Excellent how-to video!
I'll have to explore this at some point... But I don't know if I even WANT to know if I have a problem.
I have great skepticism that even if I found coolant on the sensor and told the service center there was a failed seal, that they'd do anything to address it. More likely, they'd insist that unless the unit has completely failed and/or thrown an error, they won't replace/evaluate it for warranty claim.
So even if I find a problem, I'm then stuck rolling the dice between it failing under warranty (I have a year left) or paying out of pocket to have it rebuilt-- of which there is no one in my part of the country doing that kind of work--- and I'd be voiding the warranty coverage that remains.
Which then puts me back at being annoyed that drive unit and/or battery swap costs are still so expensive. When I purchased 7 years ago it was my (faulty?) assumption that since either can be replaced in about an hour and have intrinsic core value, that a complete failure outside of all warranty would eventually be a relatively cheap and quick repair that could be commonly obtained. And here we are... With $22k batteries and $5-15k (?) drive unit replacements. <sigh>
You're probably right on the note of the service center not taking the issue seriously (in fact, I've heard as much from at least one person who did find coolant leakage and got in touch with their service center). I'd say its definitely worth a shot though, as it would be better to try and fail than to not try at all... BTW, technically, based on the Moss-Magnussen warranty act, Tesla cannot void warranty coverage just because you repaired the car yourself (or had a 3rd party shop do it for you). If your drive unit failed after being rebuilt, they
might be able to void coverage for the drive unit itself, but
legally they cannot do that without proving that prior repairs done caused the failure (any they certainly can't do it for any other components that are unaffected by the repairs done).
If your coolant seal is leaking without you knowing, it can certainly cause irreversible, catastrophic damage to the drive unit (not to mention potentially leave you stranded somewhere) if not caught in time. That includes: motor seizing, inverter short circuit/failure, bearing failure, etc. If you can catch a coolant leak before it completely destroys the drive unit, then it can be rebuilt for much cheaper than it can be replaced. In the case of our shop, a drive unit rebuild with new/upgraded bearings and seals costs $4,000. Unfortunately a "destroyed" drive unit doesn't have much of any core value...
We typically do 2-3 drive unit rebuilds here at our shop every week, and by the way, we get cars shipped here from not only all over the country, but all over the world. In fact, we have cars here right now from Louisiana and Washington, plus another one that should be arriving soon from Connecticut. Wherever you are may seem far away, but cars get shipped cross country all the time, and it's probably not as expensive as you may think.
