Service information for EV repair can be limited at times. At Earthling, we feel that it’s our job to create solutions without unnecessary cost to the customer. As we continue to repair today’s complex electric vehicles, we gain organizational knowledge that allows us to not only make the right repair, but also to do so in a time-effective way. You can trust our process to get you charged up and back on the road!
We recently repaired a Tesla Model 3 that was intermittently indicating a fault with the car’s airbag system. The vehicle had been remotely diagnosed by Tesla, which concluded that the car’s occupant seat sensor as well as its air bags required replacement. They quoted the customer close to $5,000 in repairs.
The customer wanted a second opinion and brought the car to us. We confirmed the intermittent issue and got to work. We found that the occupant seat sensor was not the issue, and that a completely different system was not communicating with the computer. Although Tesla service information does not provide exact readings for pinpoint testing in the area we were working on, our experienced technicians have worked with similar systems, and can decipher wiring diagrams to understand what a good reading is and a bad reading. With electrical concerns on today’s vehicles, there could be hundreds of reasons why a system such as this fails.
We found that a body controller, which housed one of the car’s seventy-ish computers, had failed, causing part of the system to fail. We replaced that component, and although it didn’t fully fix the concern, we were able to establish communication with two out of the four computers that had not been communicating. Progress!
Using a lab scope, we traced the wires and determined that the computer which controls the steering rack, and which is on the same network as the airbag/restraint system, was affecting network traffic. We were able to perform more pinpoint testing, and confirmed that the computer was the root cause of the concern. As a replacement steering rack computer was unavailable separately from the steering rack, we replaced the steering rack unit, and the problem was solved!
Who would have thought a steering component would be related to the airbag/restraint system? The customer was very grateful that we took the extra steps to perform pinpoint testing and carry out the extra research and find the issue in the steering rack. We performed more testing than what Tesla would have performed, and we replaced a part that Tesla did not consider to be faulty.
Here at Earthling Auto, we are determined to find the root cause of the concern and to take the extra step in diagnosing to confirm we are on the right path to fix the concern 100%, rather than just suggesting repairs. We learn from cases such as this, and are grateful for the trust that our customers have in us.
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