10 Ways To Ruin Your Tesla | DO NOT Make This Mistake

one very exciting thing about electric cars and teslas in general are that they are very different than typical cars for myself and others this is very exciting because it comes with new exciting features and lots of change from the same driving experience that you've grown up with there are lots of videos and articles out there on my channel and elsewhere that give tips and tricks for how to utilize tesla's the best way possible but today i'm going to talk about 10 things to avoid when owning a tesla we're going to talk about 10 ways to ruin your tesla so let's get into it and a special thanks to smoosat for sponsoring a portion of this video [Music] some things we'll talk about today will be obvious but others won't be the first one up is something that you may or may not know about but it also doesn't apply to every single tesla and that's charging to 100 for the most part if you buy a tesla you'll be receiving a battery with a lithium ion battery chemistry these are very advanced batteries and while tesla quotes the epa range for their cars like 330 miles for the model y that's tested by the epa in very specific circumstances it's also tested with the car charged up to 100 percent the general rule of thumb for these batteries though is that for longevity you should not charge them to 100 regularly when asked by someone who uses 50 of their tesla battery each day what the best charging option is elon musk said to go from 80 to 30 percent the common rule of thumb is typically to charge to 80 or 90 unless you absolutely need the range according to mashable but if you're pressed for range should you change this and charge up to 100 percent well unless you absolutely must squeeze every bit of range out of your battery the answer is still no when you set your charge limit above 90 in a tesla it will warn you on screen saying charging repeatedly beyond daily driving needs will shorten battery life would you like to lower the charge limit the reason not to charge to 100 actually comes in two forms though first it could reduce the life of your battery as mentioned likely this would mean accelerating battery degradation so that less energy is available as your car gets older the second part comes with regen braking a big part of electric cars is regenerative braking which takes the energy from braking and puts it back into the battery this helps a lot with efficiency and back in 2019 when asked about charging to 100 elon musk said it's not a big deal charge to 90 to 95 percent and you'll be fine at 100 state of charge regen braking doesn't work because the battery is full so car is less energy efficient so it's twofold charging to 100 each day is going to make the car less efficient using more of the brake pads and wear on the battery more than necessary long term for some people though the argument is that you should just use your car as you use it if you don't need 100 charge each day then definitely don't use it but clean technica says need to charge to 90 plus in order to get around in a convenient stress-free time efficient way go for it for myself i charge to 80 each day and then go up to 100 around three to four times a year when i'm prepping for a longer road trip or long drive the confusing thing here is that while this applies to most teslas it now doesn't apply for newly delivered rear wheel drive standard range teslas that is because these cars utilize lfp battery chemistry that actually prefers to be charged to 100 this is what is best for longevity on these cars and tesla's model 3 owner's manual says if your vehicle is equipped with an lfp battery tesla recommends that you keep your charge limit set to 100 even for daily use and that you also fully charge to 100 at least once per week so that's pretty much the complete opposite of other batteries where they tell you not to do 100 ever if you can they want you to do it at least once per week with an lfp pack they expand on this further talking about charging habits saying tesla recommends that you keep your charge limit to 100 even for daily use and that you also regularly charge your vehicle to 100 percent if your vehicle has been parked for longer than a week tesla recommends driving your vehicle as you normally would and charged to 100 at your earliest convenience a way that you can tell if you have this pack is that the battery image will show your daily range limits between 50 and 100 on screen normally it would go up to 80 or 90 percent that's how you would know that you have an lfp battery which they started shipping on the model 3 standard range in the us last year so if you have an lfp pack charged to 100 all the time if not regularly charging to 100 will not be good for the longevity of the car in a similar vein the second thing that could ruin your tesla is running it all the way down to zero percent many are used to pushing it with a gas tank but when it comes to a battery pack going down to or past zero percent could significantly harm the battery long term tesla has many warnings about this and will tell you to plug in when the battery is getting below 20 percent but in their owner's manual they specifically say if the battery's charge level falls to zero percent you must plug it in if you leave it unplugged for an extended period it may not be possible to charge or use model 3 without jump starting or replacing the low voltage battery