Buy an inexpensive Tesla? Now I’m stuck with a $9K repair bill.

In reply to CyberEric :

Teslas need maintenance.  They have cooling systems, and the consequences of letting the coolant go feral are possibly even more dire than with an internal combustion engine, as we see here.  They still have A/C, and in many cases the A/C is also a heat pump for the colder months.  The brakes require frequent maintenance if you live where rust is a thing.  (It's actually part of Tesla's maintenance schedule)  If you have a RWD model they annihilate rear tires because they do all the acceleration and 95% of the braking.  And such.

No oil changes though.  Well... there are diff fluid changes.  And several cabin air filters.

In short, like I tell people new to RX-7s asking about what to look for when buying a car... it's still a car. The motivator is different, but that's just one piece of a big puzzle.

In reply to CyberEric :

EVs are mechanically much simpler, but at the same time each cell in an EV battery pack is now a part that can break. Part of it is just general repair-unfriendliness that affects all modern cars. If the Tesla was more repair-friendly, it might be more specific about what part of the whole rear powertrain was broken, or better yet let you disable it and limp on the front powertrain.

Totally. Makes sense. I think I was excited about the idea of no more oil leaks. And not realizing they had coolant, no more coolant leaks. I admittedly was living in a fantasy world. I guess I am just tired of oil leaks and blown head gaskets, coolant in the oil, so many different fluids getting in all the wrong places, and all that. Bubble has been burst. :)

I have a stupid question. What needs coolant in an electric car? Is there a radiator in there somewhere. How do these things work?

There's a lot of heat generated from resistance when you move electricity, and when you charge and discharge several hundred horsepower you are making a lot of heat, even at high efficiencies. This is a lot of why the Leaf sucked as it had an air cooled battery.

Supercharger cables are liquid cooled!

I used to amuse myself with Model 3 videos at the Nurburgring.  They would turn regen off to prevent overheating from pumping electrons in both directions.

Pete. (l33t FS) said:

I learned from experience that Delphi-manufacture ignition coils can fire prematurely with computers calibrated for Bosch ignition coils.  Because I learned from experience and not reading from a book, this cost me... a lot of money, after buying three complete engines and rebuilding one.   Fortunately this was in 2020 so it's not like I needed the money for motorsports.

Whoa, could you please start another thread to share this story?

Is there a coolant reservoir and tank somewhere sort of like on an ICE?

Snowdoggie (Forum Supporter) said:

I have a stupid question. What needs coolant in an electric car? Is there a radiator in there somewhere. How do these things work?

Among other things, EV batteries need coolant.  Lithium batteries generate heat as they discharge and at some temperature (relatively low by ICE standards) they go into "thermal runaway" and catch fire, so keeping them cool is important.  Early Teslas used air cooling on the batteries, and that meant that it didn't take a lot of hard use to put them into a thermal "limp mode" where the power output was massively reduced to prevent bad things from happening.  The air-cooled ones make lousy track cars for this reason, you would typically get less than 1 lap of use before it started taking away power.

Looking forward to the update. I think it will be super cool if GRM can pull this off. You guys could aim to become a source of clever hacks for expensive cars. I bet there are all sorts of silly expensive when new cars that can be fixed with ingenuity, but require required special knowledge and guts.

Let's be honest, whether you like him or not, or like some aspects and not others, the CEO is objectively weird. ;)  I don't think that's politically charged, it's a statement of fact. I think "dismantling" is a softer term than he himself uses, so I don't see that being offensive. I'd argue it's not yet clear what's actually occurring. There's been a lot of hype and not a significant change in expenditure so far. I think it's okay to sprinkle of odd elusion to politics without getting our backs up, particularly if there isn't a significant stand.

In reply to Snrub :

Yes, but as I posted this place and the car hobby are my escapism. If I want political comments I can get that on Book-Face or the like.

If the boss is riding you like a Kentucky Derby hopeful and all you want is some place that is a great way to forget about that for a while.

But noooooooo someone felt obliged to bring that into our happy space...........no thanks..........it's akin to the dog peeing on your sandwich.

I'm actually surprised about how mad two lines made me.

In reply to CyberEric :

Less maintenance yes. No maintenance no. 
you save so much time not getting gas it's a huge plus. Roadtrip charging adds very little time compared to bathroom/snack stops. I highly, highly recommend an EV for a not-only car. 

I would drive it to at least get some refund for the big hit on the wallet then at 110,000 miles start looking at selling it and hope to get at least MSRP or close to what you have in it and call it even. What is MSRP on it right now? 

In reply to Pete. (l33t FS) :

While I don't disagree with you in general, I currently have 140k miles EV (Tesla) only with no maintenance other than wiper blades and tires.  I am in Ohio so rust is a thing  but never had to grease the slider pins etc. These drive units have been a known problem and a quick google will give you some guidance on checking these units for coolant leaks without a complete disassembly.

Since this has been an issue there are aftermarket solutions to fix this issue if you catch it before the inverter is ruined.  Those solutions plus even some factory parts solutions can avoid the inverter coolant bath and save significantly from the 9k bill.  Yes you can get parts for a Tesla you own from Tesla.  You can order them through the app, but getting them from some non Tesla vendor like Autovancereilly is currently difficult to impossible.

LS swap it?

LS swap it?

Matt B (fs) said:

Sounds like you bought a $19000 Tesla. (ducks and runs for cover)

In all seriousness though that sucks. 

The one time bill isn't pleasant, but 19k for an 80k mile S sounds like a good deal still no?

Genuinely don't follow that market, but sub 20k 700hp sounds fun 

All the swap suggestions are silly because they would make it slower! That's no fun. 

In reply to dculberson :

Slower than it once was, but faster than it currently is.