This makes it sound like the part in question could have been easily replaced. The assembly in this case was the seal pack that isn't intended to be serviced. Even if they could have ordered the plastic coolant line, the removal and tear down of the pack to replace the line would have been a tremendous effort. It's debatable that it would have been easier to replace the pack AND then part out the old pack.
The plastic coolant tube should have ended at the pack housing with a threaded insert and the tap should have just threaded into it. If pack had been designed in this manner, the repair would have been trivial.
The pack is has a severe design flaw in my opinion.
That's what Tesla should have done. Charge $16k for a new pack including a $15k core charge. They aren't out the cost of the whole pack and the customer doesn't get screwed over.
<140°F @ <5 psi? JB Weld and call it a day.
There are super ergonomic and foolproof products that I feel like everyone should have around in that one kitchen drawer that accumulates all the miscellaneous stuff: https://www.jbweld.com/product/j-b-weld-syringe
Tesla really loves to integrate parts together - look up the "superbottle" for a previous example.
If you watch the video on 'Rich Rebuilds' YouTube channel that this article comes from, they mention the problem... The battery pack _can_ be opened and repaired, but it requires special training, equipment, and a specialized area of the service center to perform the work. They mention that Tesla _used_ to do this work and some of the Service Centers were properly equipped/trained to do handle it. However, Tesla found it was cost prohibitive to do at individual Service Centers, so now they have one central facility that repairs/reprocesses packs.
Rather than equip and train every Service Center, they've found it makes more sense to just replace the whole battery pack and send the old one back to the one central facility for service.
The battery pack is considered a high-voltage part. Tesla, by their policy (safety and liability reasons, presumably), won't sell you any of the high-voltage components.
Drilling and tapping a broken off plastic barb for a brass (or steel, or plastic, or whatever) barb is a very, very, very, standard procedure in any trade where you repair things.
I wouldn't call this hack. Appealing to authority is fashionable. People will poo-poo anything if they think they can get a few cheap virtue points for appealing to authority. Heck people will poo-poo the aftermarket versions of OEM stuff that's designed to fix specific issues with the OEM stuff on the basis of if the OEM wanted it that way they would have done it that way.
>Another question to consider is why the repair is 16k
Because the service writer couldn't get that part separately so they chose to quote for the whole assembly rather than ask the tech who did the diagnosis if there's any other options. They are not accustomed to having to think for themselves and do a quick fix. The environment of a service center is set up for a part replacing workflow. When all you have is a hammer everything is a nail. Whatever, shit happens. Rookie mistake.