MrBadger
Badger out
We had a pre warranty expiry ‘service’ done at Cleevely EV for precisely the reasons above. As well as being highly experienced in EV’s, including their own Tesla’s, they are also MOT testers.
Part of out service was basically an inspection, slightly different to the MOT, but for all intents and purposes, an MOT like inspection done by people experienced in what to look for as common faults in the particular vehicle.
Just before out first MOT, our top control arms suddenly started squeaking - I’m pretty sure empirically it's weather related and continued dry weather is a good trigger. What was reported as a slight squeak on Friday turned into a squealing banshee come the Sunday. A slight bit of pressure on offside front wing would result in a chirp. It wasn’t something that an MOT tester would miss, even getting inside the car would result in a squeak.
At the time Tesla couldn’t do a fix for several weeks and as they were not prepared to say whether the car was safe to drive we stopped driving it until we got a friendly qualified motorsport engineer to give it a once over. Some may say paranoid, but the speed that this fault turned from minor squeak to squealing banshee pointed to something more than just a dry joint.
Anyway, Tesla sorted a few weeks later, MOT passed, but almost certainly, short of the MOT tester being deaf, it would have been an MOT advisory had it not been fixed. Previous check indicated no play, just squeak.
Roll on back to second MOT and pre warranty inspection. We had absolutely no idea that there was a problem until the visual inspection by Cleevely, but it clearly showed the bottom bushes had delaminated even though no play detected.
Thankfully we didn’t have to find out whether this would have passed an MOT unnoticed or not as Tesla fixed under warranty - a significantly more costly job than top control arms and more than paid for the whole Cleevely EV experience including an overnight stay in lovely Cheltenham.
I suspect that some of these suspension issues will pass without notice at an MOT. But a car that is rapidly gaining a reputation for front suspension issues, just like Cleevely, many will soon going to gain the experience of where to look even if there is no immediate obvious sign of play.
Part of out service was basically an inspection, slightly different to the MOT, but for all intents and purposes, an MOT like inspection done by people experienced in what to look for as common faults in the particular vehicle.
Just before out first MOT, our top control arms suddenly started squeaking - I’m pretty sure empirically it's weather related and continued dry weather is a good trigger. What was reported as a slight squeak on Friday turned into a squealing banshee come the Sunday. A slight bit of pressure on offside front wing would result in a chirp. It wasn’t something that an MOT tester would miss, even getting inside the car would result in a squeak.
At the time Tesla couldn’t do a fix for several weeks and as they were not prepared to say whether the car was safe to drive we stopped driving it until we got a friendly qualified motorsport engineer to give it a once over. Some may say paranoid, but the speed that this fault turned from minor squeak to squealing banshee pointed to something more than just a dry joint.
Anyway, Tesla sorted a few weeks later, MOT passed, but almost certainly, short of the MOT tester being deaf, it would have been an MOT advisory had it not been fixed. Previous check indicated no play, just squeak.
Roll on back to second MOT and pre warranty inspection. We had absolutely no idea that there was a problem until the visual inspection by Cleevely, but it clearly showed the bottom bushes had delaminated even though no play detected.
Thankfully we didn’t have to find out whether this would have passed an MOT unnoticed or not as Tesla fixed under warranty - a significantly more costly job than top control arms and more than paid for the whole Cleevely EV experience including an overnight stay in lovely Cheltenham.
I suspect that some of these suspension issues will pass without notice at an MOT. But a car that is rapidly gaining a reputation for front suspension issues, just like Cleevely, many will soon going to gain the experience of where to look even if there is no immediate obvious sign of play.
