Driving on Sanded/Dirt Road Voids HV Battery Warranty

[kpanda17]

after taxes Tesla charges around $300 for an alignment (...) your recommendation doing that annually isn't consistent with posting that "Tesla's are way cheaper to own than other cars because no oil changes and service checks!!!"

Then get under the vehicle and make sure all good under there another way

 

[Chewy13]

that's a design flaw and on Tesla. is the owner expected to lift the car, remove bolts, take of panels., shake it out and then re-install regularly?

You could say the same really about any maintenance item on the car.
Do they expect the owner to grease the slide pins on the brakes? No they expect you to pay Tesla to do it.
If Tesla specifically calls out that the under tray should be emptied every 30K miles, then they can call it a service item - and charge for it. They're in the business of making money - unfortunately that's the case across all industries, things are consumables and designed to require visits to make money.

 

[father_of_6]

Do they expect the owner to grease the slide pins on the brakes? No they expect you to pay Tesla to do it.
If Tesla specifically calls out that the under tray should be emptied every 30K miles, then they can call it a service item - and charge for it. They're in the business of making money - unfortunately that's the case across all industries, things are consumables and designed to require visits to make money.

I slightly disagree, at least in the thought that "Tesla wants to make money from service". So far, their actions have not aligned with this.

Legacy auto absolutely treats service as a revenue generator, but Tesla seems to be operating more from a goal of service reduction. They'd rather you go elsewhere to have your brake caliper guide pins cleaned and greased. Same with tires and alignments.

 

[EatsShoots]

Perhaps you've never felt the need to clean the underside of your car in Camarillo. But if you drive on dirt/gravel roads or roads that have salt/sand applied to them in the winter (as most people in New England do), then you definitely need to was the underside of your car on a regular basis

I know many people do but I never have done this on any car, and I do not intend on starting. I'm not convinced at all of the benefit of it, for one thing. I strongly suspect that people are often introducing salt spray to parts of their car that otherwise would be dry, with their mid-February car washes. Most car washes are simply removing spray from visible panels, and rust almost never starts on the front of a visible panel; it's almost invariably in behind parts that a typical car wash has no hopes of ever cleaning. If you are meticulous and clean the bottom how many minutes of driving on a damp salty road until it's got a brine film back on it?

I'm happy to be corrected but I cannot find any actual study supporting this practice. No shortage of car experts' articles online recommending it, but all seem to be absent any real evidence that the practice does anything and/or what the prescription should be. It sure didn't help this guy, nor the guy in post #7 of the same thread, for example: Dirt Roads and Salt Brine: Rusted 2 Y.O. Model Y Rear Brake Lines in New Hampshire

 

[brkaus]

Is your new metal under plate rusted at all? Long shot, but curious if any metal to metal source of the corrosion.

 

[father_of_6]

I strongly suspect that people are often introducing salt spray to parts of their car that otherwise would be dry, with their mid-February car washes.

I believe this as well.

 

[father_of_6]

Also, post #15 on that thread just further increases my suspicions of this thread:

I'd also encourage you to file a complaint with the NHTSB- this same issue cause our brake lines to fail when my wife was driving with our newborn baby. Report a Safety Problem | NHTSA

 

[AZAV8R]

Is your new metal under plate rusted at all? Long shot, but curious if any metal to metal source of the corrosion.

Great question. I hope he responds.

 

[KenC]

Is your new metal under plate rusted at all? Long shot, but curious if any metal to metal source of the corrosion.

Who are you asking? Me? The OP's undertray is plastic, I believe. My one yr old metal plate is fine except for that weird little oil drain flap which is rusty. Could be my torx screws I used, they may not have been original. Anyway here are two images I took of it, from bottom and top:

You can see my metal undertray looks good, except for the oil flap, and it's not exactly sealed, as there's a hole right in the middle where there's a bolt that connects to the black motor mount horseshoe.

And that's what the metal undertray looks like after a year. You can see some pebbles collected around that oil drain flap. Otherwise, there's no corrosion or much debris, other than what's dried on. I'd certainly not remove it to clean it out after a season. There's nothing worth cleaning.

 

[brkaus]

Thanks @KenC

I misread the thread.

 

[father_of_6]

Put me on the long list of people who won't be disassembling my car to clean out the inside.

 

[Chewy13]

Any updates?

 

[KenC]

A week ago, I got that FluidFilm stuff, $10/can, and sprayed my metal brake lines. I also took a pic to try to better understand how debris gets up and under the undertray, etc...

That's the view from below, from where a tire might be meeting the road, and you can see my metal undertray, and there's even a dirt line in the wheel well liner directly in line with where the tire would be. In theory, all those exposed openings could get debris, but just looking at the evidence of my undertray, etc., it doesn't strike me that wet material is splashing sideways into those areas; rather I think it's the turbulent air vortex that lifts very small debris and throws it all around, that's why you find lots of small grit, coating most areas, but nothing particularly substantial, like on the OP's vehicle. I still think something must have happened to his undertray, like a tear in the fabric that allowed debris to come up directly.