I work on a Navy base and had an aircraft fire recently. AFFF was deployed, then fresh water rinse. Interesting to watch, didn't appear to be any injuries, but there's no articles or word of it. Anyway, didn't think much of it after the occurrence.
Later that night, when we were all leaving for work, there was runoff everywhere on the road as the aircraft egress was done within 25 yards of the main road on the base and they were dousing this thing for over an hour. Drive right through a ~ 2-3" deep puddle of it.
Aqueous Film Forming Foam (AFFF) is an extremely extremely highly corrosive chemical when it comes to electrical components. Egress on aircraft avionics consists of removal of any and all electrical components in contact with the AFFF and dunked in tanks of fresh water and thoroughly cleaned.
Got to work next day, few coworkers witnessed me driving through the puddle reminding me of what I did and advised me to rinse underside of my car ASAP. Talked about it with other co-workers with hybrids and Teslas, we all rinsed our vehicles off after work. (Real awkward washing your car at midnight)
Called my car insurance (USAA) just to see if I would have any issue filing a comprehensive claim as the entire underside of the Model 3 is a battery pack and electrical components. They advised me to have Tesla inspect the vehicle and if they report any issues, then USAA will take care of me.
Co-workers familiar with AFFF just say it's stupid corrosive, but don't really know how badly corrosive it is. I just keep imagining a bunch of canon plugs with IPX67 or equivalent proofing getting doused in a mixture of some corrosive hell liquid. They said it doesn't turn to a liquid after time, so more than likely, I just ran through water or a diluted mixture of AFFF. I know the battery packs and connections aren't 100% blocked from the elements and do get corroded over time, so I know there had to be some interaction with that puddle I drove through.
TL;DR:
Vehicle (Model 3 Performance) on June 15th had 121,863 miles on it and is out of warranty.
June 15, 2022: Aircraft Fire. Drove through puddle of AFFF/Fresh Water runoff.
June 16, 2022: Discussed and advised with coworkers. Called car insurance. Scheduled service with Tesla for an inspection on July 5th. Rinsed entire underside of vehicle for 10 minutes.
June 30, 2022: Tesla realizes a mobile ranger cannot perform this task, assigns me for service center visit. I'm off work from July 4th to the 5th. They change it to July 13th. I change it to July 15th.
So far i've driven 2,039 miles without any issues so far... Bill estimate is $235.
Wondering if I should just cancel the appointment...
Later that night, when we were all leaving for work, there was runoff everywhere on the road as the aircraft egress was done within 25 yards of the main road on the base and they were dousing this thing for over an hour. Drive right through a ~ 2-3" deep puddle of it.
Aqueous Film Forming Foam (AFFF) is an extremely extremely highly corrosive chemical when it comes to electrical components. Egress on aircraft avionics consists of removal of any and all electrical components in contact with the AFFF and dunked in tanks of fresh water and thoroughly cleaned.
Got to work next day, few coworkers witnessed me driving through the puddle reminding me of what I did and advised me to rinse underside of my car ASAP. Talked about it with other co-workers with hybrids and Teslas, we all rinsed our vehicles off after work. (Real awkward washing your car at midnight)
Called my car insurance (USAA) just to see if I would have any issue filing a comprehensive claim as the entire underside of the Model 3 is a battery pack and electrical components. They advised me to have Tesla inspect the vehicle and if they report any issues, then USAA will take care of me.
Co-workers familiar with AFFF just say it's stupid corrosive, but don't really know how badly corrosive it is. I just keep imagining a bunch of canon plugs with IPX67 or equivalent proofing getting doused in a mixture of some corrosive hell liquid. They said it doesn't turn to a liquid after time, so more than likely, I just ran through water or a diluted mixture of AFFF. I know the battery packs and connections aren't 100% blocked from the elements and do get corroded over time, so I know there had to be some interaction with that puddle I drove through.
TL;DR:
Vehicle (Model 3 Performance) on June 15th had 121,863 miles on it and is out of warranty.
June 15, 2022: Aircraft Fire. Drove through puddle of AFFF/Fresh Water runoff.
June 16, 2022: Discussed and advised with coworkers. Called car insurance. Scheduled service with Tesla for an inspection on July 5th. Rinsed entire underside of vehicle for 10 minutes.
June 30, 2022: Tesla realizes a mobile ranger cannot perform this task, assigns me for service center visit. I'm off work from July 4th to the 5th. They change it to July 13th. I change it to July 15th.
So far i've driven 2,039 miles without any issues so far... Bill estimate is $235.
Wondering if I should just cancel the appointment...
