PEM second failure

[guillaumef]

I'm looking to buy a roadster with its first PEM. My guess is that the PEM will fail shortly. My question is the following. After PEM repair, is it known to fail again? In other words, was it just the first iteration of the PEM that needed fixing, or is it some kind of routine repair that is going to come every few years?

And is it possible that there is a shortage of PEM eventually? What will happen after that? Thanks!

 

[X.l.r.8]

I think you are second guessing the car. Mine still has its first PEM, 120,000km and I have no plans on replacing it. Unless it shorts out. then I'm got to repair it properly as a one time fix. Finding PEM's now is a problem so it will only get worse, however I have a lot of faith in my hot rod community. I am guessing in 5 years there will be programable PEM's off the shelf, water cooled and will allow more power to be pushed to the motor, will readily accept custom built battery packs and will have most of our issues properly sorted. Unless you suspect the car in question already has a problem I would worry more about what rear tires you are going to put on next.

 

[Oricle]

I think you are second guessing the car. Mine still has its first PEM, 120,000km and I have no plans on replacing it. Unless it shorts out. then I'm got to repair it properly as a one time fix. Finding PEM's now is a problem so it will only get worse, however I have a lot of faith in my hot rod community. I am guessing in 5 years there will be programable PEM's off the shelf, water cooled and will allow more power to be pushed to the motor, will readily accept custom built battery packs and will have most of our issues properly sorted. Unless you suspect the car in question already has a problem I would worry more about what rear tires you are going to put on next.

Hopefully someone will come out with some sort of kit that will use common parts from a Model3. They will be dime-a-dozen in junk yards in a few years.

 

[guillaumef]

I'm reading a lot on repairs and the most costly one seems the PEM. If you don't do it soon, the battery pack could be bricked. So I'm a bit worried about that with the possible lack of parts, that's all...

 

[X.l.r.8]

Again I don’t see the correlation. The PEM doesn’t brick the battery. Most if not all that have repaired their PEM have not had an issue with the battery, your going to pull the plug straight away to remove the PEM. It’s a bone of contention on the PEM fan connector burning itself out, in turn overheating the PEM. Tesla traditionally replaces the PEM and asks no questions. The costly repair right now it the 12v board, that one scares me. Or the gearbox, I doubt you can get a replacement, although gears cut are not as bad as you would think. There is already aftermarket kit to put a model S engine with a Volt battery, that’s the start of a lot more to come. The reason the repair gets so much bandwidth was because until recent the only repair was to wave goodbye to the car on a flatbed and wave goodbye to $10k, now for $300 you can not only repair but improve it. That’s worth posting time and time again.

 

[Bunnak]

As a potential buyer of a used Roadster myself, I could see why there is concern about the PEM. I don't mind getting the PEM fixed/replaced if Tesla had them. The problem is...if Tesla no longer makes PEMs then what are we to do?

 

[Roadster]

There are preventative solutions out there. Gruber offers this:

https://www.gruberpower.com/PEM-Retrofit

@Bunnak, you may also want to take advantage of local, independent Tesla/Roadster expert Javier at Executive Motorwerkz (@ExecMotorwerkz) up in Gardena as mentioned here:

Roadster (and Model S or X) service - Los Angeles area

 

[Bunnak]

Thanks I’m in So Cal and close to Gardena. This Roadster group is so awesome!

 

[Bunnak]

There are preventative solutions out there. Gruber offers this:

https://www.gruberpower.com/PEM-Retrofit

@Bunnak, you may also want to take advantage of local, independent Tesla/Roadster expert Javier at Executive Motorwerkz (@ExecMotorwerkz) up in Gardena as mentioned here:

Roadster (and Model S or X) service - Los Angeles area

Has anyone used Gruber Power for Roadster issues? Are they legit? It would be great to have an alternative to Tesla SC.

 

[X.l.r.8]

Assuredly he’s reading this, or at least someone who works there is. I have had no dealings as far as purchases but they certainly have knowledge and can help a lot. Right now there pretty much the only other game in town but they have a lot of parts you may not be able to locate at the SC. They also sell just what you need. So if you want to replace the troublesome heat sink in the PEM, they will sell you just the heat sink material. You want to change that meddlesome plug for the fan, guess who will sell you what you need. They have their fans and haters and I suppose with good reason on both sides. Are they legit, they work on roadsters and have been around since the beginning, they have certainly made some mistakes but everyone learned from them and they shared the results. But as always YMYV

 

[supersnoop]

Has anyone used Gruber Power for Roadster issues? Are they legit? It would be great to have an alternative to Tesla SC.

Historic "Tzero" that inspired Musk to create Tesla's Roadster burned down in a fire

 

[spaceballs]

I got an good ESS sheet from Gruber.

Has anyone used Gruber Power for Roadster issues? Are they legit? It would be great to have an alternative to Tesla SC.

I have bought an ESS battery sheet from them, worked fine.

 

[m0rph]

Historic "Tzero" that inspired Musk to create Tesla's Roadster burned down in a fire

Wow didn't know about that fire. A bad day in Roadster history.
I have used their services (PEM repair), but the car had more issues than only the PEM. Eventually everything has been replaced in my car (battery, pem & motor). So I can't really judge the work done by Gruber..

 

[Bunnak]

Wow didn't know about that fire. A bad day in Roadster history.
I have used their services (PEM repair), but the car had more issues than only the PEM. Eventually everything has been replaced in my car (battery, pem & motor). So I can't really judge the work done by Gruber..

It sounds like you ultimately went through Tesla for battery, PEM and motor replacement, correct?

 

[m0rph]

It sounds like you ultimately went through Tesla for battery, PEM and motor replacement, correct?

Correct. The car was not charging with the repaired PEM, and Tesla was unable to find the root cause of the problem. The car was at the SC for a whopping 1062 days...

 

[ExecMotorwerkz]

@Roadster thanks for the Recommendation. @X.l.r.8 couldn't of said it better in a few years there will be more solutions for it. As they are available now PEM can be repaired. We also Repair Switch packs and I'm currently testing on repairing the roadster Drive Unit. It will get better on the years to come

 

[Kerios]

@Roadster thanks for the Recommendation. @X.l.r.8 couldn't of said it better in a few years there will be more solutions for it. As they are available now PEM can be repaired. We also Repair Switch packs and I'm currently testing on repairing the roadster Drive Unit. It will get better on the years to come

Personally I think the parts which are more concerning are the vehicle ECU/management systems, bespoke control systems, heater controller and anything else which which controls essential functions e.g. dash instrument pod which we don't have the original code for to replace, the PEM because it fails frequently has significant historic knowledge around it now, ditto battery.

 

[dhrivnak]

I'm looking to buy a roadster with its first PEM. My guess is that the PEM will fail shortly. My question is the following. After PEM repair, is it known to fail again? In other words, was it just the first iteration of the PEM that needed fixing, or is it some kind of routine repair that is going to come every few years?

And is it possible that there is a shortage of PEM eventually? What will happen after that? Thanks!

I have a 2008 with over 50,000 miles and the PEM has been solid. While there have been some failures my impression is reliability has been good overall.

 

[EricUSC]

The 2008 Roadster 1.5 PEMs are solid aren't known to fail.

 

[gregd]

The 2008 Roadster 1.5 PEMs are solid aren't known to fail.

As an owner of a 2.0 Roadster, I worry about one of the reported failures, the insulation under the power IGBTs breaking down over time, leading to a sudden catastrophic failure. Are the 1.5's constructed differently in this regard?