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Received Model 3 Today - SO many problems

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Excellent. One comment: electric snowblower. See K-man’s YouTube posts. :D

Didn't care for the toy electric snow blowers they have in the stores, - I've gone through several of the plug-in models, and my current one, a 15 ampere "SNO-JOE" (the biggest Snow Thrower that is electric that you can buy) is barely enough for light snow. Heavy Western NY Snows require my recently completely 'HOME converted' 3 horsepower 240 volt model (at full load, it draws 13 amps, but can draw upwards of 35 amperes prior to stalling - while developing 7 1/2 horsepower). Base Snow Blower is a 23 x 24" CASE (dual stage), with an automotive style 2-speed gearbox as well as an extremely rare DUAL input Augur, and no belts anywhere - the power take off from the 3 HP motor (3450 RPM) is a single chain drive.

Wasn't sure it would work so just got a "Smith & Jones" (Chinese) $115 motor from Harbor "JUNK" Tools. Had to shroud the air-inlet with a
old rear seat VOLT floor mat to keep the Snow, Salt and water out of the windings and centrifugal switch.

Last month's unbelievably HEAVY snow killed all the gas snow blowers on the street. Was watching people run them and they constantly had to either restart them, or severely 'back off' on the snow. Mine just barrelled down the sidewalks with my 200 foot cord and the snow went flying away - but I could tell the unit was 'just on the verge' of stalling - but it worked! My neighbor 2 doors down who sold me the SNoBlo minus engine couldn't believe how much power the thing now has.

I could tell the machine was WORKING since when I was done after around an hour, the motor seemed Luke Warm whereas it was usually stone cold. Its Overload protected, but the 20 degree F air is blown right past the protector, preventing it from tripping it is so darn cold.

In case anyone is wondering - I plug the unit into my Tesla 14-50 receptacle since its at the front of the garage anyway, where the snow is.
'
 
Hah. Now that's a point. I installed a backup 14-50 [see sig] on my 100 A circuit to the HPWC's so I definitely have a feeder for an electric snowblower.... Hm... Anyone want to purchase a fossil Ariens? :D

Thanks for the report!

PS: Of course we haven't had snow in NoVa worth digging out the snowblower in three years now....
 
Hah. Now that's a point. I installed a backup 14-50 [see sig] on my 100 A circuit to the HPWC's so I definitely have a feeder for an electric snowblower.... Hm... Anyone want to purchase a fossil Ariens? :D

Thanks for the report!

PS: Of course we haven't had snow in NoVa worth digging out the snowblower in three years now....

Why not take your Ariens (if its a 30" or larger model - learn from my experience and put at LEAST a 5 hp 3450 rpm electric motor on it), and convert it to 240 volts electric - one advantage is the same expensive extension cord can now handle 4 times the power for the same percentage voltage (drop). Motors are nameplated at 230 volts, and they'll run down acceptably to around 210 or so, so you can go really long with the cords before worrying about the voltage (pressure) drop.
 
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literally scoured google

When people misuse the word "literally" it drives me figuratively insane... o_O

Aaa!! I've been Rick Rolled! Heard that expression before, now I can say it has happened to me.

BRAVO!
Great post. Hope you enjoy the car, I have no idea when I'll ever see mine. Got on this list in Feb of 2017.

As to what to do with your old ICE one, I've contemplated that, too. I have a 12 year old and for some reason I want her to learn how to drive a stick before they don't exist anymore, so wondering how to hang on to it... have you considered using it to make money on Turo or similar?
 
View attachment 291594
This picture suggests otherwise: it's just a cap on a little tank of fluid, like every car I've ever seen. Ok it's an S not a 3 but that's only cause I didn't keep looking for a 3, but one of the videos that did deep dive into the car showed leads me to believe no big change there - and why would there be, it's tried and true.

