Car shut down after car wash, Tesla says oil pump seal

[n2mb_racing]

I took our older RWD LR model 3 through a no-touch car wash and about 2 miles later, it flashed a bunch of errors and then refused to move again once I stopped. Then after about 30 minutes, it started working again and was fine all weekend. I drove it to service and Tesla says, "Upon diagnoses, we have found that the oil pump seal is defective."

Not a big deal, but I wonder if that isn't the real problem? I can't find any info, but I don't think the oil pump is on the high voltage supply. I assumed the problem would be a high voltage electrical connection that wasn't fully sealed. Once it got wet, there'd be some current leak that the car would sense and shut down. I don't think 12V would have much measurable leakage current with water ingress, so I wouldn't have expected the problem to be on the 12V side.

Any thoughts?

 

[ewoodrick]

Or maybe it was oil leaked out and sensor indicated that it was too low to safely drive the car.
Car wash was just a coincidence.

 

[NuttyM3]

And here I thought the Tesla’s didn’t have any oil in them. Hmmm, silly me.

 

[CharleyBC]

We have oil pumps?

 

[RobDickinson]

It has an oil pump, oil filter etc

https://electrek.co/2018/07/26/tesla-model-3-teardown-electric-powertrain/

 

[St☰v☰]

Coincidental that it would fail right after a car wash? Wow...

 

[ZOMGVTEK]

The oil pump is definitely 12V. I wouldn't think water ingress into the pump or connector would be an issue that quickly. Based on the few people that had the pump fail, it didn't throw a bunch of codes and the car was drive-able. It wouldn't make a lot of sense the pump would seal a leakage path to HV. Maybe they're being slightly vague since the real issue is a bad look?

Luckily at least, this doesn't appear to be a common thing. Presumably it should be fixed when it leaves.

 

[NuttyM3]

It has an oil pump, oil filter etc

Tesla Model 3 teardown gives incredible look at the electric powertrain - Electrek

That’s a nice breakdown of the Model 3 and in-depth article.

 

[St☰v☰]

[Moderator note: some of the text originally in this post was removed because it violated TMC rules]

So what is it lubricating? It's not like Tesla has a tranny....

 

[North75]

So what is it lubricating? It's not like Tesla has a tranny ...

There is a single speed reduction gear / differential in there somewhere. It seems that they are pumping the oil through an oil to coolant heat exchanger to get the heat out of assembly as well.

 

[ZOMGVTEK]

So what is it lubricating? It's not like Tesla has a tranny ...

Its lubricating the differential and reduction drive, as well as providing cooling for the motor assembly. As far as I know, every production EV has oil in the reduction box. Model 3 happens to have a pump and runs it through a filter, as well as use it to pull heat out of the motor. It’s quite possible the oil may never need to be changed, but it’s vitally critical to the proper operation.

 

[iwannam3]

S and X don't have an oil filter. My guess is that they determined many of the early S & X drive unit failures could have been prevented with an oil filter so the model 3 has one. No service interval I can find.

 

[03DSG]

That’s a nice breakdown of the Model 3 and in-depth article.

Check out some of @Ingineerix other videos. Their great.

Ingineerix

 

[MP3Mike]

The oil pump is definitely 12V.

I thought the oil pump was a 3-phase induction powered pump, are you sure it is 12v?

 

[ZOMGVTEK]

I thought the oil pump was a 3-phase induction powered pump, are you sure it is 12v?

It doesn’t have orange wires running to it, and there’s no logical reason why you’d run 400VDC to a small motor like that. It appears to be a BLDC motor.