Tesla Model S Water Leak Inspection

0:02 Okay, so we've got a Tesla Model S in today for a water leak. Customers are finding water around the rear of the vehicle, specifically in the boot area, and we can see there's quite a lot of water that's gone in there from our testing. Customers have already pulled out a fair bit of the carpets to do a bit of their own investigating, a few bits and pieces missing up here.

0:23 Now obviously water in the boot, and we have tested inside the vehicle as well, and it does look, unfortunately, like all four footwells are wet. So if I just put our moisture tester in here, you can hear straight away, and that's detecting moisture. And then if we come to the front, it's not as much, but it is still detecting yet, so you and see if I lift that up, and then yeah. So it is detecting moisture in the vehicle. So obviously what we need to do: take the seats out, lift up all the car

1:02 pit, suck out as much of the water as we can from the underlay, before we then put our special dry machines in that will help to dry out all the vehicle. Obviously any type of vehicle, you're gonna have a lot of electrical cables and stuff running down the sides of the seats and everything like that. But obviously, particularly this being a electric model, you're going to want to make sure that there's no moisture sat in that vehicle long term, so obviously your plan to get that all sucked out is very important.

1:32 Now we'll go around the vehicle and show you a few places that we have found the points of water ingress. Number one is the door membranes. So if I pour water behind here, what should happen, they've got drainage systems on all the doors and they're meant to run through there. But if I pull this, this is obviously simulating, you know, water running down the windows, the same it is it will be rolling off the roof, down the windows. Now normally it should drain at the bottom, but as we can

2:03 see, unfortunately, all these drip lines along here. You see drips dripping from behind the door itself, and they then dripping directly into behind this rubber section here, which is why you've got that grit and dirt which is getting dragged through, and that's then going into the carpet. And the same story is on the other side. So obviously this door membrane, door card, needs to come off, and then we will look at resealing the door membrane, and the same on this side. So if I just pop this trim tool in here. This helped me pop the water can in the right place.

2:45 So if I don't just pour this water on this side again, it's obviously going to go down the gap in the glass. Then we can see where it should be draining, but unfortunately you can see quite a substantial leak on there. And under our testing we find that again, you can see all that water being sat underneath there, which has obviously been getting underneath this bit of trim and into the carpet itself. So again, unfortunately, that is where it's getting into the carpet and spreading itself around in there. Now

3:25 coming to the back of the vehicle. Obviously customers finding most of the water ingress here, a few points that we have found. Number one, if I pull all the water up here, this is obviously the area of charging point. Now it's a little bit like an old school petrol cap, that it will have a drainage point inside. If I just come inside, that's where your drainage point is, and as you can see, dripping. So that drain that runs up the inside to the back here, that is blocked. So we need to do, we need to flush it all

4:06 through, because at the moment now it's just overflowing and dripping directly into the boot. Now the other area which is quite heavy leak, if I pour some water on both sides, is the rear air vents. Now this particular model has four, that's two per side, and what we're going to do right in there. Unfortunately you can see quite a lot of water building up around the edge of those, and the same on this side. You follow the track, it goes from the top there, down there, and obviously then pulls up there, so they are leaking quite badly.

4:51 So what we'll do, we'll take the bumper off, clean up around the back of them, recondition them so that will help to sort out the rubber flaps on them, and then we're going to seal them back in place, so that should not happen going forward. But that is what we've got so far. Obviously we'll put it all in an estimate for you. So I'm going to do all four door membranes. The two back are leaking the most heavily, and we're going to do the two fronts

5:18 as well, because obviously they are the same age, so it's only a matter of time. And as you can see how heavily the back ones were leaking, so we're going to do all four. Put that in the estimate, put the estimate together for the rear bumper to come off, your drainage system, as well as all your vents and things like that. So we'll put it all together including your drying costs, and if you can give us a call, let us know if you're happy for us to go ahead

5:42 and we can get this moving forward, get it all stripped and started to be dried. Okay, just quick update video for you. So we've got the door cards off. We can see these rear ones, this is your door membrane that would basically hold a lot of the water behind. Not sure whether or not this is from factory or someone has had these cards off sort of previously, but we can see that that section there should obviously be further up and all the way around. It's just peeling off,

6:11 there's a lot of moisture behind there and stuff. So what we'll do, we will obviously get these all cleaned up, get them resealed on. But yeah, you can see I can get my hand right up there, so that's why it's leaking all the way through so much. The front's doesn't look too bad, there's a few bits of tape and stuff that do appear to be coming off, so they'll be re-taped. And then around this side, exactly the same story again, it's all just starting to flap away, and again you've got

6:43 big sections all the way around where you can get your finger in, which is obviously going to be allowing water through. My colleague is just stripping the inside of the vehicle at the moment, so the carpets are all being lifted up, and we can feel, you can see, it's a little bit hard to see, but you can see how wet they are.

7:01 So they all need to be sucked out and dried. Obviously, luckily it doesn't look like there's too much water underneath the seat where your main control modules are and everything like that. We're just starting to tidy up bits and pieces as we go, but we can see just a few little droplets here and there where water is starting to form.

7:25 And again, you can see patches all throughout there. You can see quite a big section there where it's all wet. So we'll obviously get this all fully stripped, get the dry machines in and get it all nice and dry, and then crack on getting these all re-sealed. Okay, just a quick update video for you.

7:41 The car is all on dry at the moment. All cars have all gone back on. This is one of the rear air vents that come out of the vehicle that were leaking. Now we have got three of the four to be back in and sealed. This one, however, looks like it's the worst for wear one,

7:57 the one that was leaking the most heavily. It does look like the seal and the edge of it has completely gone on it, so we would need to replace this. Now we can't get them through Tesla direct, they do seem to be completely out of stock at the moment, and they're not giving us time at all for restocking. We have found a brand new one that we can get hold of, obviously because at the moment we won't be able to use this one at all, because that seal has completely come off the edge,

8:24 so that's not going to seal in and be watertight at all. So if you give us a call, let us know if you're happy for us to go ahead and get that ordered. And I think it's going to take three to five days to arrive, unfortunately. However, we've obviously got bits and pieces left to do in the vehicle, so give us a call, let us know if you're happy for us to order that in, and I can get that sorted.

8:46 So we've got the Tesla in, just finished all our repairs, and we've had a nice... The rims also have been cleaned as well, so it's looking nice and sparkly. If we just take a look inside, just to show there's no sort of wetness going on. See there, it's nice and dry. I mean, I know the culprit was in the boot, but you know, water can travel all sorts of kind of ways.

9:14 So it's nice and dry. Take a look into the boot area. You can see down there where the events were, no signs of water. It's showing up good. But what we say now is obviously it's ready for its real world test, because obviously if you're driving down the motorway at 70mph, you're going to come into a lot more contact with water, and it'll be just static.

9:41 So we just recommend all you do is keep on top of the repairs, just religiously check it. Basically, so it's nice and dry there. So yeah, no signs of water throughout, which is good. So all we recommend is to keep on top of the fixes, obviously this one is for the rear air vents.

10:04 So yeah, all you've got to do is just make sure, just follow it religiously off the all tight reins. Just make sure you can just double check on it, make sure it's all nice and good. So yeah, this one's all ready to go out.