Our first annual service

[JimVandegriff]

We dropped our X off at the Rocklin, CA, USA service center on Feb. 16th, and received notification that service was completed today. We had a few items that we asked our service techs to check on and repair (loss of driver profiles due to miscalibration of front and rear seats, windshield wiper blades not covering lower portion of driver side windshield), and there were a few Tesla originated items on their list (replacement of front door latches, replacement of sun visors). We dropped "Dona Bella" off with 15,684 miles on it, got a loaner S 85 for our 300+ mile trip home, and today received notice that the vehicle service was complete.
What was of major interest to us on the invoice was the measurement of tire tread depth. Outer tread depth on all 4 tires was 7/32, center depth on front tires was 8/32, rear tires was 7/32, but inner depth clearly had taken a hit - 4/32 on front tires, 3/32 on rears. We are speculating about why there was such a discrepancy. Could it be related to towing a trailer for 7000 miles? Could it be misaligned tires?
The service notes indicate a 4 wheel alignment was performed during the visit, but I'm sure going to be watching that tire depth more closely.
Total cost for the service was $625. The car is being shipped to us on Monday.

 

[McManX]

inner depth clearly had taken a hit - 4/32 on front tires, 3/32 on rears. We are speculating about why there was such a discrepancy.

What do you have your suspension set to? Some have found excessive inner tread wear when suspension is set to always low.

 

[JimVandegriff]

What do you have your suspension set to? Some have found excessive inner tread wear when suspension is set to always low.

Suspension set to standard.

 

[ZERO260]

The problem might be improper tire inflation

 

[ToddS]

Shouldn't the car tell us if there is under- or over-inflation?

Asking for a friend (don't pick my X up until next week). LOL

 

[systemcrashed]

I also noticed some uneven wear, mostly on left rear tire. It has significantly worn inner tread. Right rear was evenly worn. Service Center said it was alignment. I drive using the low and very low settings. Hoping an alignment can get my new set to wear as evenly as the right side.

 

[BerTX]

View attachment 216279
The problem might be improper tire inflation

Modern tires don't really do that anymore unless we are talking SERIOUS over or under-inflation. I doubt that is the case here.

 

[number12]

Did they make you pay for shipping back?

Did they offer to pick it up?

 

[bonaire]

Towing a trailer probably showed up as lower miles per charge and that power transfer goes somewhere - through the tires. All wheels are not straight-aligned but rears have some toe-in and fronts have a little toe-out. With a trailer, your rear tire wear is obviously accelerated by the weight and power needed to transfer to the tires to the road. Also, fronts get involved in torque vectoring as well, so they also wear similarly. Anyway - it's the cost of being active and heavy - tires may need replacement at what, maybe 25-30k miles. P85+ owners in 2013 or so had some excessive rear tire wear due to RWD and acceleration effects. Some found toe-in was more than usual and a TMC member offered new control arms to adjust that a little along with owners asking service centers for alignments to make sure toe in was not to aggressive. But without toe-in, you get rear-end "drift" while going straight and it may feel uneasy to the driver (it's the feeling you get when driving over a steel deck bridge).

 

[JimVandegriff]

Did they make you pay for shipping back?

Did they offer to pick it up?

No, the delivery back to us is free to us as we are more than 200 miles from the assigned service center. The service center has picked up the vehicle in the past to correct a few things when we first got our X, but since we were passing by the center on the way home from the Bay Area, we brought it in to them for service.
A little wrinkle has developed on their end - the service center needs the logistics department at Tesla to transport the car carrier and our X to us because of distance, so we won't get the car back until next Thursday or Friday, but we are enjoying the S 85 loaner (although we like our X much more).

 

[JimVandegriff]

Shouldn't the car tell us if there is under- or over-inflation?

Asking for a friend (don't pick my X up until next week). LOL

I have never seen an under or over inflation signal on our X, but the S 85 loaner we have while our car is in for service gave me warning signals (with a numerical tire pressure indication) on all 4 tires yesterday for under inflation. I corrected this with some air at the local gas station, and the signals went away.
I'm debating about the possible over inflation of the tires. Tow pressure in the tires is supposed to be higher than normal, but I don't remember if I corrected it when we returned from our trip. I need to pay more attention to this portion of towing life.

 

[Solarman004]

We dropped our X off at the Rocklin, CA, USA service center on Feb. 16th, and received notification that service was completed today. We had a few items that we asked our service techs to check on and repair (loss of driver profiles due to miscalibration of front and rear seats, windshield wiper blades not covering lower portion of driver side windshield), and there were a few Tesla originated items on their list (replacement of front door latches, replacement of sun visors). We dropped "Dona Bella" off with 15,684 miles on it, got a loaner S 85 for our 300+ mile trip home, and today received notice that the vehicle service was complete.
What was of major interest to us on the invoice was the measurement of tire tread depth. Outer tread depth on all 4 tires was 7/32, center depth on front tires was 8/32, rear tires was 7/32, but inner depth clearly had taken a hit - 4/32 on front tires, 3/32 on rears. We are speculating about why there was such a discrepancy. Could it be related to towing a trailer for 7000 miles? Could it be misaligned tires?
The service notes indicate a 4 wheel alignment was performed during the visit, but I'm sure going to be watching that tire depth more closely.
Total cost for the service was $625. The car is being shipped to us on Monday.

Jim, thanks for the info. It will be interesting to hear if others that tow heavy trailers are getting uneven wear, even at standard suspension + tow mode.
Just curious as I approach my 1st annual inspection, did you opt for the pre-paid maintenance package? For an EV that is supposed to have far lower maintenance than an ICE vehicle, the annual maintenance costs are 2 to 3 times more than I've ever paid for a non-EV car. On our Leaf, it's pretty much 1) run battery diagnostic, 2) rotate tires 3) replace brake fluid every 15k miles.
Thanks again for being the TMC towing guru.

 

[JimVandegriff]

Jim, thanks for the info. It will be interesting to hear if others that tow heavy trailers are getting uneven wear, even at standard suspension + tow mode.
Just curious as I approach my 1st annual inspection, did you opt for the pre-paid maintenance package? For an EV that is supposed to have far lower maintenance than an ICE vehicle, the annual maintenance costs are 2 to 3 times more than I've ever paid for a non-EV car. On our Leaf, it's pretty much 1) run battery diagnostic, 2) rotate tires 3) replace brake fluid every 15k miles.
Thanks again for being the TMC towing guru.

We did not opt for pre-paid maintenance because it was not offered to us. (We were well over the 12,500 mile recommendation for annual service), and the pre-paid plan did not show up for us on our page on the tesla website.
We also have a Leaf, and yes, the yearly maintenance is much cheaper. We felt satisfied with the price and service on the X.

 

[highedu]

I have never seen an under or over inflation signal on our X, but the S 85 loaner we have while our car is in for service gave me warning signals (with a numerical tire pressure indication) on all 4 tires yesterday for under inflation. I corrected this with some air at the local gas station, and the signals went away.
I'm debating about the possible over inflation of the tires. Tow pressure in the tires is supposed to be higher than normal, but I don't remember if I corrected it when we returned from our trip. I need to pay more attention to this portion of towing life.

Could also be inherit camber of Model X

 

[SD_Engnr]

Could also be inherit camber of Model X

Excessive camber with an incorrect toe setting will chew through the inner tire. Keep an eye on your toe setting and consider an alignment while your X is in the low setting.