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Repairing a Flooded Tesla Model S : HOW-TO

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Pictures of each step along the way would be nice.
Do you have a Plan of attack?
On a project such as this.... the "Ready, Fire... Aim" approach could be interesting but painful (here I am sounding like Mr. Carson on Downton Abbey)

Without even lifting a finger, doing a visual inventory would be a good start. identification and grading the parts in a photographic manner would be good to have.

Many Tesla Parts I have seen have a code on the non-outward facing side (if there is one).

This could very will be a two car project, wherein you need a second S as a parts donor or recipient... A perfect marriage of parts to create one out of two halves.
 
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UPDATE


Gave my friend at tesla the vin number so he could check the car out, his words were "stay away dude, run far and fast, car was last alive 4 months ago, car is F***ED, had 47 faults before dying, internal faults with HV battery, only part
of the pac was working before end of life, definitely water in the pack"




This is before I told him I had already bought the car
 
It seems clear to me that the 12V battery is dead. But, if you go to charge it up and the car start communicates with the Tesla corporate network (either by the cellular link or by wifi) then corporate can deactivate the car. You might want to remove the cellular sim card and make sure that no wifi is granted to the car from your home network or a publicly accessible wifi network.

Once that is set, I would suggest to remove the frunk liners. The 12V battery would be visible as for a lot of hardware and electrical stuff, including the air compressor for the suspension.
Take pictures along the way! To remove the frunk liners, start with the piece that is on the center of the frunk, nearest the base of the windshield.

Keep us updated!

Franky
P85 2013

- - - Updated - - -

UPDATE


Gave my friend at tesla the vin number so he could check the car out, his words were "stay away dude, run far and fast, car was last alive 4 months ago, car is F***ED, had 47 faults before dying, internal faults with HV battery, only part
of the pac was working before end of life, definitely water in the pack"




This is before I told him I had already bought the car

Hmmm, Water in the pack is not a good sign at all. Was that the car that an old man died in it because he flooded it in a pool? (Passenger escaped the car unharmed).
That would at least show that it's freshwater.
This is the thread about the car in the pool:
85 y/o man died in his Tesla after he drove into a pool.

Franky
 
Last edited:
UPDATE


Gave my friend at tesla the vin number so he could check the car out, his words were "stay away dude, run far and fast, car was last alive 4 months ago, car is F***ED, had 47 faults before dying, internal faults with HV battery, only part
of the pac was working before end of life, definitely water in the pack"




This is before I told him I had already bought the car

Sorry. What does this mean for your project?
 
UPDATE

Gave my friend at tesla the vin number so he could check the car out, his words were "stay away dude, run far and fast, car was last alive 4 months ago, car is F***ED, had 47 faults before dying, internal faults with HV battery, only part
of the pac was working before end of life, definitely water in the pack"

This is before I told him I had already bought the car

Damn, that's disappointing. We've rarely (if ever?) seen a totaled and restored Model S come back from an HV Pack failure. Tesla's policies make it hard enough even when the damage is merely cosmetic. Sounds like you're going to need a miracle (or another donor car) to get this up and running. Best of luck. Let us know if we can help with anything.
 
There's a lot more that we don't know about Tesla's than we do. I understand Tesla's protectiveness at this point and agree with them. What they and EV's really don't need at this point is a bunch of half assed repair jobs driving around with problems that give EV's and Tesla's a bad image.

OTOH, projects like this and others will advance everyone's knowledge. Hopefully the problems are repairable and this car gets safely back on the road (excessive optimism is a good thing). Either way a lot will be learned. If my understanding of the battery pack is correct then it's possible that one section was violated and the others are OK. OP won't know until he gets in to it.
 
There seems to be a lot of misinformation regarding Tesla disabling salvage/ totaled cars. Maybe it's a matter of people using similar terminology to describe different things but this is not a thing that's happening. Tesla isn't shutting off cars simply because they've been salvaged. There are two things you can worry about Tesla doing to your car, both of which are going to be the least of your worries:

They disable the onboard 3G/ LTE radio
- This is an easy one to fix. Simply tether the car to your phone and boom, back in business.

​They disable supercharging - And honestly, who cares? :) At this point I'm sure that's the least of your worries.

