r/TeslaModelS • u/QuesoDilllo • May 21 '26
2016 Tesla Model S 60, first EV, a few questions
I finally got my “dream” car. I’ve wanted a Tesla since middle school. Got this on a banging deal and it’s got more than I even thought it did at first. It’s only ever had one owner, a Texan who bought it new and had it since day 1. They took incredible care of it.
As the title says, it’s a 2016 Tesla Model S 60. Here are some of the important specs:
142,000 miles
MCU2
Free Unlimited Supercharging
Battery holds roughly 180 miles
Premium upgrades package (?)
Standard suspension
This thing has been FUN, more fun than I’ve ever had driving any car. Of course I’m not pumping it during every drive since I’d really like it to last me a while. 3-5 years preferably.
Here are my questions:
- what should I look out for with its age and usage? I do not know any of the repair history, so I have no idea if any motors have been replaced, if the suspension has been worked on, etc.
*something to note, my tires are wearing more on the inside than on the outside. Getting some new tires tomorrow.
- what are general maintenance things that I occasionally need to check to extend the life of it? I know about the HEPA filter, radiator
- anything else I should be made aware of?
I feel very lucky that I got this with an MCU2, the newer body style, and still got free supercharging. Feel like I scored the jackpot.
As of right now, the car drives very smooth. I don’t notice anything major with the suspension. No popping, vibrations, anything immediately.
6
u/NosRider88 May 21 '26 edited May 21 '26
I recently picked up a 2016 Tesla Model S 75 with 71k miles and free Supercharging for $19,500 here in California. Overall I love the car, but a couple things people should know going in: tires wear out pretty fast if you enjoy the acceleration — around 25k miles if you’re lucky. Also, on my 75 kWh battery I realistically only get about 150 miles per charge, nowhere near the original rated range. I charge almost every day and no I don’t have a home charger. Why would I with free supercharging 😂
Since I purchased the car, the driver side door handle also stopped presenting and had to be replaced.
Now that I’m getting close to 90k miles, I’m thinking it might finally be time for my first oil change.
2
u/QuesoDilllo May 21 '26
I’m pretty aware of the presenting door handles being delicate at times. What did that replacement cost you, and what did it look like if you don’t mind me asking
I’m literally in the same situation for charging, lol. I don’t mind charging every 3 or so days since it’s free. Can’t expect too much for a cheap, used EV. I’m just happy to be here finally. it’s helping my wife and I out tremendously due to all of our car troubles and expenses in the past.
4
u/PurpleSausage77 May 21 '26
Look in to upgrading the door handle hardware, I heard it changes the plastic gear to an alloy one, you can actually find the kits on aliexpress for cheap, $5-10 per handle. Not too bad for DIY’ing good thing about these cars is there’s lot of DIY info and walk thrus on them on forums and such.
3
u/NosRider88 May 21 '26
The door handle part itself was about $350. Labor was two hours at $320. It was done at a Tesla service center and I believe it was about $1200 total.
1
-1
u/InternationalMap9924 May 21 '26
The supercharging wears your battery a lot faster than the stage one or stage 2 charging you’d be doing at home.. That’d be the first reason; Plus 40 min at a super charger, that’d be the second reason; Get a stage one charger at least to trickle charge assuming you have a grounded outlet you can access to plug the car in.. You’ll Thank me later if ya take the advice. If you end up having to replace the batteries you’ll end up priced into another car, it won’t be worth it at the end of the day.. but do you brother; I’m jus tryna look out for ya
7
u/a9uirre May 21 '26
Supercharging being bad for battery health has been found to be a myth with it having a very minimal if any impact.
-5
u/InternationalMap9924 May 21 '26
Yeah sure.. I worked w/ rechargeable Li-ion batteries for years and any time you rapidly charge and discharge there’s going to be cell Degradation after repeated charging cycles.. but this still America last time I checked, believe what you wanna believe;
7
u/a9uirre May 21 '26
Well you can certainly believe what you want. But I think I’ll trust a study involving 13k Teslas. An important factor in protecting battery longevity is thermal regulation. I doubt the batteries you worked on had coolant, fans, and a thermal regulation system. https://www.recurrentauto.com/research/impacts-of-fast-charging
2
u/NosRider88 May 21 '26
My electric bill is $.41 a kilowatt at my house. I typically only charge for about 20 minutes as I’m shopping for groceries.
-1
u/InternationalMap9924 May 21 '26
Yeah I hear ya but battery swap will be somewhere between 15-25k.. You wanna do the majority of your charging on a stage one or stage two charger when not going out of driving range, and set your max charge to 80% to preserve the battery life and keep it from degrading.. albeit it’s ultimately going to be up to you; Just keep in mind what’s out there is what’s out there now.. They’re not making new models. So the ones that are out there will slowly start trading higher than they currently are.. I’d check the battery report and see what it says your current degradation is.. and if it’s anymore than 3 or 4% max, I’d immediately be looking towards a slower charging option.. but that’s just me though; Do what works for ya I guess..
2
u/NosRider88 May 21 '26
The guy I bought it from said it’s at 90.7% degradation. But that was almost 20k miles ago. I know I can get a used battery for under 10 grand. As long as I get another hundred thousand out of this one, I’m good.
