When do I maintain my Model 3?

[JetFalcon]

When will my first maintenance be for Model 3, it's at 4665 miles as of now, checking on the app. I took delivery Dec 31, so it's been 3 months of use.

The Tesla range is excellent, I can def do round trips to places 2-3 hours away and make it back home with only 90% to start. At this rate, I'm driving this car alot more than my BMW M3, which only had 36k miles in the time I owned it from Dec 2012 till sold in 2019. There were other factors, like still driving an older Lexus that I put more miles on. I feel alot less calculative about how far I drive since I don't need to ever stop for gas, or even to charge up.

How do you know when you need to do maintenance, will there be a notification on car that maintenance is needed? Like through car or app?

Will maintenance be cheaper than a gas based car, and hopefully less things to fix around?

 

[billh13850]

Recently announced no more scheduled maintenance, I guess the cars will tell us when they're ready? Basically brake and battery coolant fluid changes are all there is.

 

[JetFalcon]

Recently announced no more scheduled maintenance, I guess the cars will tell us when they're ready? Basically brake and battery coolant fluid changes are all there is.

So is maintenance less stressful and less things to go wrong on EV? I felt with less parts to deal with would have to contribute to better maintenance.

 

[Az_Rael]

No notifications of maintenance at this time. Maybe it will be added.

Required maintenance is in the manual, there are brake flushes, coolant flushes, AC dessicant changes, etc at various mileage/ time intervals. Tire rotations are the only thing you are close to right now.

Tesla is no longer publishing the annual maintenance schedules. I just had my 25k done on my 3 for $425 but they told me no more annual services.

 

[OCR1]

And tire rotations.

 

[AlanSubie4Life]

Tesla's current position:

Car Maintenance

As others have said, I recommend keeping an eye on your tire wear and rotating them as necessary.

Do note that the current Model 3 Owner's Manual does not appear to have been updated with the revised service schedule recommendations, yet. Poking around for the original Tesla announcement but didn't find what I wanted...

 

[billh13850]

So is maintenance less stressful and less things to go wrong on EV? I felt with less parts to deal with would have to contribute to better maintenance.

Definitely less to wrong, way fewer moving parts to wear and tear and eat up lubrication.

 

[Az_Rael]

So is maintenance less stressful and less things to go wrong on EV? I felt with less parts to deal with would have to contribute to better maintenance.

This is true in theory. However the reality is Tesla still has some work to do in overall reliability. So, you can expect some issues that will bring you into the service center. I haven't had anything major, but several small things like charge port door failures, etc.

 

[ewoodrick]

Tire rotations and no longer maintenance schedule, but the first used to be 2 years, so you got a long way to go

 

[EnrgyNDpndnce]

I’m at 22k miles and so far not a single issue (knock on some major wood). Haven’t even rotated tires, they seem to be wearing evenly so no issues. I drive mostly interstate miles so that likely helps. Meanwhile, I have co-workers with new trucks and cars who have needed multiple service visits in fewer miles both for planned maintenance and issue resolution. Had to give several of them a ride to the dealership in my “weird electric car.”

 

[lolder]

I doubt that most people need to do the brake fluid change either unless they race it. We'll see about the coolant replacement. It doesn't get that hot and hasn't any hydrocarbons anywhere near it.

 

[timk225]

My 3 will hit 25,000 miles in the next week or two. I called my service center about scheduling the 25,000 mile checkup, and they said no more annual services, although I can bring it in and they will look it over and only do what needs done.

I'm concerned about the differential fluid and filter needing changed, they should check it.

 

[Daniel in SD]

I'm concerned about the differential fluid and filter needing changed, they should check it.

Why are you concerned? I've never heard of replacing differential fluid that often and the Model 3 has a filter so it should last even longer.

 

[SoundDaTrumpet]

Tire rotation. Torque from electric motors chews up the rear tires quick. First car to have ever need a thread depth gauge.

 

[Petra]

I doubt that most people need to do the brake fluid change either unless they race it. We'll see about the coolant replacement. It doesn't get that hot and hasn't any hydrocarbons anywhere near it.

Given that the brake fluid absorbs water, brakes are used infrequently which prevents them from heating up, and there have been instances of Model S with brake pistons corroded to the point of needing caliper replacement... brake fluid changes are probably a reasonable idea, no?

I used to design liquid cooling systems for servers and coolant doesn't last forever (be it water-glycol or something more exotic... with the exception being liquid gallium alloys).

 

[Daniel in SD]

Given that the brake fluid absorbs water, brakes are used infrequently which prevents them from heating up, and there have been instances of Model S with brake pistons corroded to the point of needing caliper replacement... brake fluid changes are probably a reasonable idea, no?

That's why Tesla recommends testing the brake fluid every two years.

I used to design liquid cooling systems for servers and coolant doesn't last forever (be it water-glycol or something more exotic... with the exception being liquid gallium alloys).

Coolant change intervals in ICE vehicles is 100k miles these days. I don't see any reason an EV would be worse.
Tire rotation probably isn't necessary on AWD cars but Tesla does recommend that you inspect the tires for uneven wear.
I'm very happy with the new maintenance schedule. The old one was ridiculous.

 

[SammichLover]

Agree with the theme of "keep an eye on the tire wear". If you happen to have an AWD variant it definitely has less need for rotation but how much it still does will depend your usage of the vehicle, and ultimately it is probably a good idea to do it proactively anyway. I had a problem with alignment early on, and that really did a number on one of the tires. Fortunately I had decided to rotate preemptively anyway and that's when I noticed the problem. For reasons I won't get into I wasn't able to get the alignment fixed for a bit but having rotated the tires spread the damage. If I hadn't that one tire probably would have gone to the cords before 10K miles, and it would have been kinda awkward to replace just the one tire because the other 3 had already worn a fair amount, and another was partially worn as that wheel was out of alignment as well just not as bad. I got the alignment fixed and via moving shuffling the wheels around a few times around I was able to get them just short of 20K miles before finally replacing the original MXM4 tires.

Mind you I took those rear tires right down, and trusted the roughly 2/32" left on the front to allow the AWD to keep me on track during wetter days, along with adjusting my driving to better match the capabilities. Still not advisable but that's how the budget worked out. Wanted to get a set of PS4S rather than something cheaper. I didn't bother with the extra $100 for a set of the Tesla OE version of the 18" PS4S, though.

 

[Ludalicious]

Service..... What's a service centre? 40,000 is on mine and haven't touched a thing. Might change the air filter though... Ahhhh maybe not

 

[SMAlset]

Model 3 Manual's (12/20/19) Maintenance Schedule, Tire Care and Maintenance, Cleaning, Wiper Blades and Washer Jets, Fluid Reservoirs starts on Page 128.

https://www.tesla.com/content/dam/tesla/Ownership/Own/Model 3 Owners Manual.pdf

 

[SammichLover]

Service..... What's a service centre? 40,000 is on mine and haven't touched a thing. Might change the air filter though... Ahhhh maybe not

The Model 3 doesn't have a cabin filter.