They're not going to make it so the car doesn't drive though. There are very few people that have had salvage cars and gone through that whole process first hand with Tesla. Everyone else is playing a game of telephone and every time I see someone post about what a salvage car does/ doesn't get it's a more unbelievable claim than the last time. I'm waiting for someone to claim that if your car connects to the internet Tesla will send a unicorn via SpaceX to cut the fire safety loop. In my case they never disabled the 3G radio and as far as I know, the new owner isn't having issues with it either. Supercharging was disabled though.

The good news is that these cars seem to be relatively straightforward as far as design goes. Aside for the motor and battery they are as simple and easy to diagnose as any other car, maybe a bit easier because you don't have a giant engine up front around all the components. So it's easy to get in there and see what's doing what or not doing it.

Now then, with respect to getting this car fixed, depending on how much you've budgeted to fix it and how much you've paid for it, you might consider going through Tesla's re-certifcation process. From my talks with Tesla's body shop, the recertification process is simply to verify that the frame is not damaged and that frame repairs (if present) were properly performed to Tesla's specs. They require the car be torn down and 30+ pictures of very specific components are sent to Tesla.

If this car is verified flood salvage and clearly was not in an accident, you might have a really easy time getting Tesla to re-certify it since there's no frame damage for them to look for. The process costs $1500 and if the car passes they'll re-enable supercharging and your onboard 3G radio. The important thing here is that they'll then service the car. So in theory they could read the faults, pass them on to you and you can start chasing them down one by one. I'm not sure how that works in practice though.
 
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You've figured this out already but the rear seat is just folded down on one side, not missing. Personally I think this is a doable job. Not by me certainly but by someone more capable than me. The battery pack and motor are designed to be water tight, and frankly there's less to be damaged by flooding than an ICE car. I think the rate limiting step will be how willing the local service center is to plug it in and help out.

This is correct, I peeked into the car and it looks as if that's the case, however the drivers seat is fully reclined and blocking access to me pulling it back up.

Rest assured that I am far less capable than you think.

Lastly, I don't believe that the pack is designed to be watertight as it more than likely would need some type of venting for fire purposes.

What does restricted mean? (In this context)

Also, if you start taking stuff apart - film it. When mine's out of warranty I know I'll need to replace the charge port that breaks every 5,000 miles on me...


restricted meaning they will only sell parts at their discretion.. If I give them a salvage vin... more than likely they won't give me a thing


This could very will be a two car project, wherein you need a second S as a parts donor or recipient... A perfect marriage of parts to create one out of two halves.

This is what I'm thinking as well, with the pricing of Tesla parts I may be better off buying another donor vehicle
Good luck!

I have been watching auctions for a while just wishing I could get a totaled P85 to strip down and redesign into a much lighter 1 seated race car for autocross.
still dreaming.

Good luck P85s go for tons of money at auctions

It seems clear to me that the 12V battery is dead. But, if you go to charge it up and the car start communicates with the Tesla corporate network (either by the cellular link or by wifi) then corporate can deactivate the car. You might want to remove the cellular sim card and make sure that no wifi is granted to the car from your home network or a publicly accessible wifi network.

Once that is set, I would suggest to remove the frunk liners. The 12V battery would be visible as for a lot of hardware and electrical stuff, including the air compressor for the suspension.
Take pictures along the way! To remove the frunk liners, start with the piece that is on the center of the frunk, nearest the base of the windshield.

Keep us updated!

Franky
P85 2013

- - - Updated - - -



Hmmm, Water in the pack is not a good sign at all. Was that the car that an old man died in it because he flooded it in a pool? (Passenger escaped the car unharmed).
That would at least show that it's freshwater.
This is the thread about the car in the pool:
85 y/o man died in his Tesla after he drove into a pool.

Franky

Tesla can stop 3G access I'm sure but I have yet to see 100% concrete proof of them them truly "disabling" the car, what does that mean anyway?

There's a lot more that we don't know about Tesla's than we do. I understand Tesla's protectiveness at this point and agree with them. What they and EV's really don't need at this point is a bunch of half assed repair jobs driving around with problems that give EV's and Tesla's a bad image.

OTOH, projects like this and others will advance everyone's knowledge. Hopefully the problems are repairable and this car gets safely back on the road (excessive optimism is a good thing). Either way a lot will be learned. If my understanding of the battery pack is correct then it's possible that one section was violated and the others are OK. OP won't know until he gets in to it.

