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2015 Model S - Instrument Cluster Screen not waking up

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BrettS

Active Member
Mar 28, 2017
2,155
2,575
Orlando, FL
So I’ve been experiencing a weird issue with my 2015 Model S. Lately, nearly every time I go somewhere and park the car for a bit, when I get back to the car and get in the instrument cluster screen is off and doesn’t wake up with the rest of the car. Sometimes when this happens I can put my foot on the brake and put the car in gear and drive and sometimes I can’t… trying to put the car in gear does nothing. Either way I can press and hold the top buttons on the steering wheel and a short time later I get the T logo on the IC screen and it comes back online. At that point I can put the car in gear and drive if I couldn’t before.

This started out as an intermittent issue months ago where maybe one out of every 20 or 30 trips it would happen, but it’s been happening more and more frequently and now it’s at the point where it will happen pretty much every time I go somewhere. It doesn’t seem to be related to how long the car is parked. It will happen if I park the car for a few minutes to run into a restaurant to get some food or if I park the car at the airport for several days. However, if I close the door and then immediately open it again the IC screen is fine.

The really odd thing is that it doesn’t seem to happen when I’m at home and I can’t understand why. When I go to the garage and get into the car the IC screen comes on every time. But when I park the car somewhere else and get in then the IC screen is almost always off when I get back into the car. I thought maybe it was related to being plugged in, but the screen is still fine when the car is in my garage whether I plug it in to charge or not. I also thought it might be related to heat… the car was cooler in my garage than when it was parked in a parking lot in the hot sun, but it’s also happened in parking lots on cool rainy days when the car hasn’t heated up in the sun.

It’s been going on for several months now, at least intermittently and through several firmware updates, so I don’t think it’s a firmware issue.

Has anyone else seen anything like this? I’m thinking I’ll probably have to bring it in, but it’s long out of warranty, so I’m hoping to get an idea of what the problem might be and how much it might cost to repair.
 
My 2017 MS has been turning it self off - the same thing you are experiencing - for the past several months. I have not sat there to see how long before it happens but it does not happen after just a few minutes. When I enter the car, especially after hours of it being idle, I have to wait 30 seconds for it to wake up. To avoid this I sometimes adjust the climate remotely before going to the car and that avoids the issue. And you are correct, this has only been happening the past two or three months.
 
My 2017 MS has been turning it self off - the same thing you are experiencing - for the past several months. I have not sat there to see how long before it happens but it does not happen after just a few minutes. When I enter the car, especially after hours of it being idle, I have to wait 30 seconds for it to wake up. To avoid this I sometimes adjust the climate remotely before going to the car and that avoids the issue. And you are correct, this has only been happening the past two or three months.

That‘s interesting, although I’m not sure you’re seeing the same thing I am. In my case the MCU comes on immediately when I enter the car, but the instrument cluster screen is off. Additionally, I don’t think the instrument cluster will come back on it’s own for me after 30 seconds, or even longer. I’ve tried waiting a while and the only thing that will get it to come back for me is to hold the top two buttons on the steering wheel.

I’ll try to adjust the climate remotely before I enter the car and see if that makes a difference for me. I suspect it won’t, but it will be interesting to see how it reacts.
 
Has anyone got a solution for this issue? I have been experiencing the cluster screen staying blank every time now for the last 3 days. The cluster screen just stay "asleep" while everything else is on. Any advise?

I‘m not sure I have a solution yet, but I have a bit of a followup on this issue for me. I wound up making a service appointment for my car for this problem. On the service invoice it just says “Correction: Remote Diagnostics,” which is not really helpful at all. They also performed the eMMC recall at the same time. I spoke with the service advisor, since I was concerned that the issue might not be resolved, but he said that they had been unable to reproduce it and he believed that the recall and/or whatever they did remotely would have taken care of it.

Unfortunately two days after I got my car back it happened again. However, at this point it has only happened that once since I got my car back whereas before it was happening pretty much every day, and even multiple times a day.

So I’m still not really sure what the status on this is. It definitely seems to be better than it was, at least, but I’m not sure it’s cured. I also still suspect that it might be related to heat and the days have been much cooler here in florida lately, so if it is heat related, then I might not see the problem return until spring.
 
Just wanted to post a quick update. The problem happened again a few more times after the recall, so that definitely did not resolve the issue. I also started to get a warning that the 12V battery is failing the other day. I don’t think the failing 12V battery was related to this issue, though. I brought the car back to service today for them to replace the battery and to look at the instrument cluster screen again.

They just let me know that the car is ready for pickup. They did a “master reset” on the MCU, which they are hoping will resolve the issue with the instrument cluster screen. Personally, I have my doubts, but they said that if this does not resolve the problem, then the next step is to replace the screen. For that, they said I can replace just the instrument cluster screen/computer for $1300 or I can do the MCU 2 upgrade for $1500. The MCU 2 upgrade includes a new instrument cluster screen and computer.

