'That's Ridiculous': Woman Takes Her Tesla To A Service Center For Tire Repair. Then She Gets A Quote
“Tesla wanted to charge me $120 to take out the nail and patch it."
A Tesla owner is urging folks not to get their punctured tires patched up at Tesla Service Centers after she was quoted $120 for a repair. Olympic basketball player Atonye Nyingifa (@atonyejennifernyi) uploaded a viral TikTok delineating her experience and how she opted for a much better deal at America’s Tire instead. And the difference in price was startling.
Tesla Service Tire Repair: Bad Idea?
“I just left the Tesla service center,” she says into the camera at the top of her clip. The video then transitions to footage of her EV’s tire, showing what looks like a nail or bolt that punctured its rubber. While no driver wants to ever see one of their wheel’s embedded with street shrapnel, the TikToker says that the issue should be easily fixed by service techs. “I’m gonna show you where the problem is. Boom, it’s right there. It’s in the center part of the thread. The good thing is because it’s in the center portion it can be taken out and patched and repaired,” she says.
Following this, she cautions other drivers against bringing their Teslas to a service center to patch a tire. That’s because she claims the EV dealer will “upcharge you” to fix a tire. “Tesla wanted to charge me $120 to take out the nail and patch it and go about my day,” she says, capping off her comment with some side eye. “Had a recommendation from one of the service guys at the Tesla center, and he said come to America’s Tires they’ll do it for cheaper,” she reveals to her viewers.
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Next, she pans the camera to reveal the tire center’s signage in the background. “Guess how much they quoted me to take out the nail and change it or patch it?” Nyingifa asks while smiling into the camera. “Y’all they literally said it’s free. It’s free to take out the nail and patch it. It is free, and Tesla wanted to charge me $120.”
Afterward, she said that the free tire fix did take around 45 minutes, which she said she was “fine” with. “I don’t mind waiting because the service is free so why not?”
The TikToker remarked that her experience is a good exercise in shopping around, urging others to look at other options prior to forking over any money for vehicle repairs. “Before you spend money, always double check … another company or see where you can outsource another resource because how is it that Tesla charges $120 to take out the nail but there’s other companies that’ll put air, rotation, change the nail, patch it, all for free? Like, that’s ridiculous.”
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Nyingifa ends the video by saying she’s “super happy and thankful” to have been able to find a company that was willing to repair her tire “completely free.”
Mixed Reviews Of Tesla Services
Tesla owners have shared varied experiences when it comes to repairing their tires via Tesla. One person on the Tesla Owners Online forum wrote that they called roadside assistance for a tire repair. Despite the tech coming to them, the amount they were charged was less than what Nyingifa was quoted at the dealership: $81.
Vehiclers.com writes that Tesla service centers usually charge anywhere from $20 to $50 to fix a Tesla tire. However, replacing a tire in the event that they cannot be patched/plugged ranges between $150 and $600.
The same Tesla Owners Online user claimed they were told the stock tires that came with their EV had foam installed on it in order to help silence road noise. InsideEVs has written about tires made specifically for electric vehicles and the sound dampening foam tech that are packed into them as well.
EV-Specific Tires
In a separate piece, InsideEVs explains the difference in repairing foam-packed EV specific tires versus traditional rubber units on gas-powered vehicles. Due to how EV tires are manufactured, these tires must be separated from their rims to be repaired from the inside, rather than the external, tread portion of the tire. According to Motor and Wheels, Tesla vehicles usually come with either Michelin or Pirelli tires.
Tesla’s website states that the brand’s engineering team co-develops tires with its suppliers because there are a "vast number of variables to optimize how a tire performs.” Also included in this section of the brand’s website is an illustration of the acoustic foam in question, which Tesla says significantly reduces road noise.
Nyingifa’s video shows that she’s on tires made by Continental, which does offer EV-compatible tires. The brand mentions that since “EVs are typically heavier due to the additional weight from” their large battery packs, they’ve considered this when manufacturing their products.
InsideEVs has reached out to Nyingifa via TikTok for further comment.
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