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Driving on Sanded/Dirt Road Voids HV Battery Warranty
- Thread starter David Webb
- Start date
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- Tags
- battery warranty Model 3 rust
zoomer0056
Active Member
It has to be high salt concentrations causing galvanic corrosion, no? Dirt isn't the issue, but corrosion.
Yep, good idea. When my car was 7months old, I had an alignment done, and it was still early enough, summer 2019, that it was the first 3 my local tire shop had seen. So, I helped them, and got to take pics as well.
That's the rear motor. I must have deleted the front motor pics, by mistake, since they're not in my photo library.
ucmndd
Well-Known Member
It’s almost like there’s more to the story or something that our new friend isn’t sharing.
Wow, thanks... you think I'm soliciting feedback from anonymous people on a forum and withholding info? Maybe that would be conceivable to someone who has posted on a car forum over 11,000 times... but I'm just trying to ask around about this situation I've found myself in. Other users clearly have been more fastidious with cleaning the undercarriage of their cars, but that is not something you have to do to a normal car to prevent an absurdly early demise. This is the only car I have *ever* heard of that is completely dead after <5 years. Seems pretty bad to me.It’s almost like there’s more to the story or something that our new friend isn’t sharing.
Rust under northern vehicles due to road applied salt is a thing in northern U.S.A.
modern road salt is terrible for everything, animals, environment, the actual road, metals
most of us hand wash our Ts, tops only, therefore frequent under body spraying is necessary
how don’t our brothers in Norway and Sweden experience rhe same?
I just read Norway, Sweden, amd Finland don’t use salt for its too cold for it to be effective and they use gravel instead
for us in U.S.A. get this for rhe power washer:
modern road salt is terrible for everything, animals, environment, the actual road, metals
most of us hand wash our Ts, tops only, therefore frequent under body spraying is necessary
how don’t our brothers in Norway and Sweden experience rhe same?
I just read Norway, Sweden, amd Finland don’t use salt for its too cold for it to be effective and they use gravel instead
for us in U.S.A. get this for rhe power washer:
I'm trying to understand what else could be different between our two cars, since I think they're quite similar:
2018s, check.
In neighboring states with lots of salt and sand in winter, check.
Live on dirt road, check. How long is your dirt road? Mine's 1/4mile.
Ski a lot in winter, check.
Do you garage your car? Mine lives outside, so snow and ice just builds up in the wheel wells pretty much all winter long.
Did you ever get a tear in the undertray?
Actually, I only cleaned the front undertray twice: when I tightened the inverter lug nut to eliminate motor whine, and then to change the fabric tray to a metal one. Either time, there was very little dirt. Once in the back, after seeing a video on how much dirt collects there. Now, when I rotate my tires, I always peer into the back, to see how much is there, and usually it's not enough to get me to clean it, because it'll just start collecting again.
Your level of corrosion is literally off-the-charts. I @ed the pics to Tesla on X. Hope you get it taken care of under warranty, as it has to be some sort of outlier.
Chewy13
https://ts.la/nick670348
Very curious to find this out!
I've taken the wheels off of my '23 MYLR and have come across that road sand/grime build up near the brake lines. I'll be sure to make it a maintenance item for myself when I rotate tires.. The car hasn't even seen a winter yet...
Car is not garaged. Washing it in the winter seems essential, but is hard to do when it's below freezing almost the whole winter. Again, seems like a serious flaw that the Tesla collects so much dirt. I have a 15 yo Prius that I drive in all sorts of conditions and never wash that is basically rust free.
@KenC , Thanks for tweeting. I'm not optimistic about any warranty coverage at this point, but you never know.
ucmndd
Well-Known Member
Here’s what I’m saying. You’re brand new here. This place gets tons of people registering to post all manner of outlandish complaints without context or substantiation. You’ve yet to post any communication, invoices, estimates, or additional info to support your claim regarding the service center. I’m not calling you a liar, I’m asking for more info. Based on the pictures you provided I can sorta see why the service center is pushing back.
Other members with identical cars in seemingly identical conditions have shown your photographs to be absolutely extreme and don’t seem to be representative of the typical experience of other owners. Asking why that is and what’s different about your story would seem to be a critical piece of info.
Oh boy. Now you’ve gone and hurt my feelings. Not sure where we go from here.
The consensus *seems* to be that this is specific to your car, and for my own sake I'm hoping this is true.
Might you have frequently visited a car wash and paid for an underspray?
Chewy13
https://ts.la/nick670348
Makes me also wonder.. how much of the dirt road driving (or ski parking lot, though typically those are pretty hard packed when it's covered in snow) is straight, or turns.. I could see sharper turns slinging more dirt towards the center of the car - versus straight line driving just caking up the wheel wells.
Or any driving in reverse that could be scraping the underside, if not being mindful of ruts. Hard to say, and definitely not pointing fingers - but I definitely drive on dirt roads at times so I'm trying to figure out all the scenarios to avoid this for myself! Granted, I'm in a MY, so not apples to apples.
I don't have the post count of @ucmndd , but I concur that there have been a lot of new members signing up to post something outlandish that seems meant to scare potential owners away... and the poster disappears, never to be heard from again.
As Tesla has a lot of enemies in the auto industry, it seems to get an inordinate amount of this "FUD" propaganda as we call it (Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt). It's actually fairly reasonable that someone could post something like this just to scare away potential new owners.
Fortunately, @David Webb, Tesla manages every single service request through the app, including a history of messages. So I strongly recommend you prove @ucmndd wrong by posting screenshots of yours.
On the flipside though, not posting these screenshots is going to really make his suspicions seem legitimate.
As Tesla has a lot of enemies in the auto industry, it seems to get an inordinate amount of this "FUD" propaganda as we call it (Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt). It's actually fairly reasonable that someone could post something like this just to scare away potential new owners.
Fortunately, @David Webb, Tesla manages every single service request through the app, including a history of messages. So I strongly recommend you prove @ucmndd wrong by posting screenshots of yours.
On the flipside though, not posting these screenshots is going to really make his suspicions seem legitimate.
Yes, I don't think every Tesla is experiencing this issue, at least I hope not. Just saying that I have had several cars, and know of many more who drive the exact same roads as this Tesla that do not fill up with sludge and rust out in 3 or 4 winters. Also not just me- several other threads on this site about extreme corrosion issues and youtube videos of rural Tesla owners cleaning many pounds of dirt out of their undercarriage.
@ucmndd I'm trying to respect the folks at the SC while I try to resolve this issue and don't feel like I should be posting my discussions with them at this point. I'm not sure why it's even relevant, are you adjudicating my warranty claim? I was just curious about other rural drivers' experience, and it's been helpful to compare notes.
I guess I've touched a nerve in criticizing Tesla. I really liked the car and may get another one. No need to be paranoid.
Chewy13
https://ts.la/nick670348
Out of curiosity, what service center are you going to? Peabody MA? I had two appointments within a month of picking up my car and they were both uphill battles of trying to get things fixed. I gave up and went to Dedham and have had a much better experience.
Would have preferred to use Peabody as it's closer, but I had to take the earliest appointment, which was at Norwell.
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