Model 3 - All wet and muddy [Salvage - Flood damaged vehicle]

Hi team,

After going through a heap of threads I have decided to post my journey. Hopefully with the help of multiple minds and experience/expertise I will succeed in the end!

I acquired this 2021 Tesla Model 3 Standard range plus (single motor) here in New Zealand after a cyclone. The car was basically under water(fresh) for some time, potentially a few hours to a day. With the huge amounts of rain also came huge amounts of silt.
The vehicle sat for approx 3months as insurance did their thing.

Now feel free to follow along and dont be shy to chip in.

 

[HamCandle]

This guy took everything out of his model 3 and it remained operating.

What comes to my mind is if the HV system and drivetrain are working you don't need necessarily to have everything else fixed to have a functional Tesla. Of course you might want, but it can be done one by one with time while you still have a functional vehicle.

But make sure the drive train and battery can be saved before going deeper on this rebuild.

I had a bit of a hold up getting into the penthouse with the 5 lobe torx sockets. Turns out this isn't an item I can source easily in NZ.
Funny enough I was just watching that video and it really pulls things down to the bare bones (literally) but very educational in its own right also.

 

[BigNick]

This guy took everything out of his model 3 and it remained operating.

What comes to my mind is if the HV system and drivetrain are working you don't need necessarily to have everything else fixed to have a functional Tesla. Of course you might want, but it can be done one by one with time while you still have a functional vehicle.

But make sure the drive train and battery can be saved before going deeper on this rebuild.

So in what state (assuming the dude was in the USA) can you drive a bodyless car on the street without immediately getting hassled by law enforcement?

I notice he kept the driver side B pillar so the seatbelt retained an attachment point, but in a wreck that pillar no longer has a roof to support it. It would bend rendering the seatbelt virtually useless. (Likely why he couldn't test on a drag strip, it would never pass tech.)

 

[ICE5891]

So in what state (assuming the dude was in the USA) can you drive a bodyless car on the street without immediately getting hassled by law enforcement?

I notice he kept the driver side B pillar so the seatbelt retained an attachment point, but in a wreck that pillar no longer has a roof to support it. It would bend rendering the seatbelt virtually useless. (Likely why he couldn't test on a drag strip, it would never pass tech.)

Yes I am not arguing on that. I think he has a poor understanding (or just neglect for the video entertainment) on what is required to legally drive. He probably kept things that are common check list on inspection like seat belt, break light etc... But obviously that doesn't apply to a heavily modified car.

My only point here is that OP probably can get his tesla functional without many of the sensors, cameras, sound system and other electronics because the car wont stop working due missing / failure of those. This give him time to look for spare parts one by one with time. Given that the fundamentals are functioning and he can recover the drive train and battery.

 

[emptyspaces]

Service.tesla.com and get a free subscription to the factory workshop manuals

 

[HamCandle]

So I finally got into the penthouse and did some battery analysis today. There was a hint of moisture inside, condensation rather then puddles.
However after testing the pack was holding 354v nominal so that's a good sign
Now I can carry on with cleaning up the body control modules and car computer.
I will drain the oil in the drive unit and look for sign of water ingress also.

 

[HamCandle]

OK this will most likely be the final post to this thread. It is really the lesson for anyone else doing or thinking of attempting this.

Ultimately it all comes down to how much you want to spend. But I had a reasonably solid figure in mind that I used to keep myself in check. I think everyone who wants to do something like this needs that magic number also.

Once I removed the interior and could then access all the modules and start to assess whether they could be reused or not. LF BCM / RF BCM / Car computer / touch screen / SRS module. HV pack and drive unit. The big ticket items like the HV pack and the drive unit are all fine and my guess after seeing the state of this thing is that most would be fine after getting wet. But it's the others that don't fair so well. The car computer / SRS / the BCM's had early signs of corrosion. So the sensible thing to do would be to swap them all out for new or like new used items. This part isn't that expensive as probably like the rest of the world, NZ now has quite a few tesla's on the road.
The biggest cost is getting Tesla to program the new car computer to the modules etc. That's the deal breaker, let's just say it would be more then 50% of the cost of the entire car in the first place.
So unless you have a mate that is a Tesla tech or you have pirated software (anyone have a copy of that? PM me) Then I think it makes this task somewhat counter intuitive.

That being said - it all can be done. And there is nothing particularly hard about doing it. Just a lot of hours.

All is not lost and I will still get the value out of this thing. The HV Pack will be removed and used in my solar setup. The remainder will be harvested for a collision damage repairs and the rest parted.

 

[EV1980]

Fair play to you for giving it a go in the first place