2016 Model S MCU has a life expectancy

[Emvdl]

I got my car fixed in a tesla approved body shop due to rock damage. Windshield broke and dented hood and nosecone.

It was a 30k job. When i brought the car everything was working then now the body shop is telling me the screen is not turning on. They said they can't do anything, so they contacted Tesla and tesla said that the MCU has reached its life expectancy.



I am appalled hearing that our six figure cars won't even last 4 years.

This is what the body shop told me they did.
The body shopped put it on service mode and drove it. Tried to remove it from service mode because its slow, screen froze.
Reseted the MCU hasn't turned on since.
of course the body shop is washing their hands on this that they didn't caused this, and i am stuck with out a vehicle now for a couple of months.

I tried speaking to the service center since i am out of warranty i have to shell out the cash.

Since i bought and will be paying for the new MCU, I asked if i can keep the old one. They said i can't since its a proprietary??? What does that mean? I paid for it. I appreciate any advice on how i can go with this. I do not feel right that the MCU would fail not even 4 years owning the car.

I asked the device center for advice, what did i do to cause this? they said nothing.

What can i do to prevent this from happening after i replace it? Again NOTHING.

If i stop driving the car which i love driving will it stop it from happening? NO

this is so appalling after i evangelized people to Tesla.

I feel really screwed here. This car seem like a money pit right now. This year my car has been in the shop for a total of 5 months encounting racking up a bill of 40000 encounting.

 

[Tam]

....MCU has reached its life expectancy....

I think almost everything has its life expectancy not just your MCU.

....I asked the device center for advice, what did i do to cause this?
What can i do to prevent this from happening after i replace it?....

It is a well known predictable death of MCU. It has been discussed:

eMMC flash failure - Models S/X

...I asked if i can keep the old one. They said i can't since its a proprietary???...

By California law, Tesla is obligated to return old parts when requested prior to the service although it can charge you extra to do that if it wants to.

...I feel really screwed here. This car seem like a money pit right now...

I've been evangelizing buying Extended Service Agreement (extended warranty) but people keep telling me that what can go wrong?

 

[Emvdl]

Tam, Thanks for that information!

I guess people just got over hyped that tesla was made well and it'll last up to 8 years.

 

[Simon_Emes]

Gosh. This is horrible. Did you have to pay 40k for all these services or was this still covered?

Suppose the extending the full warranty is a good deal after all, in Europe it runs for about 1k per year covered and is done by an external insurance provider. Just hope they continue with that service.

 

[Emvdl]

Gosh. This is horrible. Did you have to pay 40k for all these services or was this still covered?

Suppose the extending the full warranty is a good deal after all, in Europe it runs for about 1k per year covered and is done by an external insurance provider. Just hope they continue with that service.

That was to repaint the car due to dings and chips.

I would've gotten the extended warranty if there wasn't any co-pay..

 

[whitex]

I guess people just got over hyped that tesla was made well and it'll last up to 8 years.

Maybe They believed Elon when he said cost of ownership is very low, no maintenance required. He forgot to mention $3,300 every 3-5 years for MCU alone. Tesla never included that in their "savings" calculator either, even though at one point they even had "time saved fueling up" as one of the savings items.

I have no problem if a car requires $30,000 in annual services, like the Veyron for example. I just with the company was open and honest about it, not lie and hide behind things like "yellowing of MCU screen is caused by exposure to oxygen, therefore not covered under warranty" - I guess they meant for me to drive it only on the Moon and Mars.

 

[StarLog]

*Cough* Class Action

 

[croman]

You'll get a 4 year warranty on the new MCU. You can pay a core charge to get your broken MCU. They can't keep it if you pay the core charge.

MCU is the Achilles heel of pre 3.2018 Teslas.

 

[whitex]

You'll get a 4 year warranty on the new MCU. You can pay a core charge to get your broken MCU. They can't keep it if you pay the core charge.

MCU is the Achilles heel of pre 3.2018 Teslas.

