Tesla Vehicle Questions, Answered

[ajdelange]

As service is of some interest I'll continue the saga of my recent service situation. The vehicle is a recent (March 2020 delivery) Raven X. These cars have a driver customization feature in which you adjust the seats, mirrors and steering wheel to your liking and save these settings under your profile. The car also has an easy entry mode which, when you put the car in park, moves the seat all the way to the rear and tips the back making it easier to get in and out of the car. When you get back in the seat is restored to your porfile's position. After some time with the car the return to normal position was erratic and eventually was unable to move the seat forward and aft at all. Fortuantely this was in a comfortable driving position and I resolved to live with it until returning home this fall where the Tesla service center is close to home.

A week ago my SO took the car out and when she returned some blower was on an infinite loop on off cycle and the B pillar cameras' images no longer appeared on the screen. This resulted in me scheduling the ranger appointment I described in #44.

Last night new firware was downloaded to the car and the latter problems went away. The whole reason for posting this is that they were obviously software glitches and newer software fixed them. Prospective owners are going to experience this. These vehicles are computers more than they are motor vehicles and all the foibles of software based products are to be expected. Tesla's ability to resolve many maintenance issues OTA is one of its great strengths.

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[MUSK007]

Or it’s worst nightmare..very OTA update has the potential to ruin your car. Downloader be aware and proceed at your own risk.

 

[ajdelange]

That actually did happen to a guy back in 2013 but of course the car wasn't ruined at all. The Ranger restored the part of the download that was causing the problem and he was on his way (though it took a couple of visits). The probability that your car will be ruined by an OTA download is less than the probability that it will be ruined by meteor strike.

My wife is out with the Tesla now. Should I be worried? Probably but not about meteorites.

 

[MUSK007]

Maybe Starman falling out of orbit then? Lol.

 

[Crissa]

Any firmware update has risks. But if they brick your car, it's on them to fix it. OTA or in the shop.

-Crissa

 

[MUSK007]

At least on this one, you have no idea

 

[Crissa]

At least on this one, you have no idea

Well, it's not at your own risk. If they break it, they have to fix it.

-Crissa

 

[MUSK007]

Perhaps you can look it it up.

many owners had brick cars. The result.

they had to buy a MCU. 2,500. That didn’t feel great.
Also. Many lost range. Lots of it.

 

[ajdelange]

Range losses were actually pretty small and were done for the protection of the battery.

Early MCU's used a flash RAM for logging. Flash RAM can only be written a finite number of times. The associated failures were from failure of the RAM, not from a firmware download and no cars were bricked. Replacing the MCU solved the problem. An unpleasant business for sure if this happened out of warranty.

 

[ajdelange]

I suppose we should point out that Tesla can fix your car OTA but they can, in fact, also disable it if they choose to and will do that if, for example, it is stolen. They can also move the E and F marks on your fuel gauge adding or removing range and do a lot of other things too such as start it without a fob (I left it for service once without leaving the fob - no problem). These facts really get the tin-foil hat set into a tizzy. Any reader who is of like mind should not own one of these vehicles.

 

[ajdelange]

[H]ow do you reset the computers? Turns our that holding both scroll wheels resets the main display and holding the 2 buttons above the scroll wheels resets the Inst. cluster display.

That is called a "soft" reboot. If it doesn't clear an issue, go to the Security screen on the main display and hit Power Off. Leave it off for a minute or two and then press the brake pedal. This is a "hard" reset. If soft or hard resets don't clear a problem try them again a couple of times.

If that doesn't clear the issue (or if the power does not go off) remove the felt liner in the frunk (disconnect the plugs on the courtesy lights first), take out a whole bunch of cap screws, remove 4 pieces of trim around the tub and lift the tub out. Remove ground terminal from battery. Measure between battery + terminal and ground. If it is more than a fraction of a volt DC/DC converter is running and powering system. For the ultimate reset, remove the First Responder Loop plug. At this point both batteries are disconnected. Leave the car thus for several minutes, reconnect the 12 V battery lug and plug the loop back in. If this hard-hard reset doesn't clear the problem, call Tesla.

 

[ajdelange]

Question: Are the fasteners on these cars English or metric?

Answer: metric.

 

[VolklKatana]

Anyone have a Model S? Im running MC1 still on my 2013 S 85, (vinxxx19995), I'm a bit paranoid about what normal behavior is. After the car sits for a couple days, doe it take a few seconds to get the screen behind the steering wheel to turn on? im quite commonly met with the T loading screen for 10 seconds or so. Middle screen comes on right away and w/o issue.

 

[alan auerbach]

Question about the Texas factory.

A few of the marvelous drone shots (on YouTube) also briefly show what appears to be a drawn outline of the entire Tesla property (usually with a "You are here" arrow). Assuming I'm interpreting it correctly, that property is not the usual rectangle; it has a weird irregular border with odd projections. Any idea why?

 

[alan auerbach]

IDLE FEE Here's an interesting answer, even if nobody asked the question:

"... you will incur an idle fee for the time your car remains parked in a charging stall after it is finished charging. We will waive the idle fee if your car is moved within five minutes after it is finished charging, and the idle fee will not accumulate while less than half of the charging stalls at your location are occupied. All vehicles are subject to idle fees, regardless of when ... purchased. To avoid idle fees, ... monitor your vehicle while using a Supercharger and ... use the Tesla mobile app to track your vehicle's charge status.

Idle fees are incurred on a per minute basis. The idle fee rate for each location may change ... the latest information is provided in the map pin pop-up (accessible through the navigation application on your vehicle touchscreen). By remaining parked in a charging stall after your vehicle is finished charging, you accept the idle fee rate communicated to you through the map pin pop-up...."