Many of these Tesla TÜV inspection faults boil down to surface rust on the braking discs. Tesla's are using regen too much, which let's them accumulate surface rust. This won't fail you in other countries, but it does in Germany since it's part of the braking system. The obvious solution would be a software update to use the breaks occasionally and intensely. I'm disappointed by the TÜV since they do not list the actual most common issues.
You don’t fail for surface rust, it’s not a check that’s done.
You fail for dangerous imbalance of braking force. When the car is run on the drum roller (rolling road powers the cars wheels) and the inspector presses the brakes, the braking force applied by the car is measured. You get a fail if your braking performance is likely to unsettle the car in high braking force scenarios.
Failing here is a real problem. It doesn’t warrant a dismissive surface rust claim.
Tesla does already periodically apply brakes even when regen would be enough to keep on top of surface rust. Tesla even applies brakes when excess water is detected:
“To ensure brakes remain responsive in cold and wet weather, Model 3 is equipped with brake disc wiping. When cold and wet weather is detected, this feature ...”
This has been a common feature on many brands for around 10 years at this point.
The manual clearly states that the breaking discs need to be cleaned every, what was it, 25k km. Thats a job for a mechanic. Also in the DIY section it says that the brakes should be burnished as well.
I don’t understand this. Brake rotors will flash rust in a light drizzle when parked. And rust on the rotors causes drag for the first few wheel rotations, it doesn’t compromise the system.
> Many of these Tesla TÜV inspection faults boil down to surface rust on the braking discs.
Unless your inspector has a particularly bad day, you will not fail the inspection for this. They might also simply ask you to do a five minute drive and brake hard a few times. If the brakes are still in a safe condition, this should be sufficient.
Yes, I tend to agree, it sounds fishy, but I don't speak Germany but from the google translate of the TUV site and then some accounts of people here, it sounds like they do fail for normal surface rust. One or two people mentioned anecdotes that the inspectors have told them to go drive around and brake heavily before coming back.
Yes, you do that drive around to remove surface rust and allow the inspector to peoperly inspect the brakes. This drive around is not recorded as a failed inspection, if the brakes fail after, then it is recorded.
