Minor bump rear collision.

[brjr]

I was stopped at a traffic light and distracted driver drifted into me. I just felt a slight bump. We pulled off, police called because driver couldn't produce license. Police arrived and verified credentials of driver and we exchanged info.
I am ready to leave things as they are. No visible damage. But, am wondering, could there be internal damage behind read bumper, such as sensors?

 

[zhu-]

If you don't even see a scratch outside I doubt any of the sensors are damaged.

 

[GreenMtnM3]

I was rear ended twice in the first year of ownership, both times at traffic lights by distracted drivers. In each case, my rear bumper cover was 'scored' by the bolts holding the front license plate of the car behind me. My parking distance sensors worked fine, none of the bolts hit the sensors themselves. To repair the damage, a new bumper cover would need to be installed and painted, and that was estimated to cost $900-$1200. I never got around to getting the bumper cover replaced, but this spring I removed the cover to install a trailer hitch. After carefully looking at the rear crash bar, I could not find any dent or bend in any of the structures of the car whatsoever. So I still have four little circles on my rear bumper from the two impacts. If the car is clean I can see them, it if is dirty, I can not. I can live with that.

The rear crash protection is designed to collapse in a hard hit. Its possible that yours is damaged, but it seems really unlikely that the plastic cover would be unscathed if there was damage underneath. If the bumper cover looks good, and the rear sensors work, and your trunk opens and closes without problem, I'd guess the car is likely fine.

 

[brjr]

Thanks for the reply. I noticed just this morning after driving and parking in the rain that when i put the the car in reverse that the upper left and right hand corners of the reverse screen showed obscured triangle with wavy sides and gray filling. Do you think this could be the effect of the rain or do i have something more to worry about? I am waiting for the rain to stop.

 

[LionXng]

I would definitely take it somewhere to get checked out. My visual inspection is meaningless and I would be wondering for the rest of the car's life if problem X was caused by this. Also, I believe he should have to pay his deductible for hitting a Tesla.

 

[camalaio]

Thanks for the reply. I noticed just this morning after driving and parking in the rain that when i put the the car in reverse that the upper left and right hand corners of the reverse screen showed obscured triangle with wavy sides and gray filling. Do you think this could be the effect of the rain or do i have something more to worry about? I am waiting for the rain to stop.

You're probably over-analyzing out of an abundance of caution, and finding something that was always there. Those two obscured triangles are the lower lip of the trunk where the handle (and camera) is. It always catches that in view

There isn't much to damage if they touched the plastic bumper cover alone. In the rain it's hard to see scratches (needs to be fully dry), which is about the only damage you'd expect. If one of the sensors was damaged it would be obvious - the car would at minimum be beeping at you or showing that it thinks it's close to something or actually put up a notification saying something is wrong with one of the sensors. Both occurred (though the notification seemed to come later) when I had a front sensor knocked out.

If they touched the trunk lid there might be more to be concerned about, but it sounds like this isn't what happened?