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Warranty or insurance for aero shield damage

AluminiumUnibody | 2026-02-28 02:59 | 1 views

Hi, I recently started noticing a rattle in the front right side of my 23 model Y and brought it to the service center to be looked at. A guy at the service center drove it around with me sitting next to him and we agreed on the rattle issue. I was given a demo car for 24 hours because they weren't able to find a loaner, and so I just went along with my day thinking it should be resolved by tomorrow. My initial cost estimate was <$300. By EOD I got an update that the estimate had gone up to \~$700 without too much information, just that the rear aero shield needs to be replaced. It was weird to me because the rattle was coming definitely from the front. And so I asked for more details in the app but didn't get a response. This morning I woke up and the estimate became a bit over $20k because the battery needs to be fully replaced according to the new estimate. I drove in this morning to return the demo car and check on why. I didn't get the chance to talk to my service advisor because apparently she went out for lunch while I was waiting... So another guy came over and told me that I should pretty much consider the car totaled. He suggested that I should just file an insurance claim and told me there's nothing they could do at this point. He also told me that they can't provide a loaner, they can't call me an uber because they just don't do that, and that quote "If I were you I would just prepare to not have a car for a while", but I can check in every day to see if they have a loaner available... He also told me that another customer had a similar thing recently where he hit a pothole and the car had to be totaled and insurance just payed off a new car for him. But I just don't think it's reasonable for a 2 years old car to end up being totaled from just hitting a pothole... When I asked for the cause of the damage, he sent me photos after some digging. And I can see the bottom plate is clearly damaged although I have no idea how or when. I'm also not sure if it's the front or rear aero shield that's broken since the rattle was coming from the front but the part that end up needing replacement is the rear. Looking at the photo tho, I feel pretty scared cuz it was like I was driving around in a safety hazard and I just had no idea. The car also just never reported any issues. But anyway I filed the insurance like I was told to. And I have tesla insurance so I did that through the app which was extremely confusing because non of the situations apply. I've not been involved in any accidents, the car was not reporting any issues, and until I was told that it was totaled it was driving around just fine. So I put in non-collision and filed the insurance claim, only to be told later on today by the insurance adjuster that I should go talk to the service center because there's been no accident involved and so that should be a warranty issue. And asked me to talk to the manager at the service center if needed. Ironically the service center people told me after another call over that because tesla insurance have access to their data, it should be resolved more quickly than other insurance providers. Looking at the two estimates I got, it seems like the service center went from covering the battery under warranty to making me pay for it along with all the additional parts replacement and labor cost. This really doesn't make any sense to me... So now here I am finding myself sitting between tesla insurance and tesla service center, both telling me to go to the other side to figure this out. I also just don't have a car right now and don't seem to have a solution in sight. It's incredibly frustrating because this car is only about 2 yrs old and I've mostly drive it for my short commute, and very occasionally goes on a road trip between the bay area and LA. The rattle issue started around the end of January and my last long trip was in November last year, so I honestly have no idea what happened. Any suggestions on how to proceed here? I've attached photos for the damage and the estimates I got from the service center: [https://imgur.com/a/SqPyjZh](https://imgur.com/a/SqPyjZh)

Comments (3)
Aromatic-Union1707 2026-02-28 04:56

A hole in the battery is not a manufacturing defect the first estimate was mistakenly put as warranty and corrected. You definitely collide with something. You can probably get a loaner after approving the replacement.

AluminiumUnibody 2026-02-28 06:34

any guess on what could it possibly be based on the photos? like if i know that’d really help to cuz id have something to tell the insurance side at least. i just don’t know when it could have happened

Aromatic-Union1707 2026-02-28 19:53

Running something over on the highway.

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