21 Sep 2024, 21:01 UTC • By: Photo: Auto Auction Rebuilds | YouTube This guy bought a 2013 Tesla Model S sight unseen for $5,000 and was super happy about it. Until things started to go south. One day, he was out shopping with his fiancee when he got a notification on the screen, warning him that the car might not start. Little did he know that was the beginning of the end. When Randy Shear bought the 11-year-old Tesla Model S P85 and saw it had no major issues, he thought he hit the jackpot. The car, though, was going to turn into a financial disaster soon. It all started when the onboard screen first show warnings one day. Randy parked the electric car at the shopping mall, restarted it, and it restarted with no hesitation. He brought it back home, parked it in the garage, plugged it in, and checked on it the next morning. Hours after the warning messages on the screen, things got even worse. The display started showing errors such as acceleration and top speed reduced, vehicle may not restart, power reduced, unable to charge, air suspension not working, and many others. One thing was for sure: this time, the car did not start, no matter what he did, so he had to push it out of the garage. He called a truck to pick up the sedan and take it to a Tesla shop. What he is most concerned about is the loss of isolation. The electric vehicle is equipped with 400-volt batteries, so you would not want positive and negative touching and you wouldn't want to be anywhere near it if it happens. Photo: Auto Auction Rebuilds | YouTube To diagnose the exact problem, he would need the Tesla Toolbox 3, which can be rented for $150 per day. Furthermore, he would need a laptop that runs Windows and has the Google Chrome browser. As much as Randy is keen on fixing things himself, this time, he doesn't have the necessary equipment, so sending it to Tesla to have it diagnosed is more convenient. Long list of suspicions, but Tesla says it's the AC compressor He's got some idea about what might have gone wrong with the car. Tesla has diagnosed it remotely. The experts noticed there was something wrong with the air conditioning compressor, which is the lightest of the issues. To replace it, Randy would have to remove the frunk and unbolt several components to get to it. "Super easy to do," he says. However, he will let Tesla do the fix. It is going to cost him about $1,800. They will check the rest of the car and make sure everything works properly. Otherwise, the bill is going to get higher. That is on top of the $5,000 he paid to buy the Model S P85 that he bought two months before it started acting weird. Photo: Auto Auction Rebuilds | YouTube Days later, Randy goes to the Tesla shop to pick up his car. Things turned out to be more complicated than he originally thought. Furthermore, the remote diagnosis was wrong, too. Once the Tesla engineers checked the car, they realized it wasn't the air compressor, but the rear drive unit, which was really bad news for Randy. The coolant leaked into the electronics and disaster struck. This was on his list of suspected issues, but he knew it would be the most expensive of them and he was hoping it would not be that. The 2013 Tesla Model S turns out to be a money pit So, the bill skyrocketed from the original estimation of $1,800 all the way to $7,085. When he heard how much money he would have to pay, he considered swapping the drive unit himself. But when he checked the price of the motors on eBay and saw that the cheapest was around $4,000, plus the extra headache, he instantly changed his mind. Photo: Auto Auction Rebuilds | YouTube So, he decided it wasn't worth it and let Tesla do it. He has already found a buyer for the electric car. But Randy is going to lose around $3,000 or $4,000 on this vehicle that he had only driven for two months before it broke down on him. He is going to stop at the car wash before he sends it off to its new owner. This 2013 Tesla Model S has 262,844 miles (423,006 kilometers) on the clock. However, it is now equipped with a newer rear motor, which was revised by Tesla. The automaker got rid of the coolant leak issue, so the next owner will not have to worry about it. At least not for the next four years. That is how long the Tesla warranty will cover the new motor. Randy Shear of Auto Auction Rebuilds got rid of the financial black hole on wheels and bought another one. This time, he got a 2021 Tesla Model S Plaid powered by three motors. Hopefully, he will be able to drive this one for longer than two months before it fails him. If you liked the article, please follow us: