My first major out of warranty repair - Superbottle Replacement

[joebruin77]

I have a 2018 Model 3 Performance with about 47K miles. The car has been running fine and I did not get any notifications that anything was wrong. I went into Service Mode to look up some data and, while in Service Mode, I noticed 2 service alert notifications: 1) "VCFRONT_A249_coolantValveBadMode" and 2) "VCFRONT_a210_coolantValveCalib".

I just dropped off the car at my local Tesla Service Center. The service rep said that they will do a diagnostic evaluation, but most likely I will need to have the Superbottle replaced.

In general, I have been very pleased with Tesla service and I trust them. But, in the immortal words of Ronald Regan "Trust but verify". I just wanted to find out from others who have had similar warnings and experiences if this all sounds valid and legit.

Thank you,
Joe

 

[jjrandorin]

I have a 2018 Model 3 Performance with about 47K miles. The car has been running fine and I did not get any notifications that anything was wrong. I went into Service Mode to look up some data and, while in Service Mode, I noticed 2 service alert notifications: 1) "VCFRONT_A249_coolantValveBadMode" and 2) "VCFRONT_a210_coolantValveCalib".

I just dropped off the car at my local Tesla Service Center. The service rep said that they will do a diagnostic evaluation, but most likely I will need to have the Superbottle replaced.

In general, I have been very pleased with Tesla service and I trust them. But, in the immortal words of Ronald Regan "Trust but verify". I just wanted to find out from others who have had similar warnings and experiences if this all sounds valid and legit.

Thank you,
Joe

Since service mode is generally supposed to be for Tesla techs, the very first question I would have had for Tesla is "is there a user facing version of this alert? If not, if its important and something will need to be replaced, why is there no error in the car regular alerts? What would have happened if I had not been looking in service mode?

(these questions assume there were no user facing alerts and you were just poking around in service mode).

 

[joebruin77]

Since service mode is generally supposed to be for Tesla techs, the very first question I would have had for Tesla is "is there a user facing version of this alert? If not, if its important and something will need to be replaced, why is there no error in the car regular alerts? What would have happened if I had not been looking in service mode?

(these questions assume there were no user facing alerts and you were just poking around in service mode).

I had the exact same thought. In fact, when I first arrived to drop off the car, the service rep basically said that since there were no "customer side" alerts and since I only found out by going into Service Mode, then most likely there is really nothing that needs any attention. But then he looked up my service request / order in their system and said that actually, based on the specific alerts the car is giving, they should take a look at it.

My guess is that sometime soon there would have been a "customer side" alert on the car. But its just a a guess.

 

[jjrandorin]

I had the exact same thought. In fact, when I first arrived to drop off the car, the service rep basically said that since there were no "customer side" alerts and since I only found out by going into Service Mode, then most likely there is really nothing that needs any attention. But then he looked up my service request / order in their system and said that actually, based on the specific alerts the car is giving, they should take a look at it.

My guess is that sometime soon there would have been a "customer side" alert on the car. But its just a a guess.

Since this is going to be a "customer pay" situation, If it were my car, I would have not taken action unless or until the car told me to outside of service mode. I actually dont look in there much at all (like 1-2 times a year if that) just for that reason, so that I dont feel like I should be doing something about something in there, unless the car tells "me" to with a user facing alert.

Anyway, let us know how it goes.

 

[FatFalcon]

If a coolant valve isnt calibrated, it's probably stuck partially open. It may still flow well enough to cover 'normal' use cases with decreased efficiency, but wouldn't be able to handle high-demand situations (supercharging on a hot day, for example). Better to get it fixed now than on your next road trip IMO.

 

[joebruin77]

Just in case anyone else sees the same error codes I listed in my original post, this is what Tesla service found:

"Verified coolant valve was not able to achieve calibration. Inspected and found valve mechanism bound up inside superbottle. Replaced and rechecked superbottle. Alerts no longer present and superbottle calibrated correctly".

So if you see those error codes, you may need to have your superbottle replaced.

 

[todd2fst4u]

How much did Tesla charge for the repair?

 

[joebruin77]

How much did Tesla charge for the repair?

The total for parts and labor was just over $1,300