Hey y'all! So about a month ago i was driving at midnight at about 40mph on a paved road. There was an object in the road and when i tried to swerve to avoid it, my M3 just didnt have the clearance and the composite got a little scraped up. Being that the car kept driving and no alerts happened, i figured all is good, checked up on the damage in the morning, no fluid leaks or dents visible. One month later i cant drive the car! 12 volt battery failure it says. Tesla tows it to their center and tells me they need 13 grand to get a new battery pack and replace the coolant. In the pictures below you can see the damage from the object i hit about a month ago. You'll notice the battery protector is not punctured. Youll notice that theres a little metal piece putting a little pressure on a coolant hose but there has never been a leak or anything like that. Wondering if ANYONE out there has an explanation for how my battery pack needs replacement when no connection to the 12 volt was damaged? PS battery has held same charge level as pre scrape.
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Underbelly Damage?
- Thread starter Justinwaters
- Start date
Silicon Desert
Well-Known Member
Hmmm, strange. I'm not making the connection of a 12 V battery failure message relating to the main pack.
CharleyBC
Active Member
jebinc
Well-Known Member
Hey yall! My insurance does cover this but the tesla service people are being very sketchy about it, not answering my questions, making vague statements, pushing me to make a claim. It feels sketchy and i dont see how my battery (which was at full capacity still a month after hitting object) is effecting the 12 volt
Boy you sure understated the damage done. When you saw those scrapes the entire way down the length of your car, you really should have taken it to a shop. Either way, this is an insurance claim and a valuable lesson to drive around objects in the road and never over them. Sorry for your inconvenience, but at least getting a pack replaced is faster than an ICE engine.
Was the underbelly scraped or it had that part of the protection cover missing (in the last photo)?
That ugly looking pointed up black piece do not seem to have punctured the plastic conduit. Is this a cooling line? I imagined those to be metal? What was the explanation for entire battery replacement? That it overheated?
That ugly looking pointed up black piece do not seem to have punctured the plastic conduit. Is this a cooling line? I imagined those to be metal? What was the explanation for entire battery replacement? That it overheated?
TomB985
Member
The damage appears pretty minor to me, where exactly are they saying the battery sustained damage?
This is strange indeed. Your photos of the removed front plastic cover show that there are indeed some fairly fragile looking bits under there with minimal protection. So far, to me this seems to be the biggest design flaw on the car , a very low ground clearance combine with minimal protection for under-car parts. Perhaps there is an opportunity for aftermarket skid plates here?
I live in New England, and our frost heave riddled roads often mean undercarriage bumps entering or leaving driveways. This vulnerability is a real concern !
I live in New England, and our frost heave riddled roads often mean undercarriage bumps entering or leaving driveways. This vulnerability is a real concern !
13K sounds more like the lions share cost towards replacement of your main battery (not the 12V). Hopefully you'll get a detailed estimate, and can share back here. If it were me, I'd have another service center provide an estimate as well if you were suspicious that you were not getting accurate information. It would not make sense to me that Tesla would be costing out the replacement of the main battery unless there really was a serious issue.
Unless there's damage internal to the battery compartment that isn't visible, I can't see why a pack replacement would be necessary. If there's any damage to the battery whatsoever though, it would be safest to replace it. At the very least, that metal needs to be bent so it doesn't contact the coolant hose and eventually wear through.
12V is charged from the HV battery via DC/DC converter, so unless they can show that something is abnormal with the HV battery or DC/DC converter, it's probably just a failed 12V.
12V is charged from the HV battery via DC/DC converter, so unless they can show that something is abnormal with the HV battery or DC/DC converter, it's probably just a failed 12V.
