Tesla Model X quiz -What is wrong with my car?

[mbp11]

OK, Tesla Model X owners, here is a quiz- how many of you can solve the mystery? Here is the situation:



I stupidly backed into a low-lying branch of a tree in my relative’s driveway and dented and creased the side of the hatchback on the passenger side. I eventually contacted a recommended body shop for repair and they also volunteered to touch up some paint in the on the back tailgate where I loaded some furniture in the car and it chipped the paint, and they also said I could get the passenger side wheel rash also sanded and touched up, so I said “sure!”



I dropped the car off for the repairs and 3 days later, it was ready. However on the drive home, I noticed some grinding from the front of the car with right-hand turns, but not while driving straight or turning left. I thought that perhaps the bolts holding the brake calipers cracked (happened once before on the left side) but was not sure. I drove it around for another half a day and got nervous and drove it to the Dublin Service Center. They said not to drive it, leave it there and they would investigate.



Extra information: While troubleshooting, I noticed that the sentry mode captured video at the body shop so I looked at it and saw, to my amazement, a tech approaching the car with a jack and then jacking up the front of the car. So I looked underneath the car and say that the undercarriage plastic undercarriage was bent and rivets missing, and there were scrape marks in the area of the undercarriage and on the battery case.



I reported this to the body shop and they wanted to see it for themselves, but I instead took the car to the service center.



OK, the questions are:

• What happened to the car at the body shop?
• What was the cause of the grinding noise with right turns from the front of the car?

I will post what happened in a few days.



Mike P

 

[rickybobbee]

there is a certain procedure to jack a tesla and have to use pucks in certain places on the undercarriage to not damage it. a shop will often cause more damage than you took it in for because you always get a few lazy kids that just don't give a F. If it wasn't jacked properly you could have some major damage so best to inspect it thoroughly so they can't say later it wasn't them.......and keep that video. It wasn't that long ago that you couldn't get a garage to touch a tesla because they didn't want the liability of putting it on a hoist in fear of damaging something especially the battery. Better now most are trained on the specifics but just because they know the right way doesn't mean they will use the right way because the wrong way is easier

 

[Need]

Did they jack up the passenger side front to take off the wheel for curb rush repair? Is it possible that they decided to give you a free front/back wheel rotation and didn't realized that the front and back tires are different size? If you have the bigger rear tire in the front, it could rub on a turn...

 

[mbp11]

Here are some pictures to show they guy walking to my car with the jack, and the damage under the subframe

 

[sacfan]

Did they jack up the passenger side front to take off the wheel for curb rush repair? Is it possible that they decided to give you a free front/back wheel rotation and didn't realized that the front and back tires are different size? If you have the bigger rear tire in the front, it could rub on a turn...

Yes, they rotated your tires and put the back wheels on the front - the slightly larger tires will rub against the wheel well on sharp turns. Easy enough for you to check the tire sizes and confirm that this is what’s causing the noise now. Hopefully that’s all it is.

 

[mbp11]

Congratulations, all of you are correct! It was not a broken bolt on the driver's side caliper, the body shop Tesla tech was out with Covid that day so another employee jacked up the car without knowledge of the correct spots or using Model X pucks and pulled off BOTH wheels for refinishing.... and then reversed the wheels so the back wheel was on the front! Yikes! I should have been able to guess that. The jack slipped a little and scraped the battery compartments a little. This was a near miss.

The Dublin Service Center rotated the tires and put on new rear tires since they were getting worn, and then also rebent the metal undercarriage and rebolted the plastic divider back in place without charge. I had to pay for the tire rotation and new tires. Could have been worse.

I set up an appointment with the body shop and drove over there yesterday and showed them the damage under the car. I demonstrated the use of protective pucks and how they fit in with magnets and how they needed to get some of their own if they continue to do service on Teslas. I explained that this was a near miss for the battery. I was not mad, that would have not helped things, and they reimbursed me for the diagnostic fee, repairs and tire rotation (the tires were on me). I had no idea that the wheels would have to be removed to fix the curb rash, otherwise I would have pulled out my pucks and sat them in the driver's seat.

I thought that discussing our failures might help someone else on this forum.

Mike P