leaving model 3 unplugged for an extended period can also result in permanent battery damage if you are unable to charge model 3 after attempting to jump start the low voltage battery contact tesla immediately so running down to zero percent could result in permanent battery damage and lead you to have to get your tesla jumped before it can charge again definitely not an ideal situation and something to avoid now number three is something that may seem small but that's slamming the front trunk in many vehicles the hood is extremely heavy to the point where people are used to slamming it or dropping it where it slams shut for you a tesla is the complete opposite story a good way to ruin your tesla is to slam the front trunk the front trunk on a tesla is very useful for storage but you have to close it ever so softly to prevent damage to the hood itself and the latch tesla even has specific closing directions in their owner's manual they say the model 3 hood is not heavy enough to latch under its own weight and applying pressure on the front edge or center of the hood can cause damage there are very specific directions for how to close the trunk first lower the hood until the striker touches the latches then place both hands on the front of the hood in the areas shown in green then press down firmly to engage the latches lastly carefully try to lift the front edge of the hood to ensure that it is fully closed there's even an illustration of exactly where your hands should go when closing touching the green boxes only to me this is a bit of an over-the-top explanation but it is something that you have to look out for you have to be delicate with your tesla's front trunk if you don't want to damage it it's also specific to each car which is funny because if you look at the model s owner's manual you'll see slightly different hand positioning when latching the front trunk for me this is even more of an argument for why tesla needs an automatic closing front trunk like rivian lucid gm ford and more are doing now but that's for another video we'll get into the rest of these in just a minute before we go any further i'd like to thank today's sponsor smoossat smoosat is a company that makes high quality smooth riding electric scooters for the whole family i got the smoosat sa-3 adult electric scooter and it has been a blast to try out it has an automotive grade battery pack that has a range of up to 20 miles on a charge so if you work less than 10 miles from home it's a fun alternative to driving on your daily commute the real-time display has a high precision control system that shows you your battery percentage and speed it can also carry a 220 pound adult and climb up a 14 degree incline with no issue with a top speed of about 15 miles per hour it's a lot of fun to ride when you're done riding it weighs about 35 pounds and folds up so you can carry it easily in one hand the battery has a super long lifespan and can last up to 800 charging cycles it's the best electric scooter for urban commuters to check out the smoothsat sa-3 for yourself click the link in the description below use code ryan ssa3 for 14 off and get a 30 off coupon at the link below for a total of 100 off now number four is a pretty interesting one and it's something that's fairly new for vehicles software unlocking or jailbreaking there are certain features in tesla vehicles that the hardware is capable of but the software does not enable sometimes this includes things like an acceleration boost where they want to charge you extra for that unlock but others are safety related top speed being capped because maybe the hardware could go that fast but it's just not safe or good for the car as a whole long term in any case there are companies like nginx who sell third-party software unlocking modules for teslas for example this one is called ghost upgrade and they say the update transforms your dual motor into a performance it adds 150 horsepower to your car you'll be able to do 0 to 60 miles per hour in 3.2 seconds that's definitely a cool upgrade to be able to receive but one thing you'll find quickly is that you have to worry about each tesla update they say to make a tesla update you will be able to authorize it from the nginxed web application and proceed to its installation before installation you need to make sure that the update is safe here to me that's definitely not something i'd want to deal with on top of the warranty concerns with tesla nginx says that they are not responsible quote regarding the full or partial validity of the manufacturer's warranty following the use of this equipment we are not responsible for any modifications the manufacturer could do to your car example turning off some features etc so essentially tesla could disable this upgrade and then you're stuck they have been known to do this with the vehicle recognizing the third party install additionally this is a surefire way to void your tesla warranty if all works out fine then of course it's totally up to you but if a significant repair was necessary and it's no longer covered under warranty due to this upgrade that's definitely not a fun situation for some these upgrades are totally worth the risk but for others this would be considered a definite way to ruin your tesla as stated on the website vehicles suggest there is a lot of debate as to whether you should make third party modifications to your vehicle it normally