Tesla Estimate Ridiculous or Normal?

[JSD17]

Hey guys,

So I bought a pre-owned 2012 Model S (Signature Series, P85). The car is out of warranty now. I've noticed a few issues with the car but I decided to buy it anyway because the price was good, and the issues were minor.

I tried to book a service appointment through the app, but because I had several issues I assume, they said to bring it to a service center.

My issues were as follows:
- Stiff steering
- Would not charge on 240V or Supercharging (only on 120V - not practical)
- Charge port door would not open (you would need to manually open)
- Passenger side rear door handle would not extend, so you couldn't open it
- Sunroof would not open/close

Each issue required a separate $175 diagnostic fee just to look at. So just to look at all of that, the fee was $875 + tax = $988.75 in Canada.

The total estimate was $7200, thought that was a bit much so I said I could go without the chargeport replacement and sunroof total replacement (I guess they do not repair, just replace everything). That brought it down to around 1K for the stiff steering and door handle, so around $1700 with the diagnostics. They found no issues with the charging (which was strange to me as we had to charge on 120V) so I will look into that when I pick it up.

On reading these forums, some American posters were able to replace the chargeport for $200 out of warranty. My estimate for the chargeport alone (non-motorized, the only issue is it doesn't open and I need to manual pry it open every time) was over $1800. Should I try a different service center or is it just that expensive over here?



Here is the estimate for the chargeport:

The estimate for the sunroof is another $2750, it has a failed motor but they want to replace the whole thing. This I expected to be expensive but can do without. Is that a fair estimate for a chargeport that doesn't open from the car/buttons? I don't understand how people are getting it for ~$300 or less out of warranty in some other threads and they're asking $1800+ for it.

Should I try another service center, or is that the going rate in Canada?

Thanks!

 

[X.l.r.8]

The fact you need to pry the charge port door open leads me to believe the can command to the charger is not getting through. I would look at the main charger fuses first. You never mentioned if you have a 40 or 80 Amp dual unit. if you have the 80 you can try swapping the units over so the slave becomes the master. this could work but obviously you would only get 40A. Usually if you cannot supercharge either I would check the 3 fuses in the unit.

 

[JSD17]

The fact you need to pry the charge port door open leads me to believe the can command to the charger is not getting through. I would look at the main charger fuses first. You never mentioned if you have a 40 or 80 Amp dual unit. if you have the 80 you can try swapping the units over so the slave becomes the master. this could work but obviously you would only get 40A. Usually if you cannot supercharge either I would check the 3 fuses in the unit.

Hey, thanks for the reply!

Yeah, when I press the unlock button or press the button on a charging cable I can hear a clicking sound, it just doesn't open. So I just wait for that sound and manually open it. I was trying to use the NEMA 14-50 (50 amps) adapter to charge at home as I already had the outlet. It didn't work, then I went to a supercharger - it also said something about the latch not being engaged. I tried a second supercharger, same issue. However Tesla claims it is all charging properly, so I will pick up the car today and test it on one of their chargers.

I really wish I could just repair the broken parts, but the service center I went to wants to replace everything for every issue. I do not want to spend an additional 5K on the sunroof & charge port door. I tried emailing a second service center to see if they can give me a second opion but I will see, do not want to pay the $175 X 2 diagnostic fee again for the chargeport door and sunroof. =/

 

[Type-S]

The $175 diagnosis for each item is pretty ridiculous. I would have a discussion with the service centre manager.

 

[cdswm3]

Those don't seem like minor issues. I would never buy a car with that many major issues out of warranty. Sounds like you may have a money pit on your hands.

 

[Casmium]

if a pin wasn't making contact well on the inlet that would explain the 120V working, but 240 and supercharging not working, probably still gets contact on a single 120V line, but the other is not making contact so when you plug into 240 it's not seeing it or getting too much of a voltage drop, this is just a guess.
From the items you listed you could probably skip the door part which is only 120 and have to manually pry it.

