Woot's issue list

[woot]

I picked up my new Model 3 last weekend... and I'm seeing a few issues. I'm going to just document my experiences here, in case it helps anyone else. Don't get me wrong, I love the car and the company... but I think it's important to keep it honest and besides some of you might have run into these before and may have good advice.

I've barely had time to drive the car, and I'm not giving it to my wife until most of the kinks are ironed out (else she'll never want to drive it).

Here is a summary of my issues:

1. 7/25/2018 The headlights are stuck on. They will not turn off no matter what I do. This started after I tapped the headlight service menu (it hung and never went into the menu, so I never changed anything... I was just poking around). I have tried reboots, I've talked to the roadside assistance folks. They can't fix it remotely.
2. 7/24/2018 High-pitched squeal in the rear wheels, correlates to moving & braking. Probably the brake clips.
3. 7/24/2018 The brake indicator comes on for no apparent reason lasting for 20 to 90 seconds.
4. 7/24/2018 The temperature gauge can vary wildly. Usually it is correct, but sometimes I've seen it show me -38F, etc.
5. 7/21/2018 Delivery came with an ugly scratch in the driver-side window trim.
6. 7/21/2018 Homelink is flaky. Seems to work only after a fresh reboot.

Service appointment is set for 7/30/2018. Will update with what all they can fix.

The headlights permanently on is a real pain, though. I hope there aren't any ill effects from keeping the headlights on for 5 days straight.

 

[SpudLime]

Just to confirm. You have done all the reboot types right?

 

[woot]

Just to confirm. You have done all the reboot types right?

Hmm, well I'm not sure. I did the following:

1. Used the power off button in the menus.
2. Held the two steering wheel buttons until it restarted.
3. Allowed a firmware upgrade since headlight issue which I presume resets a lot.

 

[SpudLime]

I’m a noob. It I think there is a more thorough reboot option that might help. It should be in the manual.

 

[woot]

I’m a noob. It I think there is a more thorough reboot option that might help. It should be in the manual.

I don't think so. I just checked the manual and couldn't find anything else aside from option #2 above. I guess we'll see what the service center says. I wish they could have seen the car sooner. The service center near me is pretty new.

 

[SpudLime]

Bummer. Okay. Good luck and report back.

 

[lairdb]

I’m a noob. It I think there is a more thorough reboot option that might help. It should be in the manual.

I'm not sure it's documented, but some have reported that (while parked and safe) holding the brake pedal and then both wheels is a harder reboot.

 

[nvx1977]

I'm not sure it's documented, but some have reported that (while parked and safe) holding the brake pedal and then both wheels is a harder reboot.

this method is starting to feel like an old wives' tale. If it were indeed a deeper reboot, one would expect it to take longer. But it doesn't.

 

[PoitNarf]

7/21/2018 Homelink is flaky. Seems to work only after a fresh reboot.

Do you have LED bulbs in your garage door opener? Standard LED bulbs really screw with the homelink signal with the Model 3 more so than other cars. If the opener has standard LED bulbs swap them for LEDs designed for garage door openers. Genie makes these type of LEDs, available at both Lowe’s and Amazon. All of my homelink issues went away after I swapped these bulbs in.

 

[woot]

Do you have LED bulbs in your garage door opener? Standard LED bulbs really screw with the homelink signal with the Model 3 more so than other cars. If the opener has standard LED bulbs swap them for LEDs designed for garage door openers. Genie makes these type of LEDs, available at both Lowe’s and Amazon. All of my homelink issues went away after I swapped these bulbs in.

Oh very interesting and timely information. I have a couple burned out bulbs, and would have replaced them with LED. I'll be sure to look for the garage door type. They have some old CFL in the right now. The issue I think is with software because when the issue occurs, I press it but do not see the little communication icon (like a wifi signal icon) pop up. When I restart, it does do that so I think for whatever reason, sometimes it just can't send.

Thanks!

 

[woot]

Ok dropped the car off at the service center (who are great by the way). They upgraded my bootloader and reapplied my firmware which fixed a number of issues including the headlight always on problem (and verified it won't happen again when I go to that service menu). They also fixed the brake clips. The temp gauge issue, they did something that they thought might fix it, but I did witness the issue again on the way back home.