Flushing the ABS bits is likely a different story, much like most modern cars - you need special magic to activate the pump to remove fluid from that sub system. That said, in all the cars that had that which I have owned and maintained, flushing the main system seemed to be fine (a little ABS activation via brake pedal/driving trickery) but of course, to each their own for their own car..

Oh, that’s where the blinker fluid goes!

:p
 
Today marks the completion of a 2-year wait for a Model 3. It's been a really long wait. So much anticipation. I've literally scoured google daily for Model 3 news for 2 years. And now there's a Model 3 in my garage, and I didn't think I'd have that many problems, but I do. Here goes....


1) I have this Hyundai Sonata that I dunno if I should keep just in case of the apocalypse. Maybe gas is easier to come by than electricity when anarchy reigns?

2) I'm so rarely going to drive that Sonata - having a hard time deciding what kind of insurance coverage I should put on it.

3) I only have a 2-car garage and one spot for visitors on the driveway. The S and 3 are now in the garage, and the Sonata is now relegated to the guest spot, so when people visit, they have to park on the street.

4) People are stopping me to ask about the car. I'm an introvert; can everyone just leave me alone?

5) Need to figure out what to do with a bottle of brake fluid, couple containers of antifreeze, and some 5W30. Maybe I'll donate them to my mechanic. Least I can do for taking business away from him.

6) Inspection sticker is always a challenge. His software doesn't seem equipped to handle the lack of ODB emissions data, which means a longer visit with him just fiddling with his computer.

7) My snowblower runs on gas, so occasionally I have to run to the gas station to fill up my gas cans. If I end up selling the Sonata, do I go to the gas station with the Teslas? Parking at the pump with an EV just seems so wrong. Do I park the car elsewhere and stand at an empty bay with my cans?

8) Here's a short video with some of the strange sounds I've been hearing from my Model 3, both while driving and while parked.

9) There's a gigantic panel gap between my driver-side front door and rear door. I probably could see it from Mars - oh wait, the door's open.


To all the bloggers and 'journalists' who come to this forum cherrypicking threads for bad news to put in your Tesla hit pieces, this is a big F U to you all. You've just been trolled. For those of you who don't know better than to use forums to draw conclusions, please do yourself a favor and read up on selection bias.

Going to spend some time with the car and will be back with some real feedback shortly.



Super fun post! First I didn’t want to read it because any bad Tesla news or review makes me literally depressed for the rest of the day. But I care way too much for Tesla (including my Model S) so I couldn’t resist to read about your M3 “issues”. ; )
Totally made me laugh out loud with your gas snowblower dilemma!! (By the way, you could get a Boring Flame Thrower from Elon to melt the snow, regardless of what fuels that thing : ).
 
I’m tapping the underground tanks and other abandoned vehicles.

Normally an apocalypse would be bad but it’d make me not worry about dismal TSLA performance so everything has a bright side.
It will be far easier for me to charge from my solar array than to try and pull gas from an underground tank. The SunnyBoy inverters have a secure power option that allows me to charge even if the grid is down. Granted only about 20 miles a day but that is better than nothing.
 
Didn't care for the toy electric snow blowers they have in the stores, - I've gone through several of the plug-in models, and my current one, a 15 ampere "SNO-JOE" (the biggest Snow Thrower that is electric that you can buy) is barely enough for light snow. Heavy Western NY Snows require my recently completely 'HOME converted' 3 horsepower 240 volt model (at full load, it draws 13 amps, but can draw upwards of 35 amperes prior to stalling - while developing 7 1/2 horsepower). Base Snow Blower is a 23 x 24" CASE (dual stage), with an automotive style 2-speed gearbox as well as an extremely rare DUAL input Augur, and no belts anywhere - the power take off from the 3 HP motor (3450 RPM) is a single chain drive.

Wasn't sure it would work so just got a "Smith & Jones" (Chinese) $115 motor from Harbor "JUNK" Tools. Had to shroud the air-inlet with a
old rear seat VOLT floor mat to keep the Snow, Salt and water out of the windings and centrifugal switch.

