Extremely bad roadside leaves Me stranded

[Dhruval Shah]

Flat tire
Called Tesla one hour before a response
Model y. No spare. Only has 5222 miles
I am on the road about 250 miles from home.
No loaner tires available in the fourth largest city in america. No tire centers open. Tesla centers not available till Monday morning. Teslas only option is we tow you home and you pay. Or we wait till Monday. Leaves you on the road without help. How can one travel with this car. $80k car no spare but thier service model horrible. Claims we will come to fix or give you a loner but not true. No loaners available. Now I have to pay for a hotel for two days. Take a day off from work on Monday to see if they can repair or replace it.

 

[voxel]

I think you will experience this problem with all EVs. EV tires are a bit exotic due to the high load index and size. And there are global shortages.

Back in the fall my Mach-E tire had a sidewall leak and the earliest any tire shop could get a tire was 4-5 days expressed shipped from another state. My Ford dealer said it would take 3-4 weeks to order a new tire so they were useless. I was lucky my tire was drivable (lost 2–3 psi a day) but I kept the Mach-E in the driveway and used my other car until the replacement tire arrived.

 

[aerodyne]

Had a blowout today due to an extremely sharp, poorly placed curb the likes of which I have never seen.
(South Pasadena, CA)

Took three hours to bring a replacement wheel...for the wrong car! Sent them pics, and full description of the tire/wheel. It does not pay to own two Tesla MS, I guess.

Now waiting for another hour for hopefully the correct wheel tire combo.

Even the tow truck driver said Tesla is the worst for him to deal with...

 

[Cavedriver]

how bad was the damage- could you find it and was it somewhere in the tread where you could put a plug in it? I think it's entertaining that Tesla expects the general public to use tire plugs to fix tire damage. I know how to use a plug, as do countless people experienced with offroading, but on the occasions I've introduced someone else to using a tire plug they were absolutely flabbergasted that tire plugs exist and that they could so easily be used. But you will be getting dirty and it takes some technique to know how to find a leak, remove whatever causes it, and plug it, especially if you don't have a jack to take the tire off the car. I suspect most people in America would be shocked once they realize how much technique Tesla expects it's owners to exercise.

 

[aerodyne]

I could put a few fingers in the sidewall.

 

[VT_EE]

Buy one of these and keep it in the trunk:

Homepage

Your premier source for durable, lightweight spare tire kits engineered for your vehicle. Alloy wheels, rugged long-range tire- Search Year/Make/Model

modernspare.com

 

[Cavedriver]

But I'll add, the Tesla's OEM tires might be rare, but there is very little that is special about the Tesla's tires and numerous garages should have had other similar tires that you could have purchased to get you to your destination. What I'm not sure of yet is whether either of Tesla's two differentials care if the two tires they are driving are mismatched very much in diameter (like if one is nearly new and the other is worn down). Some other cars use limited slip differentials that contain viscuous liquid that will overheat if the tires are too different. Traction control that relies on wheel speed sensors could also be tripped up and go into some sort of limp mode that would hopefully not be dangerous. I'm not sure yet if either of these concerns apply at all to Teslas although it sounds like they don't.

 

[Cavedriver]

Buy one of these and keep it in the trunk:

Homepage

Your premier source for durable, lightweight spare tire kits engineered for your vehicle. Alloy wheels, rugged long-range tire- Search Year/Make/Model

modernspare.com

I recently helped a guy that had one of these inflatable spares on his Porsche, was the funniest looking thing in it's "flat" condition. I'd never seen one before so it took me a little digging to confirm that, yes, you have to inflate it before using it. I had initially doubted it because the guy's car was missing a pump, but then I confirmed with him that he had bought the car used so the pump had probably "gone missing". Anyway, in the Tesla's under-trunk one of these might fit:

Expandable / Inflatable Spare Tire - Porsche, Audi, Volkswagen, Mercedes, Ferrari, Holden - Auto Buyer's Guide

Have you ever wondered what the collapsible / expandable / inflatable spare tire (made by Vredestein) that you see in vehicles like the Audi Q5 or Volkswagen Touareg look like when inflated? Then check out this video. While obviously not as useful as a traditional spare it's better than not…

alexonautos.com

 

[Cavedriver]

I could put a few fingers in the sidewall.

yeah, that's when you can't use a plug, but I was directing my question more at the OP that didn't say anything about their damage. That curb in your photo is evil though. I'd come back at night and make it disappear.