The woes of wrecking a Tesla Model 3 Performance...

[dennisvab]

Capital Region. Coles Collision - only Tesla certified shop that’s not over 3 hours away.

Someone mentioned the pyrofuse had to be installed by the service center. If that’s the case Latham now has a service center.

 

[timk225]

Couldnt wait a few for the windshield to defog? A/C works so well in these cars that a few more seconds wouldn't have hurt I imagine. Unless the car was submerged already.

I can remember back in the 1990's and 2000's, when I had my 1971 Plymouth Valiant or other similar Chrysler vehicles of the early 1970s, and I'd be running out of the apartment at the last minute as usual, on my way to work. It'd be below freezing outside in the winter, and I am hurriedly trying to get the windshield scraped off of ice and snow, and get a cold carbureted engine going and idling, and have the defroster blowing ice cold air at a freezing cold windshield.

So in my quest to not be late to whatever joke of a job I had at the time, I'd be pulling out of the parking spot and heading off down the road looking through about a 3 inch by 3 inch area of windshield and screaming "COME ON HURRY UP!!!" at the defroster system to get the rest of the windshield defogged.

Anyone else ever do that? One of the joys of life!

And I'd go up on that parking garage roof with a can of orange paint and a brush and paint that concrete light post base myself. It's warranted in this case.

 

[TMK26]

Capital Region. Coles Collision - only Tesla certified shop that’s not over 3 hours away.

A flying truck retread tire hit the front side of my car causing a small (baseball size) dent in the front fender and the A-pillar. The side mirror also got scratched which required replacement.
My insurance estimate was for $1800 and 5 days in the shop. This little (IMO) bit of work ended up costing more than $6,000 and the car was in the shop for 3+ weeks.
The main reason for the added time and cost was due to the windshield also needed replacement (2 week lead time). The windshield needed to be removed due to the A-pillar work that needed to be done. I was told that they couldn't re-use the windshield and that they needed to order a new one.

You will have costs added for new cameras in the fender(s) and re-calibration.

And the labor rates listed on your estimate are quite low. I think the rate I (my insurance) paid was over $100/hr (considered a specialty vehicle).

I had my work done at the same Coles. The work turned out excellent, and the service manager was friendly and helpful.

 

[Ayy Eye]

Someone mentioned the pyrofuse had to be installed by the service center. If that’s the case Latham now has a service center.

Thanks for the heads up. I did notice this service center in the Tesla app, but wasn’t sure of it. Found it on google now too. This will be a huge break.

A flying truck retread tire hit the front side of my car causing a small (baseball size) dent in the front fender and the A-pillar. The side mirror also got scratched which required replacement.
My insurance estimate was for $1800 and 5 days in the shop. This little (IMO) bit of work ended up costing more than $6,000 and the car was in the shop for 3+ weeks.
The main reason for the added time and cost was due to the windshield also needed replacement (2 week lead time). The windshield needed to be removed due to the A-pillar work that needed to be done. I was told that they couldn't re-use the windshield and that they needed to order a new one.

You will have costs added for new cameras in the fender(s) and re-calibration.

And the labor rates listed on your estimate are quite low. I think the rate I (my insurance) paid was over $100/hr (considered a specialty vehicle).

I had my work done at the same Coles. The work turned out excellent, and the service manager was friendly and helpful.

I’m glad the work they did came out great. Do you know why they have to remove the fenders and replace those cameras though? The fenders were not damaged, nor misaligned with the body lines.

 

[TMK26]

Do you know why they have to remove the fenders and replace those cameras though? The fenders were not damaged, nor misaligned with the body lines.

I assumed that you had some fender damage and that they would need to repair and repaint.

 

[Ayy Eye]

I assumed that you had some fender damage and that they would need to repair and repaint.

Gotcha. Fingers crossed hoping I don't have to wait until the end of the year to get my car back! Did they order any parts directly from Tesla for your vehicle? If so, did that take forever to arrive?

 

[zyzz]

given the shape of the structure you hit, your car is likely to have thought you hit a tree and therefore deployed airbags. Happened to my MBZ S Class at relatively low speeds when I accidentally hit a bowling ball sized rock - all airbags deployed - car totalled

 

[TMK26]

Gotcha. Fingers crossed hoping I don't have to wait until the end of the year to get my car back! Did they order any parts directly from Tesla for your vehicle? If so, did that take forever to arrive?

They needed to order a mirror assembly ($350), fender camera ($130), and windshield ($585). The mirror and camera were ordered ahead of time, before dropping my car off. The windshield was ordered after they started working... which lead to an additional couple of weeks.

