Buying A Tesla Model S - Here Are The Pitfalls

This week we're showing you some of the most common issues that we find whilst working on and repairing the Tesla Model S.
We hope that if you're looking to buy or own a Model S, this helps you.

[@paulf3353]

few more to add: 1. Water ingress in a trunk by lower air vents on the left 2. PTC heater, quite expensive and PITA to replace 3. Front toe arm rubber bushings cracking 4. LDU coolant leak, relatively inexpensive fix with LDU delete or latest drivetrain unit if under warranty. 5. Driveshafts, really consumable if you drive aggressively especially on medium to high suspension.

[@RossCollinsUK]

And the rear reversing camera has a tendency to let in water causing the lens to crack and eventually fall off.

[@BumbleBee-gf2tm]

These types of videos are massively important for people wanting to buy into 2nd hand Tesla. Keep up the good work. Would be interested in seeing a pre 2020 facelift Model 3 specific video. 😀

[@pcr8918]

Good to have you back and hope to see more car reviews as more models hit the market.

[@Jamesandkate]

Time permitting we'll do what we can. We're just very busy with work commitments currently.

[@georgepelton5645]

Thanks James. This is very helpful info for owners to take proper care of their Model S, and for anyone buying a used one.

[@JonathanPorterfield]

Great video matey , some great value MS at auction now as well 👍

[@kgeddes7356]

Another great video - thanks James!👍

[@nealy2815]

Valuable information James. Great stuff.

[@dcvariousvids8082]

Another excellent and informative vid - thank you.

[@alistairlambert3275]

Thanks for this video James. I have an itch to get a Model S or buy my Zoe when it comes off lease. Really useful video.

[@mikedbjones]

Fantastic video, so informative. Would love to see the same type of vid about MG4 as they get older and you get to know them better 👍

[@stephanmosbleck4535]

Hi James, thank you for sharing your experiences with us. Extraordinary as usual. Take care, Stephan

[@chargeheadsuk]

Great vid, thanks for the tips 👍

[@publicsectordirect982]

The clips along the door insert are supposed to be replaced by tesla when they remove it to carry out work. They don't always do this as i found out

[@FancyaBevMate]

Morning James I just beeped you as I went pass you on Ashby rd hinckley 😊 9.20am sunday 😊

[@jezthomas4402]

Fantastic, gives me a list of stuff to get my local mechanic to check once I’ve done some decent mileage. Much appreciated mate, keep up the good work.

[@davidharvey5161]

@@jezthomas4402 docs.google.com/document/d/157e4JKXsIEg11BfrbXagsoeCALgRNmSVIpbtkud2CmY/edit

[@AdrianMcDaid]

Excellent video. I have Model S basically same age. Have free lifetime transfersble supercharging. For every thing you jave mentioned in this video are all valid points. Had the suspension issue, lights fault. Wiper motor replace by previous owner. Seat is bit rocky. Upgraded the MCU2 great job. Have sprayed onto the rear bootlid arms, om bsck this video. Also did the same to sunroof. Will do the same for steering arm. Had same issue with brakes. Those pins sure do sieze. Mine at 135k will be hard to give up on the car with supercharger only 3 miles from home.

[@tooflesstesla]

Great to hear from other Model S owners. James and Kate's channel is fantastic. My Toofless Tesla is same age and has 40k; I hope to keep it for as long as I can (in active use). A current issue I have is a "Battery fuse requires replacement soon" warning on my dash. I'm due to get the fuse replaced this week (battery still under warranty, so this will be free). Apparently this is a very common issue.

[@AdrianMcDaid]

@@tooflesstesla actually got that done about 10 months or so ago. There was no cost .

[@judebrown4103]

Cheers James, enjoyed this even though we wont ever have a Tesla. I just love to see the nuts and bolts of anything much more exciting than that big screen inside it! 😅👍 Thank you to Cleevely's for servicing my Ioniq 38kWh a few weeks back and for the advice recently too. 👍💚

[@BenjaminNelsonX]

Ha! Good video. I just bought a non-running 2013 Model S and am fixing it up right now. Definitely a few things to fix on it! Here's the playlist. kzbin.info/aero/PLmHss3DBZUinXAtGsho-xSke6Wy0M0sWe

[@Fritsvrolijk]

Nice video Pro thanks

[@debbiejohns6036]

Great video !

[@GantchoG]

Thank you! I was looking forward to this video after the 3/Y one. Looking to buy a 2019 raven or a later MS at some point.

