Are these problems only on my Model S?

[sethgodin]

I've had my Model S for 18 months. I've had the following problems almost the entire time. I've been to service many times. Each time they act as if I'm the only person in the world with them, and despite my video recordings of them happening, they say that they're not reproducible.

It would help me out if fellow owners could chime in and let me know if they've encountered them:

1. Key not recognized. This happens with either fob. It happens with the key in my pocket with or without my phone. Door handles don't always autopresent. Or the car flashes a warning light while driving, 'no key in car'. I've replaced the batteries in both fobs.

2. Rear door handles try to close on my fingers. If I exit the front door, close it and then walk one step to the rear side door (either side), the handles sometimes (1:50 times) try to close while my fingers are in the door latch. They fight back if I don't remove them immediately. This is frightening.

3. Tunein stops playing while driving. Not dependent on location. After 2 to 4 seconds, it starts again, often on another station.

4. Sometimes, I'll enter the car and music will play. Sometimes not. Sometimes I'll get in, no music. Moments later, will close door, open rear door, music plays. Volume varies significantly and randomly.

5. Charger port doesn't open reliably on home charger. Have found that if I point the charger AWAY from the port, it's more likely to open.

It might be my imagination, but the door and port issues seem worse if it's cold or raining.

I have the latest firmware, but as I've said, despite assurances, these problems have been around for months or years.

Anyone else seen anything like this?

Thanks.

 

[jelloslug]

Sounds like you may have a pinched wire causing an intermittent short in the key fob sensor wiring.

 

[Ulmo]

It's almost as if you are flooded with interference or bad antenna. Could be from car or from elsewhere.

Sounds like Tesla Service Center is trying to B.S. you. You being the "only" person to experience it is usually a lie, but it seems like just words to throw out while saying they don't want to fix it. If you are the only one with the problem, they should fix it. They should be curious and check logs. It's as if they don't want to fix it.

 

[oktane]

Very much sounds like an electrical noise issue (interference). Your experience is not normal.

 

[gghahram]

My key fob and door handles didn't work on delivery near a large electrical transformer by the SC. They had me move my car to avoid interference and has worked flawlessly ever since without the issues you are describing.

 

[S4WRXTTCS]

I've had my Model S for 18 months. I've had the following problems almost the entire time. I've been to service many times. Each time they act as if I'm the only person in the world with them, and despite my video recordings of them happening, they say that they're not reproducible.

It would help me out if fellow owners could chime in and let me know if they've encountered them:

Thanks.

I'm at 20 months so I'll chime in

1. Key not recognized. -> Nope, no Key issues.

2. Rear door handles try to close on my fingers. -> Nope, but I don't like how the rear door window slides down to slow. It makes more noise then it really should.

3. Tunein stops playing while driving. -> Don't use Tunein, and every issue I've had with streaming music has been encountered by lots of people on TMC.

4. Sometimes, I'll enter the car and music will play. Sometimes not. -> It always plays for me. It's kinda annoying, and I wish there was a setting for it. Aside from turning down the volume.

5. Charger port doesn't open reliably on home charger. -> It's finicky for me, but it does open. Sometimes takes repeated button pushes. If I'm really annoyed I'll just push it.

None of these things are really on my list of "I hope Tesla fixes this".

That list would be

1.) Tires make too much damn noise on certain surfaces.
2.) The automatic lights don't have any hysteresis and will turn on/off every few minutes in really greyish weather. Just leave them on for the rest of the ride.
3.) That stupid bug where when you manually turn on the lights it will chime at you when you get out of your car. But, it has turned them off so the chime is silly.
4.) No way to control the defroster from the app.

 

[David29]

I've had my Model S for 18 months. I've had the following problems almost the entire time. I've been to service many times. Each time they act as if I'm the only person in the world with them, and despite my video recordings of them happening, they say that they're not reproducible.

It would help me out if fellow owners could chime in and let me know if they've encountered them:

1. Key not recognized. This happens with either fob. It happens with the key in my pocket with or without my phone. Door handles don't always autopresent. Or the car flashes a warning light while driving, 'no key in car'. I've replaced the batteries in both fobs.

