M3 been in bodyshop for 5+ months - both batteries dead

[conzam]

My M3 LR was damaged in a non-fault accident back in September, nothing serious but alloy, front passenger wing and bonnet were damaged as well as some suspension. Insurance assigned Enterprise to manage the claim and car was given to a bog standard bodyshop to deal with (not Tesla Approved and I didn't argue for it at the time as I wasn't aware there were any apart from Dartford)

Car has been sitting in the bodyshop waiting for parts for around 5 months now "awaiting parts".

The HV battery drained to 0% back in December, they were no doubt aware of this as they were moving it around the bodyshop at this time. The car was still able to communicate with app until the start of January. Notification popped up saying the 12v battery needed replacing and then 6 weeks ago the car seems to have shut off completely and no longer communicates with the app. I had emailed them multiple times asking them to charge it before this died but seems I was fobbed off.

Seem to get constant excuses from them, saying they needed to order skids to move the car to the charger (what bodyshop doesn't have skids?) and now today 2 weeks after that they're saying they have a stripped down car directly infront of it and it cannot be moved but they'll do it "as soon as possible"

I'm assuming the 12v will be toast as it's been so long, but does anyone have any info on possible damage to the battery if it's left drained for this amount of time?
I've also asked multiple times for a list of parts they're waiting on, again with more promises that they'll get back to me with it but it never amasses.

Car is only on a 2 year lease, so I'm thoroughly peeved it's taken this long and sick of the 530e courtesy car I've got.
Not sure where to go onwards from here. Do I complain to Enterprise who are handling the claim or would it be my insurer? Should I contact Tesla regarding it?

Thanks for any help

 

[Tam]

...I'm assuming the 12v will be toast as it's been so long...

Yes. It is safe to say goodbye to your 12V battery after this long.

...any info on possible damage to the battery if it's left drained for this amount of time?...

It's a breach of terms, as the manual clearly says:

"Never allow the Battery to fully discharge."

It's a lottery right now: If lucky, it can still be resuscitated. Otherwise, the one who didn't follow the manual will need to pay.

 

[muster39]

Raise a formal complaint with your insurer. They (rather than their contractor Enterprise) are ultimately responsible for the repairs to your vehicle.

 

[conzam]

"Never allow the Battery to fully discharge."

Even showed them the messages in the manual saying this and that it can damage the 12v and other parts but still they didn't seem to care

 

[stopcrazypp]

12V is pretty much guaranteed dead. Car is supposed to go into a deep sleep mode to protect the HV battery, so theoretically it shouldn't be damaged. Given 12V is dead, the contactors will be disconnected, so there should be no further vampire loads other than the BMS itself.

This is an article on the Model S when it came out, Model 3 should be further improved given it has lower vampire drain:

Plug It In | Tesla

www.tesla.com

That said, they really should not have allowed it to reach this state. Try to get them to plug it back in ASAP. Don't know why they would blow you off, unless they don't really care about potentially being on the hook for the HV battery (which is about $18k) if they end up damaging it due to negligence.

 

[bo3bdar]

Does the shop not understand that they can charge the car via 120V AC? Anyone can drag a high quality extension cord as necessary to use the Mobile Charger. If it's just sitting anyway, time to charge is irrelevant. And can be the difference between the shop getting a $15,000 bill for a new battery because it's their fault and Enterprise is not going to say, "oh that's OK."

 

[pgkevet]

It's easy to be wide after the event.
At this stage I’d be in touch with the insurers who have to have primary responsibility and I’d be insistent on feedback from them as they chase things down the line of responsibility. Indeed, it might be better to ask them to flat-bed to a proper tesla approved shop despite the likely even longer delays in getting it sorted - and point out the impeding disasters etc and ask for a tesla loaner.

I did have a minor ding on my S before Christmas and was offered a local body shop. The first thing I did was ring them to see how familiar they were re Teslas and offer to walk them through using it etc if they were unaware. As it goes they didn't want to touch it as soon as they realised the marque and after calling the insurers back it's booked into a Tesla approved shop albeit 80 miles away..hopefully going in Monday for the repairs. I wasn't in a hurry 'cos it was driveable at that time until the under tray insulation came loose last week.

 

[Jason71]

Does the shop not understand that they can charge the car via 120V AC?

They probably don't have the required 3500mile long cable for that
But you are right if they have the UMC and an extension lead they could just plug it into a normal 230v wall socket for an hour or two to give it enough power to move it. Which is just another reason to believe they just don't care.

 

[GRiLLA]

What a nightmare. After 5 months it's clear they just aren't going to get parts.

Enterprise are a criminal organisation, they will be billing your replacement car at an inflated rate to the responsible insurance so they have absolutely no incentive to get this resolved and to use a reputable garage. We had a terrible experience with them and their claims company Total something for a previous car that was written off and at every stage they were very clearly ripping us off. Ultimately if the other sides insurance chooses to dispute the costs (unlikely but possible) you could end up in court to explain why you needed that car as you are legally obliged to minimise the cost.

