Oil change affect warranty?

[EVortex]

Yeah, I was considering doing this until I realized you have to pull the driveshaft out... I have access to a lift but still seems like a pain just to change the fluid. The front drive unit fluid change is interesting as well as you access it from the frunk, and you need a drain pain with a hose attachment.

I'm really curious to see more oil analysis done on higher mileage Tesla's. The only one I've seen is the one I posted above that was apparently "loaded with iron". It's worth noting that was an older Model S which my understanding is they made changes sometime in 2015 to fix a lot of the issues they were having before, but I'm not sure how much that would change the fact the fluid is still going to have contaminants. Not sure what the long term effects on the drive unit are with 4x the level of acceptable iron... can't imagine it's good. However, I'm guessing "good enough" that the probability of drive unit failure due to unchanged fluid before the 8 year warranty is up is so low that Tesla decided it's not economically worth changing.

Makes sense though if you plan on keeping the vehicle for a while (beyond the warranty) to change the fluid.

Does anyone know if Tesla will still change the drive unit fluid upon request? If so, how much do they charge?

I had the fluid changed in both drive units in my year old S75D last week at the Rocklin CA service center for $157.

 

[shred86]

I had the fluid changed in both drive units in my year old S75D last week at the Rocklin CA service center for $157.

Thanks for the info. Did you just request them to do it or was it for a specific reason? Just curious since it's no longer a "normal" maintenance item.

 

[EVortex]

Thanks for the info. Did you just request them to do it or was it for a specific reason? Just curious since it's no longer a "normal" maintenance item.

I was in for the enhanced intrusion detection install and requested it since I was going to be there anyway. I want to minimize SC visits, but plan on keeping the car for several years so it made sense to me to pay an extra $157 to remove metal particles and receive the benefits of refreshed fluid. Risk of drive unit failure is lower now than it was a few years ago, but even the new and improved units may still fail - it’s worth it to me to do some preventative maintenance to help avoid a potential future emergency trip to the SC.

 

[aerodyne]

Tcoombes...what was the fluid like after a year? Did you ask if there was anything on the drain plug magnet or other debris?

 

[EVortex]

Tcoombes...what was the fluid like after a year? Did you ask if there was anything on the drain plug magnet or other debris?

I didn't request a sample of the old fluid or picture of the drain plug magnet. The car has 12.6k miles on it with 90% in Chill mode, always garaged, and very little bad weather driving - not sure if this matters or not, but I was not expecting a lot of debris or contamination. In my experience with gear boxes and heavy equipment the initial fluid change is most important for the life and health of the unit. Failure stats provide decent predictability of unit life expectancy so companies like Tesla can do the math and determine if it is more cost effective to replace fluids under maintenance at specific intervals or not. I don't care about the multitude of units that drive the failure stats, I just care about mine - so that's why I spent the $157 and was not too worried about analyzing the old fluid.

 

[bart_dood]

Although I kept the old fluid from my change it doesn't have any analysis value either, I snapped a photo of my motor PN and its a Q motor so a replacement unit. I have no idea when it was changed, how many miles are on it or if its had a fluid change already. Like tcoombes I just want my unit to last long after the warranty has expired and considering it has no pump or filter in it to remove debris it seem prudent to change the fluid at a sensible regular interval

 

[bart_dood]

Well done writeup! I have also used Blackstone on my Porsches with excellent results
Blackstone Laboratories – Oil Analysis – Learn What's Going On In Your Engine

I'm skipping the oil analysis this time; the reason being the motor is a replacement Q motor, so I have no idea when it was swapped, how many miles are on the oil or how many oil changes the motor actually had. Its probably worth it on my next interval as I will know all this information. However that is around 2 years out from now.

 

[bart_dood]

Hey folks, an update on this. Just did another fluid change at 139600 miles so about 20k after the last one. The fluid was pretty clean, cleaner than last time. So I'm pushing the next one out to 40k miles. Should be fine at this change interval, don't have photos as I did a rush job, same procedure as before