Holy crap, repairs are insanely expensive, beware!!

[Skotty]

Probably just needed a new $3 bolt.

 

[Olle]

I am sorry for your damage but I think in general Teslas are comparatively inexpensive to repair, otherwise the insurance rates would have gone up by now after almost 5 years on the market. My old MS was sideswiped and needed new fender and door. around $950 for door and $450 for fender. Not bad.

We have Liberty Mutual and pay less for the Tesla than for some cheaper cars, Mini Cooper and Nissan Leaf for example.

 

[Sir Guacamolaf]

Probably just needed a new $3 bolt.

I feel the same. That's a pricey $13000 bolt if you'd ask me, and frankly there are three ridiculous things here,

- That the bolt broke
- That its going to cost $13K
- That it's going to take 6 weeks to fix it.

Tell me more about the "EV smile" as you drive this again? Personally I'm constantly worried about this awful repair situation that Tesla hs created.

 

[Olle]

Agree with you except the statement that the bolt shouldn't have broken. If you collide sideways with the rim agains a curb, something has to give. If nothing breaks, where would the kinetic energy go?

 

[Max*]

Agree with you except the statement that the bolt shouldn't have broken. If you collide sideways with the rim agains a curb, something has to give. If nothing breaks, where would the kinetic energy go?

It would be nice if it went into the battery as potential energy

Too bad physics doesn't work that way...

 

[Skotty]

Probably just needed a new $3 bolt.

Sorry, that probably wasn't helpful. That was the redneck in me talking. I guess I'm just agreeing that the repair procedure is perhaps overly cautious and thus overly expensive, and I hope they eventually chill out a bit and get more supportive of "get it back on the road" repairs that are still safe and are more agreeable to the average buyer's wallet. Might be more than just a bolt; parts need to be inspected, but no need to replace parts that are still in reasonably good shape. That sounds terrible, but it's true. And I could be wrong about the bolt. Might be $6. Make sure to buy the right grade, and torque to spec.

 

[Newscutter]

Here's the YouTube video showing the damaged control arm:-

A little off-topic, but adding a footnote to the earlier video: I had "slop" in an upper control arm (at 35k with no known cause) that necessitated immediate replacement. About a month prior, another local owner had the SAME issue, albeit slightly out of warranty so he had to pay for the repair. So while purely anecdotal, that does seem like an inordinate amount of repairs for cars of this age/mileage.

I did ask the tech if the new parts had any fundamental design differences that would account for higher durability and his answer was basically that they were just new parts. No change from the ones that had failed on both cars.

That rattles around in the back of my head whenever I'm on a rough road and I do wonder what the longevity of the various suspension components will be-- like the bolt in questions-- but at about $1000 to replace the upper control arms, I hope it doesn't become a frequent problem both from a safety and financial perspective.

 

[Yinn]

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.

That's a bit absurd. From the pictures, I'm not even sure the control arm is damaged. You need a new bolt, bushing and it would be maybe a 30 min job. Some extra time if the bolt was wedged and you needed to tap/drill it out.

In my non-professional opinion and if it was me. I'd probably just DIY it, get an alignment and avoid the deductible and potential rate increase.

 

[sorka]

I'm afraid you're incorrect. My dad was a mechanic and did innumerable repairs like this. I know, I got stuck helping on many of them. It's all about angle. The OP may not have been able to turn his wheel directly into the curb, the best way to prevent this sort of accident. (Although he almost certainly would have needed a new wheel!) The point is that side stresses are much, much harder on the suspension than front to rear type of hits.

You apparently didn't get that I was being facetious. That was my way of saying I don't believe there were 8 S's in the shop with the "exact" same problem.

 

[ev-now]

Someone should tweet this thread to Elon. Continued ridiculous repair costs will kill MS resale prices and make insurance renewals outrageous. If the reason for this care is AP/AS - then M3s will be totalled by their first crash.

 

[sorka]

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

4200 to 5000 depending on options.

 

[mrElbe]

That is not a bolt that broke. It is the threaded stud of the ball joint.
Can't blame the shop for doing what the Tesla work procedure requires. These Tesla certified shops must repair the vehicle to new vehicle standards so that all crash worthiness parts will perform as designed.
The local certified shop here gave an extensive presentation about Tesla certification and repair procedures at our January Tesla Owners meeting. It was an eye opener of what is being done and has to be done.

 

[Sir Guacamolaf]

Problem: Tesla repairs are too expensive and take too long.

Looking for solution:
Can we as owners do something constructive to demand some action from Tesla to fix this situation?

- Is this problem even fixable?
- Can Tesla fix this, and chooses not to fix? Can we as owners do something to demand Tesla to fix this?
- Or is the problem with the body shops that are using their near monopoly? Or parts suppliers? (or what?)