I believe you should be able to go back to your insurer and insist that they repair your car under your insurance, they will explain that this won't cover your excess but at least you get back to the point where there is actually a motivation to complete the repair to a cost and therefore time constraint, if you have legal they should then recover the excess.

The other option if it was possible is if the responsible driver's insurance offer to repair it under their claims company, in my experience that works best because again there is an incentive to complete and there is no additional claim.

 

[Durzel]

5 months out of action on a 2 year lease, insane. Presumably you've been expected to carry on making those repayments too? That's getting on for at least 25% of the contracted term where you haven't had use of the car.

Since I presume you don't have any direct contractual relationship with Enterprise, or the garage, I would be raising hell with your insurer and the finance company, and would be asking about rejecting the car and/or terminating the lease agreement early.

As @GRiLLA said they're probably not particularly motivated to get it repaired quickly, and if they have no experience of Teslas or EVs generally then I'd have serious doubts about the quality of the repair.

As for damage - 12v battery obviously scrap, HV could have a reduced lifespan if its been another two months (so far) sat there since it was on 0%.

I wouldn't want it back personally.

 

[Jason71]

I have bought many used cars and have, of course, been very wary of buying anything with signs of previous accident damage. I think when it comes to used EV's this is a whole additional reason to avoid anything with evidence of repairs. How many stories have we had on this forum of batteries being abused/neglected while cars are out of action?

 

[plisken]

Did you mention which bodyshop has the car, apologies if I missed it above. I'd genuinely like to know. Is it in the Glasgow area?

 

[Marmaduke 1169]

5 months wow , I had a non fault accident late last year , my car went into a Tesla approved body shop in the North East and I had it back within 3 weeks ( 2 weeks waiting for parts and 4 days to repair ), it had a front wing and front bumper changed

 

[Exy1]

Does the shop not understand that they can charge the car via 120V AC? Anyone can drag a high quality extension cord as necessary to use the Mobile Charger. If it's just sitting anyway, time to charge is irrelevant. And can be the difference between the shop getting a $15,000 bill for a new battery because it's their fault and Enterprise is not going to say, "oh that's OK."

Simple and elegant solutions are often the best.

They probably don't have the required 3500mile long cable for that

The voltage drop on a 3500 mile cable would be such that it wouldn't work.

 

[LiamPope]

Simple and elegant solutions are often the best.

The voltage drop on a 3500 mile cable would be such that it wouldn't work.

Nah, not much to worry about. Quick back of the envelope calc I get you only need a conductor diameter of about 25" copper to stay about 5% volt drop, assuming a slow charge of only 10 A @ 120 V to keep the car alive. That's only about 17.5 million tons of copper, x2 for return leg, so only about 300 billion odd USD in raw copper plus a bit of insulation and stuff. Little bit pricey and difficult to install, but no probs, jobs a goodun.

 

[Adopado]

Nah, not much to worry about. Quick back of the envelope calc I get you only need a conductor diameter of about 25" copper to stay about 5% volt drop, assuming a slow charge of only 10 A @ 120 V to keep the car alive. That's only about 17.5 million tons of copper, x2 for return leg, so only about 300 billion odd USD in raw copper plus a bit of insulation and stuff. Little bit pricey and difficult to install, but no probs, jobs a goodun.

The reality of long distance power cables going thousands of miles is not so far away!

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The world's longest subsea cable will send clean energy from Morocco to the UK [update]

A 10.5 GW solar and wind farm is going to be built in Morocco, and it's eventually going to power 7 million homes in the UK.

electrek.co

 

[NewbieT]

Aren’t most interconnectors DC? I wasn’t sure if you get better range or it avoids synchronising grid frequencies. If you’ve got to go 120AC->DC you might as well go DC->240AC and give the poor garage a break (sounds like they could do with some help). Where is the cable being landed? I hear energy is cheap in Texas.

 

[Roy B]

Aren’t most interconnectors DC? I wasn’t sure if you get better range or it avoids synchronising grid frequencies.

Both, I think. Because water is a conductor, the varying magnetic field of an AC undersea cable would induce edie currents in the water, thus dissipating energy. But also, DC is convenient when connecting unsynchronised grids.

 

[DaveNN]

Minor no fault accident in early Dec (22)
NS rear panel.
Not even got a repair date yet...

 

[LiamPope]

Both, I think. Because water is a conductor, the varying magnetic field of an AC undersea cable would induce edie currents in the water, thus dissipating energy. But also, DC is convenient when connecting unsynchronised grids.

DC transmission has lower cable losses, only resistive losses compared to AC that has also reactive loss (capacitance and inductance), but also higher startup costs as you need expensive converter stations. The result is for shorter lengths AC will always be cheaper, then there will be a crossover length when DC becomes cheaper (when the lower losses pay for the converter stations). The exact length the AC/DC cost crossover occurs depends primarily on voltage, but also other system considerations.