I'm leaning toward me opening the large pack and more than likely removing the failed individual modules. I've been looking at this guy's auctions on ebay and he sells in individual pack modules... or perhaps I'm being too optimistic?


of course I am

There seems to be a lot of misinformation regarding Tesla disabling salvage/ totaled cars. Maybe it's a matter of people using similar terminology to describe different things but this is not a thing that's happening. Tesla isn't shutting off cars simply because they've been salvaged. There are two things you can worry about Tesla doing to your car, both of which are going to be the least of your worries:

They disable the onboard 3G/ LTE radio
- This is an easy one to fix. Simply tether the car to your phone and boom, back in business.

​They disable supercharging - And honestly, who cares? :) At this point I'm sure that's the least of your worries.

They're not going to make it so the car doesn't drive though. There are very few people that have had salvage cars and gone through that whole process first hand with Tesla. Everyone else is playing a game of telephone and every time I see someone post about what a salvage car does/ doesn't get it's a more unbelievable claim than the last time. I'm waiting for someone to claim that if your car connects to the internet Tesla will send a unicorn via SpaceX to cut the fire safety loop. In my case they never disabled the 3G radio and as far as I know, the new owner isn't having issues with it either. Supercharging was disabled though.

The good news is that these cars seem to be relatively straightforward as far as design goes. Aside for the motor and battery they are as simple and easy to diagnose as any other car, maybe a bit easier because you don't have a giant engine up front around all the components. So it's easy to get in there and see what's doing what or not doing it.

Now then, with respect to getting this car fixed, depending on how much you've budgeted to fix it and how much you've paid for it, you might consider going through Tesla's re-certifcation process. From my talks with Tesla's body shop, the recertification process is simply to verify that the frame is not damaged and that frame repairs (if present) were properly performed to Tesla's specs. They require the car be torn down and 30+ pictures of very specific components are sent to Tesla.

If this car is verified flood salvage and clearly was not in an accident, you might have a really easy time getting Tesla to re-certify it since there's no frame damage for them to look for. The process costs $1500 and if the car passes they'll re-enable supercharging and your onboard 3G radio. The important thing here is that they'll then service the car. So in theory they could read the faults, pass them on to you and you can start chasing them down one by one. I'm not sure how that works in practice though.

bingo, this is what I'm hoping yes, the fact that there is no physical damage may make this process easier, they can take all the frame pics they want and it will come up clean. My budget is 30k all in. Including price of car from undriveable to driveable
 
side note-


I thought part of the center console was missing, after a few google searches.... turns out... nope. Tesla provides about 60% of an actual center console. Thats also shoulder height for some reason.


Also the rear seat was not missing, it looks like it was folded down to carry some cargo and the drivers seat must have reclined automatically due to the water shorting out all of the circuitry, blocking the rear seat in the down position, theres no way I can move it back up without powering up the seat and moving it forward.


Inside of the car smells like seawater.... exactly the kind of water I did not want to smell...
 
I've got specific experience with this, as well as what kind of damage saltwater can do to electronics. I seriously doubt will will be able to repair anything that had power when it hit the ocean.

This includes critical systems:
MCU (Center Display and Gateway)
IC (Cluster)
BDY (Body ECU - also handles security, and car will not start w/o it!)
CHG (Charger - Tesla made the bottom hermetic, but not the top, so it holds water nicely!)
CP (Charge Port)
EPB (Parking Brake Controller)

In addition, these non-critical systems will likely be beyond repair:
DDM/PDM (Door Controllers - left and right)
MSM (Driver's seat controller)

The Drive inverter is sealed except for a breather hole on top. If water got to that level, then it's just like the charger, it will hold water because unless you turn the car upside down, there is no way for it to drain. I'd recommend dropping the rear subframe ASAP and pull the cover off the DI. If there's salt water in there, the quicker you get it out, the better your chances are of possibly reviving the DU. If you don't want to do that, at least drill a small 3-4mm hole in the bottom so water can drain. The DI and motor look similar, but the DI is on the right (passenger) side. Be sure not to drill into the motor! Later, you can seal the hole by tapping it and installing a screw or applying some sealant. It should only take you a few hours to do this, it's not as difficult as it appears.

The biggest mistake you can make is applying power to the car before the systems are clean and dry. Damp salt-encrusted systems undergo immediate damage when power is present!

If you could post the list of diagnostic faults, I could give you better advice.
 
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