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JJBOSTON

MS Long Range
Nov 30, 2019
32
16
Boston
8241E2A7-EA7A-4FFC-A420-1E1FA198120D.jpeg E3CFB385-7772-418E-A31B-99146A2A343E.jpeg So this happened yesterday. One week old - just had the car ceramic coated. Foggy rainy day, limited visibility, trusted the sensors - backed into a fence. No sensor warning - Hopefully an easy repair... the lesson is DON’T RELY ON SENSORS ALONE!!!!
 
Unfortunately, that looks like you dented the rear quarter panel. Hopefully a paintless dent removal guy can get that out, although it's a big dent. If not, you are looking at some major surgery as that panel extends most of the length of the car. I had the rear quarter panel replaced on my 3 over the summer and it was over $10k with a lot of welding, gluing, and painting of half the car (to blend the paint).
 
Don't ever trust the sensors or even the camera 100% . My friend dented his M3 trunk lid backing into a indoor parking space. There was a protruding concrete shoulder starting at the height of the top of the trunk lid. Neither the rear camera nor the rear sensors could see it.
 
Unfortunately, that looks like you dented the rear quarter panel. Hopefully a paintless dent removal guy can get that out, although it's a big dent. If not, you are looking at some major surgery as that panel extends most of the length of the car. I had the rear quarter panel replaced on my 3 over the summer and it was over $10k with a lot of welding, gluing, and painting of half the car (to blend the paint).

I have a call into the guys who did the coating - hopefully they can "painlessly" repair - I'll post an update after they take look at it.
 
Bring it to a scratch and dent place. Remind them that it may be aluminum. I’ve seen way worse get fixed. But they often need access to the back. The paint looks ok.

The way I look at these types of accidents is statistically your less likely to have another any time soon ;)

What did you hit that didn’t get picked up by sensors.

BTW we’re you creep on or off? I swear these types of accidents happen more often with creep off because you’re not riding the brake the majority of the time like you do with it on. Friend did the same thing to his Model 3 the first week. He creased his trunk lid lip and damaged paint, $1000 to fix. He was creep off. No convincing him though. Free rolling backwards is just asking for trouble.
 
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It doesn’t appear to be badly creased so it should be able to be removed without QP replacement, which will put your car in the shop for months waiting for Tesla to deliver parts.

Replacing the QP is considered a major repair and will be a CarFax mark on your car, reducing its value significantly.

You want to avoid QP replacement at all costs. Just getting the dent massaged out will likely run about $400 which doesn’t include any paint work if necessary. But a good experienced shop should be able to make your car as good as new.

The sensors are ideal for large, flat, solid, hard surfaces like brick walls without protruding bits. Anything that absorbs sound waves or lets them pass through reduces effectiveness. A chain-link fence isn’t solid enough to register properly. Protrusions from a wall that aren’t right at the sensor height generally don’t reflect the sound directly back to the sensor and are also missed.
 
Bring it to a scratch and dent place. Remind them that it may be aluminum. I’ve seen way worse get fixed. But they often need access to the back. The paint looks ok.

The way I look at these types of accidents is statistically your less likely to have another any time soon ;)

What did you hit that didn’t get picked up by sensors.

BTW we’re you creep on or off? I swear these types of accidents happen more often with creep off because you’re not riding the brake the majority of the time like you do with it on. Friend did the same thing to his Model 3 the first week. He creased his trunk lid lip and damaged paint, $1000 to fix. He was creep off. No convincing him though. Free rolling backwards is just asking for trouble.

I don't feel comfortable with creep, it is too fast in reverse. I have better control "creeping" manually with the go pedal.
 
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Bring it to a scratch and dent place. Remind them that it may be aluminum. I’ve seen way worse get fixed. But they often need access to the back. The paint looks ok.

The way I look at these types of accidents is statistically your less likely to have another any time soon ;)

What did you hit that didn’t get picked up by sensors.

BTW we’re you creep on or off? I swear these types of accidents happen more often with creep off because you’re not riding the brake the majority of the time like you do with it on. Friend did the same thing to his Model 3 the first week. He creased his trunk lid lip and damaged paint, $1000 to fix. He was creep off. No convincing him though. Free rolling backwards is just asking for trouble.

Creep off.
 
I don't feel comfortable with creep, it is too fast in reverse. I have better control "creeping" manually with the go pedal.

