Service gone to crap... Suspension / brake problems

[Mad Owner]

Bought a used P85+ with ~25k miles just past 4 years ago and got the full 4 year bumper to bumper warranty with it. I've never loved a car so much. The few problems I had in the beginning were handled extremely well- most fixes happening in my work's parking lot.

Fast forward a year and Tesla is now concerned about profits and the first thing to go is their service. I took my car in to have the window serviced and asked them to check the brake pads as they were squealing. Shouldn't need brakes at this point, but what can I do, it's a used car. On return, they tell me the brake pads are in good shape and they blew some brake dust out to stop the squealing. 3 months later I bring the car back in and it now needs pads and rotors for $2,000! Not happy.

Had a problem with TPMS not reading and giving me an error- service center says I need new sensors- not covered under warranty. Take it to Discount Tire to get new sensors installed.

I took the car in 4 or 5 times during the final months of my warranty for a suspension click I kept hearing. 1st visit they couldn't find it- did nothing. 2nd they said they greased something to get it to stop clicking. 3rd visit they said they found some broken clips and replaced them in the front. 4th visit they replaced the clips in the rear.

Now out of warranty, I had a new Michelin tire completely blow out the inner sidewall. I'm riding on the rim and no TPMS warning (so not the sensors)! Wear on the tire shows the car was riding almost exclusively on 2" of inner tire. I get a new tire mounted and balanced and get an alignment check. Camber and alignment are well within Tesla specs......I'm thinking it has to be the damned air-ride suspension. Car is now bouncing on the driver's rear tire.

I schedule an appointment at the Tesla service center and I have a Tesla rep actually message me that suspension issues are general maintenance and wear and are NOT covered by a bumper to bumper warranty!

How did this company go to *sugar* that fast? And how do they keep getting away with it?

 

[n1h1]

Hi @Mad Owner . If you are having problems with rear inner tire wear, and the SC isn't able to resolve it you might want to look at this after market solution: https://n2itive.me They have adjustable camber and toe arms that allow you to get better alignment than spec

 

[beatle]

There's not a lot of competition for Tesla right now, so they can call things as they see them... for now.

As for the suspension being under warranty, I'd get a second opinion from another SC or escalate it. I had a damper replaced under warranty due to a pretty slow leak last year. In your case, however, you said your car is no longer under warranty so this fact is meaningless in your case..

You can get new 3rd party brake rotors and pads (good ones) for under $250. Any brake shop can put them in. The pads likely seized in the brackets and caused the failure. No need to pay Tesla's ransom for brakes.

As for the tire wear, I'm guessing it's worn bushings in the suspension, not the damper assembly unless the car is significantly lower on that corner.

 

[Gimmethecash]

Also, Tesla is selling cars faster than they can make them, and the number of cars on the road (and therefore cars to service and fix) is growing exponentially, and there are more cars getting to be old enough to need more fixes.

It’s very hard to keep up in many areas when you grow a company as fast as they’re growing. You can see it in the ordering/delivery process as well. The amount of work they have is outstripping their ability to hire & train, so quality and service suffer. It’s the kind of problem that gets some help from the competition to fix, as well as fixing itself by reduced demand if the company can’t catch up with it and unhappy customers go elsewhere..