Solution? (please don't say buy a Prius)

 

[mbhforum]

Solution, Let Tesla do it all (slightly pessimistic on this):

Tesla wants to offer vehicles with one price, including insurance and maintenance
https://techcrunch.com/2017/02/22/tesla-wants-to-offer-vehicles-with-one-price-including-insurance-and-maintenance/

 

[Kenx008]

Hmm the same thing happened to our vehicle but on the passenger side. I ended up towing it to Tesla where they repaired the damage. The bill came out to be around $2600 and insurance covered it.

 

[⚡️ELECTROMAN⚡️]

Following this thread has made me drive even more super duper extra carefully. As far as costs for a car accident go maybe $13,000 isn't so bad. I don't think the insurance companies are going to freak out if they have to pay $13k for an accident claim. If anything they would jack up our rates for buying a $70,000+ car in the first place. Think about it, the OP lost control of his car and ran into something. He could easily have slid into another car and caused even more costly damage. How often do you lose control of your car and run into things? It's been about 20 years ago for me and that was a freak accident. Before that it was about 10 years prior to that when I rolled my dad's convertible. That's two accidents in 32 years of driving and both of them were totally avoidable. I've been hit four times, but all of those were very minor accidents that I drove away from. So just drive carefully and don't run into things and you won't have to deal with the cost and slowness of getting your Tesla repaired. If you are someone that runs your car into things often, it's going to be costly whether you drive a Tesla or whether you drive a Honda, Toyota, etc. Just don't run into things, it's not that hard.

My condolences to the OP. That could easily have happened to anyone of us in your situation. Our luck could run out when we least expect it, too. I'm just saying to me and everyone else to keep this in perspective. I had thoughts of selling my brand new car and never buying a Tesla again (they were very fleeting of course) after reading this thread about this ridiculous cost estimate, for what looks like very little damage. Now if this crap is breaking during normal driving that's a whole different ballgame.

 

[Motomania]

Definitely stinks for the OP; hopefully things move along quickly at the shop and parts arrive sooner then later. Threads like these certainly give me pause on my CPO search.:-(
-
As mentioned; I don't see how the brake calipers could have damage from the incident; besides maybe a cosmetic bump. It could be worth asking the shop to see the damage and discuss it further, if the arrival of the caliper is slowing the process down.(unlikely just one part delay though) As some shops won't start any repairs until all parts arrive.
-
As for the wheel; there's quite a few nationwide chain companies around the country that sell 'take-off' OEM wheels at quite a savings. Brand new; usually removed for someone buying aftermarket wheels. You can call them with the OE part # of the wheel and they can search their system and see if they have one in stock to ship to the shop. Shippings usually pretty cheap. (I know you mentioned you have to pay some out of pocket on the cost of repair; some of these cost saving measures can be discussed with the shop if needed)
-
I'm surprised the Tesla service center doesn't want the vehicle; because it looks like just the bumper cover damage was actually 'body' work; the rest was all mechanical damage the service department would be very familiar with..........but, in the SC's defense, they just may not want to deal with collision damage.:-(
-
Also; that video of the upper control arm.........those are rusted, stamped steel control arms; the OP's suspension pics look like all cast/machined aluminum parts. Are the upper control arms stamped steel and the rest of the suspension components aluminum? Or are the control arms in the video a very early design that's been improved upon?
-
And I'm a bit concerned with the shops manual entry of labor time on the lower control arm to replace for '5.2*' hours (that's what the '*' stands for, a manual entry by the shop, overriding the system time).......AFTER the system time of 7.6 hours to remove the engine cradle. I cant picture the exact Tesla suspension configuration.........but there's typically overlap or included operations when taking out an engine cradle. And I would think that 5.2* hours to remove the lower control arm might be an included operation? (I know I'm splitting hairs here; and being a less than common vehicle; there are grey areas to some labor operations)
-
I'm sure your insurance company reviewed the estimate; those are just a few observations that caught my attention........for what's it's worth.
-
As mentioned previously; I sure pray Tesla figures out this parts supply chain issue and limited repair facilities before the M3 release; or thing will could get ugly in a hurry.:-(

 

[FlatSix911]

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

Incorrect ... please stop posting bad data.

According to Wikipedia, the curb weight on an S is between 4300 and 4900 lbs depending on battery size.
That is still very heavy but in line with many luxury vehicles.

Correct ... well done

 

[MRPLUGIN]

Attaching the repair memo here forwarded to me by the shop when I challenged the estimate.

Hopefully the file attaches properly.

It may just be me , but as I read it, the steering gear is the only part it talks about replacing after the control arm damage, How does that come to 13K in damages?

 

[Yaro]

Rofl. This is such bullshit. No way you need to replace any of those things. We just repaired a salvage Model S that had front end damage. Replaced all the front end body parts and all the other functions work just fine. Also replaced that same control arm that you ripped out because it was slightly bent. Passed alignment with no issues and everything on the car works fine.

I 100% guarantee that body shop is reselling all the parts they pulled off.