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

[sledom]

Sorry about being vague, Yes it is a “Rebuilt” title I got it from a guy who did the work in Oregon last year. Near perfect condition and had 48k miles on it with no motor noise. Shortly after it started making the milling sound at high speeds 50+ mph, I was ignorant and thought it wouldn’t disable the drive unit it would just be annoying. I was wrong.

My thoughts are that the bearings caused vibration and movement on the shaft which caused the shaft to not move in a perfect circle this caused the splines (I think it’s called runout?) to not line up and possibly break pieces of Metal off, I’m not sure but I’m hoping that it’s the bearings that gave out before the splines and gears,


All the drive units I’ve seen are on eBay and cost at a minimum of 4k$ that’s used and will have problems again. For a revision of a motor that came after 2015 (supposedly when the fixes were implemented and the motors were reliable) looking at 9k$


I want to be able to swap my own bearings and fix he issue. I don’t mind doing the work if it means protecting my investment without going car broke.

 

[sledom]

FYI:

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

Yeah, I tried to delete one of them but I’m not familiar enough with this website and both are having good conversations

 

[sledom]

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..

I plan on calling them when I get a minute from work I’ve had them come out and replace my airbag on a safety recall and they are adomit that they will not touch the rest of the car. I have an appt setup for a steering issue safety recall, I will talk to the tech then and beg for mercy!!!

 

[sledom]

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.

Maybe you could PM me his details? Not sure if he’d mind more business if the price is right.

 

[sledom]

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!

My car is rooted by Ingineer I’m just waiting to hear back from him regarding the information that my car knows. I’m not sure that he will even tell me what’s going on as the guy who sold the car to me had it rooted, hopefully Ingineer will honor that and I won’t be out another 950$ to re-root.

 

[sledom]

"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.

Can’t agree more!!! It really is a bad plan they have and it screws the customers at the bottom, really makes them seem smug and like a company I don’t want to do business with, most of the people I tell about them not honoring their warranty because the car had body damage (not affecting the drive unit in any way!!!) feel the same way I do and it really gives a strong sense of disgust towards their pompous attitude as a car company

 

[bkp_duke]

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?)

Drive unit is 5k, install is $500. P unit with 32k miles on it.

This is the first install for this guy (but he's taken a lot of them out), so that may be the "guinea pig" rate and could be subject to change.

 

[glhs272]

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

I am sympathetic to your plight. My 2013 went through several drive units while under warranty. My car is no longer under warranty and I am hoping this problem doesn't return. I wish Tesla wasn't so difficult to deal with on salvage/rebuilt cars. Even if Tesla were happy to work on it, they would likely require a complete drive unit replacement. Not just repair your current drive unit. Kind of like they won't replace light bulbs, just complete head light assemblies.. sigh.

In case you weren't already aware, the service manual for this car is already downloadable for free somewhere on this forum. If you can't obtain it, I might be able to make it available to you if you PM me.

I think it might be helpful that your car is already rooted. However, I don't know much about replacing the firmware without Tesla Toolbox.

It is unfortunate that you ran the drive unit to complete failure. Otherwise, you could likely just replace the rotor bearings and grounding ring (important) and call it a day. You might have to replace the rotor if the splines are damaged.

Best of luck to you. I will be following your progress.

 

[sledom]

I am sympathetic to your plight. My 2013 went through several drive units while under warranty. My car is no longer under warranty and I am hoping this problem doesn't return. I wish Tesla wasn't so difficult to deal with on salvage/rebuilt cars. Even if Tesla were happy to work on it, they would likely require a complete drive unit replacement. Not just repair your current drive unit. Kind of like they won't replace light bulbs, just complete head light assemblies.. sigh.

In case you weren't already aware, the service manual for this car is already downloadable for free somewhere on this forum. If you can't obtain it, I might be able to make it available to you if you PM me.

I think it might be helpful that your car is already rooted. However, I don't know much about replacing the firmware without Tesla Toolbox.

It is unfortunate that you ran the drive unit to complete failure. Otherwise, you could likely just replace the rotor bearings and grounding ring (important) and call it a day. You might have to replace the rotor if the splines are damaged.

Best of luck to you. I will be following your progress.

Thanks for your response it is unfortunate that it went to total failure, but it was only a matter of time really, I wasn’t aware that it would totally fail once it started the milling sound, I would have just kept driving it like that to avoid the high cost of replacement it felt like something i could put up with.

I had no Idea the service manual was out that would be really helpful. I will PM you, thanks!

 

[⚡️ELECTROMAN⚡️]

No *sugar*. Tesla needs to help us work on our own cars.

Tesla Model S Service Manual - Google Drive

 

[sledom]

No *sugar*. Tesla needs to help us work on our own cars.

Tesla Model S Service Manual - Google Drive

Thank you!

 

[bkp_duke]

@sledom - contact @AutobahnEV about your drive unit replacement.

He completed mine today, and I could not be happier. Super quiet motor (the old one was loud - not milling, just LOUD) and great work.

You will need to reflash firmware after the install. We confirmed that today. The car would not run until the firmware on the new drive unit was sync'd up to the gateway.

 

[Darmie]

Glad to hear. Tesla needs to figure this out quick. What a way make a disposable car market. how is this sustainable if the car is disposable? Is there not a federal law where a automobile manufacture needs to continue making parts available for something like 10years?

 

[cwerdna]

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

There is no "drivetrain" warranty. There is a drive unit warranty. And, as revealed later in the thread, that's void due to the salvage/rebuilt title (which isn't at all unusual in the auto industry).

 

[jaguar36]

There is no "drivetrain" warranty. There is a drive unit warranty. And, as revealed later in the thread, that's void due to the salvage/rebuilt title (which isn't at all unusual in the auto industry).

If you're going to hop in to argue semantics at least get it right. The 8 year warranty is on the battery and powertrain.

 

[MP3Mike]

The 8 year warranty is on the battery and powertrain.

Nope, it is on the battery and drive unit. Not on the powertrain or drivetrain...

 

[bkp_duke]

If you're going to hop in to argue semantics at least get it right. The 8 year warranty is on the battery and powertrain.

Most here would argue that battery + powertrain = drivetrain.

 

[sledom]

@sledom - contact @AutobahnEV about your drive unit replacement.

He completed mine today, and I could not be happier. Super quiet motor (the old one was loud - not milling, just LOUD) and great work.

You will need to reflash firmware after the install. We confirmed that today. The car would not run until the firmware on the new drive unit was sync'd up to the gateway.

That is awesome!!! I’m glad to hear it all worked out for you! How long did the install take?

I’m still getting my motor sourced, I found an eBay seller that has a p85 motor from a 2016 he said he will ship it for 6000$ to my door. What do you think, good deal?

My plan is coming together I’m going to swap with a new engine and try to repair my old one and sell it to offset the cost, that’s the best I got so I can be mobile ASAP.

 

[MP3Mike]

Most here would argue that battery + powertrain = drivetrain.

No, most people think that the drivetrain includes much more like the cooling system, charger(s), and half shafts, which are not covered. (But are essential to an operating drivetrain.)

 

[bkp_duke]

I was taking a minimalist definition and NOT including anything EXCEPT motor + battery in the term drivetrain. For a Tesla, I always have. My contact at Tesla agreed with me upon that definition as well.