Holy crap, repairs are insanely expensive, beware!!

[stopcrazypp]

Yes, I had this type of repair done to my 85D due to an accident in August of 2015.

My accident was quite a bit more severe than yours. I slid into a curb sideways during a high speed turn (don't ask -- I'll just say that some choices made that day were not my best decisions).

Clearly damaged and requiring replacement on my vehicle were left side front and rear: tires, wheels, brake rotors, brake calipers, hubs, upper and lower control arms, steering tie rod, steering rack, both left-side air suspension modules, and both left-side drive shafts. Drive units and battery were OK, and no damage to radiators, cooling systems, HVAC systems, or electronics. This came to about a $40K repair and took 10 weeks (covered by insurance).

The car drove perfectly afterwards, the body shop did a fantastic job.

However, I had two further repairs months afterwards that I believe were related to this incident. The right rear air suspension module needed replacement as it had started making a lot of noise as it was tapping against the body work. Tesla said it was prematurely worn. Also, the right front wheel bearing started making a lot of noise, replacement showed premature wear. In my opinion, both of these items appear to have taken damage due to impact forces that were transmitted through the steering rack and the drive units from left to right.

I guess the point is that damage can be hidden from incidents like this. It may seem overly cautious to replace everything you listed, yet its also understandable. However, as others have said, there is room for interpretation in that service bulletin, and your body shop seems to be reading it in a worst-case fashion.

Good point. The shop may be overly safe, but then they are liable if the repair ends up not fixing the problem and it causes a secondary accident, so perhaps that is understandable.

 

[Swift]

If that's no joke or exaggeration, then there's a safety recall coming. It's not normal cars to break control arms or ball joints simply from cornering fast.

This is what scares me. After seeing a number of posts about damages from minor contact, it makes me very concerned about things like hitting an uneven road seam or pavement defect while cornering hard. Or how controllable the car would be in the seconds after a collision.

 

[Max*]

Actually, A Tesla Model S weighs in around 6000 pounds!
There really aren't heavier cars or SUV's out there.

What?

Here's a P100D (larger rear motor, bigger battery than a 60/70) on a scale at 5300lbs with the driver in the car -- Put my P100d on the scale

 

[Yarder]

Keep the old parts! You can sell them on Ebay, and maybe make another $5k back!

 

[Tampaukfan]

Keep the old parts! You can sell them on Ebay, and maybe make another $5k back!

MAKE SURE you tell your body shop what Yarder just stated BEFORE they start working on it... Body Shops are ripoffs.. they will tell you they replaced part when they didnt or will sell undamaged parts for profit.... ALL the parts damaged or not are yours to keep.

I wrecked an Audi and one of the LED headlights was damaged, well the body shop claimed the other was too.. when I asked for the old one back they said they threw it away... Cost on the headlight was $3500..

 

[Joe F]

Here are some screen shots.

I actually can't call the shop dishonest if they are following the recommendations of the manufacturer. It appears to me that they have to follow the service bulletin or face liability. I'm not sure.

Has anyone else out there had this type of repair?

View attachment 215871 View attachment 215872 View attachment 215873

I looked at the screenshots. There is less than $7K in parts, the rest of what I read from your earlier post as having to be replaced is "R&I", or Remove and Install. Not Remove and Replace. No doubt the parts and hoses blocking access to replacing the steering gear, which is what the tech note speaks to. The remainder is tax and labor.

My apologies for saying you were being fleeced given my first read of your items needing replacement.

 

[Ace007]

We are almost two months in and still waiting on parts but to be fair I don't think the shop even ordered the parts for the first 3-4 weeks since they are so backlogged. Right now they are thinking 3-4 months for a front-left collision when a car did a header with us including repairing damage inside from the airbags going off. Its incredibly frustrating and I hope there are plans in the work to fix it.

 

[Electric700]

on Jan 19, 2016 I slid on ice in a parking lot in my new P90D. I hit a patch of ice in a slight downhill slope resulting in me hitting a curb. After hitting the curb, I check out the car, no visible damage. Parked the car, went into my office. All seemed fine.

When backing out of the parking stall, heard a crack and the drivers side front wheel tilted, I knew I was screwed. The Tesla was kaput.

Looking under the wheel, here's what I see:

View attachment 215865

The bolt securing the steering tie to the wheel chassis is broken.

I call the tow, they take it to the only certified Tesla shop in the area. The insurance company estimates the repair to be $2,000. The body shop estimates it at $13,500.

