Ouch! First huge repair bill.

[GlmnAlyAirCar]

This thread scares me.

Hopefully since brakes are something that can be electronically articulated, that Tesla will program in some regular "exercise" of the brakes to avoid this kind of thing going forward.

I don't get it. You still exercise the brakes every time you come to a stop. You just put less wear on them. This is probably the best treatment you can give the brakes.

 

[Ingineer]

This smells fishy. First off, for $750 a caliper, you could have them rebuilt. They will hone the cylinders and replace the seals. Very serviceable!

The pitted rotors were not a problem except cosmetically. Many rotors are drilled already, so pits won't hurt them much, only slightly higher pad wear.

I do recommend a hard high-speed stop at least once every few weeks, and set regen to low for a few miles of stop and go. Also, in moist climates, change your brake fluid as soon as it turns yellow! It's hygroscopic, so it will suck moisture out of the air and then work on corroding your system from the inside out. Think the calipers are expensive? Check the price of the ABS valve body. I'd change it every 2 years minimum.

 

[AnOutsider]

Thanks for this report. I, too, have 4 winters on my car, and have some rotor warping, but Tesla says the pads are fine otherwise. My car just went in for service, so I'll ask them to check again.

 

[loganintx]

Jesus, how hard is it to consistently use the correct spelling of "brakes?"

Maybe that's why it costs so much, he was buying BREAKS when all he really needed was BRAKES.

Seriously though, that's stupid expensive by a factor of 2-3x

 

[lolachampcar]

First, any dealer will treat you similarly. I think our local hourly rates are north of $175/hr.

Second, Tesla may not use their Service Centers as profit centers but they are horribly inefficient when you consider that they use the same facilities for delivery of new cars and, very often, sales as well. Their cost structure is why they are not very competitive in their CPO program as well.

 

[AWDtsla]

Bit of a warning to early model S owners and others. I have owned a model S since Dec 22, 2012 and I bought the extended care package. It has gone through 4 winters, 2 hard ones and 2 warmer ones. The car has 104,000km on the odometer.

Did Tesla actually perform brake flush fluid replacement? There's two reasons for those pistons to seize. First is that the boots have failed and let moisture/dirt in. Second is some amount of moisture gets in regardless, the brake system must be flushed at least every year if used in harsh weather.

As others have said, no way I would spend $8500 on that. Maybe an afternoon of cleaning/rebuilding the calipers with new rubber. Rotors can be resurfaced, as they probably got nearly 0 wear during their life.

 

[Xenoilphobe]

This smells fishy - I worked in a shop during college - the brake rotors can be turned to remove the pits, (super cheap), the calibers have a rebuild kit - the Tesla brake calibers look just like the Brembo Calibers and I bet the rebuilt kit per axle is about $100 each.

For that price you could have gotten the Saleen carbon ceramic brake rotors - they weight 18 lbs less than the stock ones per corner and they would never rust again.

BMW M Carbon Ceramic Brakes For M6 (F12/F13) In Detail

 

[Xenoilphobe]

Wow - its more than I thought -about $32,000 for a complete Brembo CCM kit Brembo Complete Carbon Ceramic Brake Upgrade BMW M3 E90/92/93 08-12 before labor

This how easy it is to replace the parts

And the Wilwood Option;

 

[Pdub2015]

The OPs brake job was expensive no doubt, but again, parts and labor are expected to be costly for high performance vehicles. And the Model S qualifies as such even without the "P" prefix. Total replacement costs of $1000 -$2000 per wheel shouldn't be such a big surprise. I'm not arguing that the markup is justified, mind you, but expensive cars tend to remain expensive.

 

[Xenoilphobe]

I will be braking the crab out of these every day to make sure the pistons get exercised. Actually they get good exercise everyday.

 

[SFOTurtle]

Is the Canadian "Extended Care Package" the same thing as the U.S. "Extended Service Agreement" aka extended warranty? Or is the ECP actually the Annual Service Plan that covers routine checkups only? And why doesn't Tesla call the ESA what it is, an extended warranty??

