-
Want to remove ads? Register an account and login to see fewer ads, and become a Supporting Member to remove almost all ads.
Dreaded coolant leak from debris
- Thread starter quikshifter
- Start date
Thank you for the detail! Looks like most of it was the labor dropping and reinstalling the battery. It's a shame you couldn't puncture the hose that's easily accessible at each end.
Seriously, that's really not the worst -- could've been a whole lot worse!
And I'm even more impressed that they only charge $25/gal for the coolant. Even the lowest cost G48 coolant at, say, Autozone runs $20+ a bottle. So I sure don't think Tesla's taking anyone for a ride on parts costs. Labor is labor, unfortunately.
From the YouTube videos you just remove the panel and it’s all accessible without doing a thing to the battery but not sureThank you for the detail! Looks like most of it was the labor dropping and reinstalling the battery. It's a shame you couldn't puncture the hose that's easily accessible at each end.
Seriously, that's really not the worst -- could've been a whole lot worse!
And I'm even more impressed that they only charge $25/gal for the coolant. Even the lowest cost G48 coolant at, say, Autozone runs $20+ a bottle. So I sure don't think Tesla's taking anyone for a ride on parts costs. Labor is labor, unfortunately.
$24 for the hoses, and $620 in labor to install them. (The labor line does seem to say that they had to remove and replace the HV battery. Which requires taking some of the interior apart too.)
I have something connected to the terminal under the seat. Hopefully they put it back.
I don't believe they actually removed the battery. Nothing looked off in my interior. Repair took about 10 days due to waiting on the parts. I did order aftermarket metal skid plates and will install them however the damage was in the fender area exactly where the hose runs, actually touching the plastic fender! What a terrible design. I will see if i can fit some metal in there ( flashing squares) ? to see if i can make it more sturdy.
AlanSubie4Life
Efficiency Obsessed Member
Yep, it would be nice if someone would come up with something aftermarket rather than having to fabricate something yourself. I'd definitely like to protect these areas; it's tough to completely avoid ever running over anything.
Does anyone have a picture of the wires behind the front wheel fender shirts? Or a link to a picture on the internet. I plan to purchase the front and rear aftermarket aluminum aero shields but was not aware there were wires running behind the fender skirts that were also NOT well protected.
AlanSubie4Life
Efficiency Obsessed Member
They are not well protected! The picture of the passenger side is not great but obviously there is a return hose there (visible in the picture).
The aero undershield is installed in these pictures (except for one bolt on each side as I recall). Just the fender liner is removed. The vulnerability is obvious. Break that fitting (rather than just the hose on the passenger side as in this case) and you are out $15k or whatever. Unless you want to do the hack to fix it, whatever that involves.
Driver side front behind wheel:
Passenger Side front behind wheel:
The trick in devising a steel protective plate would be securing it in more than one dimension. You might have to weld up a partial box which has inherent strength and then secure it via the two existing holes sticking out from the crimped area. Might not be strong enough though it would be better than what is there.
Did they adjust your quote at all? $620 seems a bit steep to replace a fender liner and a couple hoses, with a rivet and a plastic push-in clip. Specifically, it does say that is the price for "Hose-Return-HV Battery" remove and replace. Which seems kind of high.
Last edited:
Jeremy3292
Active Member
So basically those $$$ underbody after market aluminum skid plates don't really help that much lol...
android04
Active Member
They will help with most common types of accidents where debris goes under the car. In the rare cases where the debris goes behind the front tires (like roadkill getting flung back there or the tire hops over the object and it hits there), then they won't help. Overall I think the metal underbody plates are worth it because the OEM fiber ones from Tesla are almost the same price. And the area they protect between the front wheels is a way bigger area and completely vulnerable to hits versus the small areas behind the tires. See my picture of the area in front of the battery pack, taken from where my frunk is (my car is RWD, so no front drive unit in the way). You can see black coolant lines and white hose fittings all along the bottom of the pack.
No. They kept it at $620 with the same comment. I did use $450 of uber credits which helped. They did only charge $22 for hoses but on ebay they cost around 175 each.
My first car was a '49 Chevy with a straight 6, Grampa's car. When a timing gear stripped, I had to drop the steering linkage so I could drop the oil pan so I could take out 2 bolts (out of a total of about 8 - been a few years) for the cover over the gears. People who design cars have never been our friends. A friend of mine was a mechanic for the state road maintenance; he said their headquarters would provide a list of places to put tape on hoses etc any time they got a new truck, otherwise they would have early failures. Musk seems to be really smart, maybe he can find a way around problems like that and make a lot of friends among his customers; but, sounds like still room for improvement, so far.
Similar threads