Knowing I'm getting fleeced,I call tesla, the replacement part runs about $375. But Tesla doesn't repair collision damage. They refer me to the only authorized body shop within 500 miles.

The body shows me a service bulletin put out by Tesla. It says in the event ANY damage to ANY steering or suspsenion component is encountered, one must replace XXX. This involves basically a new front end. Dropping the batteries, new AC compressor, new engine radiator, new beanies, all new suspension, new steering components,etc. a TON of work for fixing impact to one wheel at less than 5 mph.

This is so painful. It's been 4 weeks waiting for parts. Still waiting for more to come in.

The insurance approved &12,800 of the repairs, I'll just come out of pocket on the other repairs just to get it done. The shop says 85 hours of labor, so about 2 weeks once all the parts are in.

Holy cow, everyone needs to be prepared for enormous spikes in insurance rates for Teslas. This is a $1000 problem turned into a $13,000 problem. I just don't see how carriers are going to be ok with the repair costs of these vehicles.

I anticipate at least another month for this repair to take place. The service manager had over 30 other Teslas in his queue. He said my repair was one of the more simple repairs. Others are in the $50-$80k range.

Here's another pic.
View attachment 215866

Crazy things these Teslas.

I'm more worried about it getting put back together properly than the other parts actually being bad. I'm sure if I were to take the 100 parts being replaced, 98 of them would show no damage or wear.

I'll post the memo and estimate tomorrow after I can redact personal and shop info. For some reason my phone won't let me add more files to this post.

Yikes. What a nightmare.

It's terrible that this happened to you, and I hope everything is fixed to your satisfaction.

Were you braking when your P90D slid on ice? An AWD Tesla should be able to generally avoid ice slippage situations like this. Also, all Model X and S vehicles should have traction control and stability control, whether they have AWD or not.

 

[Max*]

It's terrible that this happened to you, and I hope everything is fixed to your satisfaction.

Were you braking when your P90D slid on ice? An AWD Tesla should be able to generally avoid ice slippage situations like this. Also, all Model X and S vehicles should have traction control and stability control, whether they have AWD or not.

AWD, traction control and stability control will help you drive on ice, snow tires/studs/chains will help you stop on ice.

That's why it's so dangerous to see all these people on the road in their AWD cars with summer tires thinking they "got this" when there's snow or ice on the roads. Sure they can get going, but they sure as hell wont stop in time.

 

[croman]

Yup. I can vouch. On the first snow in Chicago I tested the tires that came with my 60D and I could fully accelerate but stopping was harder and had a slight judder. I got Michelin x ice3 tires and can slam on the brakes from 50 to zero like snow and ice wasnt there. Correct tires makes a bigger difference than AWD but AWD is great when you need it due to mud rain or ice snow.

 

[Zaphod]

It's terrible that this happened to you, and I hope everything is fixed to your satisfaction.

Were you braking when your P90D slid on ice? An AWD Tesla should be able to generally avoid ice slippage situations like this. Also, all Model X and S vehicles should have traction control and stability control, whether they have AWD or not.

AWD doesn't magically change the laws of physics. Same goes for traction and stability control.

 

[efusco]

on Jan 19, 2016 I slid on ice in a parking lot in my new P90D. I hit a patch of ice in a slight downhill slope resulting in me hitting a curb. After hitting the curb, I check out the car, no visible damage. Parked the car, went into my office. All seemed fine.

When backing out of the parking stall, heard a crack and the drivers side front wheel tilted, I knew I was screwed. The Tesla was kaput.

Looking under the wheel, here's what I see:

View attachment 215865

The bolt securing the steering tie to the wheel chassis is broken.

I call the tow, they take it to the only certified Tesla shop in the area. The insurance company estimates the repair to be $2,000. The body shop estimates it at $13,500.

Knowing I'm getting fleeced,I call tesla, the replacement part runs about $375. But Tesla doesn't repair collision damage. They refer me to the only authorized body shop within 500 miles.

The body shows me a service bulletin put out by Tesla. It says in the event ANY damage to ANY steering or suspsenion component is encountered, one must replace XXX. This involves basically a new front end. Dropping the batteries, new AC compressor, new engine radiator, new beanies, all new suspension, new steering components,etc. a TON of work for fixing impact to one wheel at less than 5 mph.

This is so painful. It's been 4 weeks waiting for parts. Still waiting for more to come in.