[@paulacklam1172]

Funny that this came up on my feed this morning. I saw your MG5 crossing the rugby road/sketchley road roundabout in Burbage only a few mins prior 😂

[@doubledutch13]

The number plate base plate on my new 3 was very loose when I took it all off yesterday. 8mm bolts on front were not even finger tight. Solved a little rattle I had from new.

[@andylewis210]

If you told me there was a car manufacturer who makes a model where the wiper arm hits the bonnet I wouldn’t have believed you …. Maybe Lada in Soviet times but not this century

[@nealthomas5346]

Great vid. It seems these have more common faults than the much cheaper MG5s which you guys run.

[@pauldenney7908]

I guess being the first car they made it was going to have some issues, but there is nothing there that would put me off. I think if my sun roof packed up I would just take the fuse out and CT1 it shut.

[@TechnoMonkeyFarm]

Second car they made..

[@dixonsindorset]

Great content for would be second hand buyers or new owners. Thanks for sharing. Any chance of a similar video for the older e-Niro? I just bought a 2019 one with 70k miles and wondering what I need to look out for whilst I still have some warrenty left.

[@TheChargeShow]

Awesome video James :)

[@Jamesandkate]

Thanks, Ben. Same to you, I watch all of your daily updates.

[@pollywollydo]

My compressor went out on the “ big end bearing”. Whilst the inside of the motor/ big end was wringing wet the crystals were only partially wet - go figure, 🤔 Repaired with a £4 bearing from EBay but trickery to do 😖

[@randycarter2001]

The biggest problem is with the large drive unit. There is a seal in the motor to keep coolant from leaking into the encoder compartment. It fails and if long enough the coolant will corrode the rotor and eventually make it to the inverter. The corroded rotor will seize the motor solid. Anybody with an unmodified Tesla should install the delete kit. 100% fail rate only a matter of when.

[@AdrianMcDaid]

Do you have link /video about this ?

[@randycarter2001]

@@AdrianMcDaid Just search YT for Tesla seal, Achilles seal or LDU seal. I found 4 different coolant bypass mitigations. 2 replace the coolant manifold and the other 2 modify the manifold.

[@M-TRON]

Yes, it's called the U-update. A car service with good mechanics can do it when explained what needs to be done. A local bulgarian repair shop charges 500 EUR for this. EV Clinic also do it, I believe.

[@sirseriously]

You can fix this issue yourself without even dropping the drive unit. The coolant bypass kits have come out within the last year; performed on my 2013 P85 last week.

[@randycarter2001]

@@sirseriously I found 4 mitigation products with a quick search. 3 of them required dropping the motor. The 4th could be done from the wheel well. It required cutting the manifold in half with an oscillating cutter then installing block off plates.

[@nicdensley4104]

I now know exactly what I'm doing when I get the X I'm after ... I'm calling you

[@animal355]

Could to know, thanks

[@FancyaBevMate]

Hi guys any chance you could do a review on the ioniq 5N? 😂 would love to see you "changing gears" in front of kate in a bev at full pelt and see her reaction! 😅 Cheers

[@nikelliot8105]

Hmm, got knocking from back left on ours, over rough surfaces. Tesla state all is good but some say it could be the air shock, thoughts James??

[@Jamesandkate]

Potentially the air spring, but it's all guess work without seeing it.

[@AdrianMcDaid]

The bottoms figure 8 James mentioned on mine had to be replaced. Did my self. Not that hard can get parts from Autodoc app

[@AdrianMcDaid]

He still does some Vids and found new love from what I can see.

[@stevechelt1]

How's the MG5 going? I'm looking to change my Ampera for either an MG5 LR Exclusive or Ioniq 38kw soon and can't decide between the two.

[@judebrown4103]

I picked the Ioniq 38kWh over the MGZS just because we were time pressured and one came up for sale used. I was convinced I really needed the ZS for boot space but now we are so glad we got the 38kWh. It's a much better spec and we only have the Premium not the SE but besides that we get such good mileage out of it. We have no driveway so it's charging while shopping and then the local rapid while we're at the next shop. Charging is quite slow but we do other things while it's doing its thing. Best of all is the flappy paddles for variable regen, it's virtually one pedal driving and you have great control over your miles per kilowatt hour. Rarely go under 5m/kWh even in winter and in summer we're at 6's and 7's. That boot of course is a lot bigger than you think, I can get my walker in and five "bags for life" of shopping. Totally spoiled for any other ev so it's a bit of luck we don't intend selling it any time soon. It was our first EV too btw. 👍

[@stevechelt1]

@@judebrown4103 Thanks for that, I am swaying towards the Ioniq at the moment. I've had an Ampera for 7 years so am quite used to an EV (the petrol engine is very rarely used), downsides of the Ampera are small-ish boot size and only 4 seats, plus when the seats are folded it only has 2/3 the space of the Ioniq. It is a great car though, been extremely reliable and economical to run, not as efficient as the Ioniq but not too bad either (3 to 5m/kwh). I think Ioniqs are bargains at the moment as people are put off by the relatively slow charging and the 'small' battery, but it would be ideal for my driving pattern.