Has anyone answered any of these questions yet? If this was the Canadian equivalent of the US ESA agreement, there is no way I would be paying anything other than the deductible to have this repaired.

 

[tdjvfr]

The OPs brake job was expensive no doubt, but again, parts and labor are expected to be costly for high performance vehicles. And the Model S qualifies as such even without the "P" prefix. Total replacement costs of $1000 -$2000 per wheel shouldn't be such a big surprise. I'm not arguing that the markup is justified, mind you, but expensive cars tend to remain expensive.

I disagree. Yes, the original cost of the car is expensive. However $1000 per wheel is robbery for an EV. Maybe that's what you paid for your Lambo or Ferrari, but it should not even be close to that price for Tesla. Elon's statement was low cost of maintenance.

 

[Electricfan]

[QUOTE="tdjvfr, post: 1544040, member: 44359" Elon's statement was low cost of maintenance.[/QUOTE]

I'm glad I'm not the only one who remembers this! The car is supposed to be low maintenance, not $8,500.00 of unexpected brake repairs on a 4-yr old car. That's ridiculous. If the car was 14 years old, maybe...

 

[Pdub2015]

Yes, the car is supposed to be low maintenance. But this one, perhaps an outlier, required significant brake hardware replacement. Again, I'm not saying I agree with the replacement price, I'm just not surprised. People who buy $100k cars really shouldn't be surprised either.

 

[Scannerman]

How to drive a Tesla:

1. Use the brakes at every opportunity, given that these opportunities are comparatively few and far between due to Regen 'doing it for you' so much of the time.

2. When you do apply brakes be as firm as possible, short of squealing or squirming the tire treads. Physical exercise!!

3. The idea is to move the pistons in & out to their maximum travel. This will not happen if the driver WEASELS the brakes. Go from FIRM ON to FULL RELEASE as quickly as possible each time. This is good for your brakes!!

4. This will also remove the surface crud from the rotors so they will be effective in an emergency stop. Take a peek at your rotors to see that they are kept bright and shiny.
--

As it relates to the cylinders, it seems to me that one could accomplish the same thing, while stopped a red light (cycle the cylinders, without incurring excessive and unnecessary wear on the pads or rotors) I am not suggesting that a little judicious wear might not be beneficial. But I am proposing that while extreme braking may benefit the cylinders, it seems very intuitive, that it would take a toll elsewhere.

Scannerman

 

[Cyclone]

As it relates to the cylinders, it seems to me that one could accomplish the same thing, while stopped a red light (cycle the cylinders, without incurring excessive and unnecessary wear on the pads or rotors) I am not suggesting that a little judicious wear might not be beneficial. But I am proposing that while extreme braking may benefit the cylinders, it seems very intuitive, that it would take a toll elsewhere.

Scannerman

Forgive my ignorance, but doesn't putting the car in Park do this type of exercise of the brakes?

Meanwhile, my CPO came from a cold weather state. They pads and rotors were replaced, plus the fluid flushed when I complained and escalated (they came cosmetically in bad shape at delivery, but functionally good). One year, 15k miles, and some snow driving later, they are still shiny clean. I don't know if I got the "cold weather" brake covers when they replaced them. It would be nice if I did.

 

[Cyclone]

damaged rotors from letting the pads run out. Never once was there a caliper or piston failure, and rotors generally were only a problem when scratched/etched by a completely worn pad.

Just went through this with my mother's car. Drove it for her while she was out of town and I noticed it was very weak in initial braking and I could feel scraping. Sure enough, rear brake rotors needed to be replaced along with all four pads. Front pads + rear rotors + rear pads + fluid flush = $606. Now, not a Tesla, but still. I would imagine if all the pistons/calipers needed to be replaced, it still could have been done at another shop for well under CAN$8.5k

 

[thegruf]

I recall Tesla stating it was not their strategy to have SCs as profit centers, I think they have some way to go to prove that.
Excessive repair costs will drive the competitive argument for 3rd party servicing.

