Drive Unit Failure- No warranty- Going to Catalog my experience with repair or replacement

[sledom]

Hi guys, My 2013 P85 hit 60000 miles yesterday and today after a 20 minute drive I put it in reverse to park it and the Motor quit working, started jumping and jerking and would only move at idle. If I stepped on the gas it would clunk and jerk and not really move at all. I'm fairly certain it is the motor as it was making the notorious "milling" sound for the last 12k miles. My theory is that the bearings in the motor pitted out and one or both of them finally failed. The car has no warranty and TESLA won't touch it so I'm on my own. I want to catalog the experience so that when others go to work on their cars they have a place to go, kind of a How-To for motor repair. The only thing I've found so far is RichRebuilds video showing the same thing but I want to do a more detailed look at it.

-Does anyone know where I can get some tech data to pull the motor out, and what bearings I need to buy to replace what is there?
-If the Splines are stripped how do I go about getting them repaired or build a new shaft?

These are just ideas right now until I get the motor out and take a look.
I have access to a lift I just have to tow it there.

I emailed Ingineer and Richrebuilds waiting to hear back to get their perspective on it.

Your Help is needed, I'm blue collar and owe 30k on the car still This is my everyday driver/kidhaller/grocerygetter

Thanks guys/gals

 

[joetz]

Why won't tesla touch it? I had my drivetrain replaced at 75,000 miles and my understanding was that the drivetrain was covered by a separate warranty

 

[MP3Mike]

I would have to assume that it is a rebuilt salvage car. But still owing $30k on it seems excessive for that.

 

[Petra]

You should be covered by the 8 year/unlimited mile battery & drive unit warranty, unless you've got a salvage car or an out of region car. Anyway, if the splines are stripped, then you'll probably have to pull a rotor from another Model S or just swap out the whole drive unit, preferably with a later revision.

 

[bkp_duke]

@joetz @Petra - please read the thread. It's a rebuilt / salvage car. Tesla won't touch it.

 

[MP3Mike]

@joetz @Petra - please read the thread. It's a rebuilt / salvage car. Tesla won't touch it.

No where in this thread does he state that. Maybe you are reading a different thread?

 

[bkp_duke]

No where in this thread does he state that. Maybe you are reading a different thread?

"The car has no warranty and TESLA won't touch it so I'm on my own."

Sorry, it was in a PM that he elaborated on the reasons why, but this is typical Tesla BS.

I love Tesla, but the repair side of this company is run like @#$%. They could be making SO MUCH on spare parts for people that want to undertake these repairs.

 

[jaguar36]

It seems unlikely to me that its the bearings. Back before they fixed it there were tons of folks who had very severe noise issues and nobody ever had a motor fail like that. If the bearings did completely fail you probably wouldn't be able to move at idle either.

Are you getting any error messages or just the "Tesla needs service" BS?

I'd give the service center a call and see what they say. Probably a dead end, but who knows. If you have access to it, I'd hit up the "Escalate this concern for Executive review" on the support tab of MyTesla. Could also hit up your congressmen / local news and bitch to them about Tesla not selling parts or service manuals.

End of the day you're going to need help from someone who can root your car and provide real diagnostic info. @Ingineer and @wk057 are your best bets there.

Either way, let us know how it goes!

 

[Petra]

@joetz @Petra - please read the thread. It's a rebuilt / salvage car. Tesla won't touch it.

1) That wasn't explicitly stated, as 'out of warranty' could mean a lot of things including a misunderstanding of Tesla's standard warranty.
2) Salvage & out of warranty region exceptions to the drive unit warranty statement were made in my post.
3) None of that changes my statement about stripped splines meaning either rotor or complete drive unit replacement.

 

[bkp_duke]

It seems unlikely to me that its the bearings. Back before they fixed it there were tons of folks who had very severe noise issues and nobody ever had a motor fail like that. If the bearings did completely fail you probably wouldn't be able to move at idle either.

Are you getting any error messages or just the "Tesla needs service" BS?

I'd give the service center a call and see what they say. Probably a dead end, but who knows. If you have access to it, I'd hit up the "Escalate this concern for Executive review" on the support tab of MyTesla. Could also hit up your congressmen / local news and bitch to them about Tesla not selling parts or service manuals.

End of the day you're going to need help from someone who can root your car and provide real diagnostic info. @Ingineer and @wk057 are your best bets there.

Either way, let us know how it goes!

Well, you can count me as another failure, just like this one, in the same week, and near the same miles (mine was 62,500). The guy that is replacing my motor says he's seen a ton of these out of the early cars (2012/13), and often around 60k miles.

 

[MP3Mike]

Well, you can count me as another failure, just like this one, in the same week, and near the same miles (mine was 62,500). The guy that is replacing my motor says he's seen a ton of these out of the early cars (2012/13), and often around 60k miles.

Is he just swapping a different drive unit in, or he is actually repairing the failed drive unit? If he is repairing, does he indicate what the actual failure is?

 

[bkp_duke]

He's swapping a newer revision DU in. According to diagnostics, the stator is what failed. It's not worth trying to fix that, not if you are considering long-term reliability and don't want to drop the unit in a year or two and go through the process again. I'm sure Tesla has the ability to do these kinds of rebuilds, but repairing it yourself you would need to find a stator and possibly some of the associated electronics in the assembly.

 

[Cal1]

Ok so how about a straight answer regarding the salvage thing. Were either or both of these cars salvage? I'm assuming that's why Tesla won't touch it. Otherwise why have a third party try to do the repairs on something easily covered by warranty?

 

[bkp_duke]

BOTH are salvage. Tesla warranty voided. 3rd party doing my install.

 

[joetz]

You can buy the drive units all day long on ebay for not too much coin. I wonder if a deal could be cut where you supply the drive unit and Tesla pays the labor?

 

[CUBldr97]

what is the cost for a new drive unit from tesla? have you asked? I just had my 4th DU replaced. 2013 MS85, at 77k miles. I asked how much this would be out of warranty, and they said around $3000.... So try to just buy a new unit from tesla, or find a crashed tesla and buy from a wrecked parts car... taking that sucker apart is probably a horrible idea, unless you are good at rebuilding transmissions etc...mho..

 

[jaguar36]

According to diagnostics, the stator is what failed.

Well if it's the stator that failed, it wasn't the bearings. Who's doing your work.

what is the cost for a new drive unit from tesla?

Tesla won't sell anyone a new DU.

 

[bkp_duke]

Well if it's the stator that failed, it wasn't the bearings. Who's doing your work.

I know it is the stator in my unit, not sure about the OPs (I don't have access to his diagnostic info).

The guy selling the motor is installing it. If he wants me to publish his info, I'll add it here, but not going to volunteer it without his approval.

 

[sorka]

FYI:

Drive Unit Failure- No warranty- Going to Catalog my experience with repair or replacement

 

[MP3Mike]

BOTH are salvage. Tesla warranty voided. 3rd party doing my install.

Are you willing to share about how much it is costing you for a new drive unit to be installed? (And is it a P or non-P drive unit?)