First Service?

[FB49]

We bought a new Model 3 LR AWD in August of 2019. No troubles or problems whatsoever except one minor body panel discrepancy at delivery. When should I take it in for it's first servicing? X number of miles on it or X number of months after purchase?

 

[VT_EE]

When you need an alignment or tire balance. Otherwise at the 2 year mark for a brake fluid swap.

 

[Chisale]

Maintenance Schedule begins on page 136 of the owner's manual. It's pretty clear and well written. Yes, first item you'll likely need done is tire rotation. Between 10-12k miles.

 

[gaswalla]

Cost of yearly service?

 

[ewoodrick]

Cost of yearly service?

Since there really is no yearly service...… $0

 

[TW14 9LF]

If you have a Discount Tire or America's Tire local to you, they will rotate your tires for you for nothing. At least they do here in the SoCal area. Believe Tesla charges $65 or so to do that. Or, consider doing it yourself, and use the time to detail your rims while they are off of the car.

 

[gaswalla]

Since there really is no yearly service...… $0

There’s another thread about a guy who insisted on bringing his car in for service at 2 years and paid 300 dollars essentially for a walk around the car and tire rotation

 

[MrBadger]

West Drayton/Heathrow thumbs up

Very attentive to snagging list. Couldn’t have asked for more other than two tech glitches that confused things at end. Don’t always believe the auto generated texts !

 

[TimothyHW3]

I am not quite sure why you guys need to tire rotate so often and why that is a thing in the US. Here in Europe there is no such thing and the only thing we do is change from winter to summer tires. But we run the tires on the same wheel all the time. Just had a tire replacement this month after 15,000 miles and there was a difference of 0.5mm between front and back - hardly noticable in real life or in the tire life span.

Only thing we do is if there is a RWD we put the ones that are more worn out on the back for example, but only if the difference is higher than 2mm, to give more traction on the spinning wheels and vice versa. But on FWD most often than not they are pretty evenly worn out front and back.

Had tires that ran 60,000km and they were perfectly worn out and even. It might bring a little benefit to rotate every 30000km, but hardly noticable in real life if the car is properly lane aligned.

Even the break fluid every two years (maybe 3 or so) is not really a thing on an EV because you are regen 95% of the time. Unless you do track racing you will never get the fluid to boil at 200C or something. Not even on the highway.

Only thing I would do is change the air filters from time to time, but this you can do so yourself in 15 minutes.
So basically no service for the first 3-4 years.

 

[ValXp]

In the manual they talk about cleaning and lubricating the break pads yearly for cars that are driving on salted roads during winter, I don't know how much they charge for it, but I wonder if I could do it myself or maybe have a regular auto shop do it instead.

 

[ValXp]

Here in Europe there is no such thing and the only thing we do is change from winter to summer tires.

I grew up in Europe and I've always been doing rotation when swapping winter/all season wheels when I lived there. (And I still do it now that I live in the US).
It's very possible that it is useless, I never bothered comparing wear.
However in France we have so many freaking roundabouts everywhere that it wouldn't surprise me if most cars there have uneven wear for that reason.

 

[PowerBankT]

Skipping tire rotations is fine, until it's not fine. Shops tell you to do it in intervals, because people are terrible at observing problems with vehicles.

If your tread is wearing evenly across the board, and your alignment is straight. Guess what? No rotation needed. Uneven wearing? Grab a rotation. Time-frames don't really matter here.

Lubing the break pads helps with surface rust and noise in areas that are prone to cold climates and high humidity. But they only lube the outer rim of the pads (where it's prone to rusting), and it's not a major procedure.

 

[EnigmaEV]

In the manual they talk about cleaning and lubricating the break pads yearly for cars that are driving on salted roads during winter, I don't know how much they charge for it, but I wonder if I could do it myself or maybe have a regular auto shop do it instead.

Check out Rich Rebuilds Model 3 servicing video if you're interested in doing the work yourself.