The cost is painful to the individual, but we all need to be concerned about the effect this has on resale values.

Tesla need to think this through some more, the better the resale, the more attractive the new purchase.
There is every chance for Tesla to break the mould here.

 

[Blackout]

Bit of a warning to early model S owners and others. I have owned a model S since Dec 22, 2012 and I bought the extended care package. It has gone through 4 winters, 2 hard ones and 2 warmer ones. The car has 104,000km on the odometer.

Last year I started hearing a rattling noise in the right rear and it turned out to be a loose parking brake pad. That got fixed and this year the other side started rattling. As well the breaks seemed to be a little soft but in no way concerning. After 3 weeks waiting for the appointment I dropped the car off and got a call saying that all 4 break pistons has seized and it would cost $8500 to repair! Wow. That is the most expensive repair I have ever had on a car. By a long shot. I was told that because the breaks are not used that much the pistons can seize. So one of the benefits of regen might not be so much of a benefit at all. Apparently Tesla is recommending a break servicing for cars in the northeast every year. I was also told that there was lots of wear left on the rotors and brake pads but they wanted to change them all out as the rotors were heavily pitted. They also mentioned that I should break hard a couple of times a week but I'm not sure if that is official Tesla policy.

Here are some of the part costs costs:
Break caliper assembly with piston (each): $745.00
Rear rotor (each): $331.00
Front Rotor (each): $290.00
Parking break caliper with pads: $1,235.00

They also replaced a the upper control arm on the driver's side: $261.00

Tesla managed to salvage one of the pistons but they had to change out 3 of them agreed to not charge for labour on the job so my final bill was $5,824.75. I was not expecting that when I dropped the car off.

I asked Jay (who is as helpful as ever) what other 'surprises' I might be in for and he could not think of any but I am nervous.

So Tesla may have an issue with this or is might just be my car but I certainly recommend everyone in the east (and especially Sig owners) have their breaks looked at right away. I would have one of the earliest cars to go through 4 winters but a near $6K repair bill does not make this the cheapest car I have ever owned.

It is hard to swallow getting a complete brake replacement when the rotors or pads were not worn down.

Tesla service people were great as usual.

Your post just confirm a theory that I had... Never keep firstr iteration of cars for too long... 3 years max and resell while the value is high... If you buy brand new until the warranty runs out or 6 months before that start selling and use the warranty to attract buyer...
But yah I wouldn't be surprised if 2014 would come up with the same issue next year...

I'm probably going to be an early buyer of a Model 3 and although that I'm excited with the price and what's included I'm already expecting the worst and get full warranty package and not to keep it for too long... 3yrs that would give 1year warranty to the next buyer..would make it easier to sell it after, and get more money out of it too... then I'd buy what ever they have new at that time, maybe a full autonomous model 3/S by that time and expect the same thing...

It's not just Tesla it's a well known thing in the car industry early models always have these odd issues, you just have to develop a system to survive these issues and what I listed was my way of dealing with it...
Never saw the Regen from that point of view but yah that is an expensive repair (your repair cost more than my last 2 benz combined... That's ludicrous) ... But brakes are pretty common I'm sure they don't have to be done at Tesla...
My advise: cut you losses now while you can and get either a model 3 or new model S... And start looking for new model when the warranty is about to run out... I fear more problems will come... Just my opinion...

Thanks for sharing your experience...

 

[AWDtsla]

As it relates to the cylinders, it seems to me that one could accomplish the same thing, while stopped a red light (cycle the cylinders, without incurring excessive and unnecessary wear on the pads or rotors) I am not suggesting that a little judicious wear might not be beneficial. But I am proposing that while extreme braking may benefit the cylinders, it seems very intuitive, that it would take a toll elsewhere.

Scannerman

The brakes must be exercised. It should not be "taking a toll" on non-wear parts.