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by nlstitch 909 days ago
To what Ive seen online is that Teslas have problems, but they are different to ICE cars. One of the problems that I think will play a mayor role is bearings. In ICE engines these are lubricated by engine oil which is replaced on service intervals, but with E-Cars regular bearings are used within electrical motors. Gonna make a weird comparison here, but I see the same in Robot vacuums; the grease in the (plastic) gearboxes is flung to the outsides of the casing where it dries up over time, so even though they are using plastics that negate a lot of the friction issues you get in dry gearboxes, they start to wear out faster. I think we should really start to investigate how we can make these components servicable, even if that means we have to go back to oil as a lubricant. Whats the point in going electric if we have to start throwing them away just like we do with consumer electronics because they are not servicable?
1 comments
hef19898 909 days ago
Motor oil isn't used in lubricating axle bearings or the gearbox. Those latter two are, in modern cars anyway, lubricated for "life". If Teslas, again no idea if that's the case, failed to design those components to not require regular maintenance, and then fails to define proper service intervalls, it is purely on Tesla and not the fact that we talk about EVs. Because EVs from brands with a dense service network (which is a significant revebue driver, no idea how a company can miss that) performba lot better than Tesla in the TÜV report.
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grecy 909 days ago
> Those latter two are, in modern cars anyway, lubricated for "life".

I don't believe there is a modern gearbox where the manufacturer of said gearbox says it never needs oil changes. The vehicle manufacturer might say that, but not the gearbox manufacturer.

Case in point - my 2021 Wrangler has a ZF 8 speed auto that Jeep says never needs an oil change. ZF says it needs an oil and filter change every 100,00km.

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hef19898 909 days ago
"Life" is open for discussion and definition. Going with ZF, the 8 speed is a great gearbox, saves the gearbox. Going with Jeep gets you a warranty replacement.

By the way, it is still possible Jeep modified the gearbox in some way, most OEMs do.

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