Radiator Coolant Leak ($600 Repair)

[C_A_Braun]

On Sunday we returned from a roadtrip in our 2016 Model S RWD and plugged the car in as normal. A couple hours later but well before charging should have completed, I got an alert that charging had stopped. I was not able to resume charging from my phone so I went to the garage and found the Red Ring. I unplugged and plugged in and went back to green flashing. I was about to return inside when I noticed a large puddle of blueish fluid coming from behind the left wheel. I opened the door and on the dash was a "Low Coolant Contact Tesla Service" warning.

I immediately unplugged the car and captured a 50 second video of the leak and the puddle associated and called Tesla Service.

Within an hour our S was on a flatbed and headed for service.

Today service contacts me and tells me that the radiator is busted and it is a $600 repair. I asked why is not not covered under warranty and was told that there was "Evidence of outside influence" and that "Rocks had penetrated the front grill and radiator causing the leak".

I asked for some pictures to help me understand because we had not struck any objects nor had any rocks struck the car in the day(s) prior to the leak. They sent me the 3 pics attached to this post as evidence that there was outside influence and therefore this is not a warranty issue.

I am by no means a car guy but I don't see any holes or anything else indicting rock penetration. They say that because there are a couple of drops of fluid on the grill that is all the evidence they need that the damage occurred on the front of the radiator which could only be caused by outside influence.

Any professionals out there care to share their opinion based on my short youtube video and the pics from the SC?

 

[MorrisonHiker]

It's hard to tell from those pictures but it's entirely possible a tiny piece of gravel caused the issue. I had to replace the radiator twice in 20 years in my CR-V because of leaks caused by gravel.

 

[Jan Fiala]

Had the same issue.

The radiator is of a bad design as the fins are in line with the coolant tubes. On more advanced radiators the tubes are hidden behind the fins, so that any foreign object hits the fins first and doesn't protrude and puncture the tubes itself ..

 

[mrElbe]

I wonder if adding some screening in front of the radiators would be a good preventative move.

 

[C_A_Braun]

Based on Jan's comment I was just thinking the same thing mrElbe. Certainly cant hurt I suppose. I may spend some time seeing what I can rig up this weekend.

 

[Tam]

..."Evidence of outside influence" and that "Rocks had penetrated the front grill and radiator causing the leak"...

The radiator has no protection from dust, dirt, gravel, small rocks so what else they expect? Customers pay for their faulty design?

 

[C_A_Braun]

The radiator has no protection from dust, dirt, gravel, small rocks so what else they expect? Customers pay for their faulty design?

Seems so. I wonder if the loss of coolant had done damage to the battery or motor or anything else would also result in out of pocket cost to fix?

Sorry, the radiator damage was caused by an outside influence that started a chain reaction of events that ultimately destroyed your battery and the cost to repair will be $20,000 or whatever the cost of new battery is and not covered under warranty.

 

[Gixx1300R]

Aluminum radiators can be repaired by pressure testing and welding the hole, any good radiator shop can do this. Cost varies but it is usually no more than $100 to fix

 

[rooter]

Oh man, I'm sorry but that can not be fixed. You'll have to junk the car. PM me and I'll help you out with that.

PS - It's not polite to fart while you're doing a video.

 

[odguy]

Warranty for Radiator Leak

See the thread above, price went up too.

 

[mvotb]

Go there and take close up pics of the radiator then have them show you specifically where they claim this rock damage is. If they can't show you exactly where the damage is, they can't determine that a rock did it, A small rock or gravel should not damage a radiator, if it can damage their radiator then they should have protected it. Ask them if they plan to replace the radiator with new. Then ask if it is a different design that will lesson the chance of rock damage. If they can't show you where this rock damage is and it is not visible with bent fins, then tell them you expect them to warranty it. If they have a better design now you would also expect them to warranty it as insufficient design quality. A radiator tube can leak without anything hitting it.

 

[C_A_Braun]

PS - It's not polite to fart while you're doing a video.

Sorry, my GI Tract was in emission testing mode and if farts weren't funny our cars wouldn't be able to do so on demand.

 

[C_A_Braun]

Go there and take close up pics of the radiator then have them show you specifically where they claim this rock damage is. If they can't show you exactly where the damage is, they can't determine that a rock did it, A small rock or gravel should not damage a radiator, if it can damage their radiator then they should have protected it. Ask them if they plan to replace the radiator with new. Then ask if it is a different design that will lesson the chance of rock damage. If they can't show you where this rock damage is and it is not visible with bent fins, then tell them you expect them to warranty it. If they have a better design now you would also expect them to warranty it as insufficient design quality. A radiator tube can leak without anything hitting it.

I have asked the SC, and they have agreed, to hold on to all parts that they replace so that I can take a closer look.

 

[ckoval7]

May car should be done at the shop in the next day or so. They said the coolant leaked out at the service center when they went to power the car up to discharge the battery. Hopefully I don't have a surprise bill when I pick her up. I'm not sure how the leak happened. It went into the shop for an internal HV battery fault.

 

[maximizese]

Your not the only with radiator problems:

Low clearance scrape leads to broken radiator | Tesla

My guess is a rock probably didn't cause the radiator to leak, but the design and tolerances are too strict for our everyday driving situations. Potholes, uneven suspension loads, speed bumps, dips, and parking bumpers probably create more flex on the low positioned radiator than it can handle. It seems folks are also experienced broken control arms too. My suspicion is that some radiators just aren't designed to carry you all the way through the life of your ownership. I'm also on clublexus.com forum for support of our Rx400h and it was alarming how many of us experienced a leaky radiator on the left end-tank between 80K-100K miles. Luckily it was a cheap fix ($100 for a Denso unit), but the point is that some vehicles have an expected failure rate for components and it's likely out of an inadequate design or production flaw. Just look at the Firestone Wilderness tire/Ford Explorer issue. Now proving this would be the hard part, but as more TMS are driven over the time and more miles are accumulated we will see data plots for expected component failures.

 

[D.E.]

I have asked the SC, and they have agreed, to hold on to all parts that they replace so that I can take a closer look.

If you pay for a repair, you have the right to have the parts they replaced. Those are still your parts. They are part of the car that you own. It isn’t that they agreed to hold on to those parts, those removed parts are still yours, not theirs.

If they replace parts under warranty, then they are swapping working parts for your nonworking parts. You do not have the right to keep the old replaced parts.

 

[Gixx1300R]

 

[David29]

View attachment 377462 View attachment 377463 View attachment 377464 View attachment 377466 View attachment 377467 View attachment 377468

What are we looking at here? is this a damaged radiator? Not the same one as OP's, right?

 

[AMPd]

What are we looking at here? is this a damaged radiator? Not the same one as OP's, right?

It looks like photos illustrating just how many rocks can strike the radiator

 

[rooter]

Only the center one is coolant. The two flanking ones are freon condenser and supercool.

But they are pretty banged up. Somebody's been following gravel trucks too closely.

But where's the ankle-buster, er, 'ankle guard'?