ends with you voiding your warranty but there are automobile enthusiasts who love to modify tune and boost their vehicles that is the market that nginx taps and thus this cat and mouse show between tesla and ninja next keeps going now number five is another small thing that we're seeing in more and more cars these days but a good way to ruin your tesla is to not pay attention when pulling up to a curb unfortunately best practice for vehicle efficiency doesn't seem to line up with what protects wheels the most and curb rash is an extremely common thing on teslas if you pull up and hit a curb the wheel is what takes the damage not the tire so you could end up with some pretty rough curb rash that either costs a lot to repair or is just there for the life of the car the rear camera on screen includes two side cameras and these have become essential for me when pulling up to a curb forward or backward i keep the rear camera in my dock to pull up at these times and ensure i won't crash my wheels so a good way to ruin your tesla is to not think about this and not pay attention to it so pay attention to it when you have your car number six is something that is very specific to tesla's and it relates to how you open the doors in the model 3 and y they use digital releases for the doors and the handles on the outside of the car are flush with the body of the car for many this is confusing when first getting into a tesla then once inside it can be unclear as to how to get out you press the button at the top of the handle inside the door unlatches and you're good to go but there is also a manual release located below the handle oftentimes this manual release is actually what's intuitive for people when exiting a tesla but this is not meant to be used regularly this manual door release is meant only for the rare case when the car loses power and the powered releases for the door do not function properly tesla's owner's manual says quote to open a front door in the unlikely situation when model 3 has no power pull up the manual door release located in front of the window switches regarding the use of these regularly tesla says manual door releases are designed to be used only in situations when model 3 has no power if you try to use this release you'll notice that the window doesn't roll down the same way and instead the door rips through the car's interior trim doing it a few times won't make permanent damage but using this regularly will eventually cause real damage to the door window and trim use the normal button and you're good to go now number seven is something i have personal experience with and that's a hardware modification or upgrade to your tesla now arguably these upgrades are actually a way to improve your tesla not ruin it i installed a third party suspension upgrade on my model y that improved the ride quality but i had quite the time with tesla service because of that upgrade there were issues with my model y and because i had done this third party upgrade i had to coordinate with the third party shop to see if it was their issue or if it was tesla's issue it was very stressful ultimately i had a very large repair on my model y that tesla refused to cover under warranty because they blamed the third party upgrade in my car it was truly unrelated but tesla said that this was their assessment and i could take the car elsewhere for another opinion regardless of whose fault it truly was and it was likely a turro renter of mine it caused a huge headache for me and is something i don't plan on doing again i made a full video about that experience and it's linked below but it's going to be easiest to keep your tesla largely as tesla delivered it when it comes to true vehicle parts like suspension so that you can have any necessary repairs covered under warranty that's for people who don't like having any warranty concerns and would consider this car ruined if they voided a certain part of their warranty but i definitely understand that this risk is worth it for others wanting to upgrade their tesla next up for number eight is messing with autopilot every single tesla delivered includes basic autopilot on freeway drives this means the car can drive for you for quite some time however tesla requires that you regularly touch the wheel to prove that you are paying attention the system is still designed that if something goes wrong you are ready to take over tesla used to regularly report data from autopilot accidents and their last report in q4 of 2021 said in the fourth quarter we recorded one crash for every 4.31 million miles driven in which drivers were using autopilot technology auto steer and active safety features for drivers who were not using autopilot technology no auto steer and active safety features we recorded one crash for every 1.59 million miles driven by comparison nitsa's most recent data shows that in the united states there is an automobile crash every 484 thousand miles essentially using autopilot ensures a safer ride but a big part of autopilot is that you are paying attention so the safety of this system depends on you but third-party tricking devices are out there that will make it so that you don't have to prove your presence there are weights out there specifically designed to attach to your tesla steering wheel this replicates the weight of your hand on the wheel that autopilot looks for meaning that you can be hands off when driving