 

[Struja]

It all seems ridiculous to me. Did you know about these things at time of purchase? If so, why did you buy it? If not, why not?

 

[Casmium]

did you try charging at 240V on a reduced current, maybe 16 amps, also can you see any damage or corrosion on the charging inlet pins, is this a part that can be found at a scrap yard from a crashed model s.

 

[X.l.r.8]

Also check for debris in the port, the superchargers had a habit of leaving some insulation on the charge port, sometimes you have to tap out the supercharger plugs to get them to charge properly.

 

[X.l.r.8]

I have a few different chargers if you want me to come over and try them depending where abouts you are. I have an open evse that will charge at all voltages and amperages.

 

[JSD17]

The $175 diagnosis for each item is pretty ridiculous. I would have a discussion with the service centre manager.

Yeah, I already picked up the car and just paid for it. Now I'm having another issue where they literally opened my sunroof (to check it, I'm assuming) and didn't close it back properly. So now when I drive it sounds like a window is open. They claim the car came in like that, but I can get multiple people who drove it days before to attest that it didn't. I am messaging their service team and will see if they can do anything. This is just getting ridiculous. They're claiming they didn't touch the sunroof, yet charged a $175 diagnostic charge and determined that the motor is bad? For that diagnostic charge, they couldn't close it? Ridiculous experience. I went to the Service Centre in Woodbridge (Chrislea Road) and as I am there - someone else is arguing that they didn't repair his car properly. So both me and him were trying to talk to the one service guy. I left and came home, I messaged them again and will take it from here. Completely ridiculous experience.

Those don't seem like minor issues. I would never buy a car with that many major issues out of warranty. Sounds like you may have a money pit on your hands.

It all seems ridiculous to me. Did you know about these things at time of purchase? If so, why did you buy it? If not, why not?

It's completely ridiculous especially considering I bought this car pre-owned from a Tesla Motors through a dealer. They listed the car 'AS-IS' but did not list any issues. None of these issues were disclosed. Due to how cheap we were able to get it, I am sure they were aware of all of these issues.

So the steering wheel is fixed, the car does charge normally now (might have just been a debris thing?) Assuming they can closed the sunroof I will be left with two pending issues.

1.) The sunroof doesn't open or close - to me this is minor as every other car I've had previously has had a sunroof, and in the 10+ years I've been driving them... I would say I opened it once... to show someone it.

2.) I have to pry open the charge port door. This is also minor, but more of an inconvenience. If I can get it fixed affordably, I would do it. But at $1800, I'll just pry it open any time. Both those two issues to me are more of a quality of life issue rather than an major issue.

I have a few different chargers if you want me to come over and try them depending where abouts you are. I have an open evse that will charge at all voltages and amperages.

Hey, thanks for the offer - but when I went back to pick up the car it did work on a supercharger, so it might just have been a debris issue.

-----

So general update for everyone:

Got the car back, the steering wheel is perfect and the one door-handle that wouldn't extend has been fixed. Reluctantly paid all the diagnostic fees because I did initially agree to them. Having never owned a Tesla before I am not unsure if this is normal or standard, but I would definitely avoid the Woodbridge Ontario service centre. Only two people (including me) were there to pick up their car, and we both were complaining.

With my car, the door handle and steering is fixed but:the present issue:

I'm having another issue where they literally opened my sunroof (to check it, I'm assuming) and didn't close it back properly. So now when I drive it sounds like a window is open. They claim the car came in like that, but I can get multiple people who drove it days before to attest that it didn't. I am messaging their service team and will see if they can do anything. This is just getting ridiculous. They're claiming they didn't touch the sunroof, yet charged a $175 diagnostic charge and determined that the motor is bad? For that diagnostic charge, they couldn't close it? Ridiculous experience. I went to the Service Centre in Woodbridge (Chrislea Road) and as I am there - someone else is arguing that they didn't repair his car properly. So both me and him were trying to talk to the one service guy. I left and came home, I messaged them again and will take it from here. Completely ridiculous experience.

