Earlier this week I was in Cornwall and had to take the car over some pretty rough roads. When I was driving back on Wednesday night I slowed from 70 mph for a junction when I heard a bang (like something hit the underside of the car, followed by metallic rattling for a second or so). The car sat right down on its suspension on both sides. I'm puzzled as to what could break to cause both sides to drop.
I don't really know but do I remember that the roadster shocks are fed by an external gas reservoir or was that some kind of aftermarket thing? Could it be both rear shocks are fed by the same source? e2a: and therefore if one point of failure occurred both sides would droop? Otherwise, dunno, I thought my knowledge of suspension/car components was decent but can't think off the top of my head what would cause both sides to drop like that, apart from one side breaking causing the other side to break also due to the shock/strain but I can't imagine that... :-(
The standard Roadster shocks are not gas. There were optional gas shocks but I do not think they are interconnected in any way. Can't explain what happened to your Roadster. Keep us posted!
I thought the ARB would be the only common component, but I am still not sure how that failing causes the back to sit down and the ride to become too hard.
I dont see much difference in ride height to mine, but apart from ARB the only other common part I can think of is the Rear Sub frame - and its mountings. Very Odd - do let us know what it is - hopefully you'll get an 'old timer' tech eg Sam or Simon, who has seen it before.
My car has not so diffrent hight in the rear end and it had it atleast since i bought it and my low beam is to low so if it was higher in the rear the low beam worse
So they said that it was ok and that they are checking the alignment, however they did find a bolt that had pierced the mudguard. That might have explained the metallic rattling.
Seriously? The rear splitter looks like it's an inch above the paving stones in your picture. On my car it's more like 3-4 inches.
When I get back to the service centre tomorrow to pick it up I will be taking a look at everything very carefully. Hopefully there is another Roadster there to compare to, but checking back through old photos it doesn't appear to sit that low when unloaded normally.
So I picked the car up this morning. Tesla said there was nothing fundamentally wrong with it. They checked all the joints and road tested it a couple of times. Driving it back, it seemed to me things were a lot more taught and predictable - i.e. like normal. The splitter is at normal height and it seems the camber angle on the rear wheels is less severe. I'm thinking they may have just tweaked some stuff. They also thoroughly cleaned the car inside and out, even the PEM looks clean. Total cost was £0.00 so I certainly can't complain about that Here's the offending bolt (apologies but the TMC server has turned the pic upside down)
I'm confused...is that bolt from somewhere on the car, or is that some road debris that got picked up and thrown into the underside of the car?
That's a nasty bolt. I had a wishbone replaced once because its tolerance was getting a bit too much, so was very interested in what had happened to your RS. Fortunately its just this AND it didn't hit anything vital - edit - With the SC having done a really close inspection, I presume its not from the roadster.
Glad to hear that Tesla did not find anything wrong with your Roadster. It appears that bolt penetrated a non-essential part of the car. Based on the photo (which appears right side up in Tapatalk on my iPad) I don't see how it could cause a problem with the suspension or anything else. Am o missing something here?
I think the bolt is incidental - other than it may have been the source of the rattling I heard. The point is that they tightened everything up, said there was nothing fundamentally wrong and on the drive home it felt better. No you are not missing anything.