A fortunate unfortunate event

Ouch! I had a curb strike on Saturday returning home in the snow. I could tell I needed an alignment on the few blocks remaining home, but the next day no warnings were displayed. I drove the vehicle the day after, no problems. Little did I know I had damaged the ball joint and likely the axle.

I was leaving the wheel repair shop I was visiting when I put the car in reverse and moved about 1 foot backwards when...boom. The wheel fell off. Actually, the ball joint fell apart.

This was unfortunate for me, my insurance deductable and my car but very fortunate for when it occurred. Had I *not* driven my car to the wheel repair shop (AutoSpa) on Northpark Drive, I would've assumed all was right with my car and possibly driven it on the highway when it might have failed. As you can see from the pictures, the failure was catastrophic and could've been deadly had I been traveling at interstate speeds. Note that I was fully planning to drive my car to the Tesla Service Center in Littleton next week for a check on the car.

It's further fortunate that my car was disabled in an empty parking lot. The AAA tow truck driver could pull right up to my car at the proper angle and not have traffic swarming all around him. This made his placement of my car on the flatbed much easier.

And a tip of the hat to the AAA tow truck driver - he assured me that he would slide the flatbed under the car without dragging it on the damaged wheel and sure enough, that's exactly what he did. The car had to move/roll no more than a foot to fit on the flatbed. I am immensely grateful to the tow truck driver who prevented further damage to my car.

For the curious, my car was driven to Stuttgart Auto Body in Englewood, CO. It has a 5-star rating from Tesla on body repairs. The Tesla representative on the phone said that the Littleton Service Center couldn't repair suspension damage, which was surprising to me.

BTW, the AutoSpa wheel repair place gave me an excellent quote of $150 a wheel to refinish them. Since my wheels are not made any longer, I will have that done.