Tesla Repair Center's approach for Flat Tires - Replace Or Repair??

[kmaluo]

Sam's Club will patch tires for free even if not purchased from them. You'll need a membership of course .

 

[Glamisduner]

I recently had a flat, got towed to service center because no loaner wheels were available. Service center had a loaner wheel though. They wanted $54 to patch the tire. Discount tire did it for free, but I did up needed to go back to have them reset the TPMS sensors.
Also the valve stem they gave me was not painted so now I have one aluminum colored one.

 

[csweaver]

I agree that with the criteria that Tesla uses to consider a plug and patch repair for flat tires many times they lean heavily on replacement vs repair.

 

[israndy]

That's true of all their repairs, very much like Apple in that sense, "Oh, your key popped off the keyboard, no problem we can get you a new laptop"

It's gotten better over the years, I think the Right to Repair crowd are motivated by these issues. I was there in the early days when people would bring their computer in and say "I accidentally deleted my mail directory last week, can you recover it?" and the managers would say "Sure" and we'd spend a week of 3 genius's time to often fail at the task. Over my tenure they got more and more conservative about what they could repair to the point where it felt like the scenario above. But they have also gotten better at documenting the things that can be repaired and making parts available. They have keycap kits now, no more scavenging DOA computers for caps.

Hopefully the same will happen to Tesla over time and not always go for the biggest part that could cause the issue being swapped.

 

[mspohr]

I agree that with the criteria that Tesla uses to consider a plug and patch repair for flat tires many times they lean heavily on replacement vs repair.

It's well known that it's dangerous to plug or patch holes outside of the center of the tread.
Imagine the uproar that would happen if Tesla patched a marginal hole an caused an accident.

 

[ODWms]

Yeah, for a single person, the risk is very minimal. For a multi billion dollar corporation, dealing with hundreds of thousands of customers, I can see why they wouldn't want to take on the liability.

 

[fholbert]

It's well known that it's dangerous to plug or patch holes outside of the center of the tread.
Imagine the uproar that would happen if Tesla patched a marginal hole a caused an accident.

What’s dangerous about it? The only danger would be if you ignored the low pressure warnings and continued to drive on it until the tire overheated and came apart. Before TPPS, I’ve had that happen to me twice, never a loss of control issue.

I picked up a nail and was loosing 3 pounds of pressure a day. Found the nail, it’s in a spot most shops won’t fix, but the tires only have 11,000 miles on them. I picked up a $6.49 tire plug kit (vs $700.00 for two new tires mounted and balanced) and plugged it. If it leaks in a couple thousand miles I’ll plug it again. I didn’t even remove the tire to plug it, just jacked it up so I had more room.

 

[ODWms]

Same here, as it always has been over more than 4 decades of driving. When I replaced my originals, I picked up a nail the first week. I plugged it and never had a single issue up until replacement again, almost 50,000 miles later.

 

[mspohr]

Same here, as it always has been over more than 4 decades of driving. When I replaced my originals, I picked up a nail the first week. I plugged it and never had a single issue up until replacement again, almost 50,000 miles later.

Plugs usually work in the tread area. Sidewall flexes too much and plugs come out. Usually at an inopportune time such as driving at high speed.