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after driving on a gravel / stone road I heard a metallic screeching sound that screeches at low speed and tapes off at high speed. After doing some research it appears I have a rock in my rotor shield scraping off the rotor. I'm 196 miles from a service center. Should I take it to a local mechanic? Are the giant lifts it the shops pretty standard and wouldn't have any difficulty with the lift points? And are the lift points similar to other vehicles? No one in my area has ever worked on a tesla before.
 
I have used local shops for basic things like tire/wheel changes. The lift procedure is pretty straight forward. There are 4 lift points under the car which must be used to avoid lifting on a portion of the battery cover and potentially damaging the pack. Using a hockey puck at each point to lift seems to be a good way to prevent the lift arms from damaging the underside of the car (which would likely only be cosmetic scratches in a hidden location but, you know, it's a Tesla!).

Also if you have air suspension, put it in jack mode (or show the shop how to put it in jack mode) before lifting.

Good luck!
 
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after driving on a gravel / stone road I heard a metallic screeching sound that screeches at low speed and tapes off at high speed. After doing some research it appears I have a rock in my rotor shield scraping off the rotor. I'm 196 miles from a service center. Should I take it to a local mechanic? Are the giant lifts it the shops pretty standard and wouldn't have any difficulty with the lift points? And are the lift points similar to other vehicles? No one in my area has ever worked on a tesla before.

There is one page in the Owner's Manual you can print and take with you that explains in great detail how to lift Model S.
 
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Screenshot 2016-11-11 06.56.57.png
 
After doing some research it appears I have a rock in my rotor shield scraping off the rotor.
My first thought when reading your post was you were referring to the "rotor" in the motor. Then I quickly realized you were talking about the brake rotor. Whew. :)

You can possibly fix it yourself if you have an adequate jack and a breaker bar to get the lug nuts off. But if you are not comfortable trying that you will have to drive it to a shop. Your brake rotor may need to be turned if it is damaged. That could take time. Be prepared.
 
Glad you got it out. And that's really interesting there were two, not just one, pieces of gravel - they don't look as though they even were broken halves of each other. ¿Making wheelies in a gravel pit, were we? :)

FOR OTHERS WHO ENCOUNTER THIS:

A standard First Attempt in such a situation is to drive in REVERSE for a length of time, fishtailing left & right as much as possible.
 
Glad to hear you got it sorted. For future refernce, I picked up a bottle jack and lug wrench to carry in the car. I also bought a 21mm socket as the one that came with the wrench was standard size and mangles the cheap tesla "covered" lugs (I really need to swap to the Gorillas).

jack
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00UAOJHRI/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o06_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

wrench
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000CMJ2KU/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o07_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

You will also need a jack pad of some kind. Most off the shelf ones are designed for the pinch welds whereas you need a preferably rectangular block of some kind. I just cut a piece of wood that shape and cut/ epoxied a couple pieces of 1/16" or so steel to it...I actually did all this yesterday and used it to swap out all 4 of my 21s for my 19s today. Worked like a champ and better than lugging my hydraulic roller out!
 
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