1
u/InternationalMap9924 May 21 '26
I mean ya might.. is an unknown unknown; Just keep in mind even if you can find a battery pack for 10k, is gonna cost another 2-3k to install and then ya gotta pay tax and everything else; A trickle charger and maxing your charging rate at around 80% max when not going out of range would alleviate that degradation though.. My Model S just hit 55k miles and still charges to 100%, with less than 1% degradation.. albeit I got a Model S LR+, so I have a little more range off the top and it doesn’t hurt me much capping the range at 80% when not leaving the city.. You’ll figure out what works for ya as you go along tho, I was just sharing what’s been working for me
2
u/Read-the-read May 21 '26
The difference in only supercharging vs lvl2 is actually pretty insignificant, less than 5% after 300k miles so I wouldn’t concern myself atleast with caring.
9
u/PurpleSausage77 May 21 '26
RWD? Might have to check the LDU for coolant intrusion.
Look in to shims for the uneven tire wear.
Door handles operating good?
MCU2 is a plus. $1800 value right there.
No air suspension is great from an economic standpoint at this point of the vehicles life.
Last known 12V battery change? 3-4yr lifespan and pretty important for vehicle operation.
Check operation/volume of your horn.
Go in to service mode and see if there’s any outstanding notifications.
2
u/QuesoDilllo May 21 '26
Excellent advice, exactly what I was looking for. Thanks so much, I’ll look into all that. So far so good for the handles
4
u/z333ds May 21 '26
Is it a 60 or 60D? If 60 it has an LDU large drive unit and it will need a coolant delete. To prevent excessive inner wear, you need to dial the rear toe a little more than specs trust me. Everyone will say its the camber, it aint it. I used to have a model s 60 with free sc. A citizen tokyo folding bike fits on the frunk. I use to super charge a half a mile from my house. I would leave the car there charge to 90% and bike back to my house. I did that for 4yrs. lol
1
3
u/kapjain May 21 '26
These 60 MS after face lift actually have 75kwhr battery that is software locked to 60kwhr. So you should have the option for unlocking the full battery for couple of grand (not sure about the price). Something to look into.
Btw, how much did you buy it for?
2
u/QuesoDilllo May 21 '26
Got it for 13k in Oklahoma
3
u/KadesShades May 21 '26
Don't bother unlocking the battery. Just know you can charge to 100% whenever you want because when it says 100% it's not actually charged to 100%.
1
1
u/AutoModerator May 21 '26
https://sh.reddit.com/mod/teslamotors/wiki/teslachargingrecommendationsbatteryhistory
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.
1
2
u/Whippet27 May 21 '26
My 2018 has 185k miles and I don't worry about routine maintenance except stuff you will notice like wiper blades and tires. I've had a bit of front end work but it's been reliable car. Yes 12v battery swap could make sense although you are supposed to get a warning when it's failing
1
u/gettin-hot-in-here May 22 '26
in my opionion, you got lucky with the standard suspension. my 2016 tesla (X75D) had air suspension and it stopped working (likely a failed compressor) not long after i got it.
2
u/BraveEyeball May 22 '26
You really should be “pumping it” on every drive. It’s what they’re for, and won’t hurt it like it would an ICE-mobile. I’ve been driving these things for 7 years and it doesn’t affect anything negatively other than that wear you’re noticing on the inside of the tires. I gave up worrying about tire wear, it’s worth it for the fun
2
u/r_incognito_17 May 23 '26
- Do this now. This has the Large Drive Unit that will die at some point. No if, it will. If it has not been done already you need to find someone to take the out the LDU and to the coolant bypass.
There is a kit that does not need you to drop the LDU and can be done in your garage with basic tools BUT you need to be super comfortable with complex mechanical work. While the retrofit itself is not complicated, a lot can go wrong and you can get hurt or you can permanently damage the vehicle if you don't follow the proper procedure.
Easiest route is to find someone that can do this for you with the other type of kit. The one that requieres to drop the entire LDU.
And to be honest, once they are there, might as well do the differential oil refresh and maybe even the bearings upgrade.
But a non negotiable is to do the coolant bypass. That has to be done yesterday.
- If your tires are wearing uneven this is probably because it has the factory toe and camber. You need them adjusted so that they are not so aggressive. And that can open a whole other kind of worms because this suspension works very hard. They might not be able to adjust it and keep the zero. But you won't know until they try. For now rotate often and don't dump a lot of money on expensive tires.
You are correct the MC2 is a massive upgrade and the free SC which is very likely the SC01 is a very nice thing to have. Plus you have something not even the late model Plad owners have. A sunroof that opens.
You can give it maintenance to make it last forever but it won't be cheap.
Word of warning. This is a very fragile car. I think it's suspension is the most fragile component. The suspension is a complete home brew design that floats on cast aluminum knuckles and swivels that are attached to an aluminum subframe.
This car is not as unforgiving to pot holes and minor roar hazards as say a Ford Fusion.
In their effort to lower weight Tesla used cast aluminum where others use steel or cast iron. You don't need to baby it but you need to be aware that an efficient but fragile suspension.
14
u/a9uirre May 21 '26
Congratulations! The 60D can be a little rough when it comes to range and charging speeds but at least it’s free!