I paid 2 repair bills totalling about $9242 within 3 days. The Model S was bought used inventory and had a 4 year warranty expiring in 2023 (just before Tesla reduced their coverage to 1 year). This warranty was on top of the battery and drivetrain warranty First, let me just describe a bit of background since others may find this useful if it happens to them.
Just before christmas, Dec 18th I had a warning light : "Vehicle coolant is low". I booked an appointment for service and was scheduled for January 2022, the car sat in my garage connected to charger unused, then on December 20th, the vehicle would not charge and I sent a message to Tesla service through the tesla app. The service adviser asked me if I could come in the same day. The service center on Railside in Toronto was 18km from my home so I agreed to drive the car in.
Not long after I entered the highway, the car entered safe mode, where it would take 1 minute to accelerate from 0 to 10kph (it was stop and go on the highway). Within a few minutes, there was a warning sign to pull over and I exited the highway. Car crawled another 300 meters or so past the first traffic light and then says "shutting down now". It stopped completely and would not move out of Park. Outside temperature was about 0C. (32F).
I was blocking the right lane of a 2 lane street shortly after the exit of a highway at rush hour so in spite of the emergency 4-way flashers, a lot of drivers were still annoyed at me enough to lean on their horns (some repeatedly). The tesla app "Roadside Assistance button" was not working at all for me, I messaged the service advisor and was given a number to call. To cut to the chase, I was extremely lucky as the nearest flatbed truck available was supposed to be 40 minutes & 50km+ away but one happened to be at the same tesla service center I was heading for - it took him a mere 15minutes to show up just after another tow truck (non-flatbed) showed up and offered his services which I had to decline --- one primary reason for a flatbed (according to the flatbed truck driver) is that the battery is low and may get damaged if towed any other way.
I was then told over several escalating estimates within the app (which you had to approve for them to continue) that the car needed lots of parts : suspension front and back, LH and RH, condensor, radiator, condensor, valves, radar replaced. As the reason they quoted was impact damage. I was surprised as the only thing I can recall was mounting the curb in an underground garage at low speed a week prior, but I suppose it was possible so I didn't think much of it. The final invoice which I had to approve totalled $6581.27 P&L . I figured it was just one of those things and agreed to get them all repaired. However as they had to order a part from the US my estimate for completion kept changing every couple of days until it finally was finally fixed on Jan11th which was the day I picked up the car. On the drive back home, just before I was to exit the highway applying the brakes gave a very loud repeated grinding sound - I could have driven the car back to the service center but instead just used the app to book a service appointment. I described the problem, making a note that I had just taken the car back from service.
Brought car in back to them asap and then had a message with an estimate of full brake service with f&b L&R brake pads, rotors etc.
Anyone who has driven a Tesla knows with regen braking, cruise control and the weight of these cars knows how rare it is you have to apply brakes at speed. Just releasing the accelerator would slow the car down within seconds, and braking typically would start below 20kph. Besides that the car was driving flawlessly before I brought it in for service.
When a service advisor called me, I asked for someone to inspect the car at the ramp first to ensure that everything was tightened and reassembled properly before they replace these parts. I also reminded him of two things (1) There was no mention of the brake issues when they returned the car to me and (2) the car was driving perfectly when I dropped it off before Christmas. 30 minutes later I had a call that the mechanic confirmed that the car needed all brake pads replaced and the estimate was $2000+. In spite of my repeated request that someone lift the car up to take a look before any work starts, the service advisor stated that the mechanic was certain the car needed new brakes.
Instead of this continuous aggravation, I just said, fine, I approve the work, just return the parts to me so I can enlighten my friends at the TMC with a nice tesla christmas story. And so the work was completed the next day, I came in morning 10am and picked up the car, enjoyed a couple of days preparing to document this tale to the community.
I measured brake pads and looked at the rotors ---- the pads had 8-9mm of depth. - I added a picture where I measured 8.69mm of depth. To me the rotors and the pads looked fine, though there was a fresh new pit on one of the rotors - I can't tell how the pit was caused - and I have no evidence if it was caused by a hammer after removal or if a loose brake assembly was moving and rattling in that few minutes of driving I did after it had completed service. Or perhaps it was legitimate and something caused the rotor to get a new pit in that few minutes I drove the car.
