Whereas vehicles with internal combustion engines require more frequent service for oil changes and routine maintenance on engine components and other related systems, Tesla's website recommends the owner bring the vehicle in for service "once a year or every 12,000 miles".[163] For other concerns with vehicles, Tesla created a "mobile service unit" that dispatches company-trained technicians to customers' homes or offices in case the owner is experiencing problems. Tesla charges the customer according to the distance the service unit needs to travel: one US dollar per mile roundtrip with a 100-dollar minimum.[163] Technicians drive company vans equipped with numerous tools and testing equipment to do "in the field" repairs, enhancements and software upgrades. Tesla debuted this "house call" approach in the spring of 2009, when the company announced a recall due to a manufacturing problem in the Lotus assembly plant, which also affected the Lotus Elise and other models from the British sports car maker.[164]
There are reports of an engine noise that sounds almost like grinding after startup. This is usually caused by the VVTi system, which may require repair, so we advise listening out for this if you intend to purchase a 2GR-FE.
In order to ease consequences of spudcan-footprint interactions during jack-up rigs reinstalling in the vicinity of an existing seabed footprint, three new types of spudcan shapes, that is, a lotus-shaped spudcan with six circular holes, a flat-bottomed spudcan, and a concave-shaped spudcan, were proposed to perform an optimizing study of the spudcan structures, and the effectiveness of them were analyzed comparatively with other different measures. Firstly, 3D Large Deformation Finite Element (LDFE) analyses were carried out using the Coupled Eulerian-Lagrangian (CEL) method in the commercial finite element package ABAQUS. After calibrating the validity of the numerical calculation model against existing centrifuge test data and LDFE results, the differences in interaction mechanism between the novel spudcans and the generic spindle-shaped spudcan were studied when penetrating near an existing footprint with an eccentric distance of 0.5D, and the horizontal range of plastic deformation of the disturbed soils, the inclination angle of the spudcan and the offset distance of the pile legs were analyzed comparatively as well. The results show that the proposed novel spudcans can mitigate the maximum horizontal sliding force and the maximum bending moment at the top of the pile leg obviously, compared with those of the generic one, which were reduced by 32.59%, 22.47%, 28.18%, and 26.32%, 12.88%, 18.02%, respectively. It also can be seen that all novel structures can ease the adverse consequences of spudcan-footprint interactions effectively, and can improve the in -place stability of the spudcan as well. Finally, three possible measures in mitigating interactions of the spudcan-footprint were contrasted, that is, the novel spudcan (represented by the lotus-shaped spudcan with six holes), stomping method, and perforation drilling method. The results show that all of them can reduce adverse impacts induced by interactions of the spudcan-footprint, and also can improve the in-place stability of the spudcan during reinstallation. In addition, among them, according to the effect of reducing the additional stress of the spudcan, the effectiveness of them can be listed as follows: perforation drilling near an existing footprint > the lotus-shaped spudcan with six holes > stomping method. In terms of the vertical bearing capacity of the spudcan, the lotus-shaped spudcan with six holes can improve it as much as 16.33% compared with the spindle-shaped structure due to the particularity of the structure. While reducing the continuity and strength of soil foundations, the perforation drilling measure leads to the decrease of the vertical bearing capacity of the spudcan by 13.07%. It can be concluded that all the three measures have merits and demerits, so the relevant construction environment conditions and engineering practice should be fully considered when selecting measures to deal with interactions of the spudcan-footprint.
When the race restarted Hamilton was soon chasing Rosberg again. The German opened a 5.9-second gap as he battled past the McLarens, but then he went on the hunt. His engine problem on Friday had prevented him from making race simulation runs, but he found his Mercedes Hybrid behaving beautifully. Where Rosberg pitted for fresh tyres on the 17th lap, taking another set of medium-compound Pirelli tyres, Hamilton kept going until the 24th and switched to the harder rubber. He had been within 2.8sec when he pitted, but a delay with the left rear wheel opened the gap to 5.9sec again. But not for long. Soon he was catching Rosberg hand over fist. Then the championship leader began experiencing occasional gearbox trouble. They were only 1.9sec apart when Rosberg pulled off the track, his day done.