Motor Swap?

[BlackMambaCoil]

What do you all know about motor swaps? I recently found out my car's motor had been replaced while owned by the previous owner, but I haven't been able to find anything about this!

 

[demundus]

Common at the SVC... uncommon in the wild.

 

[evp]

There was a rash of motor swaps under warranty due to the "milling noise" problem, a couple of years ago. That's been resolved with a design change. If the motor was swapped out by a service center, you have no cause for concern.

 

[BlackMambaCoil]

There was a rash of motor swaps under warranty due to the "milling noise" problem, a couple of years ago. That's been resolved with a design change. If the motor was swapped out by a service center, you have no cause for concern.

Right, not worried, just curious about it!

 

[xyeahtony]

its a pretty straight forward procedure and less complicated than it sounds. The drive unit is a self enclosed unit so they basically unattach one big piece from the car, lower it out, and put a new one in. Sort of like changing an AA battery in your remote control. Nothing like an "engine swap" in an ICE.

 

[bob_p]

Tesla makes their own motors.

Motor replacement for the early production Model S cars wasn't unusual, as Tesla refined the design and manufacturing.

Our 2012 S P85 had the motor replaced twice - due to excessive "balloon" noise during acceleration. After the last replacement, they had corrected the issue - and the motor operated fine with acceptable sound.

Unlike replacing an ICE motor (which is a big deal, due to all of the connections), replacing a Tesla motor (or the battery pack) is relatively simple.

The motors are designed for long life, and with the 8 year unlimited mile warranty, there shouldn't be any concerns about vehicles with motor replacements.

If it was an ICE, that would be a completely different matter...

 

[BlackMambaCoil]

Like I said, not too concerned or worried that it has a new motor, I'm just wanting to know a bit more about why some got the swap or what that means for the car itself and it's capabilities.

 

[bob_p]

The primary issue was the loud "balloon squeal" under acceleration. Not all motors had the issue. It took Tesla a while to find the cause. Initially they were replacing the entire motor (possibly sending the loud motors back to engineering for a tear down) and later when they found the problem, I believe they had a kit that the Service Centers could install to fix the issue.

Since we had a RWD performance motor, it's possible the issue was related more to the higher powered rear performance motors than the standard motor.

We haven't had this issue with our 2017 S 100D. There is some noise from the motors, but nothing like what we were hearing before they fixed the issue on our 2012 S P85.