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Tesla Has Released the Roadster Service Manual on their Website

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It would be such a shame to allow these cars to die and rot. Akin to what happened to GM’s EV1. Tesla need to show that these cars last and can continue to be viable for many years to come. Third party repair shops seem willing to take on this burden, but are hampered by the lack of parts or technical information to be able to recreate those parts.

Here is my top 5 wish list (in priority order):
  1. CAN bus message specifications for the Driver Feedback, ESS, Power Train, and Diagnostics (OBDII port) buses.

  2. Latest firmware images, tools, and documentation to be able to flash firmware.

  3. Tools and documentation to be able to maintain firmware in the cars. Things like setting option configs, cloning VMS, bleed tests, etc.

  4. Schematics, PCB layout, and gerbers for the circuit boards.

  5. Firmware source code, documentation, and build chains, to be able to fix and update firmware (in particular regarding ESS).
None of the above needs to be supported, or warranted in any way. This would allow independent shops to service roadsters, and keep them on the road.
 
It would be such a shame to allow these cars to die and rot. Akin to what happened to GM’s EV1. Tesla need to show that these cars last and can continue to be viable for many years to come. Third party repair shops seem willing to take on this burden, but are hampered by the lack of parts or technical information to be able to recreate those parts.

Here is my top 5 wish list (in priority order):
  1. CAN bus message specifications for the Driver Feedback, ESS, Power Train, and Diagnostics (OBDII port) buses.

  2. Latest firmware images, tools, and documentation to be able to flash firmware.

  3. Tools and documentation to be able to maintain firmware in the cars. Things like setting option configs, cloning VMS, bleed tests, etc.

  4. Schematics, PCB layout, and gerbers for the circuit boards.

  5. Firmware source code, documentation, and build chains, to be able to fix and update firmware (in particular regarding ESS).
None of the above needs to be supported, or warranted in any way. This would allow independent shops to service roadsters, and keep them on the road.
I agree completely, at this point the car is almost 15 years old and even older if you go by when the tech in the car really came about, why not make it all available so shops can continue maintaining these vehicles? Tesla has been slowly trying to forget the original Roadster anyway and hardly anyone left was around during the early days to remember how to even work on them.
 
It would be such a shame to allow these cars to die and rot. Akin to what happened to GM’s EV1.
Fortunately, this would be impossible. Like any old car, however, keeping them on the road will continue to get harder though.
Tesla has a dedicated service point ([email protected]) for them since they recognize the Roadster is the only legacy people can see for the company. Many people are happy and relieved when I tell them our 2018 Roadster is still doing well on its 1st battery.
 

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Fortunately, this would be impossible. Like any old car, however, keeping them on the road will continue to get harder though.
Tesla has a dedicated service point ([email protected]) for them since they recognize the Roadster is the only legacy people can see for the company. Many people are happy and relieved when I tell them our 2018 Roadster is still doing well on its 1st battery.
What a horror picture!! What is that. ?!
1617900070244.png
 
Fortunately, this would be impossible. Like any old car, however, keeping them on the road will continue to get harder though.
Tesla has a dedicated service point ([email protected]) for them since they recognize the Roadster is the only legacy people can see for the company. Many people are happy and relieved when I tell them our 2018 Roadster is still doing well on its 1st battery.
Whenever I show my car, the battery's life is one of the impressive things the viewers walk away with. I'm down about 14% on my 2010's original battery, after 11 years and 55k miles. I also have a short 1-page write-up about the car and EVs in general that I keep in the car. Every time the car is out it draws some attention, and that's a great opportunity to generate some positive PR for the car and what it represents.

RoadsterServiceNA has very (an understatement) ability to do anything except schedule an appointment with a service center, since we can't do that through the App. Oh, and they'll gladly accept your perfectly working car as a sacrificial donor for parts.

Beyond that (or perhaps including that), they're pretty much useless. Ask them a technical question (which I have tried a couple of times), and they very quickly suggest I schedule a service appointment. Until Tesla gets over this hump, and starts actually helping owners maintain their cars, we're increasingly on our own to reverse engineer and patch things together to keep these irreplaceable cars on the road.
 
We recently had a good experience when our PEM had a pesky intermittent problem that was extremely difficult to reproduce. The service center was having trouble but someone from corporate that was monitoring [email protected] stepped in and got the service center focused. We eventually got our problems sorted out.
Roadster service has been variable though. Each car is a bit different (as Tesla experimented on technology that eventually went into the Model S) and it takes a different kind of tech to work on a Roadster. Gruber et al are also good resources, of course.
 
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Fortunately, this would be impossible. Like any old car, however, keeping them on the road will continue to get harder though.
Tesla has a dedicated service point ([email protected]) for them since they recognize the Roadster is the only legacy people can see for the company. Many people are happy and relieved when I tell them our 2018 Roadster is still doing well on its 1st battery.
I have to disagree with this. Perhaps in USA you are fortunate that some parts are still available, but elsewhere these cars are rotting in warehouses and I suspect USA will follow unless something changes. Hong Kong had 30+ Roadsters; but today just 2 or 3 still on the road. I've just heard the story of a 2.5 sport here who's battery died, was upgraded to 3.0 battery, which then died; that car is now rotting away with an unrepairable 3.0 battery.

Gruber, Medlock, and others, are doing what they can. But the proprietary components (switchpack, PEM, motor, ESS, VMS, VDS, etc) are irreplaceable and spares only coming from donor sacrificial cars.
 
What is the market for classic cars in Hong Kong? Perhaps it isn't the best market for them. I know that old MGs in the US are often sent to the UK where there is a lot more demand for them.
Remember that in the car world (in the US at least), the adage is "buy at 15, sell at 30". This is because, at 15 years old, it is just an old car that can be bought cheap. At 30 years old, it is a classic. Roadsters are quite unique so it is hard to tell how this exactly applies them but we do know that their value dropped when the Model S came out but it appears to be moving into the 'classic' phase although maybe not in all markets. Perhaps it would be worth snapping up a few of these cars that are rotting in HK or are HK real estate costs so high it is too expensive to store them until they become truly valuable?