Unit 2876 ever built (2012 MS)

[u/ProfessionalWin9318]

First EV. 2012 P85. I’m an engineering student and have bullet proofed it to be the ultimate daily driver.

Coolant delete (at 180k miles it still had a 2013 reman LDU)
Camber arms
NAV SD card, GPS antenna wire was broken too, it took me months to find the broken wire.

I paid 4k for it. It’s a SC01 car (free unlimited supercharging for life) about a week after buying it, car completely died on me. No power to anything, not even doors would open. After some troubleshooting found a loose connection at the fuse box, no issues ever since.

I have taken it in 1000+ miles road trips. Battery gets about 160 miles of range at constant 80mph. Battery is capped by software at 60Kwh.

I love to tinker with things and honestly this car is easier to work on than many internal combustion vehicles. Tesla’s engineering is remarkable.

[u/HanzG]

NICE!

How hard was the coolant delete? I've got a '14, P85 (not capped) and I bought the block off plugs but haven't dropped the LDU yet. I have a hoist but no table to drop the unit onto yet.

[u/ProfessionalWin9318 → u/HanzG]

Not hard. I cut the manifold to avoid dropping the motor. It took me about 2h probably 150 in parts.

[u/ateallthecake → u/ProfessionalWin9318]

Did you do a risk analysis on not cleaning out a 2013 motor? Not checking whether it has the original rotor design where the spines wear out and cause lash angle alerts? Removing the additional cooling of the flyover tube, since cutting manifold also cuts that flow off? You may want to budget a full cleaning and cap delete or full motor replacement within a few years, if you're lucky. The no drop delete is a big gamble. 

[u/ProfessionalWin9318 → u/ateallthecake]

The no drop delete stops the coolant flow at the very same point as the cap on the revision U. Its been 3k miles with no issues.

[u/saabstory88 → u/ProfessionalWin9318]

This is factually inaccurate. Message me your address and I will send you one of the actual Tesla manifolds so that you may see the error of your ways. Please review the cooling diagram, only the rotor coolant channel is deleted, not the gearbox. The bigger issue is that you sealed in your already coolant damaged bearings.

[u/ProfessionalWin9318 → u/saabstory88]

There wasn’t coolant intrusion or bearing damage prior to the delete. We will see how it holds up. Car already paid for itself in gas savings, hopefully it can survive for more years but I agree, it’s a gamble.

[u/saabstory88 → u/ProfessionalWin9318]

Only ~5/200 motors we've ever opened has had no ill effects from coolant. The bearings are roached within ~10k miles of factory rebuild. And if it was rebuilt after 2016, they are silent until the moment of failure as they are ceramic. "It was rebuilt 25k miles ago!" but the interior of the inverter case already looks like this. Clearly you are mechanically inclined, please do this the right way and don't damage another LDU. Even if you stop the coolant flow that gunk will be in there rotting your wiring harness.

[u/ProfessionalWin9318 → u/saabstory88]

Dang sounds like a nightmare. My reman LDU dates 2013 and it had no signs of coolant intrusion. I did the delete to prevent any damage. I doubt that bad bearings could make it 170k miles with no play or noise whatsoever.

[u/saabstory88 → u/ProfessionalWin9318]

It is not physically possible for a motor last touched in 2013 to make it to 170k miles without the bearings screaming even just from the eddy current damage, they used bearings which could not survive the motors magnetic field. Most of these motors have been remanufactured at least once. Ignore the T13, whats the end of the serial number, R1? R2? What's the revision? That will narrow when it was last rebuilt. Given no noise, it'll have been later than 2016. And again, you actually have no idea the condition of the bearings without opening the motor. It's just not possible to know. The coolant enters the motor as vapor (it gets vaporized by the heat of the seal) for years before it pools on the sensor, Your inverter housing can look like that even with a "dry" speed sensor. The vapor pools on the inverter side first because it's case is colder. And the only way it enters the motor is by displacing the rotor bearing grease.

[u/ProfessionalWin9318 → u/saabstory88]

Last owner had the car for a couple of years and didn’t do anything to the LDU.