7th Headlight went bad (Rant)

[selfbp]

What kinda crap is this. I’m so fed up with this issue. They said this revision solved the problem. Well surprise surprise look what happened

Then they canceled my appointment and said they don’t have the part and there’s no ETA for it. I let service know this was the 7th time and how I was fed up with the repeated swapping over 2 years and constantly being put on replacement lists.
He said “What do you want me to do? Bump you to the top of the list?”
I said:
“No I don’t have an issue with Tesla service to be clear. I understand it’s the suppliers fault but this is getting very old. It was less of an issue the first 4 times”

WHY DOES THIS KEEP HAPPENING. At this point I’m considering opening them myself and changing the LEDs to something better.

 

[Slow2k]

I just had mobile service replace my passenger side headlight a few days ago. I agree, this is an ongoing problem that should’ve been fixed by now.

 

[selfbp]

“All headlights on hand are already spoken for we will just wait for the next shipment when it’s available.”

At this point I do not understand why it wouldn’t be possible to order the part now from the factory and have it on hand when my appointment is scheduled a week from now.
I don’t see how this is such an issue for them being it’s the (once again) SEVENTH TIME I’ve been in this situation.

I’ve probably been through 500$ in headlight protection film

 

[Uncle Paul]

Is this the headlight that lights up the road ahead, or the designer daylight running light that is failing.

 

[Bill_75D]

I'm surprised they don't just tell you it's cosmetic and not covered by warranty, like the yellow screen border.

 

[kimvellore]

I'm surprised they don't just tell you it's cosmetic and not covered by warranty, like the yellow screen border.

or headlights are like tires they need replacement often with use and not covered under warranty
But 7 in 2 years wow, its time to check mine, probably people never noticed it and that's why it's not taken out of the warranty.
It looks like the LED's have gone dim on one side not OFF, maybe some LED's burnt out behind a diffuser. I would ask for an explanation rather than an replacement, maybe the drive circuit is bad or something else that's killing the lights. Maybe you should do Tesla a favor and conduct an FA on it, shaming them into doing something about it.

 

[Uncle Paul]

Don't think many auto companies warranty their head/tail lights for very long. Maybe BMW covers them with their extensive all inclusive warranty, but not sure.

 

[selfbp]

Don't think many auto companies warranty their head/tail lights for very long. Maybe BMW covers them with their extensive all inclusive warranty, but not sure.

Yeah it’s the DRL (daytime running light) headlight bulbs are fine. If that was going out it’d be a different story because that’s consumable. Most LEDs are 50,000 hour lifespan rated. I have no clue what’s going on with the suppliers QC standards.
They’re under the 50k mi warranty but each replacement part has 1 year.

Too bad it’s not compounding the 1 year part warranty. I’d be up to 7 years of future headlight warranty coverage!

 

[BigD0g]

Just had mine replaced yesterday, same one.

 

[Uncle Paul]

Replacement headlights used to be cheap. Could pick them up at K-Mart or Pep Boys for a few bucks. Now they are pricy as hell.

 

[cucubits]

Maybe good idea to post here too: Late 2016 / Early 2017 S Owners: How Are Your Daytime Running Lights Holding Up? (huge thread with this particular problem)

My recently replaced DRLs are amazingly still working after almost two whole months.

I would also love to just crack them open and see what the hell is breaking in there but if I mess something up, it'll be a very costly experience. I'm not happy that every time they will swap them, they need to take the bumper off. Last time I had to watch the mobile tech guy and at one point I had to stop him from moving on as he had forgotten to put back some bolts *facepalm*

 

[powaking]

Had both of mine replaced within the first year. Now one of them is showing condensation (whereas the others did not). They said its within spec but if a puddle of water accumulates inside then to let them know to get it swapped out. Just waiting for that day to arrive.

 

[Gixx1300R]

What kinda crap is this. I’m so fed up with this issue. They said this revision solved the problem. Well surprise surprise look what happened View attachment 508166

Then they canceled my appointment and said they don’t have the part and there’s no ETA for it. I let service know this was the 7th time and how I was fed up with the repeated swapping over 2 years and constantly being put on replacement lists.
He said “What do you want me to do? Bump you to the top of the list?”
I said:
“No I don’t have an issue with Tesla service to be clear. I understand it’s the suppliers fault but this is getting very old. It was less of an issue the first 4 times”

WHY DOES THIS KEEP HAPPENING. At this point I’m considering opening them myself and changing the LEDs to something better.

Possibly too much voltage is being sent or a bad diode that they aren't replacing.

 

[cucubits]

I still can't find a clear answer on what exactly is burning out. Is the DRL a glorified LED strip? Is it just one LED on the end and some sort of light tube? Is it all like an old CRT tube and it's burning out? Has no one disassembled one of these?

To be honest, I'd be even more happy if a good aftermarket solution would come out. These are one of the worst lights I've seen in a car in this price range. Terrible beam pattern, low output, non existent cut-off...

 

[Chaserr]

I'm surprised they don't just tell you it's cosmetic and not covered by warranty, like the yellow screen border.

Don't give them more ideas!

 

[Uncle Paul]

Tesla was among the first to offer these great looking LED daytime running lights. Gave them a signature look. This early adoption may be one of the reasons they are experiencing issues not. Imagine they expected those lights to last the life of the car. Don't believe Tesla made those lights, but outsourced them from a trusted vendor.

 

[krsgio]

Tesla was among the first to offer these great looking LED daytime running lights. Gave them a signature look. This early adoption may be one of the reasons they are experiencing issues not. Imagine they expected those lights to last the life of the car. Don't believe Tesla made those lights, but outsourced them from a trusted vendor.

from my understanding its only an issue in the facelift (LED) headlights 2016+ and not the HID ones. so your early adoption idea isn't quite true as it would be affecting those first models more and it's not. So something they changed from the 2012-2015 headlights to the 2016+ is just a bad design. As someone mentioned above prob voltage related.

 

[P85DBeast]

I've had my headlights replaced (twice) and this set seems to be working perfectly fine (has been for a while).

Seems like a ton of manufactures have problems with headlights especially honda with their LED DRL warranty extension (the DRLs would burn out) for Accords. Honda extended the warranty to 10 years and unlimited miles........Something Tesla needs to do is issue a TSB and extended/create the warranty to ALL cars with the full LED headlights. Just my 2¢.

 

[AMPd]

Tesla was among the first to offer these great looking LED daytime running lights. Gave them a signature look. This early adoption may be one of the reasons they are experiencing issues not. Imagine they expected those lights to last the life of the car. Don't believe Tesla made those lights, but outsourced them from a trusted vendor.

The pre facelift model s used a slightly different design. So it has nothing to do with tesla being one of the first to use led DRL’s

 

[selfbp]

Parody:
Tesla releases new app feature for users that get screwed over with faulty headlights. 2020.6.30