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2021 Model 3/Y Heating Issues

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So, my car just got this issue. It seems to be fairly quick to diagnose (besides not actually feeling heat) since the climate screen will have the "Climate Keeper is unavailable..." message, and you won't be able to turn on Dog or Camp mode, etc. You also won't be able to use the remote climate feature on the Tesla app, as it will error out.

I have an SC appoint for two weeks out (hoping they can switch to mobile service, but apparently no service centers or people are working on the weekend) for this, but wanted to throw some stuff up here for others as I suspect those of us in cold climates (which is pretty much everyone in the U.S. at this point thanks to the cold snap) are going to experience this based on what I've read.

The short of it is that it seems there are some defective temperature / humidity / pressure sensors in the heat pump 3/Y. This misreport what they're supposed to report, and that jacks up the software that controls how the heat pump is supposed to operate. Past videos show that Tesla got around this with firmware updates that would bypass these sensors. They are also apparently replacing these sensors, but clearly were still using bad sensors as of the December batch of Model 3s, so who knows how many are out there.

I've had my 2021 since early December and the heat was fine up till the 2021.4.6 update that installed a couple days ago. Not sure if this is correlated with my heat stopping working today or not, but given the past FW updates bypassed these bad sensors to "band-aid" the issue, I'm wondering if something changed with the "bug fixes" that undid what previous firmwares did.

I'm going to go to NHTSA and file a safety report since this is obviously a safety issue since it could impact the defrost working in cold climates. I highly recommend anyone else who has this issue do the same. The only way to get Tesla to actually do a recall for these faulty sensors (which seem to be very common from what I've read) is to get the NHTSA to force them to (which is much the same as the MCU1 flash issue that Tesla was ignoring and forcing owners to pay for out of pocket to fix that they now have to fix under the national recall or reimburse owners who already paid).

You can find the form here: File a Vehicle Safety Complaint | Safercar.gov | NHTSA

I'll post here with updates after the SC messages me back. I'm sure the SC will be able to fix it based on other YT videos I've watched, but I feel like it's really important to get some NHTSA pressure on Tesla so they can do a better job of vetting parts in the future and more proactively recall cars for safety issues.
 
I'm going to go to NHTSA and file a safety report since this is obviously a safety issue since it could impact the defrost working in cold climates. I highly recommend anyone else who has this issue do the same. The only way to get Tesla to actually do a recall for these faulty sensors (which seem to be very common from what I've read) is to get the NHTSA to force them to (which is much the same as the MCU1 flash issue that Tesla was ignoring and forcing owners to pay for out of pocket to fix that they now have to fix under the national recall or reimburse owners who already paid).

You can find the form here: File a Vehicle Safety Complaint | Safercar.gov | NHTSA

I'll post here with updates after the SC messages me back. I'm sure the SC will be able to fix it based on other YT videos I've watched, but I feel like it's really important to get some NHTSA pressure on Tesla so they can do a better job of vetting parts in the future and more proactively recall cars for safety issues.


I think you are unfortunately correct. Tesla is in the big leagues now, which means never doing the right thing by choice, only when forced.
 
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I think you are unfortunately correct. Tesla is in the big leagues now, which means never doing the right thing by choice, only when forced.

Believe me, I wish I wasn't, I definitely want Tesla to succeed. They just need to understand that there are good reasons every other car company has a strong Six Sigma / Lean style quality process. Sometimes fast is too fast, especially where safety is involved.
 
They have identified there are faulty sensors and have updated sensors to install, seems they have accepted responsibility for the problem.
This is the first Winter for the Heat Pump system in these cars, a fairly quick fix has been designed, produced and is being installed as units are reported as not heating.
Remember, what seems to you as a lot of failures might be a very low percentage, it's the way it is in today's world, anything bad is all you see, meanwhile there might be a couple hundred thousand units operating without issue.
 
They have identified there are faulty sensors and have updated sensors to install, seems they have accepted responsibility for the problem.
This is the first Winter for the Heat Pump system in these cars, a fairly quick fix has been designed, produced and is being installed as units are reported as not heating.
Remember, what seems to you as a lot of failures might be a very low percentage, it's the way it is in today's world, anything bad is all you see, meanwhile there might be a couple hundred thousand units operating without issue.

I'm sorry but I have to disagree. This is something they need to be proactively contacting owners about and fixing. Functioning heat isn't a "nice to have", it's an essential safety feature.
 
I'm sorry but I have to disagree. This is something they need to be proactively contacting owners about and fixing. Functioning heat isn't a "nice to have", it's an essential safety feature.

