First Tesla service call, after 17,700 km

Our first service call for the Tesla.

We have traveled over 17,700km in the 5.5 months we’ve had the car, most of that during our east coast road tripping since December 1. We are supposed to schedule a tyre rotation at about 10,000km, but we have been travelling too much to be in one place long enough to book it. Since we’re in east Melbourne for a couple of weeks, we booked a mobile service through the Tesla app. It’s so easy and impressive. No form to fill out with identity and payment, since they already have those details. I just chose my preferred day/time and location (since we’re staying with friends and currently have no home).

Luke arrived in his Tesla Model S, with the back seat converted to a mobile service vehicle with drawers, tools etc. He jacked up our car, popped the wheel covers, swapped the front and rear wheels, put it all back together with torque wrench etc. Rotating (swapping) the tyres evens up the wear, since rear wheels suffer more from hard acceleration. He also inspected each tyre for any damage. He said that the tyres look good and that our mainly long distance driving has faired well, since there’s less frequent extreme acceleration than in city driving. We should get more than 50,000km out of these tyres before needing replacement.

Total cost, as quoted, was $59.40. Great service.

20 comments

  1. We've reached 10k, tyres still look amazing so we aren't too fussed yet about rotation, it's not an issue if it's not done at 10k 👍🏻
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  2. Did he change the fuel filter? 😁
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    1. Daniel Rond Ha! Funnily enough, there’s no fuel filter or oil filter, spark plugs, timing chain, fan belt, radiator fluid etc that need changing. But I do replace my own wiper fluid, because I am so car savvy 😜

      https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1330498229893…
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      1. Tesla Tripping you so smart 😁🤣
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      2. Tesla Tripping the mobile service guys have topped up my wiper fluid twice when doing other stuff. 😂
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      3. Tesla Tripping I thought they did have an transmission oil filter, but maybe that's only on the model S? It's not a service item as I understand it though.
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      4. Tesla Tripping there is a oil filter but I will let you work out where it is
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      5. Mark Barba Roja All I know is:
        1. There's no service item for oil.
        2. Because there's no combustion and extreme heat, any fluids aren't subjected to the degradation that ICE cars impose, so usually never need replacing.
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      6. Yes laugh away it a filter that never needs changing so tesla says .But is that filter paper some new breed that will never brake down ? Guess you may find out one day $$$

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      7. Brenton Gambling are you talking about engine oil? There’s no engine, so there’s no engine oil or engine oil filter. Or are you talking about something else?

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      8. Tesla Tripping 🤣🤣🤣

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      9. Tesla Tripping you work it out mate 👌
        No service because tesla said 🤣🤣

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      10. Transmission fluid and filter have no service interval as they're "fill for life"
        Most people wisen up and change them about every 60-80k km.
        There's also the HVAC filter and plenty of components underneath that need a good periodic inspection.

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      11. Tesla Tripping

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      12. Tesla Tripping, just remember to top up the blinker fluid. You don't want to run out of blinkers!
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  3. Brilliant!
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  4. Some have asked the question “how can Tesla afford to do that service call for $59?

    I chatted a bit about it with Luke, the service technician. My take away from that conversation was that Tesla deliberately does not want to make a profit from servicing vehicles. They aim to diagnose and fix as much as they can remotely, minimising physical service calls and the servicing requirement overall. The technician's KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) do not include any markups or upselling. The technicians work directly for Tesla and not for a dealership. So, the company's overall incentives are to make the most reliable cars with minimal servicing.
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    1. Tesla Tripping unlike their cars, they don’t like to charge much….(pun intended) 😁
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  5. They spelt tyre wrong. Also you really should be balancing when rotating.
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    1. Dean Elliott 'wrongly'.

      You're welcome 🙂 😛

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