The insurance approved &12,800 of the repairs, I'll just come out of pocket on the other repairs just to get it done. The shop says 85 hours of labor, so about 2 weeks once all the parts are in.

Holy cow, everyone needs to be prepared for enormous spikes in insurance rates for Teslas. This is a $1000 problem turned into a $13,000 problem. I just don't see how carriers are going to be ok with the repair costs of these vehicles.

I anticipate at least another month for this repair to take place. The service manager had over 30 other Teslas in his queue. He said my repair was one of the more simple repairs. Others are in the $50-$80k range.

Here's another pic.
View attachment 215866

Crazy things these Teslas.

I'm more worried about it getting put back together properly than the other parts actually being bad. I'm sure if I were to take the 100 parts being replaced, 98 of them would show no damage or wear.

I'll post the memo and estimate tomorrow after I can redact personal and shop info. For some reason my phone won't let me add more files to this post.

Yikes. What a nightmare.

Sorry for your trouble, that is a lot of money, and it worries me as the value of my 2012 pre-AP Model S with almost 80k miles is down below the cost of many of the repairs, or would be upwards of 1/4-1/3 of the value of the car. Would likely just use a 3rd party if I could get the parts to them rather than a Tesla certified shop.

 

[TSLA Pilot]

if tesla keep this up the company will be dead within 5 years nobody will buy a $100.000 car which you can not buy spares for plain stupid..
and as far as build quality goes they are still rubbish no better than a cheap korean car..

I love it when people post like this, but we don't have a BMW 750iL or an S Class Mercedes bill to compare it to with an identical impact.

It could easily be a similar repair bill, or even more for a Porsche Panorama.

Get a grip people.

High end cars cost a lot to fix because the parts cost a lot and standards must be maintained.

Get over it.

Yes, he could possibly replace just the control arm and the wheel, but if he's damaged the steering rack and pinion, and he engages AP with a hidden problem and there's an accident with a fatality, guess what? There's a lot of liability to spread around.

p.s. Not to be a pill here, but given the IIHS crash tests (with a small overlap), it seems as though the loss of the suspension is part of the crash energy mitigation these days. Far better to sacrifice car parts to save lives any day of the week . . . . Also, insurance rates for our Teslas are low. My speculation as to why? Because it's medical bills that cost them the BIG money. Expensive car repairs? Not so much.

 

[hill]

It's the only Tesla approved shop and I have insurance. The last thing I want to do is screw myself into a partial repair.

I don't know enough about the repairs to call their bluff and it's my insurance companies job to challenge it.

I'm not comfortable replacing the part on my own. I feel kinda stuck between a rock and a hard place on this one. If the insurance co would have suggested another alternative, I would have supported it for sure.

and this isn't an insurance claim, because . .. . . . . ?

 

[Ace007]

While I am certainly upset about the costs I have more of an issue with the process. There are not enough certified body shops and even once you get in one parts are very slow to arrive. They need to fix the support infrastructure before the Model 3 releases.

 

[AMPd]

While I am certainly upset about the costs I have more of an issue with the process. There are not enough certified body shops and even once you get in one parts are very slow to arrive. They need to fix the support infrastructure before the Model 3 releases.

The prices are high BECAUSE there aren't enough certified shops

And why does a shop need to be certified when it comes to normal car things such as this
Nothing about OPs issues are different that a traditional car

 

[HankLloydRight]

Is there a list of Tesla approved body shops somewhere?

 

[Max*]

Is there a list of Tesla approved body shops somewhere?

Not quite a list, but gives you the few next to you: Find an Approved Body Shop

 

[brkaus]

I looked at the screenshots. There is less than $7K in parts, the rest of what I read from your earlier post as having to be replaced is "R&I", or Remove and Install. Not Remove and Replace. No doubt the parts and hoses blocking access to replacing the steering gear, which is what the tech note speaks to. The remainder is tax and labor.

My apologies for saying you were being fleeced given my first read of your items needing replacement.

$7k in parts, $3k was the steering gear if I'm reading correctly. Guess it makes sense to replace all the other junk when your in there.

Over an hour each to purge the cooling system and evac/racharge the AC at $150/hr for mechanical work.

I'm still a bit surprised all that has to come out to replace the steering gear... but the "sled" at the tesla shop doesn't have the extra parts and I haven't found a good picture of a partially disassembled front end. So no real personal experience.

 

[HankLloydRight]

Not quite a list, but gives you the few next to you: Find an Approved Body Shop

Thanks, that's what I needed. Hoping someone was closer than 40 minutes away.