Front under bumper (black plastic lip) scratches / curb rash

I haven't had an issue with mine. The air suspension is normally high enough to clear the parking blocks at work. Question- why replace it if you are likely to ding the new one, too? The plastic on my previous car (370Z) got CHEWED up, but better the drab piece of matte black hidden plastic than the front fairing.

Treker56 said:

Tried searching for this but couldn't find much -- am I the only one who after less than 2 month has curb rash under the front bumper on the black plastic lip? Granted it is not visible but the car is so low that it is hard to avoid them almost (and one doesn't remember to set air suspension to High everytime).

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I got a bit of a scrape under the front bumper going in to an underground parking lot. You can only see if if you're lying on the ground, and it's not that bad, so I'm not going to fret over it.

Treker56 said:

Tried searching for this but couldn't find much -- am I the only one who after less than 2 month has curb rash under the front bumper on the black plastic lip? Granted it is not visible but the car is so low that it is hard to avoid them almost (and one doesn't remember to set air suspension to High everytime).

Any fixes/ recommendations? And how easily replaceable is that part?

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My Sig S's front undersides got scratched within two weeks of taking delivery, last September; in my case it was due to parking with the nose overhanging a concrete barrier that I cleared on the way in; but, somehow, the car settled down onto it while I was gone for an hour. When I backed out, the nose of the car scraped and literally fell off the parking barrier, probably dropping an inch or so. The same thing happened again about a month later, but not since; that's probably because I no longer park with the nose over parking barriers or curbs.

So, if you've got the air suspension I'd really recommend that you not let your nose overhang anything taller than the Low ride height will clear. But that doesn't address the OP's question: I decided to live with the scrapes, so I don't know how much it would cost to replace the part, sorry.

The car settling while parked bothers me. Seems like a flaw. Is there a way to set it to automatically raise the suspension to high before driving (fwd or rev)? I can think of a couple of cases where this would be useful: steep drives, kid's ball under the car, curbs.

My car doesn't "settle".

If yours does, take it in.

Kaivball said:

My car doesn't "settle".

If yours does, take it in.

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I remember the thread on "settling" from back before my S was delivered, and it had me quite anxious. The only time I'd ever had a car with air suspension "settle" was when it was broken (i.e. had a leak in the system). In fact, one of my cars generated leaks twice while I owned it, and I used to occasionally measure the height with a tape measure in my garage to be sure it was air tight. When it was working, the car didn't settle at all. So far, so good with my Model S.

same here, no settling thus far. I still eyeball it before I get in the car to see if it is unnaturally low at the curb stop, but mostly I just avoid going over them.

I wonder if some kind of filler could be used to fill in or smooth out a deep gouge on that plastic piece?

I have very minor rash on bottom of my front bumper. The sound my car made when I scraped a long the road didn't sound good but fortunately the rash turned to be very minor. I think most Teslas willl eventually experience this since the car rides so low on the ground!

I'm interested in the repairability / replaceability of this part too. I couldn't figure out what to call it or I would have started a thread myself a while ago. I put the slightest dent exactly in the center of the piece when I pulled too far into my rearranged garage and hit a shelf. It's minor and even less noticeable because of its symmetrical location, but it drives me bonkers every time I wash the front of the car.

I was told $500-$600 from the tesla Costa Mesa service center. They indicate that it's a really long strip of plastic that's extends past the front wheels under the car. Can anyone else verify this from another service center?

I've had this sort of rash on most all cars I've owned, though most have been cars with relatively low ground clearance. To be honest, I thought that's what the black bit was for, to take the occasional scrape on a color (black) and a place (underside of the car) so it's mostly not visible.

if anyone needs this piece, i have 2-3 sitting around i'd sell for half of what a Parts Center charges. pm me.

BUMP

Since buying my S85 in Aug 2013, I've had several encounters with parking stops, but most sounded like scrapes. Looked under my car today, and the underbody plastic panel doesn't look very healthy. Looks like two pieces separated that shouldn't - if the front piece is lower, then reversing poses dangers of catching something that rips off the front piece, but if the back piece is lower it risks catching something while driving forward. If both pieces are at the same level, it should be safest.

Anyone have experience having these parts replaced?

Few on Ebay....

http://www.ebay.com/itm/2012-2013-T...ies&hash=item2586e6180b&vxp=mtr#ht_775wt_1058

The lower front plastic bumper will get scratched no matter what we do. It's inevitable. I got mine painted to match the color of the car, and the same day after I picked up my car, scrapped it! since it's rash is at the bottom, i just decided to leave it there and not do anything. Someone would really need to look under the car for them to see the damage. But it bugs that it's there...

It's a small piece to replace if needed...