RIP Vin #783

[CroDriver]

Here's what they told me -

Unfortunately we will not be able to service this vehicle since we are unable to remove and reinstall the battery due to the frame damage. The battery may not fit back in as the alignment will be off.

- - - Updated - - -

Make (weld) a jig across the full length of the chassis, fix it to the chassis at structural points, replace battery.

The chassis should be repairable if it is still in-line, bit it will be quite some work.

I flipped over three times in my Opel Speedster (Lotus chassis), repaired the chassis and suspension and converted to an EV. Works fine for 2 years already.

 

[JRP3]

Looks to me that the only frame damage is the transverse cross member right in front of the pack, probably what's jamming the pack in. Remove that cross member and the pack can probably come right out.

 

[jory]

is that the burlingame facility? looks like my car in the background of the video (dropped it off on october 22nd for a few days of service.)

After reaching a bit over the 50,000 mile mark and returning home from National Plug In Day, my underside was punctured by some object on 101. My battery started decreasing range and I had an annual service scheduled for late October but I was able to schedule it a little earlier due to the rapid range loss. While I was waiting for the service, I tried rebalancing the battery but looks like the puncture fried something (no fires though!) and nothing worked. A video taken by Tesla of my underside is here: [video]https://plus.google.com/117988036691160667450/posts/avPsLrZLYVe[/video]

 

[augkuo]

yes Burlingame -

is that the burlingame facility? looks like my car in the background of the video (dropped it off on october 22nd for a few days of service.)

 

[wycolo]

Take it to any good body shop, put on lift, remove all ancillary stuff, look at tub shape, confirm there is still plenty of clearance to drop batt (as we have assumed since impact was linear straight-line). Then, checking with Tesla, disconnect batt and get it out of there. The job has to be done eventually, why not do it now?
--

 

[augkuo]

I added a new VMS error on the wiki page - Error ID:259 “Charge Aborted”

 

[augkuo]

Looks like one brick in the middle sheet was damaged (read 0V) and died but all the other ones are good (4V).

Congrats to Jerry for getting the battery out and identifying the bad brick!

 

[wiztecy]

Looks like one brick in the middle sheet was damaged (read 0V) and died but all the other ones are good (4V). View attachment 37697

Congrats to Jerry for getting the battery out and identifying the bad brick!

Nice going! Thanks for the update. Will Tesla sell just 1 brick? I presume the brick can be removed independently from the sheet? If not possibly start looking for an outside source to retrofit the bricks.

 

[JRP3]

Glad you found someone to work on it.

 

[asgard]

Looks like one brick in the middle sheet was damaged (read 0V) and died but all the other ones are good (4V). View attachment 37697

Congrats to Jerry for getting the battery out and identifying the bad brick!

Did you find someone to work on the car?

 

[JRP3]

Unless the car's name is Jerry and it disassembled itself, I'd say yes.

 

[asgard]

Unless the car's name is Jerry and it disassembled itself, I'd say yes.

Lol. I'm curious who Jerry is. Its not every day that you come across someone who can disassemble and debug a battery.

 

[vfx]

Lol. I'm curious who Jerry is. Its not every day that you come across someone who can disassemble and debug a battery.

LO
Lol JP!

I do feel as if I missed an explanatory post though.

 

[augkuo]

Jerry has my car now and he's been working with Marco - the battery was removed by disconnecting it from the car and raising the car to clear the battery.
He measured each sheets' voltage and found the bad sheet, the bad sheet showed 32V instead of 36V. Each sheet has 9 bricks of 4V each so that means the
bad sheet has one bad brick. We'll see how that one bad brick gets fixed -

 

[wiztecy]

Jerry has my car now and he's been working with Marco - the battery was removed by disconnecting it from the car and raising the car to clear the battery.
He measured each sheets' voltage and found the bad sheet, the bad sheet showed 32V instead of 36V. Each sheet has 9 bricks of 4V each so that means the
bad sheet has one bad brick. We'll see how that one bad brick gets fixed -

FYI, Tesla does not sell individual bricks but rather the whole sheet. So that's one route. The other route is like I mentioned before to send your sheet out to a place that specializes in batteries and EVs.

 

[hcsharp]

Jerry has my car now and he's been working with Marco - the battery was removed by disconnecting it from the car and raising the car to clear the battery. He measured each sheets' voltage and found the bad sheet, the bad sheet showed 32V instead of 36V. Each sheet has 9 bricks of 4V each so that means the bad sheet has one bad brick. We'll see how that one bad brick gets fixed -

Be prepared for the possibility that as soon as you drain the coolant from the bad brick that it will immediately ignite. Maybe Jerry's already done that and knows what he's doing.

 

[tomsax]

I'm so glad to hear you're making progress getting 783 back on the road. That this sort of thing can be done is obviously very important to the Roadster community. Thanks for sharing this with us.

 

[augkuo]

783 is Jerry's car now so he's making the progress not me I think he and Marco are pioneers in Roadster revitalizing!

 

[Mark77a]

Fascinating stuff !
P L E A S E keep updates coming, this is pioneering stuff .. especially as its out of Teslas network .... which will be the future for Many Roadsters.

Thanks

 

[JRP3]

783 is Jerry's car now so he's making the progress not me I think he and Marco are pioneers in Roadster revitalizing!

Is he documenting his work anywhere?