So I rented a bay with a lift and installed two new M3 metal skid plates and a new OEM rear sway bar/end links off a Performance model. I have a M3 Standard + to set the ground here.
The plates were bought off an infamous auction site from a place in Texas. Decent price price with a 3 day Fed Ex delivery included in the price. Yes, they were about 120 dollars cheaper than some of the other Tesla accessory dealers. Surprise number 1 was they were equipment with sound deadening out of the box. Reasonable thickness of aluminum but not hardened.. in other words, if you work at it, you can bend it. More on that in a bit. I got the set.. front and back.
I put the front on first and was pleasantly surprised when every single hole lined up without issue. Doing this on the driveway would have been a challenge because while they lined up, the two 15mm bolts were about 3/8 inch too low to engage the threads. I had to muscle the center of the plate UP and then grab a few threads. My impact wrench made short work of spinning the nut the rest of the way and pulling the plate with it. The 2nd nut was a bit easier but still had to be persuaded into place.
A side bar here.. I would not consider doing any of this without a battery 3/8 ratchet or the like. And for the sway bar, you want a 1/2 inch drive.
The rear plate was just as easy to put in place after I did the sway bar install. I put the center 10mm bolt in place to hang it and then worked around the edges. The sway bar was a brain dead simple upgrade with 4 bolts for the bar and four more for the endlinks. Again, it would be very tight to try and do this on your back in the driveway.. I'm amazed at just how low these cars really are. I rented a lift but some high ramps would work if you trusted them. I didnt trust mine.. Not with 5K pounds on them.
The rental place had not had a tesla before so their lift was too high. We had to put four low ramps in place, drive up them then put the pucks in place and lift the car. A bit more work that way but not impossible.
The results were excellent.. low frequency road noise is reduced from 68db to 64db on the freeway at 65mph. The switch twitch the back had is gone. Rock solid in the turns now. Honestly speaking, I think 95% of the population would not have even noticed the twitchiness but I come from BMW/Audis and like to play in my corners.. So I noticed
. Much happier with the car now from a driving point of view.
The plates were bought off an infamous auction site from a place in Texas. Decent price price with a 3 day Fed Ex delivery included in the price. Yes, they were about 120 dollars cheaper than some of the other Tesla accessory dealers. Surprise number 1 was they were equipment with sound deadening out of the box. Reasonable thickness of aluminum but not hardened.. in other words, if you work at it, you can bend it. More on that in a bit. I got the set.. front and back.
I put the front on first and was pleasantly surprised when every single hole lined up without issue. Doing this on the driveway would have been a challenge because while they lined up, the two 15mm bolts were about 3/8 inch too low to engage the threads. I had to muscle the center of the plate UP and then grab a few threads. My impact wrench made short work of spinning the nut the rest of the way and pulling the plate with it. The 2nd nut was a bit easier but still had to be persuaded into place.
A side bar here.. I would not consider doing any of this without a battery 3/8 ratchet or the like. And for the sway bar, you want a 1/2 inch drive.
The rear plate was just as easy to put in place after I did the sway bar install. I put the center 10mm bolt in place to hang it and then worked around the edges. The sway bar was a brain dead simple upgrade with 4 bolts for the bar and four more for the endlinks. Again, it would be very tight to try and do this on your back in the driveway.. I'm amazed at just how low these cars really are. I rented a lift but some high ramps would work if you trusted them. I didnt trust mine.. Not with 5K pounds on them.
The rental place had not had a tesla before so their lift was too high. We had to put four low ramps in place, drive up them then put the pucks in place and lift the car. A bit more work that way but not impossible.
The results were excellent.. low frequency road noise is reduced from 68db to 64db on the freeway at 65mph. The switch twitch the back had is gone. Rock solid in the turns now. Honestly speaking, I think 95% of the population would not have even noticed the twitchiness but I come from BMW/Audis and like to play in my corners.. So I noticed
. Much happier with the car now from a driving point of view.
