There are lots of pics and videos of replacing the rotor bearings and seal. Of course, I've taken pics of mine, but you can find loads of Tesla owners doing this job.
Our LDU is very similar to a Model S', though ours has an electric Park pawl mechanism and the entire unit is mounted "backwards" WRT the way it's situated in a Model S. And we don't have to drop the entire sub-frame to get our LDU out, as is req'd on a Model S.
If you want a quite good half-hour (24 minute) vid on removing the LDU from the car (which is the first step, after all) then the one Alex B. @ QC Charge made is quite good; I used it myself.
Removing the LDU from the vehicle can be done with basic tools (buy axle nuts in advance, as they're one-time-use only in principle; buy axle seals for the LDU from Toyota as they "always" leak, though mine are dry on my 70k reman unit, go figure), but the LDU's mass is off-center to the passenger side, and runs about 300 lbs, and is all curved surfaces on the bottom, so care is required. In that vid, you'll see a purpose-built jack cradle that QCC uses, but I bought a cool high-lift pallet jack that goes 3" to 33" and doubles as a work table. Ran me $800 used (plus a round-trip to visit a friend outside of Portland) but it's 2200 lb (1000kg) capacity and can help drop the battery pack in future, should I want to.
I don't want to pollute this thread, but here's a teaser from four days ago (coolant manifold has already been removed):
You have to unbolt the lower ball joints to gain clearance to remove the axles. And, you have to unbolt the stabilizer bar link ends. One of the only problems I ran into on mine was one of those latter nuts was siezed badly; replacement nuts are $1.40 ea from Toyota, and I am very good with a Dremel.
(If this was a customer's car, I would've probably cut the link off and sold them a new link; they're not horribly expensive. But as this is my car, I'm comfortable with some minor thread damage on the link end. Can't use heat here: it'd destroy the link end ball joint.)
Whilst the LDU can be disassembled via brute-force methods, I've fab'd two separate puller setups so far. One to remove the reluctor wheel without prying or beating, another to pull the 12" dia. end cap without the usual "beat on small places on the OD of the cap until the RTV is overcome" method. Cost me a few hours and some tooling but I have a setup the pops that big ol' cap off without a hammer in sight.
If you have the LDU open -- or, if yours is symptom-free and you want it to remain that way -- consider going the "coolant delete" route and ensuring that the LDU will never be damaged by a leaking rotor seal. On the RAV4 EV, one can R&R the coolant manifold without dropping the LDU
So, if your LDU doesn't need repair, getting rid of the leaky rotor seal tech in advance is a great way to make it a lot more reliable.
Our LDU is very similar to a Model S', though ours has an electric Park pawl mechanism and the entire unit is mounted "backwards" WRT the way it's situated in a Model S. And we don't have to drop the entire sub-frame to get our LDU out, as is req'd on a Model S.
If you want a quite good half-hour (24 minute) vid on removing the LDU from the car (which is the first step, after all) then the one Alex B. @ QC Charge made is quite good; I used it myself.
Removing the LDU from the vehicle can be done with basic tools (buy axle nuts in advance, as they're one-time-use only in principle; buy axle seals for the LDU from Toyota as they "always" leak, though mine are dry on my 70k reman unit, go figure), but the LDU's mass is off-center to the passenger side, and runs about 300 lbs, and is all curved surfaces on the bottom, so care is required. In that vid, you'll see a purpose-built jack cradle that QCC uses, but I bought a cool high-lift pallet jack that goes 3" to 33" and doubles as a work table. Ran me $800 used (plus a round-trip to visit a friend outside of Portland) but it's 2200 lb (1000kg) capacity and can help drop the battery pack in future, should I want to.
I don't want to pollute this thread, but here's a teaser from four days ago (coolant manifold has already been removed):
You have to unbolt the lower ball joints to gain clearance to remove the axles. And, you have to unbolt the stabilizer bar link ends. One of the only problems I ran into on mine was one of those latter nuts was siezed badly; replacement nuts are $1.40 ea from Toyota, and I am very good with a Dremel.
(If this was a customer's car, I would've probably cut the link off and sold them a new link; they're not horribly expensive. But as this is my car, I'm comfortable with some minor thread damage on the link end. Can't use heat here: it'd destroy the link end ball joint.)
Whilst the LDU can be disassembled via brute-force methods, I've fab'd two separate puller setups so far. One to remove the reluctor wheel without prying or beating, another to pull the 12" dia. end cap without the usual "beat on small places on the OD of the cap until the RTV is overcome" method. Cost me a few hours and some tooling but I have a setup the pops that big ol' cap off without a hammer in sight.
If you have the LDU open -- or, if yours is symptom-free and you want it to remain that way -- consider going the "coolant delete" route and ensuring that the LDU will never be damaged by a leaking rotor seal. On the RAV4 EV, one can R&R the coolant manifold without dropping the LDU
So, if your LDU doesn't need repair, getting rid of the leaky rotor seal tech in advance is a great way to make it a lot more reliable.
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