Let’s back up a little because I want to understand your situation. You start off with complaining because Tesla Service Center can immediately replace your tire and get you back on the road for a quote of $450. Or you can order a replacement tire from Tirerack. You volunteer that it’s unlikely you will trust any tire place to lift a Tesla to replace the tire/wheel.
Sooo, you order from Tirerack and wait two-three days for the delivery. (I hope you have something else to drive during the wait.) Then you get the replacement tire. You load your extra vehicle with your flat Tesla wheel and Tirerack replacement tire and head out hoping to find any tire place that will remove the flat, mount the new one and balance the complete wheel, - is this the tire place you don’t trust to lift a Tesla? Now, you pay that bill at the tire place that didn’t sell you the tire, so they likely charged you a premium above the Tesla charge of $50 for bringing your own tire and wheel to remove, mount and balance. You load the mounted wheel back up in your extra vehicle and take it home to lift with your jack and support it with your new jackpoint jackstands. Don’t forget to torgue your wheel lugs with your new torque wrench.
Lucky you had this flat at home and your Tesla was not sitting out on the side of the highway with that flat. Wait, I forgot to ask, did the Tesla Road Side Assistance come get your car and take it home for you? Good thing that was free.
As I recall, Tesla Service Center will send someone to get me and my car on the side of the road and bring me to the Service Center to fix my flat. To me, that level of service is worth paying (not a lot more), but more for a new mounted tire if its needed. And with my luck, it was raining monsoon style.
Life’s a beach and it seems to always be two steps ahead of us – no matter what precaution we take. Based on your luck so far, you likely have used up all your tire bad luck – meaning the rest of your life you will never have another flat tire.
You’ve done the preemptive strike by getting your own jackpoint stands, bought a new spare tire from Tirerack in advance, and a very good jack. But life is going to mess with you and never let you have another flat.
And you tell us Tesla actually charged you $375 versus the quoted $450. How dare they charge you less than your quote !!! What is wrong with things at Tesla these days, huh? The mounted tire should be free, huh?
Some of us didn't keep a spare vehicle to haul our Tirerack tire and flat Tesla tire/wheel to the tire place we don't like. It was cheaper to just pay too much to have it done one place with one trip on the same day at the Service Center.
I see your point. Where can I find those jackpoint jackstands?
For starters, you have to understand where I'm coming from. I worked on cars for much of my life. Not professionally, but because it was just something we did because we took pride in it and because we were poor and could often do our own work much cheaper than a shop. So I've already got a lot of equipment, including floor jacks, jack stands, torque wrenches, and many other tools.Stuff I've acquired from my grandfather and bought myself over my lifetime.
The Tesla was the first time I encountered the unique situation where I had no spare, and no good way to jack the car and place it on standard jack stands due to a lack of good stand points. That's where the JackPoint jack stands come in to play.
The first flat was a fast flat. I had to have the car towed to the service center to have the tire replaced.
The second flat was a slow flat. I could add air to the tire with my air compressor and drive it for a day before it would be flat again. So I was able to drive it to Tesla instead of having it towed.
In both cases, if I had had the appropriate equipment, I could have lifted the car myself, put it on a jack stand, take the wheel off, and go get the tire repaired or replaced. Wouldn't necessarily have to be a tire ordered from TireRack. Just depends on what tires the local shop has available, how quick they can get them, and what they cost. TireRack is just a convenient way to see what a good price on a tire is.
There have been many times in my past where I have taken a wheel with a flat tire into a tire shop to have a flat patched or tire replaced. This is really normal operating procedure for me. Pre-Tesla, I might would drive my car in to the tire shop if the tire would hold air long enough, but I might not.
I have never been stranded before with a flat, as in the past my cars had spare tires, and you could change the flat at the side of the road if you couldn't limp it home first. Done that a few times too. I think the first time I've ever had to have my car towed was my first Tesla flat where I couldn't take the wheel off myself (happened very near home, so made it home despite the fast leak). Had to have it towed from my house to the Tesla service center.
I have to admit, I've become very cynical in my middle age. I take a dim view of people who can't change a tire or drive a stick, but I also can't stand the all too common rolling coal assholes who can pass those tests but otherwise fail at giving a *sugar* about things that matter far more. So I sound negative most of the time. But really I just want to be able to fix stuff myself, something I have a history of doing in many disciplines, because I often don't trust others and don't like getting charged more than I think a job is worth.
EDIT: And yes, I trust a tire shop to remove a tire from a wheel, put a new one on, and balance it. It's what they do. But they probably won't know jack about lifting a Tesla, and some of them would have their work quality slip enormously when they see a Tesla and immediately pigeon hole me as a rich elite liberal who is responsible for everything bad that has ever happened to them in their life.