Good luck with your repairs.

 

[justsomeguy]

I can remember back in the 1990's and 2000's, when I had my 1971 Plymouth Valiant or other similar Chrysler vehicles of the early 1970s, and I'd be running out of the apartment at the last minute as usual, on my way to work. It'd be below freezing outside in the winter, and I am hurriedly trying to get the windshield scraped off of ice and snow, and get a cold carbureted engine going and idling, and have the defroster blowing ice cold air at a freezing cold windshield.

So in my quest to not be late to whatever joke of a job I had at the time, I'd be pulling out of the parking spot and heading off down the road looking through about a 3 inch by 3 inch area of windshield and screaming "COME ON HURRY UP!!!" at the defroster system to get the rest of the windshield defogged.

Anyone else ever do that? One of the joys of life!

And I'd go up on that parking garage roof with a can of orange paint and a brush and paint that concrete light post base myself. It's warranted in this case.

Wow, I would never do anything so irrespo.........

Yes, all the time. Not exactly proud of it but I did it, a lot.

 

[Ayy Eye]

Update
In case any of you wanted to see the storm, it was pretty cool. Playback speed 2. You can watch the water level change from 4:41 to 6:21.

 

[KenC]

Update
In case any of you wanted to see the storm, it was pretty cool. Playback speed 2. You can watch the water level change from 4:41 to 6:21.

Good storm. In hindsight, the repeater shows that there was a gap in the wall, where the accumulating water was probably pouring out.

 

[Dana1]

On August 21, 2019 after owning my Model 3 for only 2 months, a huge rainstorm flooded the roof parking garage of where my job is located. This flood produced water that was up about 2 feet and in an urgent state, I quick went to go move my car. The front window would not defog and I went to park in a higher elevation parking spot until the flooding was gone. As I was parking, with limited visibility, I ran into a concrete block about 3 feet by 4 feet.

All the airbags went off (besides the passengers) including all side curtain and driver airbags - at 3 mph.

The damage is minimal, front bumper, frunk cover and hood and a slightly bent front crash bar. No damage to fog lights, headlights, or undercarriage.

Called my insurance company, hoping I could get it towed with the remaining amount of 12v left in the battery - unfortunately, the tow companies could not make it out due to the floods and abundance of other accidents. So I had to wait until the next day.

Called my insurance again to get it towed the next day, and they were unable to find a flatbed tow or any tow in general that accepted payment from them and could clear a 6'9" parking garage clearance (remember I'm at the roof). The only viable solution to a tow at this point was to safely get the car to roll down the parking garage and out to the street.

I called Tesla, and they assisted with getting the 12v charged back up in order to put the car in Tow Mode so that we could roll it. This is where things began to go even more downhill - no pun intended. Once we got enough juice to get the car in tow mode and roll it, it kept beeping every 10-15ft and honking followed by an abrupt parking brake engagement and hard stop. The battery died again... so we recharged it and it kept dying over and over again but after a couple hours we managed to get it on the street.

Yes, I did use an external/portable jumper - however a fully charged jumper would only last a minute or so, strange.

Finally, we manage to get it out of the garage and a flat bed truck arrived to pick up the car. Once the truck arrives, the car is again dead at this point and the tow truck driver plugs in his external jump pack. No luck there, only turned the car on for a minute and shut it off again. It drained the whole jump pack. The only way we were able to load the car was to jump it with another car and leave it charging for 15-20 minutes.

We load the car on the flat bed and head to my house to drop it off so that it can be inspected. Once we get to my house, the car of course is dead again... this time we try to jump it with the external pack, no luck. We then try to jump it with another car to get just enough charge in order to roll it off the flat bed. Still, no luck. The 12v battery is completely dead and nothing we did could get it to boot back up. At this point, after 4 or 5 hours, we decided that the only way to get the car off the flat bed is with skids. A painful process but it worked except the car is sitting halfway on my driveway and halfway on my garage until the inspector comes.

So, this leads me to a few questions:
1) Is my 12v battery completely done for? And there is no way I can get the car on anymore unless I replace it?
2) Why does the 12v die when the car is completely off?
3) Why doesn't Tesla include a manual parking brake release? This is painful having to charge the 12v to even get in the car, let alone turn on the stupid tow mode that barely even works.
4) Do you think that the insurance company will total the vehicle, even with the minimal damage?

Thanks!

Next time use dish soap along the path you want to drag the car. Works great...car slides along. Surprised your tow truck driver wasn’t aware of that. Cars, even ICE, are never completely off anymore. Computers have to have power.

