Hi - sorry I didn't update on this or the other vehicles, I didn't realise it had been two and a half years since I bought this project !
The good news is I have been driving it around for almost two and a half years, most of the damage was bolt on suspension or panel work with only the bonnet hinge mounting needing replacing and welding.
It took about three weeks to repair and paint and fortunately no MCU or electronic issues arose on this vehicle.
The P100 is a different story though - it was the first Tesla I bought and the last to be tackled so it languished in my works for nearly two years. We kept moving it from place to place and charging it and finally started and completed its repair this march.
All was looking good until we left the 12v battery connected and the car ' live' whilst it's passenger front door was removed and taken to the paint booth for a respray. The car was still on 2017 software as it's battery disconnected most of it's down time.
It seems the car received an over the air software update which aborted half way through due to errors - namely faults in the passenger front door !
After a few attempts to update the software it literally locked the car down - tow mode cannot be engaged and two messages saying software updates needed - contact Tesla service appeared.
These last few months have been spent trying to get the update sent as , although the other cars have had 4 or 5 in the past 6 months, this car received none.
The wifi is good, signal good, ebay works ok and the offending door replaced a while ago. Apparently the car can't be 'seen' on the network, which is worrying.
It was bought as an unsupported car and no updates were solicited by ourselves - indeed the damned thing found a free BT Wi-Fi signal from our neighbouring factory as we'd never even put broadband passwords into it ! We would have been happy with the original screen and layout - at least the thing was mobile.
We are now hoping to get a ranger out to do a laptop download, though being unsupported I'm barred from the App so can't arrange this .
I have been told that cars off grid for too long can be flagged up by Tesla HQ and suspect this may be why the communication is down.
There are plenty of posts on this and other EV forums/sites relating to the odd take Tesla has on 'ownership' and how these cars can be treated like iphones with options and functions or functionality ( eg battery performance) changed to cover Tesla against their over optimistic warranties.
I'm hoping to resolve - or get a straight answer for this one in the next week - keep you posted.
Worse problem is with a 2017 , still under warranty Model X75 , a car I've also driven for two years without problem - except for MCU 'touchscreen unresponsive' - Yes MCUv1 memory failure.
This has progressively worsened and been a nuisance for the past 6 moths and in the past 2 months has worsened to being frozen most of the time.
It was booked for a new MCU , failed front drop link and couple of other things and taken to service centre. Within a few hours they called to say there was a bare HV wire in the front wheel arch, their technician panicked and work had been suspended , there was also some damage to a HV battery skid plate - the car has now been classified 'unsupported' !
This was annoying - I know the full implications of 'unsupported' e.g written the car off (in value) and barred from using supercharger network, also I knew there was no such damage to this or any HV cable on the vehicle as I have the facilities and check thoroughly before I recommission or charge these EV's.
With the vehicle back at work we stripped the arch liner, pulled the first responder loop (just for sure) and properly inspected the cables.
Conclusion - no damage whatsoever to the cable,it's insulation or any part of it. Observation - the orange outer most wrap of cotton tape does along it' s full length have occasional loose threads and these to a novice (who may need to go to Spec.Savers) are dirty copper colour!
Photo's were sent and it was booked in for it's screen to be replaced at another service centre - took it and then , as if they'd not looked at it's file before I dropped it off I was told the car was unsafe to work on .
They agreed to check the offending wires and found these to be ok but reported that due to two dents of 3mm on the HV battery skid plate and a scratch effecting the corrosion resisting coating on the battery casing the car was still unsafe to work on !
Yes I know the 12V and HV battery are isolated for the MCU to be changed anyway, plus I've driven the thing for two years - but that's how they want to avoid any warranty claims whatsoever it seems.
At this point I'm remembering all the conspiracy chat on here about push back on warranty work , faults always being blamed on the customer etc. but mainly the stories about getting older vehicles off the supercharger network - it's the rapid charging that hammers the battery life and therefore warranties.
As of today I have asked for a quote for an exchange battery unit which I will put to my insurer , when I send the insurer photo's of the 'Damage' they are referring to I am prepared to be laughed at out loud - but I'm getting used to it when I tell Jaguar and Mercedes owners of my dealings with Tesla.
Even if the battery is changed I'm wondering what the next 'catastrophic' fault will be to keep this car from qualifying for warranty work - wrong colour screenwash or perhaps non original tyre valve caps - who knows ?
