Last month we had the misfortune of striking a large piece of lumber as it fell from a landscaping truck on I5 in Salem. We incurred substantial under carriage damage including the shredding of two tires. As we trek back and forth from the Valley to Central Oregon frequently, we had Michelin iceX tires on the car. As repairs progressed we were told by the Service Center that it would take at least 6 to 8 more weeks (frequently longer) to obtain the replacement tires thru Tesla’s 3rd party vendor. I contacted Tire Rack and had the exact same tires shipped to the Service Center two days later.
a few days later I picked up our repaired car from the service center. As we left I noticed the low tire pressure alerts were on. I asked Tim, our service advisor about the alerts and was told they would go away after I drove the car a few miles. The alerts never went away, in fact we began receiving a new alert, the TPMS system was not functioning. I made a new appointment to have the sensor issue addressed. At the second appointment the service tech found that the new tires were not equipped with TPMS. I received an estimate of $819 for new sensors. I inquired about the old sensors and was told they were discarded with the old tires. I’ve owned Teslas since 2015 and whenever I purchased new tires the old TPMS were used. I was told this reasoning didn’t apply because I purchased third party tires (yes I did, to save months of waiting). I had not specifically requested the old TPMS be used so my only option was to purchase the new sensors or continue to drive with the alerts on indefinitely. To Tim’s credit I received a $300 discount and they had an additional tech work on our car so we only had to wait two hours instead of four. i Wanted to say something snarky, you did put air in the tires, after all I didn’t ask you to, but I just left having learned an expensive lesson. I hope Tim also learned something from the experience.
a few days later I picked up our repaired car from the service center. As we left I noticed the low tire pressure alerts were on. I asked Tim, our service advisor about the alerts and was told they would go away after I drove the car a few miles. The alerts never went away, in fact we began receiving a new alert, the TPMS system was not functioning. I made a new appointment to have the sensor issue addressed. At the second appointment the service tech found that the new tires were not equipped with TPMS. I received an estimate of $819 for new sensors. I inquired about the old sensors and was told they were discarded with the old tires. I’ve owned Teslas since 2015 and whenever I purchased new tires the old TPMS were used. I was told this reasoning didn’t apply because I purchased third party tires (yes I did, to save months of waiting). I had not specifically requested the old TPMS be used so my only option was to purchase the new sensors or continue to drive with the alerts on indefinitely. To Tim’s credit I received a $300 discount and they had an additional tech work on our car so we only had to wait two hours instead of four. i Wanted to say something snarky, you did put air in the tires, after all I didn’t ask you to, but I just left having learned an expensive lesson. I hope Tim also learned something from the experience.