Here are the pictures of my sunroof right now, it is stuck in this position. As you can see one side is closed. The other side is open, let's see if they admit to touching it. They somehow claim they diagnosed it without looking at it and knew the motor was bad, I'm just not buying it.

 

[X.l.r.8]

Unfortunately there is no such thing as Tesla pre owned through a dealer, the dealer can say what they want, it could have been a trade in via tesla who do not buy cars or trade in, they just pass them on to a wholesaler who auctions them out. Personally I would never buy from a dealer because they have no idea what they are selling, and sell the badge not the car. Not all is lost though because there are lots of repairs, small and comprehensive, that you can do yourself. Especially door handles and diagnostic work. I would personally get an OVMS on the car being a 2012 and it makes talking on the can bus much easier. Then look up YouTube on sun roof repairs. If you can stand the whine on rich rebuilds then he used to be quite informative, now a days he’s just annoying, but he was one of the first actually pulling these apart. You can buy parts from all over the place. @AutobahnEV is a one I personally recommend. Shipping is actually a breeze. I get everything via shippsy which saves weeks of postage time and I no longer have to cross the border. I don’t think you got a bad car, you probably had a bad seller and before you have the car fixed at Tesla, look around and you will find most, if not all the work you can do yourself.

 

[AutobahnEV]

Hey guys,

So I bought a pre-owned 2012 Model S (Signature Series, P85). The car is out of warranty now. I've noticed a few issues with the car but I decided to buy it anyway because the price was good, and the issues were minor.

I tried to book a service appointment through the app, but because I had several issues I assume, they said to bring it to a service center.

My issues were as follows:
- Stiff steering
- Would not charge on 240V or Supercharging (only on 120V - not practical)
- Charge port door would not open (you would need to manually open)
- Passenger side rear door handle would not extend, so you couldn't open it
- Sunroof would not open/close

Each issue required a separate $175 diagnostic fee just to look at. So just to look at all of that, the fee was $875 + tax = $988.75 in Canada.

The total estimate was $7200, thought that was a bit much so I said I could go without the chargeport replacement and sunroof total replacement (I guess they do not repair, just replace everything). That brought it down to around 1K for the stiff steering and door handle, so around $1700 with the diagnostics. They found no issues with the charging (which was strange to me as we had to charge on 120V) so I will look into that when I pick it up.

On reading these forums, some American posters were able to replace the chargeport for $200 out of warranty. My estimate for the chargeport alone (non-motorized, the only issue is it doesn't open and I need to manual pry it open every time) was over $1800. Should I try a different service center or is it just that expensive over here?



Here is the estimate for the chargeport:

View attachment 639483

The estimate for the sunroof is another $2750, it has a failed motor but they want to replace the whole thing. This I expected to be expensive but can do without. Is that a fair estimate for a chargeport that doesn't open from the car/buttons? I don't understand how people are getting it for ~$300 or less out of warranty in some other threads and they're asking $1800+ for it.

Should I try another service center, or is that the going rate in Canada?

Thanks!

I am a Tesla parts business located in San Diego and I have been working with these cars for almost 5 years now. I help tons of people keep their Tesla's in tip top shape. If you ever have any questions or need any parts for your Model S, I would be happy to help you out. Congratulations on the purchase, I understand it may have some issues and be somewhat expensive to repair and that is where I come in.

 

[Type-S]

sorry to hear about the issues

I agree, the Woodbridge service centre is desperately in need of some proper management

You should demand a refund for the sunroof diagnostic fee if they admitted to not touching it in writing.

 

[CadillacJack]

At least you have the best colour they made in Sig Red. It’s not S2077 by chance?

 

[Bertuzzi44]

Seeing this post makes me worry, hopefully I don’t have similar issues once warranty is up

 

[JSD17]

sorry to hear about the issues

I agree, the Woodbridge service centre is desperately in need of some proper management

You should demand a refund for the sunroof diagnostic fee if they admitted to not touching it in writing.

