Just got new tires, and a cracked windshield.

[RNHurt]

I got new tires yesterday (Michelin CrossClimate 2) and I really like them. Well, I've only driven 10 miles on them but so far they are great. The downside is that I noticed a small crack in my windshield on the drive home. The crack wasn't there before the store put on the new tires. I specifically told them that I have jack pads on the passenger seat (they have their own and didn't need mine) and that you have to engage "Jack Mode" before raising the car up.

I use this tire store all the time; they do good work and there is a Chick-Fil-A across the parking lot so I can watch them work while I have lunch. After dropping my car off and sitting down to my chicken sandwich I noticed that they seemed to be having a bit of trouble getting the car jacked up. They had one floor jack on one corner but it looked like the car was trying to stay level. Then i noticed that they had 2 floor jacks on one side of the car. When I looked up again they had each corner on a floor jack and were proceeding to take off the tires. I panicked a bit and went over there to check it out. I asked them if they had engaged jack mode and they said that they had.

Now, this is the first time I've had tires put on my MX (or any car with auto-leveling suspension) so I'm not really sure what it looks like when jack mode is engaged vs when it is not. I can't prove that they didn't use jack mode but it did look a bit weird to me. My concern is that the twisting of the car caused stress on the windshield which resulted in a crack.

Questions:

• Is there any sort of log for when jack mode is engaged?
• Does jacking up the car incorrectly cause stress on the windshield?
• Could this be the cause of a crack?
• Or was it just unlucky timing?

NOTE: I immediately drove back to the tire shop and showed them the crack. They didn't confirm or deny that it happened at their store but they did take pictures and file a report with the corporate office. They said that I should hear back from them in 24-48 hours, but given this was a Saturday afternoon I'm assuming I won't hear anything until Monday or Tuesday. I'm not angry that it happened, I just want it to be fixed. We'll see how they do.

 

[Not a Tesla App]

I wish I could be of more help. Seems like you're going about it the right way. Jack mode is probably logged, but the question is whether it's accessible by owners. Maybe this is something they could tell you after looking at the vehicle logs. You can also ask whether a vehicle data report would include such information.

It definitely sounds plausible that it caused the crack on the windshield, so I hope the place avoids a bunch of hassle on both ends and fixes it for you.

Best of luck!

 

[D3vilish]

this is a tough one. standard practice is for businesses to deny all damage claims. the burden on you is to prove they did it. if Tesla cannot provide logs then it becomes more difficult. I don't understand why they would lift your car in such a fashion. It certainly could cause enough of a twist to crack the huge windshield on a X in winter. it sounds to my like the work was done outside since you could clearly see what was happening from a distance. normally tire shops put cars on their twin post lifts. these lift the vehicle in a level position so jack mode doesn't need to be used. btw the lifts have rubber pads. I would use the argument that they shouldn't have used multiple floor jacks but the car lift. the X has one of the largest windshields in the industry. the windshield sealant is hardset for rigidity but the body is aluminum. windshields get more brittle as the temperature drops. also maybe you can stop by a glass shop to see if they can tell is the crack looks fresh, check where started from, and if caused by rock chip. any documentation could help your claim.

 

[RNHurt]

this is a tough one. standard practice is for businesses to deny all damage claims. the burden on you is to prove they did it. if Tesla cannot provide logs then it becomes more difficult. I don't understand why they would lift your car in such a fashion. It certainly could cause enough of a twist to crack the huge windshield on a X in winter. it sounds to my like the work was done outside since you could clearly see what was happening from a distance.

The work was done under cover but the doors were wide open and completely visible from my vantage point.

normally tire shops put cars on their twin post lifts. these lift the vehicle in a level position so jack mode doesn't need to be used. btw the lifts have rubber pads. I would use the argument that they shouldn't have used multiple floor jacks but the car lift. the X has one of the largest windshields in the industry. the windshield sealant is hardset for rigidity but the body is aluminum. windshields get more brittle as the temperature drops.

The temperature was certainly colder that morning, which might be a contributing factor. But I agree that I don't know why they would use multiple floor jacks when they had car lifts in the next bay.

also maybe you can stop by a glass shop to see if they can tell is the crack looks fresh, check where started from, and if caused by rock chip. any documentation could help your claim.

Those are good points. But it's pretty clear that the crack was not caused by an impact. The crack is a straight line with no bulls-eye at all. Also, I'm pretty observant about such things (as I imagine most Tesla owners are) and would have noticed such a crack before getting tires changed.

So far the company has been pretty responsive, but I have not been able to actually talk to anyone just yet. We've been playing phone tag for the past several days. Hopefully I'll know more today.