So, last year my car was in service for some HV cable. As I drove it away I almost immediately noticed a scraping sound. Quickly realised they’d removed my factory mud flaps and fitted new ones complete with the extension pieces! They are so close to the ground they scrape on mere cornering or braking.
Messaged them to say errr thanks but I kinda was ok with the short ones. They said it was a misinterpretation of a service bulletin - they were supposed to just fit flaps on earlier cars which didn’t have them from factory, not replace existing short ones with extended ones. They said they could take off if I wanted or I could myself. I checked the manual and sure it’s easy to take off the extensions so I said I’d just take them off myself if it was annoying.
In the end I left them on. They took a bit of a bend that made them scrape a bit less, although still pretty much all the time. But it wasn’t really annoying and I thought I’d benefit from the extra protection for the sills against stones/salt.
Come to recently when I was doing a thorough clean. I noticed the paint directly under the flaps has been rubbing. It can only be because each time the flaps contact the ground the whole assembly is nudged up and backwards a bit and has slowly rubbed through the paint. It’s right through in a couple of places.
Ughhhh. Small but must be sorted or it will start rusting through. I wonder if I’ll have any luck with warranty? I mean it’s standard factory parts fitted by Tesla so kinda their fault? Complicated a bit by the fact I chose to leave them on, but then I don’t expect factory fitted parts to damage the car! If there was any indication or warning this could happen of course I would have removed them immediately. I’ll try my luck anyway!
Anyone guess what it should cost if not covered? Need full sill respray and factory ppf reapplied? Or could it be simple as a touch up pen or similar?
I of course took the extensions off now. Message to everyone - do not fit the flap extensions to a Model 3 - they are stupid!
Messaged them to say errr thanks but I kinda was ok with the short ones. They said it was a misinterpretation of a service bulletin - they were supposed to just fit flaps on earlier cars which didn’t have them from factory, not replace existing short ones with extended ones. They said they could take off if I wanted or I could myself. I checked the manual and sure it’s easy to take off the extensions so I said I’d just take them off myself if it was annoying.
In the end I left them on. They took a bit of a bend that made them scrape a bit less, although still pretty much all the time. But it wasn’t really annoying and I thought I’d benefit from the extra protection for the sills against stones/salt.
Come to recently when I was doing a thorough clean. I noticed the paint directly under the flaps has been rubbing. It can only be because each time the flaps contact the ground the whole assembly is nudged up and backwards a bit and has slowly rubbed through the paint. It’s right through in a couple of places.
Ughhhh. Small but must be sorted or it will start rusting through. I wonder if I’ll have any luck with warranty? I mean it’s standard factory parts fitted by Tesla so kinda their fault? Complicated a bit by the fact I chose to leave them on, but then I don’t expect factory fitted parts to damage the car! If there was any indication or warning this could happen of course I would have removed them immediately. I’ll try my luck anyway!
Anyone guess what it should cost if not covered? Need full sill respray and factory ppf reapplied? Or could it be simple as a touch up pen or similar?
I of course took the extensions off now. Message to everyone - do not fit the flap extensions to a Model 3 - they are stupid!
