That seems pretty cheap considering what a pain the filters are to change and how you would need to remove the rear brake calipers from the car to clean and grease them properly. I wonder if they really did a complete job on the calipers, or if they just sprayed them on the outside with compressed air and called it done. You never know unless you take them apart yourself to check, or watched them do it. Here's what needs to be done.
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Is 1'000 USD too much for a 2 year service ?
- Thread starter Hugues1965
- Start date
That seems pretty cheap considering what a pain the filters are to change and how you would need to remove the rear brake calipers from the car to clean and grease them properly. I wonder if they really did a complete job on the calipers, or if they just sprayed them on the outside with compressed air and called it done. You never know unless you take them apart yourself to check, or watched them do it. Here's what needs to be done.
my understanding, and it may be wrong, is that the desiccant breaks down over time from the vibrations. If it gets down to dust size, that can travel through the system and plug things up. Again, not sure if it’s true.
I was super excited when Tesla changed the Model 3 service intervals from every 2 years to a few inspections you can do yourself and the AC desicant every 6 years. That's much more like the "service free" promise that is part of the argument for EVs over ICE cars in the first place. 
I believe that is a possibility, but I have never heard of anyone having a failure of the desiccant, and I have never had it happen to me despite owning classic cars that had their original 25 years old desiccant in place. Usually what goes is the compressor seals sometime after the 10 year mark. Those seals have a very difficult job, so they are the likely failure point.
So based on experience, I have no plans to do this service, especially since it's recommended 2 years after any warranty has expired. You'll never get Tesla to repair your AC under warranty 2 years after it expired no matter how many receipts you produce for desiccant replacements.
If I were to have it done, I would do it myself since I have all the equipment and recently experienced changing AC compressors on 2 super cars, so I know how to do it right and how easy it is to cut corners and do something that will cause a failure in a year or 2. That's why when people pay mechanics to replace their AC compressor, it often fails a year or 2 later again and they blame their car for "eating compressors." So I would never recommend anyone do this risky service to prevent something that almost never fails.
Fernand
Active Member
After 2.5 years I was getting a noise when the cooling fans would come on full blast. They cleaned out some vegetation debris and replaced the cabin filters than also had some debris. $68.
Some searching on the web about this found the new Corvette C8 has a 7 year desiccant replacement recommendation. Speculation there was the even more hydroscopic nature of the 1234yf lubricants and permeation on rubber hoses. I’ve no idea about either and I thought only hardline was used. Anybody know if there is softline in the AC?
Usually, there’s soft line coming out of the compressor to help reduce noise & vibration. I believe this to be the case on Model 3 as well, as I recall.
Interesting data point.
Seems strange that a hose under constant pressure with refrigerant gas would let any moisture in.
Pretty much everything here is a waste of time and money. You don't need to grease the calipers, it's just a recommendation from Brembo. Tesla has to put it in their service manual, because Brembo recommends it.
Disagree. Especially anywhere the roads are heavily salted. It definitely makes a difference.
DocHolliday
Member
Cabin air filters do need to be changed on most cars, but they are readily available and usually accessible. The air intakes are pretty wide open and the filter catches a lot of dust, dirt, small leaves, etc. I got a two-pack for my 4runner on az for about $30, and the two-year-old factory one was pretty filthy.
Thanks guys this was very helpful conversation thread, I was able to remove unnecessary asks from Tesla and reduced my bill by 500 EUR.
One strange thing though and very surprised with Tesla Service and their behavior here in the Netherlands on this same desiccant topic. I got fooled because I am not in the habit of checking service histories and invoices.
- This month Sept'22 I requested for a 120k service - they quoted a whole lot of stuff and a receiver dryer and desiccant replacement, got it fixed as thought it is probably necessary.
- Apparently last year same time in September with the 100k service when I bought this preowned car, they had the same receiver dryer and desiccant replacement done and charged roughly the same cost.
I then reached out to the same service location, asking for an explanation why they have done the same thing again 2 years in a row when their website says to replace them every 6 years. They point blank mentioned that they do not check service histories and closed the ticket, found it very rude. This is a very bad way to con your customers to charge for the same thing again which is not generally necessary.
My recommendation to all to please check your service histories for unnecessary repeats of service tasks, certainly I will be double checking every time I go for a service to Tesla.
One strange thing though and very surprised with Tesla Service and their behavior here in the Netherlands on this same desiccant topic. I got fooled because I am not in the habit of checking service histories and invoices.
- This month Sept'22 I requested for a 120k service - they quoted a whole lot of stuff and a receiver dryer and desiccant replacement, got it fixed as thought it is probably necessary.
- Apparently last year same time in September with the 100k service when I bought this preowned car, they had the same receiver dryer and desiccant replacement done and charged roughly the same cost.
I then reached out to the same service location, asking for an explanation why they have done the same thing again 2 years in a row when their website says to replace them every 6 years. They point blank mentioned that they do not check service histories and closed the ticket, found it very rude. This is a very bad way to con your customers to charge for the same thing again which is not generally necessary.
My recommendation to all to please check your service histories for unnecessary repeats of service tasks, certainly I will be double checking every time I go for a service to Tesla.
When I had my tires rotated on my M3 LR about a month ago the mobile tech said 6 years on desiccant bag. When my wife had her M3 SRP tire rotate and air cabin filters replaced for year service we were told same thing. Also we were told "no way" you need wiper blades right now ( 1 year ).
I think like anything common sense on these will go a long way.
Is there an official Tesla manual and guide for annual service? For the first 75,000 miles I used to come in for routine annual maintenance and now they say its no longer necessary. Mostly they just replaced the brake fluid, cabin/carbon filter, and whipper blades and washer fluid, plus usually a laundry list of complaints.
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