So the issue with the sunroof was that it didn't open. They claim they removed the trim around the sunroof and from that evaluated the motor failed and therefore didn't touch the sunroof, and are therefore not responsible for it being open, claiming it came in that way. So it's not that they didn't look at it, they just didn't lift it is what they're saying. They don't have a number to call and you need to go through Tesla's main support channel to speak to a manager. I have done that, and have not gotten any calls back. I took my car to another mechanic who is in the process of fixing the sunroof, will never deal with this service centre again. Will see if I can get any refunds, but definitely a SC to avoid.

Unfortunately there is no such thing as Tesla pre owned through a dealer, the dealer can say what they want, it could have been a trade in via tesla who do not buy cars or trade in, they just pass them on to a wholesaler who auctions them out. Personally I would never buy from a dealer because they have no idea what they are selling, and sell the badge not the car. Not all is lost though because there are lots of repairs, small and comprehensive, that you can do yourself. Especially door handles and diagnostic work. I would personally get an OVMS on the car being a 2012 and it makes talking on the can bus much easier. Then look up YouTube on sun roof repairs. If you can stand the whine on rich rebuilds then he used to be quite informative, now a days he’s just annoying, but he was one of the first actually pulling these apart. You can buy parts from all over the place. @AutobahnEV is a one I personally recommend. Shipping is actually a breeze. I get everything via shippsy which saves weeks of postage time and I no longer have to cross the border. I don’t think you got a bad car, you probably had a bad seller and before you have the car fixed at Tesla, look around and you will find most, if not all the work you can do yourself.

Sounds good, I will look into it. Thanks for the help. Yeah, unfortunately, I was unaware of the process and was just told it was being auctioned off by Tesla Motors. Thought that meant there would be some type of due diligence by Tesla, but I guess not.

Thanks for the updates on the parts though, it can come in handy.

I am a Tesla parts business located in San Diego and I have been working with these cars for almost 5 years now. I help tons of people keep their Tesla's in tip top shape. If you ever have any questions or need any parts for your Model S, I would be happy to help you out. Congratulations on the purchase, I understand it may have some issues and be somewhat expensive to repair and that is where I come in.

Hey, thanks. Is there any way to contact you or PM in these forums? I am looking at repairing the sunroof because one side is making noise so it's not completely dead. Unfortunately for Tesla's useless $175 diagnostic fee, all they told me was a full replacement so I am unsure which parts are of need until my mechanic tells me, but will probably need parts. Any number to contact you/PM you?

 

[AutobahnEV]

So the issue with the sunroof was that it didn't open. They claim they removed the trim around the sunroof and from that evaluated the motor failed and therefore didn't touch the sunroof, and are therefore not responsible for it being open, claiming it came in that way. So it's not that they didn't look at it, they just didn't lift it is what they're saying. They don't have a number to call and you need to go through Tesla's main support channel to speak to a manager. I have done that, and have not gotten any calls back. I took my car to another mechanic who is in the process of fixing the sunroof, will never deal with this service centre again. Will see if I can get any refunds, but definitely a SC to avoid.





Sounds good, I will look into it. Thanks for the help. Yeah, unfortunately, I was unaware of the process and was just told it was being auctioned off by Tesla Motors. Thought that meant there would be some type of due diligence by Tesla, but I guess not.

Thanks for the updates on the parts though, it can come in handy.



Hey, thanks. Is there any way to contact you or PM in these forums? I am looking at repairing the sunroof because one side is making noise so it's not completely dead. Unfortunately for Tesla's useless $175 diagnostic fee, all they told me was a full replacement so I am unsure which parts are of need until my mechanic tells me, but will probably need parts. Any number to contact you/PM you?

My direct line at my shop is 1 (619) 444-3229, my name is Henry and my email is [email protected]

Please reach out with anything Tesla and I will do my best to help.