2015 Model S Nav Map SD Card Swap?

[jeremy0916]

See attached, was quoted $200 for replacing my 2015 MCU1 Tesla Model S Nav maps GPS Micro SD card because my NAV keeps acting up they believe the memory card is going bad.

I know some forum members have done the swap of the sd card, I am struggling to find the best youtube videos on which specific trim pieces I need to remove to get to that 1 side of the MCU exposed enough to swap it out(I think its top right side of MCU1 when its held in place on the dash?)

I imagine I can get another 16GB or maybe better yet just get a 32GB micro sd card. Any recommended best SD cards that will last longer than this one did(6-7 years) before dying out on me and has fast I/O? I guess it really won't matter though because I doubt I will be in this car another 10 years but I guess ideally if I could buy a card now that will last 10 years. Looking to go grab a card this PM. Walmart or Target or Best Buy should have some decent ones.

Any suggestions or videos you know are good are appreciated!

 

[jeremy0916]

Thinking this card would suffice? Buying now I think.

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/sandisk-extreme-plus-32gb-microsdhc-uhs-i-memory-card/9387066.p?skuId=9387066

All that is left is knowing which trim to remove to expose that right hand edge of the mcu unit. Likely will take popping up more trim than I would want to knowing Tesla. I took a bunch of trim off last time swapping from wood to carbon fiber trim so I imagine its the same process again. Wanted to get away with not popping off that top trim and such but doubt I will be able to.

Edit:
Good video to show where part goes:

, just wish I understood the guy haha.

 

[jeremy0916]

Seems a good video on trim removal here:

, wondering if I can avoid some of what he is doing and just focus on the right hand side though? But will need to get the right had side air vent + trim piece removed probably cause I need to get back to where this SD chip is inserted.

 

[jeremy0916]

Final update. The SD card I mentioned earlier did work.

Thoughts: I heard newer versions don't have this luckily, but boo Tesla for using a random SD card to store nav data on separately. And double boo for putting it in an inaccessible area easily on the car. Seems very much like a design afterthought. Maybe they expected the SD cards to last longer than 6 years? Idk.

Buttt. Yeah you can get away with the fix by just removing the right hand side trim pieces. Cutting the plastic housing a bit to make that USB slot in the back upper right on the MCU1. Note inside that little slot there will likely be a little tape covering the SD card you will need to break through w your tweezers to push the SD card in to then get it to pop out and pull out w tweezers. I was so worried I would drop the new card trying to put it in too, because it was super hard to angle my head to see it easily and finding a pair of tweezers to get in there was a nightmare too. I had to use some weird acne tweezer kit thing I had that was thin enough to get in to access that SD card slot.

But generally the pictures show it. I replaced the sd card without even moving my MCU. Rather just got through a chunk of plastic housing and touched it up with some HVAC duck tape stuff to handle the air conditioning variable temps.

I had a friend help me copy an img of his existing SD onto my new purchased SD before plugged it into car. But TBH I think you can just plug the SD 32 gig in as is ootb and the car should pickup on it when your on wifi and start downloading nav data onto it. Otherwise you may need to reach out to Tesla service and have a tech remote initiate nav data dump into the new SD.

Hope this note helps someone on the internet do the repair themselves if their nav starts acting up.

 

[StorePete]

After the recent map update I ran into the same issue with my 2016 face lifted model S : Navigation initializing forever!

Before ordering a new SD card, has anyone successfully installed an even bigger than 32GB microSD card, like 64GB or 128GB?
You see, i want to drive the car for some more years!

As a side note:
last fall Tesla replaced the eMMC due to the well known problem!
I do not understand, why they did not also replace the SD card knowing it will fail eventually

 

[gaswalla]

This is a known issue. IMO 200 bucks seems reasonable for the labor and Tesla taking the responsibility of taking apart and assembling the dash and ensuring the issue is fixed.

 

[BlkCld]

Thanks for the posts. Mine won’t load the database. My estimate came back at $285 labor and $20 for the card. I’ll be tearing it apart myself so I appreciate your posts.

 

[BlkCld]

Jeremy0916. Thanks for the posts. Mine keeps giving an error code MCU_w007 Navigation database not loaded. Connect to WiFi. Doesn’t download anything. I got Tesla estimate for the fix at $285 labor and $20 Micro SD card. Just wanted to say thanks for the posts as I plan on figuring out how to get to it myself.

 

[JaxonDM]

Final update. The SD card I mentioned earlier did work.

Thoughts: I heard newer versions don't have this luckily, but boo Tesla for using a random SD card to store nav data on separately. And double boo for putting it in an inaccessible area easily on the car. Seems very much like a design afterthought. Maybe they expected the SD cards to last longer than 6 years? Idk.

Buttt. Yeah you can get away with the fix by just removing the right hand side trim pieces. Cutting the plastic housing a bit to make that USB slot in the back upper right on the MCU1. Note inside that little slot there will likely be a little tape covering the SD card you will need to break through w your tweezers to push the SD card in to then get it to pop out and pull out w tweezers. I was so worried I would drop the new card trying to put it in too, because it was super hard to angle my head to see it easily and finding a pair of tweezers to get in there was a nightmare too. I had to use some weird acne tweezer kit thing I had that was thin enough to get in to access that SD card slot.

But generally the pictures show it. I replaced the sd card without even moving my MCU. Rather just got through a chunk of plastic housing and touched it up with some HVAC duck tape stuff to handle the air conditioning variable temps.

I had a friend help me copy an img of his existing SD onto my new purchased SD before plugged it into car. But TBH I think you can just plug the SD 32 gig in as is ootb and the car should pickup on it when your on wifi and start downloading nav data onto it. Otherwise you may need to reach out to Tesla service and have a tech remote initiate nav data dump into the new SD.

