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Did drive unit fluid change today

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On every car I’ve ever owned, both manual and automatic gearboxes, I’ve done the initial gearbox fluid change much earlier than recommended, and always found metal- quite disturbing amounts in some cases, however after a follow up change maybe a year or so later, the amount of metal quickly drops to virtually zero. I have never then had a gearbox problem in any despite some very high mileage vehicles. It’s actually also why I don’t believe in the “zero run in” thinking with electric cars- when I get my M3, I will drive it somewhat gently for a little while to give components time to bed in. (It’s all about being “kind” to machinery.)
The Tesla may have only one gear, but it’s still a one speed gearbox with metal gears to bed in after manufacturing which will always produce small fine metal particles.
It’s very good Insurance to do your first change nice and early, and after a while the change periods can be extended pretty dramatically, especially after the second or third. You will notice much less metal with the subsequent changes.

...And yes, no doubt that’s why they put a filter on the M3, makes a hell of a lot of sense.
(Many automatic ICE gearboxes have a pretty sophisticated filter built into the drain pan.)
 
In some countries (<cough> <cough> Europe) it can. In the US the federal Magnusson-Moss warranty act states that they can't require you to have service done by them to keep warranty intact. You can have service done anywhere or do it yourself and it has no effect on warranty status.

Note that this only applies to any initial warranty (4 years bumper-to-bumper, 8 years drivetrain). For the extended warranty you have to do service at the SC. So for me who does my own service that would bring total cost of a 4 year extended warranty to over $7K, so I skipped that.
The same applies to the Netherlands (<cough> <cough> Europe!) :D
 
Oh, no doubt it's the break-in. But considering just how much metal was in there I'm not convinced one fluid change (like Tesla recommends) is enough.

The gear teeth have to wear in. Sounds like the metal was very fine, perhaps something like metallic paint? I would perhaps notify Tesla then keep an eye on it, ask about normal findings, take a photo. Is there a magnet on the fill plug? That would allow checks without draining.
 
There should be minimal or close to zero metal shavings in tesla, as there is no friction part. My Toyota camry hybrid also without any friction part had no metal debris after 300k kms. Toyota even say that no oil change required for the hybrid transmissions. Even Nissan leaf did not require any transmission fluid change. Most of the debris in ICE car transmission comes from the powder metal components and the friction material. Tesla don't have there components.
 
There should be minimal or close to zero metal shavings in tesla, as there is no friction part. My Toyota camry hybrid also without any friction part had no metal debris after 300k kms. Toyota even say that no oil change required for the hybrid transmissions. Even Nissan leaf did not require any transmission fluid change. Most of the debris in ICE car transmission comes from the powder metal components and the friction material. Tesla don't have there components.
Toothed gears are friction parts and create particles, therefore you need to either filter(as in m3 and most auto trannies), replace the oil, or replace the whole gearbox with oil (as in my first MS, twice:eek:), at some point. If that point is after car reaches end of life so you would never notice how close to failure you were.
 
There should be minimal or close to zero metal shavings in tesla, as there is no friction part. My Toyota camry hybrid also without any friction part had no metal debris after 300k kms. Toyota even say that no oil change required for the hybrid transmissions. Even Nissan leaf did not require any transmission fluid change. Most of the debris in ICE car transmission comes from the powder metal components and the friction material. Tesla don't have there components.

Newly machined gears have edges that break through the shear film of the oil causing metal on metal contact. This happens until the angles of those edges wear down enough that they can no longer overcome the shear strength of the oil. At this point, metal on metal contact ceases.

This happens to all gear and produces break in material regardless. Some manufacturers will pre-break in a gear box by running it under load and then changing out the oil before shipping. This is why some gearboxes will produce break-in material and some won't.

Also the way the gears are cut can produce more or less material at break-in, but there's always some.

None of this is an indicator of quality.
 
Last I saw was fluid change after 1 year and then never again.

It's now every fourth inspection (50k miles), starting at the first (12,500). Source: Maintenance Plans | Model S and Model X

How much time would you say the fluid change took you? Is about an hour per drive unit right? I'd like for Tesla to do it, but $475 ($550 for AWD) seems very steep, considering this is probably the only major service item.
 
How much time would you say the fluid change took you? Is about an hour per drive unit right? I'd like for Tesla to do it, but $475 ($550 for AWD) seems very steep, considering this is probably the only major service item.

Most of the time was spent removing and re-attaching the under-body tray/shield. The actual fluid change was maybe 20 minutes. All in all, with jacking the car up, the tray, and cleaning up it took about 1.5 hours. Next time I'm sure I can cut that to an hour.
 
$475 to change the fluid in the reduction gears? That's the equivalent to changing the fluids in a differential and that's maybe $120 at a normal place.

It's $475 for the annual service, and I'd think probably about 70-80% of that cost is just changing the drive unit fluid.

Thanks @zwede. That was for AWD? Even if it takes me a couple hours i'm okay with it. I just don't want it to be one of those, "Oh, now I see why they charge so much for this..." learning experiences.
 
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Here is the thread SpudLine as referencing: Drive unit fluid replacement not part of annual service anymore?

I was a little suspicious because their maintenance page says, "The drive unit(s) will be serviced every 4th inspection, starting with the first annual service inspection."

I also called my service advisor and he also said they no longer change the drive unit fluid. He was thinking they now change it at like 150k miles. I thought the 125k above was a typo for 12.5k, but maybe it's accurate. I have full trust in my service advisor, and he seems to know Teslas well, and has worked at our location for quite a few years, so this isn't some random new person I'm talking to.

In summary, we have multiple source including my own checking, and I now agree that the DU fluid does not need to be changed, which is awesome!
 
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I used Valvoline synthetic Dexron VI that I got from oreilly auto. Any auto parts store should have it, I'd think.

valvolinedexviatf.jpg
I've read in several places that front drive units ending in -J or later use Dexron VI, but it is impossible to get to the part number tag on my front DU. Does anyone know when the switch was made to Dexron VI for the front units or how I can find out what DU my P100D has? Do ALL P100D's possibly use Dexron VI in both drives??

Thanks in advance for any help! Trying to change fluid tomorrow as an initial flush to get rid of any break-in
metals.