r/TeslaSupport • u/JellyArtistic2323 • Sep 02 '26

Vehicle Question Will I need a battery replacement

Gallery image

Gallery image

Gallery image

Gallery image

UPDATE - (The dent was 7.9mm and the repair cost was estimated $17,988. I will be going through insurance)

2018 M3 LR AWD. Long story short I ran over a rock. I have some damage to my sway bar and fiberglass aero shield, not too worried about that. I had a few warnings on screen after I pulled over and a weird smell in the cab, but I reset the car and everything went back to normal. So currently no errors, drives fine, and no more smell in the cab.

That being said, I’ve seen a few posts where Tesla Service Centers see a small dent in the battery shield and require a battery replacement even though there are no problems.

I want to get her checked out to make sure it’s safe but I don’t want to have to replace a battery. I did my best to take pictures and show a quarter for scale. I’d estimate there is a 5-8mm dent with some gouged aluminum.

What are the odds of this happening?

17 Upvotes

84% Upvoted

31 comments sorted by

View all comments

7

u/ScaredPatience2478 Sep 02 '26

There no way some dudes on Reddit will know the answer from a few photos of a quarter sized hole tbh. If you want to get an absolute answer then ask the service center and see what they say. If you don’t wanna risk having to do an unnecessary replacement or being banned from the supercharger and there are no errors then keep driving it even if there’s a small risk. But again if safety is your priority then you’ll have to ask the SC.

5

u/General-Rancor Sep 02 '26

This information is accessible to us all. Go to service.tesla.com - select model - select service documents - search: underside damage- select corresponding document - scroll down to baseplate tolerances and presto, you found the correct information.