There's pictures below.
[Moderator note: Changed initial drop-off date from January 20th to December 20th.]
Just before christmas, Dec 18th I had a warning light : "Vehicle coolant is low". I booked an appointment for service and was scheduled for January 2022, the car sat in my garage connected to charger unused, then on December 20th, the vehicle would not charge and I sent a message to Tesla service through the tesla app. The service adviser asked me if I could come in the same day. The service center on Railside in Toronto was 18km from my home so I agreed to drive the car in.
Not long after I entered the highway, the car entered safe mode, where it would take 1 minute to accelerate from 0 to 10kph (it was stop and go on the highway). Within a few minutes, there was a warning sign to pull over and I exited the highway. Car crawled another 300 meters or so past the first traffic light and then says "shutting down now". It stopped completely and would not move out of Park. Outside temperature was about 0C. (32F).
I was blocking the right lane of a 2 lane street shortly after the exit of a highway at rush hour so in spite of the emergency 4-way flashers, a lot of drivers were still annoyed at me enough to lean on their horns (some repeatedly). The tesla app "Roadside Assistance button" was not working at all for me, I messaged the service advisor and was given a number to call. To cut to the chase, I was extremely lucky as the nearest flatbed truck available was supposed to be 40 minutes & 50km+ away but one happened to be at the same tesla service center I was heading for - it took him a mere 15minutes to show up just after another tow truck (non-flatbed) showed up and offered his services which I had to decline --- one primary reason for a flatbed (according to the flatbed truck driver) is that the battery is low and may get damaged if towed any other way.
I was then told over several escalating estimates within the app (which you had to approve for them to continue) that the car needed lots of parts : suspension front and back, LH and RH, condensor, radiator, condensor, valves, radar replaced. As the reason they quoted was impact damage. I was surprised as the only thing I can recall was mounting the curb in an underground garage at low speed a week prior, but I suppose it was possible so I didn't think much of it. The final invoice which I had to approve totalled $6581.27 P&L . I figured it was just one of those things and agreed to get them all repaired. However as they had to order a part from the US my estimate for completion kept changing every couple of days until it finally was finally fixed on Jan11th which was the day I picked up the car. On the drive back home, just before I was to exit the highway applying the brakes gave a very loud repeated grinding sound - I could have driven the car back to the service center but instead just used the app to book a service appointment. I described the problem, making a note that I had just taken the car back from service.
Brought car in back to them asap and then had a message with an estimate of full brake service with f&b L&R brake pads, rotors etc.
Anyone who has driven a Tesla knows with regen braking, cruise control and the weight of these cars knows how rare it is you have to apply brakes at speed. Just releasing the accelerator would slow the car down within seconds, and braking typically would start below 20kph. Besides that the car was driving flawlessly before I brought it in for service.
When a service advisor called me, I asked for someone to inspect the car at the ramp first to ensure that everything was tightened and reassembled properly before they replace these parts. I also reminded him of two things (1) There was no mention of the brake issues when they returned the car to me and (2) the car was driving perfectly when I dropped it off before Christmas. 30 minutes later I had a call that the mechanic confirmed that the car needed all brake pads replaced and the estimate was $2000+. In spite of my repeated request that someone lift the car up to take a look before any work starts, the service advisor stated that the mechanic was certain the car needed new brakes.
Instead of this continuous aggravation, I just said, fine, I approve the work, just return the parts to me so I can enlighten my friends at the TMC with a nice tesla christmas story. And so the work was completed the next day, I came in morning 10am and picked up the car, enjoyed a couple of days preparing to document this tale to the community.
I measured brake pads and looked at the rotors ---- the pads had 8-9mm of depth. - I added a picture where I measured 8.69mm of depth. To me the rotors and the pads looked fine, though there was a fresh new pit on one of the rotors - I can't tell how the pit was caused - and I have no evidence if it was caused by a hammer after removal or if a loose brake assembly was moving and rattling in that few minutes of driving I did after it had completed service. Or perhaps it was legitimate and something caused the rotor to get a new pit in that few minutes I drove the car.
There's pictures below.
[Moderator note: Changed initial drop-off date from January 20th to December 20th.]
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