Last month's unbelievably HEAVY snow killed all the gas snow blowers on the street. Was watching people run them and they constantly had to either restart them, or severely 'back off' on the snow. Mine just barrelled down the sidewalks with my 200 foot cord and the snow went flying away - but I could tell the unit was 'just on the verge' of stalling - but it worked! My neighbor 2 doors down who sold me the SNoBlo minus engine couldn't believe how much power the thing now has.

I could tell the machine was WORKING since when I was done after around an hour, the motor seemed Luke Warm whereas it was usually stone cold. Its Overload protected, but the 20 degree F air is blown right past the protector, preventing it from tripping it is so darn cold.

In case anyone is wondering - I plug the unit into my Tesla 14-50 receptacle since its at the front of the garage anyway, where the snow is.
'
oh that's awesome, i may have to look into doing this, but I have 150' of sidewalk to clear, in a tight parabola shape, so a 240V extension cord will be a real drag. I wonder how many battery packs this will take...
 
Today marks the completion of a 2-year wait for a Model 3. It's been a really long wait. So much anticipation. I've literally scoured google daily for Model 3 news for 2 years. And now there's a Model 3 in my garage, and I didn't think I'd have that many problems, but I do. Here goes....


1) I have this Hyundai Sonata that I dunno if I should keep just in case of the apocalypse. Maybe gas is easier to come by than electricity when anarchy reigns?

2) I'm so rarely going to drive that Sonata - having a hard time deciding what kind of insurance coverage I should put on it.

3) I only have a 2-car garage and one spot for visitors on the driveway. The S and 3 are now in the garage, and the Sonata is now relegated to the guest spot, so when people visit, they have to park on the street.

4) People are stopping me to ask about the car. I'm an introvert; can everyone just leave me alone?

5) Need to figure out what to do with a bottle of brake fluid, couple containers of antifreeze, and some 5W30. Maybe I'll donate them to my mechanic. Least I can do for taking business away from him.

6) Inspection sticker is always a challenge. His software doesn't seem equipped to handle the lack of ODB emissions data, which means a longer visit with him just fiddling with his computer.

7) My snowblower runs on gas, so occasionally I have to run to the gas station to fill up my gas cans. If I end up selling the Sonata, do I go to the gas station with the Teslas? Parking at the pump with an EV just seems so wrong. Do I park the car elsewhere and stand at an empty bay with my cans?

8) Here's a short video with some of the strange sounds I've been hearing from my Model 3, both while driving and while parked.

9) There's a gigantic panel gap between my driver-side front door and rear door. I probably could see it from Mars - oh wait, the door's open.


To all the bloggers and 'journalists' who come to this forum cherrypicking threads for bad news to put in your Tesla hit pieces, this is a big F U to you all. You've just been trolled. For those of you who don't know better than to use forums to draw conclusions, please do yourself a favor and read up on selection bias.

Going to spend some time with the car and will be back with some real feedback shortly.
ROFLMAO
 
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It must be a Tesla thing. We bought a Sonata (the kids nicknamed it Frank as in Sinatra) with 100k on it, hoping it would last until the M3 arrived. At 145K it shelled out the engine, but fortunately it was under recall and Hyundai put in a brand new one:)
 
#7 - I took a road trip up to Quebec last weekend from NY and I parked at the pump to use the restrooms during breaks just to spite them and also to clean the windshield of all the bugs. I've seen ICE cars parked in Tesla Superchargers, so it all works out.
 
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I finally sold the Sonata. Took it to CarMax, and they offered $6500 for it. Tesla quoted me $5000, which wasn't necessarily bad; it was around what KBB was suggesting was fair trade-in value.

The Sonata has pretty much sat idle since I got my Model 3 back in late March. I took it around the block every weekend to keep things going, but it was a pain to keep doing that. Now that winter and snow has arrived, I didn't want to mess with it anymore. Glad CarMax treated me well.