 

[Ayy Eye]

Just a quick update!

Repair shop was finally able to disassemble the vehicle after about 3 weeks of it being arriving to the shop. The updated repair estimate increased about $4.5k in labor costs, etc.. Totaling roughly $15k in damages.

Repair shop also ordered the parts on Monday. They said they generally start seeing the parts delivered within 1-1.5 weeks after the order is made. Repairs will take 4-5 days.

Based on this info, it seems like they will have the car ready within the next couple weeks or so. Leaving the whole repair process time to total around a month and a half. Here's a timeline:

Aug. 21 - Accident
Aug. 26 - Insurance Estimate
Sept. 21 - Updated Insurance Estimate
Sept. 23 - Parts Ordered
Oct. 4 - Parts Delivered
Oct. 16 - Completed

*Actual | Estimated

 

[AlanSubie4Life]

Just a quick update!

Repair shop was finally able to disassemble the vehicle after about 3 weeks of it being arriving to the shop. The updated repair estimate increased about $4.5k in labor costs, etc.. Totaling roughly $15k in damages.

Repair shop also ordered the parts on Monday. They said they generally start seeing the parts delivered within 1-1.5 weeks after the order is made. Repairs will take 4-5 days.

Based on this info, it seems like they will have the car ready within the next couple weeks or so. Leaving the whole repair process time to total around a month and a half. Here's a timeline:

Aug. 21 - Accident
Aug. 26 - Insurance Estimate
Sept. 21 - Updated Insurance Estimate
Sept. 23 - Parts Ordered
Oct. 4 - Parts Delivered
Oct. 16 - Completed

*Actual | Estimated

Great. Thanks for the update! Sounds like the damage was extremely limited then - no frame rail impacts, no front motor removal and reconditioning needed, etc.

 

[Ayy Eye]

Great. Thanks for the update! Sounds like the damage was extremely limited then - no frame rail impacts, no front motor removal and reconditioning needed, etc.

I believe there may have been frame damage based on the estimate - here's what makes me think that:
S01 Repl Radiator support 111024000B 1 550.00
Repl Absorber 110466900F 1 17.00
Repl Impact bar 110466700F 1 200.00
Repl Cross bar 108489400B 1 37.00
S01 ROUGH BODY PULL 1 2.0 NOTE: TO PULL ON FRONT RAILS & RE-ALIGN

 

[AlanSubie4Life]

I believe there may have been frame damage based on the estimate - here's what makes me think that:
S01 Repl Radiator support 111024000B 1 550.00
Repl Absorber 110466900F 1 17.00
Repl Impact bar 110466700F 1 200.00
Repl Cross bar 108489400B 1 37.00
S01 ROUGH BODY PULL 1 2.0 NOTE: TO PULL ON FRONT RAILS & RE-ALIGN

Interesting, but not surprising to see that happened. Guess not enough deformation for them to have to replace them.

 

[Mrcarcrazy]

Damn. Well I’m glad you’re making progress. Is the delay in tearing it down due to them just being super busy? Or something due to it being a Tesla?

 

[VT_EE]

I can remember back in the 1990's and 2000's, when I had my 1971 Plymouth Valiant or other similar Chrysler vehicles of the early 1970s, and I'd be running out of the apartment at the last minute as usual, on my way to work. It'd be below freezing outside in the winter, and I am hurriedly trying to get the windshield scraped off of ice and snow, and get a cold carbureted engine going and idling, and have the defroster blowing ice cold air at a freezing cold windshield.

So in my quest to not be late to whatever joke of a job I had at the time, I'd be pulling out of the parking spot and heading off down the road looking through about a 3 inch by 3 inch area of windshield and screaming "COME ON HURRY UP!!!" at the defroster system to get the rest of the windshield defogged.

Anyone else ever do that? One of the joys of life!

And I'd go up on that parking garage roof with a can of orange paint and a brush and paint that concrete light post base myself. It's warranted in this case.

There were days in high school when I didn't have time to scrape and drove through the neighborhood with my head out the window, which was usually defrosted by the time I got to a major road. Pretty stupid now that I think about it

 

[S4WRXTTCS]

And, people claim there isn't a use case for Smart Summons.

Not that it would have worked due to all the visibility issues, but still. A use case it is.

 

[WilliamG]

And, people claim there isn't a use case for Smart Summons.

Not that it would have worked due to all the visibility issues, but still. A use case it is.

Why would it not have worked? Parking sensors would have picked up any pillars, no?