Lots of people in models X & S are surprised to find their seemingly ok tires are NOT OK because they wear very quickly on the non-visible inside edge.
there are brakes on the car, which have pads and fluid. There is coolant for the battery.
Honestly, there should be a maintenance screen in the UI. You should be able to replace tires, or windshield wipers or fluid and the UI should keep track of it. Even if it just says "last replaced 10/11/12 @ 23,456 miles" or "inspected 11/12/13" or something.
If Apple made a car, I would expect "Preferences -> Logbook -> ["Show logs", "Add Service Record...", "Save in PDF"]" menu, never heard Tesla have one in Settings menu.
> To see the miles driven since your last tire rotation or replacement, touch Controls > Service and look under Last Tire Service. After the tires on Model 3 are rotated, replaced, or swapped, update your vehicle's tire configuration by touching Reset, or by touching Wheel & Tire > Tires from the same screen. This allows your vehicle to reset the learned tire settings and improve your driving experience. This also clears and resets the tread wear alert for the vehicle until you travel 6,250 miles (10,000 km) and low tread depth is detected again.
had to look it up because I wasn't sure where it was but knew I had seen it.
Translation: Teslas, not sure which model you looked up, have such bad suspension and stearing that tires, ubder regular use, worn down inconsistently. Which shouldn't be an issue in modern cars running proper tires and tire pressure.
> Translation: Teslas, not sure which model you looked up, have such bad suspension and stearing that tires, ubder regular use, worn down inconsistently. Which shouldn't be an issue in modern cars running proper tires and tire pressure.
Ah yes, "Big Tesla" must have gotten to...checks notes...Michelin tires[0], Ford[1], Toyota[2] and more...
Your ignorance to cars and blind hatred to Tesla is showing BTW.
I'm running a Model 3 with 2023.44.39 on it. In the Service menu there are a variety of exactly the things you mentioned.
In the top right corner there is "Tire Service Mileage" with an estimate of when you should service your tires. There is a reset link under that, which links into the "Wheel and Tire" service tab with more maintenance options.
Regarding the tire wear, the car is heavy with instant torque. I've had to replace my tires quite a few times, but it's the only thing that has needed much servicing for me in the past three years. I'd expect that from a new car though, and I don't have much confidence in it's longevity.
It should be possible to equip the car with enough sensors to detect or predict maintenance needs. Tesla's approach is, however, still incomplete. The powertrain is sensored enough, suspension/brakes/tires aren't.
My direct experience with power train sensors has been a loud noise and lots of red triangle messages that something has failed (drive motor).
Another time my direct experience with inside edge wear has been... a pop and a hiss. Then the tire pressure readout gave a red triangle to say the tire had low pressure and the number was dropping to zero. (google "tesla inside edge tire wear")
My direct experience with many flat tires has been -- tesla roadside assistance will waste the rest of your day or night. I've considered buying that aftermarket spare.
And the battery fuse went once - I got a huge red message:
"BMS_u031 Battery Fuse Requires Replacement Soon - OK to drive, schedule service"?
Turns out telsa doesn't actually KNOW if the fuse needs to be replaced - you have to bring it in (google BMS_U031) It is several hundred dollars to replace.
If your car has a 12v battery, it will eventually die. The battery is fairly expensive.
actually, most maintenance stuff is hidden away. Wish I could unhide it, even if tesla only did it when out of warranty.
Pads and rotors - yes. Fluid - probably not. Usually changing fluid every 2 years is a good idea. Both to keep brakes performance and prevent rusting due to water slowly making it’s way into the system.
Brake fluid is not flushed due to heat cycling, that is what bleed maintenance is for. Flushing every 2 years is because brake fluid is hygroscopic (absorbs water), and even brake systems are not perfectly sealed. Water in the fluid reduces its effectiveness and can cause rusting in the brake lines, leading to failure.
EVERY vehicle should have brake fluid flushed every 2 years. That Tesla recommends 4 years is straight out incompetent.
On a system as critical as the brakes, I highly doubt they yolo just guessed and said, eh, just make it 4 years, that sounds good. I find it far more believable they did extensive testing of the brake system, which they build, and thus know just how much water is and isn't getting into the system, and what a good fluid replacement interval is.
Or maybe everyone that works there is an incompetent monkey and they never test anything, ever. It's probably that, definitely. That's also why we see so many stories in the news about 5 year old Tesla's brakes failing. Given that we all know how long full self driving has been promised, I'm sure we'll get those news stories any day now.
That's a useless data point without knowing how much you drive. a taxicab or police vehicle racks up hundreds of thousands of miles per year, and thus needs fluids far more often than every two years.
If not, that is really, really dumb, and there is no way to justify not doing that. Especially for car that probably has more sensors, electronics and software than most cars (that also provide such info).
They do, the parent is either on an older tesla software platform or they haven't looked at settings > service and have ignored the alerts when they occur.
otoh it has a dashboard and a rim around the display to lean your hand on while you're trying to hit some ridiculously small (in a moving car) touchscreen target.
