I own an out-of-warranty Tesla Large Drive Unit that needed a rebuild. Affected cars: Tesla Model S/X with Large Drive Unit, 2012-2014 Toyota RAV4 EV, Mercedes Benz B-Class Electric Drive. In my case: The RAV4. Toyota and Tesla are not capable and willing, respectively, to service it. So I am rebuilding it myself! This channel shows how. Hopefully it will bring some inspiration or maybe you know better ways - feel free to share.
I personally wouldn't use epoxy. I'd use RTV as an adhesive. It's water proof and can easily be removed with no damage when needed. Only real drawback is it takes a long time to cure.
If I wanted to add a drain at the inverter side, without dropping the engine, do you think it would be feasible? Guessing I should pull the firemans loop first, completely powering off the car, just to be on the safe side, right?
Hey man, love your work ❤ is there any way I can add emergency drain on Tesla LDU without pulling the unit? Got a low whirring noise coming from the DU when accelerating, and I am worried about the seal leaking. Gonna check speed sensor today. Going on a long trip in a couple of days.If it is dry, I suppose the issue could be a bearing, but if not I would like to add drain on inverter side before going on our summer vacation drive.
Maybe this: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-zVdrrgQc9EM.htmlsi=-lWGg9rBhx9Kf2dr or 113a8f-4f.myshopify.com/products/tesla-ldu-coolant-delete-kit
@@diyEVguy Thank you so much :) I have the car on a ramp now and will check soon - the weep hole below the seal seems to be a great idea. Was wondering about that drain plug you put on the inverter side, though; do you have the excact position I would wanna drill? Was thinking by hand, so I don't go too far in. Also, I will add a hose, like you did.
@@fatmanbhkbjorn I did it for the Toyota (ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-I_T-djy3TqI.html) - I don't know the ideal location for the Tesla...
@@diyEVguy Thank you! 🙂 I will do it tomorrow, and post video footage. I'll just try to put it approximately where you put it in your other LDU video (if I discover any moisture on the speed sensor).
Yey.....I've done this update to my Model S LDU....note that EV clinic now uses a German made dual lip Teflon/Carbon seal instead of the Chinese 3 lipped one.
I think these units have sealed bearings on the motors. These bearings will fail at some point, I have not seen all your videos, but if you are doing this much work, might as well replace. Also, there is a replacement / update for the coolant bypass tube, better design that avoids the seal failure issue altogether.
Just saw the other video with the bearing repacking. No way those sealed bearings will last 100k miles. Are all Tesla motors designed with sealed bearings? I’d rather change oil than pull that motor every 100k miles.
@@rienkvandenberg9103 Thoughts: which exact conditions would cause the rotor to overheat and damage when deleting it's cooling? If it only means that you can't abuse the car on a race circuit but all other everyday use is fine, then the deletion is preferred over seal replacement.
@@diyEVguy Someone told me that this motor is only rated for 30kw constant. But peak power is almost 300kw. I think cooling is very important even for daily use if you like to accelerate fast.
On my Tesla S the original seal lasted 290.000km. Failed in the last year of warranty. The RMN seal (red) failed after 90.000km only. I have done the drains as per your suggestions and installed the triple lip seal now. The surface of the rotor shaft was in a very good condition. I saw the coolant delete kit from QC Charge but for now i hope the seal will work out ok. A big thank you to you for making these videos and your contributions on the open inverter blog too...a must read for all LDU fans.
Your analysis may be more thorough than by Tesla Engineering and QA, indeed most auto manufacturers. If they were so thorough, perhaps there would be less endemic problems with vehicle designs.
When threading aluminum there's a product called tap magic that is a light cutting oil that's good for aluminum. The stuff you used is designed for cutting steel. A good cheap option though is straight WD-40. I've tapped a lot of holes in aluminum with it and I get good results. A good sharp high quality tap is key. Your recommendation to tap by hand is a good one, and I would not use that combo drill/tap for this. It's very easy to cause damage during power tapping and even skilled machinists are reluctant to do it on anything critical or expensive. These combination drill/tap tools are not good for material that's of any thickness too. A lot of chip material is created from the drill point and then you stack more chips on top of that cutting the thread and the likelihood of something getting caught up in the cutting edge of the tap as it turns increases exponentially. You're almost guaranteed to get galled threads with one on a thick casting like this.
I've been wrenching on my own cars for 30+ years and I've found that the best way to drive a seal like this is to just use the flat face of a ball peen hammer and gently tap the seal in walking around the seal to keep it as even as possible. Seal drivers always seem to want to apply too much pressure to one side or the other and I've bent a couple trying to do it that way. I've never had one fail using the gentle tap with a hammer face method. It's interesting to me that these seals fail so readily. Standard water pump seals on ICE cars can run for 100k+ miles without leaking, so based on that I wouldn't expect to see these coolant seals failing any sooner. I'm also thinking of like a rear main seal on an engine because it's much larger diameter than even these LDU motor seals so sfpm on the sealing surface should be equally high, and again they'll run a very long time before failure, and those seals can see 60+ psi of pressure. My truck when I bought it had 190k miles on it and it wasn't even leaking yet. I changed it because the transmission was out of it, but there was no leak yet. I'd be interested to hear from an engineer with expertise in this area with ideas on why this happens in this application.
First of all thank you for step by step videos of your repair process. I am also in process of repair my Rav4EV and currently trying to find all the seals(primary rotor seal, rotor seal on manifold and 2 shaft seals) In your videos I did not see you replace the primary rotor seal. Did you reuse this seal? Much appreciated if you can reply. Thanks
@@jonitan3584 ja. Not sure if milling is related to a leak. Could be that you have a leak and bearings have been flushed dry and are worn out so that the gears start to grind, but that's all quick speculation.
Do you put soapy water on the outside to see where it starts foaming? Or just listen for a hissing sound? O wait first you just watch whether the pressure stays the same.
Question: Looking at the coolant reservoir the cap is of the pressurized design meaning a pressure (to raise the boiling point of the coolant) is building up first before excess pressure is released. I wonder if that is really necessary in the EV application and if it would help the seal if the cap would be modified to vent without building up pressure.
@@diyEVguy I guess if the temps in the coolant loop for the motor stay well below boiling point (must be above 100°C for the G48) it could assist the seal to not pressurize. I loose 5mm level of coolant every 1000km and my 3 seals have arrived. So I will do it shortly.
Nice CAD cut-away and explanation. Periodically......on my Model S i do it now every 10,000km (when swapping around wheels). Now my sensor of my remanufactured LDU (90,000km) has some droplets.....coolant reservoir is still on Max. Decided to order seal (3 seals, 3 lipped as recommended) but keep driving for now as i live out of town and its my only transport. I do 30,000km/a, car has over 380,000km on it. After over a year your seal is still ok? Any idea of how much mileage you can get out of it ? Are there coolant additives available to provide more seal lubrication?
We are lacking statistical data but look on the website in the description bc it contains mileages on several new seals. Not scientific but yeah. Additives: not that I know of.
Hmmmm......i saw in your other video that you iserted a drain into the inverter cover (and the speed sensor cavity). I think a drain in the sensor cavity is really all you need as any seepage from the seal will drip out there and warn you). Every water pump has such a drain hole, pitty Tesla did not think of that.
