The week of August 31: three tows, and a Bolt with no recall pack

Forty-one repair orders, three of them arriving on a flatbed, and one car we sent to the dealer rather than work on ourselves. A normal week, which is the point of writing them down.

Monday: three tows

Two Model 3s and a Leaf, all dead in driveways, all before nine. The Teslas were the 12V again: both 2018 cars, both on the original lead-acid battery, both parked for more than a week. We fitted the lithium unit to both and ran the charging-path check afterwards, because a battery that dies early usually had help.

The Leaf was different. A 12V too, but the cause was a stuck relay draining it overnight, so the battery went back in and the relay came out. Replacing that battery would have felt like a fix for about nine days.

The Bolt with no recall pack

A 2019 Bolt came in for a range complaint. The owner had bought it used in the spring and assumed the battery recall had been done. It had not. We do not do recall work, so we sent the owner to the dealer with the paperwork and a note on what to ask for, and we will see the car afterwards for the alignment it also needs.

This is worth saying plainly: the right fix this week was somebody else's, and telling you that is part of the job. A shop that quotes you for work the manufacturer will do for nothing is a shop to leave.

An e-Tron coolant leak

Earthling's first e-Tron with a coolant leak in about a year. Slow, from a quick-connect fitting on the battery loop, and found because the owner noticed the coolant warning and did not drive it anyway. That decision saved the pack.

Fitting replaced, system vacuum-filled, and a reminder we will keep repeating: if your EV shows a coolant warning, stop driving it. The battery is cooled by that loop, and the difference between a fitting and a pack is several thousand dollars and one journey.

The tally

• 41 repair orders completed
• 9 of them touched a 12V battery or body electrics
• 7 brake jobs, four of them Teslas with rust rather than wear
• 3 pre-purchase inspections, one of which we advised against
• 1 e-Tron saved because its owner pulled over

What we would tell you from this week

If your EV or hybrid sits for more than a week at a time, the small battery is the thing most likely to strand you, and it is cheap to check before it does. And if any warning mentions coolant, temperature or the battery, the correct response is to stop rather than to finish the journey and book it in.

Written from the week's repair orders in Shop-Ware, anonymised. The counts here are one week; the guides carry the long-run figures.