We have no idea what percentage of units are impacted, every Y has a Heat Pump and I believe every 3 since the 4th quarter, that gives me some indication that this is a limited issue or that is all we would be seeing posted here in the forums.
 
I'm sorry but I have to disagree. This is something they need to be proactively contacting owners about and fixing. Functioning heat isn't a "nice to have", it's an essential safety feature.
Those with failing or error prone MCUs lose it all the time (in addition to other things) and Tesla was not extremely concerned until made to be.
 
So, update on this. Rather than waiting for an appointment two weeks out, I just drove down to the local SC (which luckily is only a few blocks away from me). They took me in right away and luckily just received the three sensors that had to be replaced that day, so I was able to pick up my car after about 24 hours. My understanding is the actual fix to replace those sensors is pretty quick.

Overall I'm happy they were able to accommodate me and fix the issue quickly, though I really wish there were some better feedback mechanisms on the app itself. I don't mind using it for service, but not if they aren't responsive on it. Nobody had even updated the initial status until I physically drove into the SC and asked if they could help.

They also initially gave me a loaner M3LR since they said they didn't have the sensors in stock when I dropped the car off and didn't know when they'd be in, which was a bit of a surprise (I was expecting an Uber credit).
 
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My question is if all sensors are 'bad', meaning they'd act up if it gets cold enough. My 2021 hasn't acted up yet, at least down to freezing (32F), so I'm not too worried about the sensors, even if 'bad'. But if there's a general issue with those sensors, hopefully Tesla will voluntarily recall them, so we have a functioning vehicle if we need to venture to colder places.
 
So, another update, this is NOT fixed. Just went for a 20 minute drive and the heat worked for about 10 minutes before it started blowing cold air despite being set to HI. Got home and the Climate Keeper Unavailable message is back. I'm going to drive it back to the SC tomorrow, but I am NOT happy. I don't think they actually replaced the sensors, or if they did they did with the same garbage sensors that are causing this issue.

Tesla really needs to get their act together.
 
My car was delivered in September and today, I got the infamous "Climate Keeper is unavailable" and only cold air is blowing from the vents 🥶 So if they fixed it, it didn't stick, at least, not for me. I have a service appointment on the 27th. In the mean time, I went to my service center to connect to the service SSID so I could enter the service mode. This is the service alert that it recorded.

VCFRONT_a161_compressorSelfFault

1639886137984.png


Is it a sensor fault? Compressor fault? Don't know. Hopefully the repair won't take too long.
 
My car was delivered in September and today, I got the infamous "Climate Keeper is unavailable" and only cold air is blowing from the vents 🥶 So if they fixed it, it didn't stick, at least, not for me. I have a service appointment on the 27th. In the mean time, I went to my service center to connect to the service SSID so I could enter the service mode. This is the service alert that it recorded.

VCFRONT_a161_compressorSelfFault

View attachment 745802

Is it a sensor fault? Compressor fault? Don't know. Hopefully the repair won't take too long.

In your case, it looks like the A/C compressor itself is setting the fault. I hope they actually probe the wiring harness to ensure that the controller is sending the right signal and that power is getting to the compressor before just throwing a new compressor in. I'm actually dealing with a similar headache on my car (2018 M3) as we speak, but I'm getting a fault for the temperature and humidity sensor that's already been replaced once.
 
Well my experience with my model 3 standard range plus 2021 with heat pump is a total disaster because every time a go to a winter storm my heat pump fail or not working properly . i found the design problem is the radiator is on the 45 degree angle, went the snow goes in the radiator it block the fan or the censor or the actuator and create a problem with the heat pump not working properly .... went your car does not have heat in your car your heat pump will create strange different humming noise that your heat pump is a total lost ..... hear is the part i change in my car so for the fan, radiator censor, 1 heat pump 9 software update 1 radiator .... now my car is the service center for 2 heat pump change because its making strange noise again ,and i did the supercharger one day the heat pump could not keep up the cooling of the batterie and the heat pump fail and let of all the steam out ......i will tell write now the 2021 model s 3 x y all have the same design with heat pump , that mean they all have design flaw .....dont forget i drive my to the extreme cold and worst condition ......... write now i am driving a loaner car from tesla a 2016 model s new front design 90 d so far no problem in the winter storm because the from radiator design is the best in the winter ...... my next car will be 2016 to 2020 model S 90 d 100 d or long range . that car will work very well in my climate ....sorry about my english language .... because i live in montpellier quebec.....
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