You can go as slow as you want with the foot on the brake the whole time (most of the time). The time between go pedal and brake you can crunch. Much easier to “creep” in creep mode (forward or reverse). Maybe that’s why they call it “creep”.

Guess you couldn’t drive ICE automatics either? Automatic ICE could have easily done no creep as well, and probably saved fuel too. But they never did. I wonder why? My Volt only Creeps, I wonder why? But it has more options in regen than Tesla does. So it’s not like they could not have offered it. They don’t, because it would be a liability, not because they don’t know how.
 
I had a dent like that on my quarter panel. "It was too close to the seam for them to pop it out." Full quarter panel replacement. Hopefully not the case for you. I'll be very curious to see how it turns out. I can take your before and after pics to the collision center and show them it can be done. He refused to even try. As I wasn't the one paying for it, I didn't care as long as it looked like new.
 
I had a dent like that on my quarter panel. "It was too close to the seam for them to pop it out." Full quarter panel replacement. Hopefully not the case for you. I'll be very curious to see how it turns out. I can take your before and after pics to the collision center and show them it can be done. He refused to even try. As I wasn't the one paying for it, I didn't care as long as it looked like new.

Will do!
 
You can go as slow as you want with the foot on the brake the whole time (most of the time). The time between go pedal and brake you can crunch. Much easier to “creep” in creep mode (forward or reverse). Maybe that’s why they call it “creep”.

Guess you couldn’t drive ICE automatics either? Automatic ICE could have easily done no creep as well, and probably saved fuel too. But they never did. I wonder why? My Volt only Creeps, I wonder why? But it has more options in regen than Tesla does. So it’s not like they could not have offered it. They don’t, because it would be a liability, not because they don’t know how.

And that's why Tesla gives you options. Creep on our Raven S is faster than creep on our ICE car, whereas Hold/One-pedal driving is too slow coming to a complete stop at Stop signs. Nice to have options and folks can choose what works best for them.
 
Has anyone tried the "Hairdryer & Compressed Air" dent repair method? And, if so am I risking more damage - or is it a case of it won't make it worse, just might not solve the issue?

I used it on my old Subaru. Depending on the nature of the dent it definitely works. As long as it's not really creased its worth a shot. Just use a hairdryer to get the area hot. You have to be careful because you can hurt the paint with the direct heat, but remember that the car sits in the sun and gets pretty hot. They just turn the compressed air can upside down and spray the cold propellent on it. I think it's worth a shot.
 
A bit off topic, but a friend scraped the front of his car backing out of his garage and took it to Tesla who repaired it for half the cost that it would have been at an independent body shop. Just a thought.
Tesla does quick and cheap replacement parts but they don't do PDR, or aluminum panel replacement. Hopefully that changes soon. The two approved body shops in the state have a racket going. Teslas parked on the street AND turning away customers. Something is wrong.
 
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Got the car back from Q Care Care in Burlington MA last night - they did an outstanding job. If you look really closely you can see a slight ridge at the seam -- but I'm very happy not to have to replace the entire panel.Total for the repair was $500.
These guys do great work (the had done a clear front and ceramic at a previous visit as well) highly recommended.


IMG_0686.jpeg IMG_0685.jpeg
 
just a PSA for what the sensors can and can't do.
  • There is no rear radar, only front
  • Cameras don't (as of the day of posting) perform parking proximity warning
  • Proximity is currently (see above) handled by the ultrasonic sensors
With those points in mind, its just the ultrasonic sensors doing the work, its also worth remembering that they are just like the ones fitted to other cars but are active all the time.
I'm sure some folks expect their cars to be able to have omnipresence as it moves around, but ultrasonics aren't very good at that.
Basically its on you to make sure you don't hit anything while parking.
Not long after I got the car I assuming it would see low curbs and got rim rash finding out it didn't :(
 
just a PSA for what the sensors can and can't do.
  • There is no rear radar, only front
  • Cameras don't (as of the day of posting) perform parking proximity warning
  • Proximity is currently (see above) handled by the ultrasonic sensors
With those points in mind, its just the ultrasonic sensors doing the work, its also worth remembering that they are just like the ones fitted to other cars but are active all the time.
I'm sure some folks expect their cars to be able to have omnipresence as it moves around, but ultrasonics aren't very good at that.
Basically its on you to make sure you don't hit anything while parking.
Not long after I got the car I assuming it would see low curbs and got rim rash finding out it didn't :(
Hate to say it but this is why 360 degree cameras come in handy IMHO...
 
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