufacturing/design flaw.

This was "my" thread: What's that noise?

 

[Zero CO2]

My educated guess is the torque on these axles is significant acceleration/deceleration(might be cheaper to replace brake pads) as compared to ICE ....have to imagine we will be seeing more of this down the road....sounds like a good third party repair job going forward..... thoughts?

 

[Zero CO2]

Just received a repair bill of $3,480 + tax for my 2013 S 60 that has 38k miles on it. Unfortunately the car just went out of warranty and Tesla didn't find this issue during the 4th year inspection that happened last month. And unfortunately it looks like I just missed my opportunity to purchase the extend service agreement (ESA - extend warranty) by like 10 or so days so this will have to come out of pocket. Tried calling Tesla support and discussed with service center and they said there's nothing they can do.

Initially I thought the clunking sound (similar to this video here) may be the drive train problem coming up again as I has it replace in March of 17, but the service manager tells me that this is a different issue and will require the half shaft replacement.

1) If you plan to keep the car beyond your warranty period, make sure you purchase an ESA. Don't miss getting the ESA
2) For a car that has 38k miles, no matter how you cut and slice it, having this this type of repair cost to me is a defect, plus I paid 4 year service for the car and this wasn't detected.

It seems like this is actually a problem that a number of people have experienced.
Model S "Axle" problems | Tesla
Subtle "clunk" from rear when accelerating from a stop



View attachment 235271


***Do copy outside of TMC Forum without my explicit permission***

From FAQ's on ESA
are you less than 10 days and 100 miles miles ?

What is the eligible purchase period for Tesla Extended Service Agreements, and what do they cover?
You may purchase the Extended Service Agreement no later than 30 days or 1,000 miles (1,600 km), whichever occurs first, past the expiration of your New Vehicle Limited Warranty. The Extended Service Agreement covers the repair or replacement necessary to correct defects in the materials or workmanship of most parts manufactured or supplied by Tesla during the coverage period, excluding the vehicle’s lithium-ion battery and drive unit, which have their own separate warranty

 

[Zero CO2]

edit 30 days 1000 miles

 

[boonedocks]

Continue to plead your case to higher and higher ups. I agree that a car still that new and low miles should not have this kind of failure unless abuse is shown. Our BMWAH7 has 138k+ miles on it and has never had any kind of drive train issues. If it is indeed an "early production issue" there should be some kind of service bulletin or repair $ help applied to a customer having done all regular maintenance. (have had that happen $$ before on my BMW hybrid system and I was handled very well)

 

[LoL Rick]

This sounds very similar to my situation a few months ago. It was diagnosed as rust on the axle shaft splines and inside the hubs. The service center offered me the option of $3500 to replace all the parts or $550 to remove, clean, and replace with no guarantee that it would not happen again. I chose the cleaning and was still not happy about paying for rust remediation on a 3 year old car in Florida. I'm not alone in this, as a friend with a 2014 S60 in this area had the exact same problem. He was lucky enough to still be under warranty.

If there was any possibility of purchasing parts outside of Tesla, then you can bet your bottom dollar that I would have taken it to my trusted local shop and they would have done it for far less money. But as it stands Tesla has a monopoly on parts as well as repair procedures.

 

[MP3Mike]

or $550 to remove, clean, and replace

Sounds like you got a bargin , since the labor charge was almost $1,200 for replacing them, which would actually be less work than cleaning them...

 

[LoL Rick]

Sounds like you got a bargin , since the labor charge was almost $1,200 for replacing them, which would actually be less work than cleaning them...

The axles don't necessarily have to come all the way out just to clean rust off the splines on the hub end. It was definitely not a bargain.

 

[gavine]

I can't believe Tesla manufactures their own axles. There has to be a way to identify who makes them and buy them from the OEM for probably much less.

 

[David.85D]

Having replaced half shafts on a number of BMW, this is just robbery.

1). Unlikely both left and right half shafts and hubs failed. They are just throwing parts at your expense.

2). Billing redundant labor for hub removal and swapping the half shaft! How do they plan to replace the hub without disconnecting the half shaft?

3) half shafts can easily be rebuilt, or outer ends replaced for a fraction of the cost of the whole assembly.

4). Many of those $500-$600 BMW half shafts are made by GKN and can be bought with the GKN part number for $275-$350. The $40 discount/ eBay versions are junk. Should be obvious...

If you get the half shafts returned, please PM me. I want to try and track down the OEM parts maker. We need to start gathering this sort of parts information.

 

[David.85D]

Took some pictures last year of the bare chassis on display at the mall. It was a D model. Don't know the model year. Zooming in, you can see "NTN" on both the boot and stamped into the metal.

Constant Velocity Joints | NTN Bearing

Wonder what the plan is when the boots need to be replaced? Are we going to be told to buy new axles?

 

[hmmm]

Took some pictures last year of the bare chassis on display at the mall. It was a D model. Don't know the model year. Zooming in, you can see "NTN" on both the boot and stamped into the metal.

Constant Velocity Joints | NTN Bearing

Wonder what the plan is when the boots need to be replaced? Are we going to be told to buy new axles?

Nice detective work here, thank you.

 

[Raven]

I had this exact same noise/issue as OP. '13 S85 VIN 44XX. First occurred around the same mileage as well. Initially they lubed the shaft and all was well for 3 months. Noise came back and service pulled the entire shaft, cleaned and lubed, and all was well again...for a few months. 3rd time they replaced the half shaft and I've been noise-free since. Service order said it was excessive corrosion of the half shaft. This was covered under warranty but the out of warranty cost was about the same as reported. Wouldn't this be covered under the 8-year drivetrain warranty though?

 

[bhuwan]

Had exactly the same issue at 42k miles, on a '13 MS85. Luckily i was within warranty, but crazy how much they are charging to repair it!

 

[MP3Mike]

Wouldn't this be covered under the 8-year drivetrain warranty though?

I thought that the original S40s and S60s weren't covered by the 8-year/unlimited mile warranty. (Am I remembering that wrong?)

 

[Zextraterrestrial]

I thought that the original S40s and S60s weren't covered by the 8-year/unlimited mile warranty. (Am I remembering that wrong?)

pretty sure it was 8 yr / 100,000 mi for at least the 60 not sure about the 40

 

[Raven]

It was 100,000 mi for the 60. 85 is unlimited miles.

 

[Rifleman]

It was 100,000 mi for the 60. 85 is unlimited miles.

It was actually 100k for the 40, 125k for the 60, and unlimited for the 85.

As an owner of 2 classic 60's, this is the one area where telsa kind of screwed us over (all newer cars, even at lower price points have the unlimited mile coverage, but we all know the issues the early cars have had with the drive units). I am really worried about my cars once we get out of the 125k coverage.

 

[MP3Mike]

It was actually 100k for the 40, 125k for the 60, and unlimited for the 85.

Is the length still 8-years for the 40 and 60, or was it limited to 4-years?