I’ll pick up the car again in a few hours and see if I still have issues with the instrument cluster screen.
 
And… it’s still not fixed. I picked up the car last night and it seemed fine for a little less than 24 hours. But when I got into the car this afternoon the instrument cluster screen was black again:(

So at this point it looks like my options are to deal with it or to do the MCU 2 upgrade.
 
I haven’t yet been that forthcoming and have learned to live with it. I’m still keeping the energy saving option on and my remedy have been to open one of the doors before entering the car. This will “start” the timing early enough to be there in the driving seat with very short delay. Also preheating the cabin before my commute has prevented that issue at most times. Although it weird, if closing drivers door and opening it right after the IC will be on even before MCU...
 
Well, I am the proud new owner of an MCU 2. It was a big cost, but so far I think I’m pretty happy with it. I’ve got a controller to connect to it and I’ve been playing some of the games. Also, one big unexpected benefit is that it solved one of my major annoyances with my car. With the MCU 1 whenever my iPhone was paired with my car it would start playing music on my phone every time I got into the car… whether or not I had the phone’s audio selected. The MCU 2 doesn’t seem to do this, so that makes me very happy:)
 
So I’ve been experiencing a weird issue with my 2015 Model S. Lately, nearly every time I go somewhere and park the car for a bit, when I get back to the car and get in the instrument cluster screen is off and doesn’t wake up with the rest of the car. Sometimes when this happens I can put my foot on the brake and put the car in gear and drive and sometimes I can’t… trying to put the car in gear does nothing. Either way I can press and hold the top buttons on the steering wheel and a short time later I get the T logo on the IC screen and it comes back online. At that point I can put the car in gear and drive if I couldn’t before.

This started out as an intermittent issue months ago where maybe one out of every 20 or 30 trips it would happen, but it’s been happening more and more frequently and now it’s at the point where it will happen pretty much every time I go somewhere. It doesn’t seem to be related to how long the car is parked. It will happen if I park the car for a few minutes to run into a restaurant to get some food or if I park the car at the airport for several days. However, if I close the door and then immediately open it again the IC screen is fine.

The really odd thing is that it doesn’t seem to happen when I’m at home and I can’t understand why. When I go to the garage and get into the car the IC screen comes on every time. But when I park the car somewhere else and get in then the IC screen is almost always off when I get back into the car. I thought maybe it was related to being plugged in, but the screen is still fine when the car is in my garage whether I plug it in to charge or not. I also thought it might be related to heat… the car was cooler in my garage than when it was parked in a parking lot in the hot sun, but it’s also happened in parking lots on cool rainy days when the car hasn’t heated up in the sun.

It’s been going on for several months now, at least intermittently and through several firmware updates, so I don’t think it’s a firmware issue.

Has anyone else seen anything like this? I’m thinking I’ll probably have to bring it in, but it’s long out of warranty, so I’m hoping to get an idea of what the problem might be and how much it might cost to repair.
Hello All, I have a 2012 Model S with 432k miles on it & do have this issue with a load of other little bugs but my reason for this post is to find out if anyone is seeing fluid in the instrument panel?
 
Hello All, I have a 2012 Model S with 432k miles on it & do have this issue with a load of other little bugs but my reason for this post is to find out if anyone is seeing fluid in the instrument panel?

I’m not quite sure what you mean by fluid in the instrument panel, but there is definitely a known issue with bubbles appearing in the instrument cluster screen. And if that goes on for too long a sticky fluid can drip out of the bottom of the screen. There is a lot more info in this thread:

 
Hey @BrettS, thanks for your updates throughout your whole process, really insightful. I thought this'd be a more prevalent issue with pre-facelift MS's but this is the only thread replicating my exact issue. Hot days seemed to trigger my IC dying as yours did. Some days the IC would slowly fade to death while driving, usually only on hot days.

I've been reading that the MCU2 upgrade gives benefits like nav to non-nav cars (mine). Did you get a new IC and MCU screen with the MCU2 upgrade? I read the MCU1 IC is not compatible with MCU2 since MCU1 IC has its own processor. Did you get any added functionality to your car with the upgrade, LTE/nav if you didn't before?

I've scheduled an LTE and IC replacement (1004788-00-D) but got the estimate to be ~$2k for the IC, where I then removed the IC replacement. ~$2k would be the price of the MCU2 upgrade. Some info from you would greatly help my decision on this matter. I'm currently going through with the LTE upgrade ~$200, letting the MCU1 live longer, and replacing/upgrading(?) the IC myself (still reading up on that). Another option I'm considering would be to follow your route if the MCU2 upgrade included LTE, upgraded the MCU1 IC, and fixed the IC blackout/dying due to the heat issue we had/have. Added nav would be a good bonus as well but not a deal-breaker.