The regular inspection for ICE vehicles is centered around oil changes, air filter change (engine, not cabin), valve checks and distribution chain/belt changes. Everything else, from brake pads (wear sensors entered the chat), tires (life varies a lot, from 10k km to over 40k km for cars), windshield wipers (no determined lifetime, change it when it breaks) to brake fluid (recommended to change every 3 years) are done opportunistically with some oil changes.
Without an ICE, the only regular maintenance you need is brake fluid. Everything else depends loosely on kilometers and style of driving and quality of materials (wipers).
How much does this vary by jurisdiction? I remember the UK has the "MOT test" which I think does rather more than that, but that's just the UK: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MOT_test
The official inspection is different by jurisdiction, the maintenance plan depends on the manufacturer. The inspection and maintenance are different, for example in regular maintenance schedule there is no emissions check, while the inspection does it. The other way around, maintenance includes checks on all fluid level (coolant, brake, washer) while the inspection does not.
Yes, this is the case in most European jurisdictions. UK mandates inspections once per year (starting 3 years after manufacture). There also appears to be a 2014 EU directive (2014/45) that mandates periodic inspections of most cars across EU states at least every 2 years (starting at most 4 years after manufacture).
Sure, but why wouldn't Tesla write some software for those items like other car brands do? Let the driver know it's time to replace the brake fluid, tell the driver the estimated wear (+ sensor warning) on the brake pads?
Assuming this, no scheduled services, is Tesla policy, it is very well possible that Tesla doesn't have task lists in place for said checks. Which would be bad...
Tesla has some recommendations in user manual. I almost bought model y. So I saw, that there is recommendation to check brakes after winter and salty roads or something alike. I also guess, that any other repair shop could do generic check as well. Teslas have brakes, suspensions, brake fluids and many other “normal” parts.
Sure, Tesla has some things in the user manual. A workshop so needs specific task lists in the workshop manual, otherwise the inspection varies by day and person doing it. Because without said workshop manuals, mechanics are left out in the cold with regards to what has to be done. Propably includes a liability risk, you follow approved check lists from the OEM and you are propably save if something happens. You don't, miss something, an accident happens and the liability question is a lot less clear.
There is no specific task list in the workshop manual. I had cars and motorcycles of various brands and, except for Mazda, nobody has a good list, while Mazda pretends to have one. Even in good car shops, brand or no brand, including the one owned by my family, there is no official list for a "good check", they just ask you: "what do you want checked?". Why? Because if you ask them to check everything, like Mazda says it does, it will cost a lot for little benefits. And car shops will be happy to charge labor for "checks".
The best checks I get is when I ask my cousin (owner of a car shop, certified to do inspections): "take my car for a couple of days as your daily driver, if you notice anything wrong then fix it". Otherwise the official testing includes: suspension and direction (includes indirectly wheel bearing), brakes, emissions, headlight alignment, rust or corrosion signs, tire integrity and wear vs indicator, brake fluid level, antifreeze level, washer fluid level, signs of fluid leakage in the engine compartment or at wheels. That's it.
I read the instruction manuals from all my cars and motorcycles. They are a minimum, in my opinion, I check myself a lot more, regularly.
Funny, the workshop manual, true it is a single one from the 80s, has quite detailed interval tasks listed. And the detailed instructions later, identified by task code. On top of that, it includes all / most steps regarding diagnostics. And, obviously, detailed instructions regarding repair and replacement of bits and pieces. I never bothered checking those manuals for modern cars so, first I don't do that work and second there is only so much one can do anyway.
Doesn't it show you when to do some maintenance based on sensors? BMW has a display that has miles on it, but those miles are only rough estimates. It may say 50k miles after replacing brake pads, but 40k miles later that could have changed to zero or it could only reach zero after 60k miles. The indication for service is based on a sensor at the brake pad, not a service interval in miles.
Every quarter? Even when driving a 15 year old combustion car I have never had a car that needed to go for service that often! My new EV has a two-year service interval to check the coolant and brakes.
I generally do my oil every 7500 miles using full synthetic.
When I take it in for service I assume they don’t use the expensive stuff and chnage it at 5k miles.
Either way, that’s 2x a year for me. I’m probably below average driving at just shy of 15k miles/year. I think the average is around 15k though. That would be 2-3 oil changes if you did them at similar intervals.
Some companies (ie: BMW) mandate more frequent chnages and higher octane gas etc etc. I don’t use those cars. If I can’t service them myself I won’t buy it (Tesla included)
The car DOES have maintenance needs.
Lots of people in models X & S are surprised to find their seemingly ok tires are NOT OK because they wear very quickly on the non-visible inside edge.
there are brakes on the car, which have pads and fluid. There is coolant for the battery.
Honestly, there should be a maintenance screen in the UI. You should be able to replace tires, or windshield wipers or fluid and the UI should keep track of it. Even if it just says "last replaced 10/11/12 @ 23,456 miles" or "inspected 11/12/13" or something.