Roadster spare parts situation?

New Roadster Goodies for 2014

Mitrovic said:

60's and 70's were different. Now the German car makers are so strong because they look after their heritage, You can easily get any parts for the classic Porsche's from Porsche today.
And Tesla is obliged by law to deliver parts for the roadster for, I think , 10 years.

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There is a world of difference between supporting a discontinued model with replacement parts as required by law, which I am sure Tesla will do, and offering significantly improved replacement parts or new functionality, which is not required by law.

Regarding Porsche, for decades the company offered almost no support for the 356 model and what parts they did offer were poorly made. Only recently has Porsche started offered decent quality 356 replacement parts primarily as a marketing gesture and because 356 values have skyrocketed over the last decade. In the 70's and 80's when the 356 had very low market values Porsche offered very little.

Last year I sold my 1959 356A coupe to buy my wife a Model S. The 356 sale essentially paid for the S. That same 356 would have sold in the 80's for a few thousand dollars and back then it was very difficult to find quality replacement parts for it.

Mitrovic said:

And Tesla is obliged by law to deliver parts for the roadster for, I think , 10 years...

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I think we once debated if there was such a law, or it was just an "urban legend". I don't think we ever found any actual law of the sort.

Doug_G said:

Still, it's obviously good business practice to not leave customers hanging. Abandoning them is a great way to ensure that you don't have repeat customers, and a wonderful way to spoil your word-of-mouth.

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Yes, of course.


Auto manufacturers must make spare parts for 10 years - snopes.com

There used to be a federal law that required manufacturers to keep auto parts available for 20 years. It was passed in the 1960s, and deregulated in the 1980s.

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Mitrovic said:

In some other post I've read that the supply of new motors for the roadster is difficult.

My roadster needs now a "gearbox" replacement. It seems that this part is also hard to get. My service center does not know yet when they will get it.

Are we slowly getting a situation here?

Anybody else having problems to get some parts for the roadster?

Mine is a 2010 2.0 Sport Signature 250

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That is bad news indeed!!

Mitrovic said:

Mine is a 2010 2.0 Sport Signature 250

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What is a 2.0 signature? I thought that the signatures were the first 100.
Just a little confused (my wife calls it alzheimers)

Doug_G said:

I believe someone identified a California law that had some relevance, but no one identified a federal law to that effect.

Still, it's obviously good business practice to not leave customers hanging. Abandoning them is a great way to ensure that you don't have repeat customers, and a wonderful way to spoil your word-of-mouth.

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ecarfan said it well but I will reiterate. Of course Tesla will keep supplying spare parts. The margins are very good and the engineering work is already done. But it is quite another thing to invest engineering resources which are currently quite constrained getting new models out the door. I don't know of nay company that develops NEW upgrades to products that are no longer in production. Sure, when Panasonic stops making the cells used on the Roadster then I assume Tesla will update the pack with newer cells. But that presumes that they won't have to go back and crash-test and such.

I agree w/ Mitrovic that the cars are different but the companies, unfortunately, are not. While Tesla is not behaving like an ICE car manufacturer they are behaving like a Silicon Valley tech company which IMO is not necessarily better. But I work in Silicon Valley so I'm jaded

Regarding the oft repeated claim that auto manufacturers "must provide parts and service for 10 years" (not for free of course) on new cars they sell, this source says that is not true:
united states - Are Auto Manufacturers required under US Federal Law to provide parts for a set period of time? - Skeptics Stack Exchange

Car companies are only required to fulfill the terms of whatever warranty they provide when the car is sold. Once the warranty is up they are under no legal obligation to provide parts or make repairs. Of course common sense and a basic understanding of customer relations dictates that it is good business practice to have happy customers and no customer is going to be happy if just after the warranty ends in 3 or 4 years they are told that a minor or even a major problem with their car is unrepairable. A customer faced with that situation is unlikely to be a repeat customer. So car companies typically do provide parts and service for multiple years beyond the warranty period. I think Tesla will do the same. How many years is impossible to say. And it is hard to know how much of a challenge it will be decades from now to keep an EV running as compared to an ICE. Maybe it will be easier because there are fewer parts--especially moving parts--in an EV and the motor is theoretically much longer lasting than an ICE. Or maybe it will be more difficult because digital and electronic technology changes more rapidly that ICE technology. I really don't know.

jordanthompson said:

What is a 2.0 signature? I thought that the signatures were the first 100.
Just a little confused (my wife calls it alzheimers)

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I was curious too and it was discussed and solved in this thread starting at the end of the page:
Random Roadster Sightings - Page 105

Another confusion is the use of the #250, where its misconceived that that # stands for the VIN where its just representing the last of the US and then later the European sigs.

As for the limited Gearbox, what happened to yours Mitrovic? Its made by Borg Warner, if a gear is broken, possibly that gear is used somewhere else and a universal part number referenced. I don't think BW has random gears floating around, also don't think they'd want to fire some production machines to make a few spares either. Worse case is to take the broken one and have a custom shop build a new gear based upon the specs of the old one. Curious if they use make a gasket or have a paper gasket in between where the gearbox splits.

jordanthompson said:

What is a 2.0 signature? I thought that the signatures were the first 100.
Just a little confused (my wife calls it alzheimers)

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He was talking about European Signatures which are different from the North American signatures.

Too bad about the gearbox. Is the car completely out of action? How many miles on it? Curious because I think many roadster owners may be concerned about the longevity of their cars.

As much as these EV's are supposed to need less work done than an ICE, the work that needs to be done is very pricy.

Mitrovic said:

Yes, this German guy walks around my house, too and hides things everywhere….

My gearbox makes noises which get louder and louder. Tesla service confirmed that it needs to be replaced. The car is under the guarantee extension, so Tesla needs to replace it. This evening i got a msg. that they hope to have the gearbox next week.

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If its making noise and getting worse, most likely its just a bearing going bad. Best not to drive it when its doing that or then the gears will get chewed up from the bearing being blow apart from heat and wear. Bearings are standard, so that's an easy fix and part that can be found in the wild new if gone bad.

wonder if you could get a new motor from these guys? Electric Race Car Design Drive eO

Mitrovic said:

In some other post I've read that the supply of new motors for the roadster is difficult.

My roadster needs now a "gearbox" replacement. It seems that this part is also hard to get.

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I saw this and though of you > EVTV Motor Verks Store New Tesla Roadster gearbox's for sale, 3000 euro (which i though was quite OK ) .


I agree its worrying that spares for Roadster may dry up. Even more worrying that tesla technicians that know Roadster are leaving (along with their knowledge) /diluted by new Model S techs.
I even wonder about group buys of crashed cars as a future supply of spares ??

Mark77a said:

I saw this and though of you > EVTV Motor Verks Store New Tesla Roadster gearbox's for sale, 3000 euro (which i though was quite OK ) .

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Good lead on the trans model, great seeing other companies have used something similar. Coda and Ford used the 31-03, the Tesla Roadster uses the 31-01.

Datasheet on the 31-0x eGearDrive:
http://www.evwest.com/support/borgwarneredrive.pdf

CANBus Doc:
http://www.evwest.com/support/egearCANbus.pdf

A pdf from Borg Warner for the 31-03 eGearDrive:

Specs:
http://www.borgwarner.com/en/torqtransfer/products/Literature/BW%20TTS%20-%20eGear%2031-03.pdf

From looking at borgwarnerdrive.pdf page 18, they make different gear sets for the transmission. Doing some math, the Roadster comes with the 8.3 gear reduction set. If you put in the 9.1 gear reduction set, you would lose about 11mph of top-speed, but you might get to 60mph a few tenths faster.