Hope this note helps someone on the internet do the repair themselves if their nav starts acting up.

Replacing the SD cards sounds tricky. I'll check the SD card on my aunt's 2015 Model S tomorrow when it returns from the installation of the new set of tires from 4Wheelonline plus the alignment.

 

[rjcampeau]

EVFIXME sells a pre formatted, pre partitioned, SD card that's plug and play for $20. Worked great in my 2013 S60 with failing nav data. I took the MCU out, but it's good to know you can swap it without all that work.

 

[NewbyMaybe]

I had the problem when I let my interior get damp from a window that was down a little. After a few weeks it fixed itself, suspecting corroded contacts are part of the issue.

 

[amiral_sub]

I bought a verbatim 16GB. It worked only 6 months, failed again...

 

[LYKKEGUTT]

Final update. The SD card I mentioned earlier did work.

Thoughts: I heard newer versions don't have this luckily, but boo Tesla for using a random SD card to store nav data on separately. And double boo for putting it in an inaccessible area easily on the car. Seems very much like a design afterthought. Maybe they expected the SD cards to last longer than 6 years? Idk.

Buttt. Yeah you can get away with the fix by just removing the right hand side trim pieces. Cutting the plastic housing a bit to make that USB slot in the back upper right on the MCU1. Note inside that little slot there will likely be a little tape covering the SD card you will need to break through w your tweezers to push the SD card in to then get it to pop out and pull out w tweezers. I was so worried I would drop the new card trying to put it in too, because it was super hard to angle my head to see it easily and finding a pair of tweezers to get in there was a nightmare too. I had to use some weird acne tweezer kit thing I had that was thin enough to get in to access that SD card slot.

But generally the pictures show it. I replaced the sd card without even moving my MCU. Rather just got through a chunk of plastic housing and touched it up with some HVAC duck tape stuff to handle the air conditioning variable temps.

I had a friend help me copy an img of his existing SD onto my new purchased SD before plugged it into car. But TBH I think you can just plug the SD 32 gig in as is ootb and the car should pickup on it when your on wifi and start downloading nav data onto it. Otherwise you may need to reach out to Tesla service and have a tech remote initiate nav data dump into the new SD.

Hope this note helps someone on the internet do the repair themselves if their nav starts acting up.

The navigation on my car is not working. I think the SD card is broken and needs to be replaced. I bought a new 16G sd card at Tesla for $20. I'm going to replace this card myself this week. My question is: Do I need to turn off the power before replacing this card ? Thanks a lot for your answers !

 

[DerbyDave]

Please see my response on your other post.

 

[infinkc]

Final update. The SD card I mentioned earlier did work.

Thoughts: I heard newer versions don't have this luckily, but boo Tesla for using a random SD card to store nav data on separately. And double boo for putting it in an inaccessible area easily on the car. Seems very much like a design afterthought. Maybe they expected the SD cards to last longer than 6 years? Idk.

Buttt. Yeah you can get away with the fix by just removing the right hand side trim pieces. Cutting the plastic housing a bit to make that USB slot in the back upper right on the MCU1. Note inside that little slot there will likely be a little tape covering the SD card you will need to break through w your tweezers to push the SD card in to then get it to pop out and pull out w tweezers. I was so worried I would drop the new card trying to put it in too, because it was super hard to angle my head to see it easily and finding a pair of tweezers to get in there was a nightmare too. I had to use some weird acne tweezer kit thing I had that was thin enough to get in to access that SD card slot.

But generally the pictures show it. I replaced the sd card without even moving my MCU. Rather just got through a chunk of plastic housing and touched it up with some HVAC duck tape stuff to handle the air conditioning variable temps.

I had a friend help me copy an img of his existing SD onto my new purchased SD before plugged it into car. But TBH I think you can just plug the SD 32 gig in as is ootb and the car should pickup on it when your on wifi and start downloading nav data onto it. Otherwise you may need to reach out to Tesla service and have a tech remote initiate nav data dump into the new SD.

Hope this note helps someone on the internet do the repair themselves if their nav starts acting up.

Thanks for the info, do you know if there was anything special about copying over the files? i heard its formatted in lunix.

 

[Zuikkis]

I have a 2016 MX, that has been trying to download a nav update for two weeks now. It never finishes. Navigation itself is working fine, though. But perhaps there is a problem in the card which prevents the update?

 

[Anders Persson]

I had a friend help me copy an img of his existing SD onto my new purchased SD before plugged it into car. But TBH I think you can just plug the SD 32 gig in as is ootb and the car should pickup on it when your on wifi and start downloading nav data onto it. Otherwise you may need to reach out to Tesla service and have a tech remote initiate nav data dump into the new SD.

Hi

Please, could somebody explain how to copy the image from the old micro SD car. After insterting the new micro SD card it doe not download..

Regards

Anders

 

[DerbyDave]

It is my understanding that it will eventually correct itself. Others may chime in. If you search for NAV SD there are instructions for formatting the NAV SD card

 

[iCAR]

Like others on here, it is difficult to remove the uSD card from the MCU, and it dropped from the tweezers as I was pulling it out. When inserting the new one, which way should it be inserted - with the label side facing the touch display or the side with the contacts facing the touch display?

 

[iCAR]

Like others on here, it is difficult to remove the uSD card from the MCU, and it dropped from the tweezers as I was pulling it out. When inserting the new one, which way should it be inserted - with the label side facing the touch display or the side with the contacts facing the touch display?

I finished replacing my failing Nav uSD card today with the Tesla pre-loaded replacement card for $20. It’s worth it not to figure out how to partition and format a industry std card, unless you use Linux. It’s downloading a 2022 data update now