Ugly scratch on trim - part is on order. Brake indicator and wiper low fluid indicator they think was due to firmware. I'll watch it.

When I arrived home, I was prompted to update my firmware to 2018.26.3, so I did that. I'll check and see if that happens to fix the temperature issue or not, else I'll give them a call back.

Now a new issue which I'm actually upset about. When I picked up my car at the delivery center, the driver front tire was a little low. I told them about it and asked to be sure it wasn't a leak. They took the car back to buff out the scratch and fill the tire. All was fine. Today I found out that they plugged a hole in my tire before delivery (either while prepping or after I asked about the low tire) and never told me.

So when I was looking at my tire when I got home, I saw this enormous glob hanging off my tired. I didn't even think that they plugged it, I figured something weird got stuck on my tire. So I get it a little push to try and clean it (with my fingers) and it hissed. That's when I realized it was actually a plug.

 

[Moderatefan]

Do you have LED bulbs in your garage door opener? Standard LED bulbs really screw with the homelink signal with the Model 3 more so than other cars. If the opener has standard LED bulbs swap them for LEDs designed for garage door openers. Genie makes these type of LEDs, available at both Lowe’s and Amazon. All of my homelink issues went away after I swapped these bulbs in.

You just gave me a great tip. At some point my garage doors started acting weirdly with remotes range decreasing quite a lot... I could never figure out why that would happen. But I did replace all bulbs in the house with LEDs at one point. That could be it.

 

[woot]

I forgot to mention that the service center (different from my delivery center) said they would remove the plug and patch the tire properly. Honestly I feel like I should have a new tire, though.

 

[flyingpenguins]

I forgot to mention that the service center (different from my delivery center) said they would remove the plug and patch the tire properly. Honestly I feel like I should have a new tire, though.

I agree. I’d be livid if they tried to pull a fast one on me like that. New tire seems like the most consumer-friendly thing to do, and they should have done it at the delivery center.

 

[woot]

The service center patched the tire and said they would have to order a tire to replace it. I have some other things on order right now, so we'll see if they follow through.

I'm very understanding when it comes to problems as long as Tesla gets to a resolution on them. But this case was really bad in my opinion. Not only was I not told about the plug at delivery (even after I brought up the low tire issue)... but the tire plug itself was done poorly. I should have taken pictures because I've never seen a tire plug that completely filled a 2.5" diameter of tread and it wasn't trimmed back.

I'm happy the service center patched the tired, and really do hope they follow through on replacing it. This is a bit of a wake-up call with regards to the trust I place in Tesla.

 

[woot]

Another update.

Parts finally arriving. Service scheduled for next week for the chrome trim scratch, permanent brake clips replacement, few other things I didn't even know needed to be replaced (I'll ask more about this next week).

Not addressed yet:

Temperature gauge still fluctuates wildly. I let them know so they will look it over at the service appointment. Sometimes it'll say something like -22F, -38F, sometimes it'll be correct, sometimes just show dashes (---).

They checked the sensor last time and said it was OK. Another interesting note is that the mobile app seems to show the correct temperature, even if the screen does not.

A possible side effect to this is that the air conditioning is not cold when this is happening (I'm not sure if it is directly related to this issue or not). Obviously I'm more likely to look at my temperature gauge when the AC is warm, so I can't say for sure that it's entirely correlated. But I've actually seen the AC turn on the heat (red air recticles instead of blue). So I think it is related. I don't really understand why the "manual" mode doesn't seem to fix this, but I'm kind of guessing that air temperature is tied to the setting, while manual mode is more related to the air speed.

Non issue related news: I got my Tesla wrapped and tinted yesterday. SunTek Ceramic Tint (CIR30) and XPEL Ultimate PPF. Looks awesome.

 

[woot]

Ok, I guess final update on my issue list.

They were able to fix the temperature issue by replacing the external sensor. Interesting that it uses both interior and external temperature sensors to determine the AC function (even in manual mode).

They also replaced the brake clips.

The chrome trim was also replaced so no more scratch.

 

[TheLocNar]

Good deal. What about the tire?