The issue is that the core charge is not set. Some people are quoted $500, others $1000, and other are told if they pay for MCU out of warranty there is no core charge, while some are told you can't keep the part no matter what (i.e. that it's a restricted part). Technically Tesla could charge $100,000 core charge and make sure nobody pays it.

It's interesting how people think MCU2 is immune to this. Yes it has a larger emmc but it also hosts more software (games anyone) and therefore does larger updates, plus it does more logging (including videos) for autopilot fleet learning. How long before it starts failing, hard to say at this point as it's less than 2 years old, but when it does fail, it will be a worse single point of failure than MCU1 which has a separate independent instrument cluster.

 

[Cheburashka]

Wow, reached life expectancy?

Incredibly sad how Tesla does not stand behind their CEO's words and their product.

 

[Joelgjr]

Who fixes these outside of Tesla? I've seen articles of multiple people that fix these if you send them in to them, but none responded to my emails. Are there any taking new clients?

 

[CadillacJack]

I don't think it's 4 years on the replacement MCU - I was told today that both the new and remanufactured ones carry 1 year/20k kms here in Toronto.

Also - was told that the reman'd ones carry the core charge but the new ones do not; I was quoted $500 CDN here. Not worth it to try to sell to subsidize the MCU upgrade.

 

[croman]

I don't think it's 4 years on the replacement MCU - I was told today that both the new and remanufactured ones carry 1 year/20k kms here in Toronto.

Also - was told that the reman'd ones carry the core charge but the new ones do not; I was quoted $500 CDN here. Not worth it to try to sell to subsidize the MCU upgrade.

The Tesla Parts, Body & Paint Repair Limited Warranty begins on the purchase date of the part(s), and coverage extends for a period of 12 months. Specific categories of parts have unique warranty coverage periods:

• Sheet metal: Limited lifetime
• Drive Unit: 4 years or 50,000 miles, whichever comes first
• Vehicle High Voltage Battery: 4 years or 50,000 miles, whichever comes first
• Wall Connectors: 4 years
• Touchscreen and microcontroller unit: 4 years

 

[croman]

No mileage limits too. 4 full years.

 

[scottlilo]

Are they replacing it with MCU2 or MCU1?

 

[markb1]

Are they replacing it with MCU2 or MCU1?

It's definitely MCU1. MCU1->MCU2 has never happened. (And probably will never happen, but that's just speculation.)

 

[Emvdl]

*Cough* Class Action

We need to gather people having the same problems. It seems to me everyone is vulnerable to this, it's just matter of time.

 

[Emvdl]

The Tesla Parts, Body & Paint Repair Limited Warranty begins on the purchase date of the part(s), and coverage extends for a period of 12 months. Specific categories of parts have unique warranty coverage periods:

• Sheet metal: Limited lifetime
• Drive Unit: 4 years or 50,000 miles, whichever comes first
• Vehicle High Voltage Battery: 4 years or 50,000 miles, whichever comes first
• Wall Connectors: 4 years
• Touchscreen and microcontroller unit: 4 years

I was told by the service center, 1 year!

 

[markb1]

I was told by the service center, 1 year!

Well, if you do buy a new MCU from Tesla, be sure to print out the warranty from their website. It wouldn't be the first time a service center employee gave bad information!

 

[P100D_Me]

Incredibly sad how Tesla does not stand behind their CEO's words and their product.

Seems the CEO IS the problem though, cost cutting at the expense of customer service is never a wise move. Shafting the same customers that paid a lot of money for his product to get the company to the point where they could start producing M3's.
For Elon, $3K on a new MCU is probably money that falls out of his pockets when he sits down.
I know I will not be keeping my Tesla outside of warranty, at least you have some chance to get things fixed for free within the warranty period (no guarantee though), but the prices of replacement parts is hideous and you are pretty much tied in to Telsa to get it fixed.
I think most people that purchased a Tesla did not expect an Italian supercar servicing experience.