Ripped Undercarriage Composite from the rain?

[SnickySnacks]

So after my first problem, here: Paint chip on wheel at delivery

I've run into another one.

It's been raining a lot in Texas lately. Today I went on a short drive (city roads/frontage roads only, driving slow due to the traffic and heavy rain) to the movies. Switched lanes to avoid puddles as best I could, but came out from the movies and heard scraping from underneath the car.

Seems to be the same problem as described here:
Undercarriage Composite Tray Ripped | Tesla

I'm not happy, to say the least. My car is barely two and a half weeks old and parts are already ripping and falling off it -_-

No, i haven't bottomed it out or anything. There's no damage anywhere else except that one piece of composite.
I assume it got water between the composite and body and ripped, but man does that seem like poor design.
Other parts of the undercarriage and even the portion of the composite that is physically lower to the ground than this piece are perfectly fine.

Pictures for the curious:

*grumble*

I want to love this car, but man...

 

[Shizzrock]

Was this bolt always missing or did you remove it?

 

[SnickySnacks]

My friend saw the same thing when I sent the pictures to her, so I went back and checked.

There is no bolt hole in the felt there and based on this video, I don't think there is meant to be a bolt there. (or at least not one that holds the felt in place. If there was a bolt underneath the composite then who knows)

If anyone has 3 bolts across that section of the composite, feel free to clue me in.

 

[SMAlset]

Noticed that you live in Dallas and not sure where all the other reports were from, saw one guy on Tesla.com from NY, but wondered if this could be due to something that happened during transport to your delivery centers--onloading or offloading via carrier or train. I'll keep an eye out on my car. Rainy season will be coming soon so if it is related to the weather that would be interesting.

 

[Shizzrock]

My friend saw the same thing when I sent the pictures to her, so I went back and checked.

There is no bolt hole in the felt there and based on this video, I don't think there is meant to be a bolt there. (or at least not one that holds the felt in place. If there was a bolt underneath the composite then who knows)

If anyone has 3 bolts across that section of the composite, feel free to clue me in.

It doesn't look like it's for the underbody panel, it looks like part of the structure. maybe it's redundant, but it looks like there should be a bolt in there.

 

[SnickySnacks]

Could be, and I'll ask about it at the service center, but I didn't find any pictures of what the car looked like under the composite in the short time I spent looking.

 

[SnickySnacks]

Well, they are claiming that is “normal” wear and tear (on a two freaking week old car) and won’t cover it.

Yeah. Sure.

Edit: specifically they claim I went through high water too fast. I know both how fast I was going (<35) on my trip that day and was in the center lane to avoid the water on the side of the road. Rediculous.

 

[brobinson]

given how poor that material is to begin with, how important do you think it is? Just curious, because I would imagine this will become a big issue over time.

 

[SnickySnacks]

I'm concerned because once it comes undone it basically acts as a scoop. Can tape it back down or cut it off, but worst case scenario is this:

https://jalopnik.com/bumper-falls-off-brand-new-tesla-model-3-after-30-minut-1828306917

"If this bit of shielding gets torn or loose, water can be forced into the bumper cover, which would act like a big water catch-basin, eventually being pulled off its mounts from the weight and/or pressure of the water being directed up inside the bumper cover."

Not to mention that it makes a ton of noise as it scrapes along the road.

It just seems really sloppy. An easy fix would be to add a small backwards facing lip to prevent the front edge from catching water, or just seal it (it's bolted on, but the front edge can potentially have a gap, which is why this problem arises).

Who really knows why they went with something that could tear over abs plastic or aluminum.

 

[Uncle Paul]

Believe that this is a known issue and that Tesla is working on a fix.

Other people with this issue said that it happened when they were going through deeper water than you indicated.

The pressure from a wave of water hitting that area could be tremendous.

 

[SnickySnacks]

Apparently not known enough to waive the cost of repairing it.

I am absolutely positive I didn’t go through 12+ inches of water as the bumper people did. The service center manager said this could happen with 2 inches of water.

There is no way to judge 1-2 inch puddles while driving and no reason the car shouldn’t be able to handle that.

 

[RDaneel]

Same thing happened to me about two weeks after I got my 3. Hit a deep puddle and the material tore. I'm pretty sure it was only water and not any type of debris. Mine ended up getting fixed for free as a courtesy.

 

[Skione65]

Came across this as well. Might be a recurring issue. Hopefully Tesla addresses this if it becomes more common among owners. I for one will be more diligent driving in rain, especially heavy downpours and standing water on highways. Maybe this “composite” is soaking up water and becoming ‘heavy’ weight wise and the bolt on/fastened areas are not sufficient to support the weight and thus are ‘tearing’ under the resultant stress.

Weird rain damage

Ski

 

[Lasttoy]

Email
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Go to your account, contact us, its burried in that page, i found it and send email.
Email them and attach the picturs.

 

[SoCalGuy]

Where exactly is this on the car? Between front wheels or rear?

 

[cwerdna]

Apparently not known enough to waive the cost of repairing it.

I am absolutely positive I didn’t go through 12+ inches of water as the bumper people did. The service center manager said this could happen with 2 inches of water.

There is no way to judge 1-2 inch puddles while driving and no reason the car shouldn’t be able to handle that.

Maybe Tesla didn't bother testing the 3 like Nissan did with the Leaf?

Beginning of

says depth: 300 mm which is about 11.8 inches. Skip to 0:27 to see the Leaf entering the water. People have joked that this is what's needed at CHAdeMO chargers for Leafs.

Was pointed out at Leaf Torture Test Video - My Nissan Leaf Forum

Posted in another thread many moons ago (aka December)

Nissan LEAF発表記者会見1

Fast forward to ~26:45 where they drive it through 27 inches (700mm) of standing water without incident.
=Smidge=

I wish I understood Japanese to confirm the water depth was 700 mm (which is actually 27.55 inches) but it sure looks a lot deeper than the 300 mm test. Leaf enters the water at ~27:46.

 

[cwerdna]

Can't edit my message any more. Attached a screenshot from the supposed 700 mm deep (27.55 inch) Leaf water driving test. You can watch the video for yourself.

If someone here understand Japanese, perhaps you can confirm their test procedure?

 

[Willus]

FWIW, I had a similar tear on my Model 3 after driving in the rain one night. It was fixed for free. Asked the service tech if it was a common problem and he said it was the first one he had seen. Of course this was several months ago.

 

[HopeToGolf]

This is not good. Given the crap infrastructure in parts of the country, one can easily be in a position in which you are driving through a couple of inches of water at a pretty good speed.

 

[SnickySnacks]

Where exactly is this on the car? Between front wheels or rear?

Rear.