Well, I'm back.
There's good news and bad news. The good news is, it was a safe 1000-mile trip. The bad news is, basically the car is in the same condition as it was before I took it on a 1000-mile round trip to Scottsdale.
When I arrived at Scottsdale, around 12:45pm, the first thing they asked me was, now, you can leave the car here until Wed night? Thurs morning be okay? I'm like WHAT? I had made careful arrangements a week or two beforehand. Asked for a loaner, they'd said ok. I proposed to arrive midday Tues July 7 but I'd have to be wheels rolling around midday Wed July 8. They'd said ok. I said I'm hitting the Payson route to Holbrook straight from the service center, so I need every possible electron workin' in the battery, max charge, prolly best to charge it overnight while you're not working on it. They'd said ok.
And now that I'm there, they're asking about Thurs pickup, and that they have to do this
Power Switch pre-emptive replacement which I've commented about in the recent Power Switch thread. They said it'd take all day, they'd have to drain the battery, so, like... prolly not worth charging all night. I'm like, how can I leave at noon tomorrow with a maxed-out battery for the long haul to Holbrook, but you need the car for a day and have to work on battery while it's drained? I asked how urgent was this pre-emptive repair. I asked why didn't they let me know before I got up at 3:30am and hit the road and drove 500 miles to be there? I said you guys had my cell phone, my email, my home number, you could have texted, all hailing frequencies were open, but I heard nothing. I would have gladly rescheduled the trip. Obviously. Would have made every accommodation to fit in the Power Switch work. Well, sir, erm... I told them that I love the Tesla Motors company to death, I am a huge fan, shareholder, the works, but the persistent problem with Tesla across the board is COMMUNICATION and the lack thereof. They said if I didn't get the Power Switch pre-emptive repair done at Scottsdale, they would phone Denver (Denver? ha, I'm not convinced Denver really exists... never returned phone calls, never returned multiple emails requesting an appointment...) and have a Denver Ranger drive 7 hours down to me, scoop up car, take it back to Denver, do the Power Switch pre-emptive repair, and flatbed it back to me, all the while with me having a complimentary rental car. I said ok let's be perfectly clear: how at risk am I to car failure if I do not get this done today? He was very reluctant to say -- the Fremont stoicism was strong in this one -- but he admitted that the car could fail at any time. As in I'd be stranded. So they seem really really really keen on fixing this. Sounds like a recall to me. Anyway, I declined, had to, I had an important appointment on Thurs and I had to be back home in time for it, so he said he'd be getting a Ranger from Denver for me asap. Sounds really urgent to me. Can't believe Tesla hasn't said a peep about it sooner.
So here's the bad news. Got home last night, pulled in to garage, stopped car, BUZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ. This morning, pressed brake pedal to start car. BUZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ. Drove a bit this morning. Every single time I had to press the brake pedal, BUZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ.
The service center said they fixed the brake vacuum sound problem. They did not. It is still there and it has not changed AT ALL.
As for the notorious milling/cicada sound, they didn't even touch it. They said they tested it, and in their estimation the car exhibited a "mild" case of the milling sound, and that "there is a fix coming."
They tested the alignment. Found it wanting. Called me while I was camped out in the hotel. They wanted $129 or $149 for the alignment,
just like the other thread in TMC's been talking about. I protested. I mentioned how Tesla's own website's Service FAQ page says alignment service is "complimentary" for annual maintenance checks. There was some debate. I fired up my web browser and frantically searched for the Service FAQ page. I simply could not find it. (Is it gone? Since this past weekend???) Service guy said he'd talk to the manager, see what's what. Called me back, said they'd do the alignment gratis. I was thankful.
On much of my 500-mile drive home, the car tugged to the left the entire time, forcing me to compensate with a tiny push to the right. F***. This is new. It never did this before. if anything there was a verrrrry tiny about of right tug before. After their alignment work, there is now a more obvious left tug.
Another thing. I'd made the point very succinctly to make sure car was charged to max all night. By morning it was at 254. They'd had it (oddly, I thought) charging at only 30 amps all night, on a slow charge. I realized it'd stopped at 254 because the iPhone app's "Charge Limit" slider makes it SEEM like you slid all the way to the right, but it never quite gets there, so you wind up with like a 96% charge. When service center called in morning, we chatted about it, and I told 'em to up the limit to the max using the Control settings, and could they kindly finish the max charge, they said fine. When I finally was back in car, and back on freeway, and moving along, it was only then I noticed battery was at 245. It had drained somehow, and they hadn't maxed it out. I decided right on the spot to not attempt the Payson climb to Holbrook, too risky without maxed-out battery. So I did Cordes Lakes, topped off there, and then did a gorgeous scenic shortcut off of I-17 at route 260 at Camp Verde, heading all the way over to Winslow, and rejoined I-40 there, so I could skip Flagstaff.
Oh yeah. One more thing. After I dropped of my car, got the loaner (VIN #000042! a Sig from 2012! Awesome car), and was heading to hotel, out of curiosity I fired up Tesla iPhone app, and saw that my car was moving at 44mph. So I watched the live map. They were speeding down N. Hayden Rd near the service center. At 65mph, in a busy 45mph zone with lots of traffic intersections. I grabbed a screen shot.
So all in all, they were very nice. They did a superb job cleaning and detailing the car as part of the service, for which I am grateful. But I still have the same two annoying sounds in my S that are driving me crazy.
Oh, and I'm now concerned my car might konk out at any time. I await a call from this theoretical service center in Denver.