in autopilot many different sellers offered similar options and some like autopilot buddy go as far as to add a phone mount right onto the steering wheel so your distraction device can attach right onto the apparatus that is bypassing autopilot safety and allowing you to not pay attention it's a double whammy of stupidity it's just an incredibly dumb thing to do for safety and completely ruins the safety of the autopilot system tesla specifically says as with all autopilot features you must be in control of your vehicle pay attention to its surroundings and be ready to take immediate action including braking please do not use these devices or support the companies selling them instead find a comfortable position for your hand pay attention and use autopilot as intended luckily tesla has been implementing a new system that uses the interior camera for driver monitoring in addition to the steering wheel so this could be an accessory that no longer works in the future but it hasn't been completely added across the board yet also older model s's and x's can't do this driver monitoring yet because they lack the interior camera now number nine is something that we wish tesla would implement and that's bi-directional charging according to electric back in february of 2021 tesla is voiding your warranty if you try to power your home with your electric car battery pack teslas have big batteries that could help out in power outages but they aren't meant to reverse the way the energy goes other cars like the hyundai ioniq 5 and ford f-150 lightning are enabling this feature but tesla isn't yet this particular owner wired up their house from their car and quickly found messages about their 12-volt battery needing replacing this replacement wasn't covered under warranty as tesla specifically says using the vehicle as a stationary power source is limited in exclusions and limitations of the warranty it seems that the 12 volt battery actually was functioning fine but the car recognized it being used improperly and shut this down then tesla service actually found out about this reverse charging through social media but either way this is a surefire way to void your tesla warranty as with all warranty risks it's up to you but this is something that could ruin your car last up is number 10 and this relates to the warranty since teslas are such new and specific technology there are some warranty restrictions specifically involving who can work on the car regarding the battery there are restrictions for attempts to service the battery area by non-certified personnel non-adherence to battery charging guidelines using the vehicle as a stationary power source flood or fire damage exclusions apply for battery fires within limitations collision or general damage that has intentionally not been repaired that leads to future battery failure so if your battery needs servicing a surefire way to ruin your car and your warranty is to get it serviced outside of a certified tesla professional tesla battery replacements although rare are extremely expensive so if you're under warranty definitely be sure to only have tesla service it when necessary as a quick review of things that could ruin your tesla you have number one charging to 100 regularly in most teslas you want to charge to 80 or so for battery longevity but new lfp packs are recommended to go to 100 daily number two never drain your car down to zero percent as this can cause permanent damage number three close your front trunk very gently and follow the guidelines that they put in the owner's manual number four don't software unlock things with third-party equipment unless you're prepared to deal with software complications and warranty concerns number five pay attention to curbs to avoid curb rash number six don't regularly use the manual release for your doors as that will damage the trim long term number seven watch out for warranty concerns with third party hardware modifications as well number eight use autopilot as intended number nine don't wire up bi-directional charging as this will void your 12-volt battery warranty and lastly only have your car serviced by tesla certified technicians to avoid warranty concerns i hope this video was helpful for you when it comes to properly maintaining your tesla and ensuring that you don't ruin it most of what we talked about today won't have an immediate effect but long term it could prevent you from getting the most out of your car in the meantime if you want to see my updated tesla buying guide that includes the impending tax credit for teslas you can check that out linked up here or in the description below thanks so much for watching and i'll see you on the next one

Channel: Ryan Shaw

Views: 320,036

Keywords: tesla, tesla model 3, model 3, tesla model y, model y, tesla model s, model s, tesla model x, model x, tesla issues, which tesla to buy, 25000 tesla, 2022 model s, tesla model s 2022, tesla model y 2022, tesla model 3 2022, tesla model x 2022, 2023 model y, 2023 model 3, tesla mistakes, tesla 10 mistakes, ruin a tesla, tesla problems, don't do this tesla, tesla mistakes to avoid, tesla plaid, tesla avoid

Id: o58ksiFXJtY

Length: 18min 9sec (1089 seconds)

Published: Tue Aug 09 2022

Reddit Comments

[u/T3kster]

Not a horrible video for a brand new Tesla owner, but just start at 16:49 and save yourself a ton of time! A short list of points would have been a MUCH better post.