Model 3 flood project car [salvage]

[Milligsc]

Hi folks, new member here. I am working on a 21 model 3 project with my son and looking for some guidance and parts supply. We have rebuilt several ICE flood cars and have had good success. Looking to learn about the Tesla platform (I have a plaid and used to have a P90D). I also have high voltage experience (230kV utility stuff), work with other scan tools quite a bit and used to be an aircraft mechanic.

I have done the HV isolation test, all good there. The battery looks to have been sealed well. No water in penthouse or battery, flood ports look good and the flood vents show no sign of water intrusion. Battery shows 17% charged on the screen up front. Pyro fuse and the other 3 fuses in penthouse are good. So I think the HV side of things are good.

Toolbox will communicate with the car but I'm getting can comm failures, I suspect the ECU/MCU is damaged but not sure which can error messages usually indicate that. My questions are:

• can I replace the ECU and or the right and left body controllers without coding the vin or other info (programming)?
• I don't have a key for the car but was able to transfer ownership in the app to myself. Will I need the key functionality to replace modules?
• Where can I buy parts?

Any info is appreciated. Thanks.

 

[Milligsc]

Ok, so it looks like I'm on my own here. I used toolbox to troubleshoot and it appears that VC right is bad and intermittent can failures on VC front. I am replacing VCright, VCleft, VCfront and the ECU/AP module. Bought them all from Ebay. Tesla svc tech tried to make a key for me but that failed. He showed me a few things and it looks like I can code the modules using toolbox and software downloads. The maintenance manual info also lays this out in some detail.

I have used other automotive scan tools (like autel maxisys) and so far the tesla tool seems to be very intuitive. The visual mapping of the can components, if accurate is a big help. I am a bit concerned about the main battery charging if it has been dead for 6 months but we will see when it accepts a charge (or not).

 

[Miata Head]

Please keep us posted. I'm curious how this will go and hope you are successful.

 

[Blake McBride]

Good luck; sounds like you have a lot of experience that's pretty relevant, but consider disconnecting all non-critical CAN (or even somewhat critical) during troubleshooting as a dead device (or worse, wounded) can put noise on the bus and make healthy things fail comms as well.

I do a lot of CAN hacking/coding, but for racecar stuff, not Tesla. Should be a fun project!

 

[KJD]

You probably have already done this but if not, try searching here at TMC for all the salvage threads. Some of them might be of use to you.

Salvage 2022 Model Y LR. High Voltage Battery contactors not closing. Car has the new Li-Ion 12v battery.

Salvaged Tesla with no Keys

Good luck with the project. Keep us posted. You might want to try searching for individual error codes on here and on youtube.

 

[brainhouston]

Not sure if Tesla runs CAN to backup camera but i've seen some youtube videos where that camera takes down the CAN bus..
Basically look at can signal with o-scope n plug/unplug everything on it till u get clear signal.
Battery should be fine. BMS will let u know if anything is wrong.

 

[coug77]

Working on flooded car as well. Mine was flooded just above airbag module which made only passenger dash airbag to explode taking windshield out as well.
Right now my challenge is still with airbag module. Cannot write direct message but sure would love to connect to share notes.

 

[Milligsc]

So I replaced vcfront, vcright, vcfleft and the main AP computer (although I suspect the old one is good). Got toolbox3 to communicate after assigning a fixed IP to the adapter. Toolbox connects with Tesla servers (Odin) and the car did a software update and I was able to switch ownership in the app. I could not however get toolbox to successfully run the procedures to replace VC front or any other modules. It simply failed to run.

The HV stuff under the penthouse looks like new, no water in there. The flood plugs looked good and I removed a flood port and it does not appear there was any water in there. The battery seems to be sealed very well. Pyro fuse was good and I did the HV isolation check to make sure the battery was in an open circuit. I did use HV gloves and a face mask when working on the HV battery components along with plastic HV tools. The battery has been sitting for about 6 months uncharged. Tesla guy told me its probably ok.

I ended up taking the car to the tesla shop here in Houston, they came to my house to make a key before I changed modules and it didnt work. So I towed the car there to have them make a key and code the modules in whatever order in required. I'm wondering if not having a key prevented me from coding the modules.