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Gizmotoy
Active Member
Do you? I suppose I should be concerned, then, that I recently had my DU replaced and no alignment was performed?
As I understand it, under ideal conditions, you don't necessarily need it - if things come apart smoothly, then everything can stay in place and it'll be good. However, in many cases, an alignment is required.
I would be concerned enough to ask your service center why they didn't do an alignment. I've had my DU replaced three times, most recently in January, and an alignment was performed each and every time. You'll know if they did an alignment because they would hand you an alignment report along with your service receipt.
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Whenever I hear of the drive unit I think of the poor guy who was charged apparently $15,000 to replace a drive unit out of warranty. I realize the cars are covered for 8 years but I generally keep our cars for a while and it scared the bejesus out of me to think of what an expensive out of warranty repair would cost. I realize this is the same with any other car but with other manufacturers you have easier access to parts and with independent shops it's not as risky.
There is still some time but I hope Tesla figures out a reasonable way for customers to own Teslas out of warranty. Maybe have a "cap" of let's say $4,000 for an our of warranty drive unit related repair or perhaps be able to renew the extended warranty for $4,000 every 4 years so those funds can be used to pool ad cover the repairs of all the cars without a few extremely unlucky customers with out of warranty cars getting completely screwed.
By the way how do you know that an alignment was not done? Did you ask them about it? I suppose you can always ask them to do an alignment check, if they didn't do your alignment, so you are assured everything is okay.
There is still some time but I hope Tesla figures out a reasonable way for customers to own Teslas out of warranty. Maybe have a "cap" of let's say $4,000 for an our of warranty drive unit related repair or perhaps be able to renew the extended warranty for $4,000 every 4 years so those funds can be used to pool ad cover the repairs of all the cars without a few extremely unlucky customers with out of warranty cars getting completely screwed.
By the way how do you know that an alignment was not done? Did you ask them about it? I suppose you can always ask them to do an alignment check, if they didn't do your alignment, so you are assured everything is okay.
Are you sure it wasn't performed? They've always done an alignment whenever they've replaced my drive unit, but they don't always explicitly call it out in the service notes just because it's part of the procedure and should be done every time the drive unit is replaced.
Gizmotoy
Active Member
That could be it. It's definitely not in the notes. Seems kind of unusual to leave it out with all the relatively tiny stuff that makes it into the notes, but it's plausible. I'll check in with them about it the next time it's in. I can monitor the tires closely until then.
JPP
Active Member
When I was in for my 24k service a couple of months ago, I had my drive unit replaced for a low level intermittent clunk from the rear. No milling noise, no buzzing, no warning messages. FWIW, the service tech is required to try the TSB shim fix first, and, if the sounds do not go away, then they are authorized to replace the drive unit. There also is a retrofit new motor mount bracket that gets replaced at the same time.
BTW, the service tech who did the work was one of about 40 TM employees sent to Oslo Norway last November to swap out about 1000 drive units there. He got so proficient that he can do a swap solo in about 90 minutes (including the coolant system purge and gearbox lube fill etc).
BTW, the service tech who did the work was one of about 40 TM employees sent to Oslo Norway last November to swap out about 1000 drive units there. He got so proficient that he can do a swap solo in about 90 minutes (including the coolant system purge and gearbox lube fill etc).
Impressive and depressing at the same time.
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I don't recall this actually happening. I've heard prices in this ballpark quoted (before they did the drivetrain warranty extension) but not an actual billed customer.
Even if so, I'm guessing it was refunded quickly after that announcement. That said, I wouldn't be surprised given the cost of the car if the rear unit were quoted at $15k (sans core).
However, Tesla's using a different model here and I think they'll have to figure out how to handle pricing the right way. As has been pointed out several times, trying to draw the parallel to an engine replacement in a car is unfair. Tesla is using a model where it is replacing the entire drive unit (module replacement) with another refurbished model to get people back on the road faster, versus tearing it down to components and troubleshooting. In the case of my brother's engine, it took nearly 3 weeks for him to get his diesel engine repaired as the dealer kept trying one thing, then trying another, etc.
As a result, they may swap out your drive unit, but when they refurb your unit, they might find that only a couple-hundred-dollar gear had an issue. It's going to be interesting to see how that will work as these cars come out of warranty.
Rear drive units were replaced in both P85s I've had (my traded one and my fiance's).
In both I have front and rear dash cams installed and I poked through the video on one. Took them ~hour to do the swap. Full service call was a few hours in both cases.
In both I have front and rear dash cams installed and I poked through the video on one. Took them ~hour to do the swap. Full service call was a few hours in both cases.
Had the drivetrain clunk for awhile.. I decided to have it replaced since it was around 42k miles already. They just installed a refurbished motor with new mounts. Done in less than a day. Fast and quick and hopefully a motor with less miles than mine. 
