Fluid Replacement Intervals have changed

[Knightshade]

You guys realize the car can't regen down to 0 mph right?

I can't recall ever driving my Tesla without having to use the friction brakes multiple times, even if it's just the last few MPH.

It's the fact you rarely need do it from speed that is why the pads/rotors last so long

 

[petecrayton]

RE: Brakes. Often the brakes on my MS seem to stick after parking in my garage and then later shifting to reverse to back out. There is an initial hesitance to move and I can feel the resistance from the parking brakes, then "pop" and off I go. I believe it happens when I park after driving through rain, but not totally sure it is exclusive to that circumstance. Anyone else experience this?

 

[petecrayton]

You guys realize the car can't regen down to 0 mph right?

I can't recall ever driving my Tesla without having to use the friction brakes multiple times, even if it's just the last few MPH.

It's the fact you rarely need do it from speed that is why the pads/rotors last so long

I'm one of those that seldom touches the brakes. Low traffic driving mostly. I think if I didn't have "creep" engaged I might not have to use it for stop lights either?

 

[Magellan55]

RE: Brakes. Often the brakes on my MS seem to stick after parking in my garage and then later shifting to reverse to back out. There is an initial hesitance to move and I can feel the resistance from the parking brakes, then "pop" and off I go. I believe it happens when I park after driving through rain, but not totally sure it is exclusive to that circumstance. Anyone else experience this?

Yup same here the morning after I drove in the rain, or washed the car. A few times it's been stuck pretty hard and the "pop" is loud as the car finally lurches backward out of the garage.

 

[SageBrush]

it's the fact that the aluminum pistons in the brake calipers will seize from non-use.

If what you say is true then could preventive maintenance simply be periodic lubrication of the pistons ?

 

[Moze1021]

You guys realize the car can't regen down to 0 mph right?

I can't recall ever driving my Tesla without having to use the friction brakes multiple times, even if it's just the last few MPH.

It's the fact you rarely need do it from speed that is why the pads/rotors last so long

If you have creep off it just depends on the slope of the road you're on:

If perfectly flat, you come to a complete stop without applying the brakes.
If you are going uphill, not only will the car stop but it will start rolling backwards if you don't hit the brakes or the accelerator.
If going downhill, you need to apply the brakes.

 

[nepenthe]

If you have creep off it just depends on the slope of the road you're on:

If perfectly flat, you come to a complete stop without applying the brakes.
If you are going uphill, not only will the car stop but it will start rolling backwards if you don't hit the brakes or the accelerator.
If going downhill, you need to apply the brakes.

This has been my experience as well.

 

[Magnets!]

My car spent 30 days in a body shop. They moved it around a bit during that time but on the last day they went to back it up and a rear pad was frozen to the rotor and it literally broke the pad and fell out to the ground. 4,400 miles on the odo. Performance model.

 

[Knightshade]

If you have creep off it just depends on the slope of the road you're on:

If perfectly flat, you come to a complete stop without applying the brakes.

Not usually before you hit whatever you're stopping for.

Regen turns off around 4 mph and the car essentially coasts at that point.

 

[pdx_m3s]

What about rear drive unit fluid? Lifetime? We all know how well “lifetime” fluids have worked out in ICE transmissions and differentials... i.e. the lifetime of the powertrain warranty.

 

[Sir Guacamolaf]

What about rear drive unit fluid? Lifetime? We all know how well “lifetime” fluids have worked out in ICE transmissions and differentials... i.e. the lifetime of the powertrain warranty.

Well it's for the lifetime of the DU, so when the DU fails, so does your warranty.

 

[Moze1021]

Not usually before you hit whatever you're stopping for.

Regen turns off around 4 mph and the car essentially coasts at that point.

Sure..not technically regen that's stopping you all the way to 0, but to say you have to use the brakes to come to a complete stop is false. That comes down to driving style and, as I pointed out, the grade of the road.

 

[EnrgyNDpndnce]

This is great news for me as it now matches my plan with Tesla’s new recommendation. I’m driving 50k miles per year so no way I was going to do anything at 25k miles. I’ll take it to Tesla service at 2 years and have them check the brake fluid and probably replace it (I am in the humid, American South). If they desire they can check the battery fluid, but it sounds like now they won’t even bother with that.

Hardest part of maintenance for me so far has been remembering to schedule tire rotations. I used to rotate them with each oil change so I didn’t have to remember. Btw I replaced 2 tires at 38k miles and I’ll have to replace the other 2 soon. This thing does eat through some tires, but the driving experience is more than worth it!

 

[petecrayton]

This is great news for me as it now matches my plan with Tesla’s new recommendation. I’m driving 50k miles per year so no way I was going to do anything at 25k miles. I’ll take it to Tesla service at 2 years and have them check the brake fluid and probably replace it (I am in the humid, American South). If they desire they can check the battery fluid, but it sounds like now they won’t even bother with that.

Hardest part of maintenance for me so far has been remembering to schedule tire rotations. I used to rotate them with each oil change so I didn’t have to remember. Btw I replaced 2 tires at 38k miles and I’ll have to replace the other 2 soon. This thing does eat through some tires, but the driving experience is more than worth it!

My OEM Goodyear Touring have a treadwear rating of 500 which implies a life circa 80K miles, but clearly that is not what you are experiencing. Too early for me to tell as I only have 7K on the clock. But I have had to replace one due to road hazard and though Tesla Road Service made it convenient, the tire cost me almost twice as much as if I had bought it from Discount Tire, et al.

On a related note I did discover (here) that you can not only buy a "flat repair kit" from off the Tesla site, and another company sells a 'spare tire kit" that consists of a full size steel wheel & tire, a jack and lug wrench in a carry on bag which might prove useful on a trip.

 

[dixosw]

I feel like Tesla could have written in a software program to apply some brake pressure every now and then to keep the condition of the brakes up, or cycle the pistons every X amount of days when parked and plugged into a charger...

In fact, if this is in fact an issue, it sounds like something we should be tweeting Musk. Can't be that hard to dump a code to every 60 days cycle the pistons ten times upon next Supercharging event and probably would be done in a few seconds.

I thought that was the reason for the phantom braking on Autopilot.

 

[Darmie]

I thought that was the reason for the phantom braking on Autopilot.

... Gooood one!!

 

[Jeff Hudson]

brake fluid is hydroponic

brake fluid is hygroscopic

Why is brake fluid hygroscopic? : askscience

 

[UTMB]

brake fluid is hygroscopic

Why is brake fluid hygroscopic? : askscience

Thanks for the link, but oh my goodness, the answerer says that “This process is exasperated...” I think that they mean “exacerbated.” People should study the entomology of words more carefully...
;-)

 

[ngogas]

Great news. Less $ spent on maintenance.

 

[Leafdriver333]

this is not a unique problem for tesla. any car that is stored for a prolonged time will have brakes stuck, right?