[@jackmcbirney8558]

Have you worked on many Hyundai Ioniq 38kwh? I was wondering what the build quality is like & if they have any common faults? They are a lot of car for not much money

[@stevechelt1]

That is one I'm considering on my limited budget, or the MG5 LR pre-facelift as Cleevely rate them highly. More space and range than the Ioniq, but not as efficient or sophisticated.

[@judebrown4103]

Lee from Cleevely serviced mine here in Kent a month or so ago, no problems. Just thought I'd let you know they do service them.👍

[@stevechelt1]

@@judebrown4103 Whichever I get I'm fortunate to live about a mile from Cleevely in Cheltenham, so would use them for servicing etc.

[@judebrown4103]

​@@stevechelt1oh that is handy, lucky you.😄👍

[@andylewis210]

Does Tesla actually have a quality assurance department!?

[@Martinjp147]

Hi guys, are you servicing cars in devon yet?

[@Jamesandkate]

We are, just requires some planning.

[@Martinjp147]

@@Jamesandkate ok great, well I got 2023 mg5, on 13,000 miles now, believe the service is 20,000 miles.

[@UK7868]

Hi, Do you have a website please?

[@paulyh4531]

Does anyone know what happened to james cooke he had one of the first model S , he used to do videos , dont know if he still has it.

[@Jamesandkate]

He separated from his wife, I believe. I think the vids dried up soon after.

[@michaelgoode9555]

James Cooke is still on KZbin. His channel is called JamesCookeVlogs. His content is much wider than just his Tesla but he still vlogs about it.

[@paulyh4531]

@@michaelgoode9555 Didn't realise he was still on here ,he seemed to of vanished and never put any videos up for like a year.

[@georgepelton5645]

James Cooke occasionally still posts new videos. Not much about his Model S. AFAIK he still owns and daily drives it. He did have to replace the battery out of warranty, and posted a video about it.

[@paulyh4531]

@@georgepelton5645 Blimey bet that cost him then if it was main battery !

[@stefan2796]

Summery: Tesla doesn't know how to build a quality car...and customer service is crap (ticket system, employees who don't know what they are talking about).

[@xperyskop2475]

So my 8-year-old Nissan Leaf is better. Everything works fine after 70k miles. Only one downfall is range and chademo

[@wimschoenmakers5463]

Americans never ever build something decent with wheels!

[@monkeymagic4555]

For context peoples this was James's polite version of Teslas are simply scrap metal right out the factory door and that you should buy ANYTHING from Kia/Hyundai/Genesis instead 4 the win.....Hope this helps.....

[@Jamesandkate]

I'm definitely not saying that. These are cracking and have great reliability.

[@monkeymagic4555]

@@Jamesandkate Your not?!?....really?!?!? Okdokey :/ we never see any of these typical issues (of which we also universally see day in day out with Teslas) never see literally anything at all with the kia/hyundai/genesis stuff easily the best stuff all things considered whether in ev or fossil form.......There is that!......

[@CreRay]

I was sooo expecting a comment like that😂😂😂 "Hope this helps" LOL

[@AdrianMcDaid]

Please don't put words in other people's mouths

[@kennethsmyth]

@@monkeymagic4555total bull, my brothers ev6 was flatbed the other day as the car can’t charge the 12v shutting it completely down and unusable. Other brother has ionic 5 and had to replace battery early.

[@stephenrichards5386]

I avoid all the pitfalls in BVs. I buy ICE

[@Sal3600]

Do you want me to tell you about ask the problems i had with my ICE bmw lmao

[@stephenrichards5386]

@@Sal3600 if you buy BMW expect trouble and expensive trouble. VW are no better and Audi the worst. It's seems to be people of the same driver's character that buy them and the manufacturer plays on that

[@georgepelton5645]

LMAO. I avoid all the pitfalls in ICE. Well known, I lived with them for 40 years.