2. Rear door handles try to close on my fingers. If I exit the front door, close it and then walk one step to the rear side door (either side), the handles sometimes (1:50 times) try to close while my fingers are in the door latch. They fight back if I don't remove them immediately. This is frightening.

3. Tunein stops playing while driving. Not dependent on location. After 2 to 4 seconds, it starts again, often on another station.

4. Sometimes, I'll enter the car and music will play. Sometimes not. Sometimes I'll get in, no music. Moments later, will close door, open rear door, music plays. Volume varies significantly and randomly.

5. Charger port doesn't open reliably on home charger. Have found that if I point the charger AWAY from the port, it's more likely to open.

It might be my imagination, but the door and port issues seem worse if it's cold or raining.

I have the latest firmware, but as I've said, despite assurances, these problems have been around for months or years.

Anyone else seen anything like this?

Thanks.

I'll reply on some of these but not all.

#1 -- Only times I have had trouble with my key were when I had it in the same pocket as my cellphone, or close by; or when my battery was weak (and the car gave me a message on that). Now I make a point to be sure my cellphone is on my right side and I always carry the key in my left jacket pocket. Is it possible that is a factor for your situation? I think the cellphone interference is a well-known issue. (Oh, one other time, I could not open the car when I was near a TV transmission tower.)

#2 -- I am trying to understand the scenario. Does the handle try to close on your hand as you are pulling the door open? I have not seen that. But I have seen the handle close on people's hands when they hold the handle while closing the door. So I do not hold the handle while closing the door and caution others not to. Or let go immediately once the door is closed. Just push the door shut. But if the handles are closing on your hand as you pull it open, that is different from my experience.

I do agree with the comments above that electrical interference is a possible explanation for much of this. As I mentioned, I have experienced total blocking of my key fob signals when near a TV transmission tower. But it would not make sense if these behaviors occur at all locations, not just one or two.

 

[Dborn]

Charger port.hold down the button on the handle for two or three seconds. It doesn't really respond to a quick push.

 

[JetKit]

1- Yes, specially when raining. Embarrassing, actually. I have to use my phone to unlock. I do not get the no key warning.
2- Only once. I am not sure I tried again.
3- Not like that. I get tune in issues when I hang up of a BT phone call. Even if the radio was off before, it magically turns on.
4- I only get the volume variation when opening doors. For some reason the volume goes way down.
5- Yes, frequently.

 

[ThisIsTrue]

Seth, you have enough clout to get attention from Elon. You might try tweeting directly to him to ask for a quick chat. These are definitely not normal issues, and the time span is ridiculous.

 

[MarcusMaximus]

I've had my Model S for 18 months. I've had the following problems almost the entire time. I've been to service many times. Each time they act as if I'm the only person in the world with them, and despite my video recordings of them happening, they say that they're not reproducible.

It would help me out if fellow owners could chime in and let me know if they've encountered them:

1. Key not recognized. This happens with either fob. It happens with the key in my pocket with or without my phone. Door handles don't always autopresent. Or the car flashes a warning light while driving, 'no key in car'. I've replaced the batteries in both fobs.

2. Rear door handles try to close on my fingers. If I exit the front door, close it and then walk one step to the rear side door (either side), the handles sometimes (1:50 times) try to close while my fingers are in the door latch. They fight back if I don't remove them immediately. This is frightening.

3. Tunein stops playing while driving. Not dependent on location. After 2 to 4 seconds, it starts again, often on another station.

4. Sometimes, I'll enter the car and music will play. Sometimes not. Sometimes I'll get in, no music. Moments later, will close door, open rear door, music plays. Volume varies significantly and randomly.

5. Charger port doesn't open reliably on home charger. Have found that if I point the charger AWAY from the port, it's more likely to open.

It might be my imagination, but the door and port issues seem worse if it's cold or raining.

I have the latest firmware, but as I've said, despite assurances, these problems have been around for months or years.

Anyone else seen anything like this?

Thanks.

For #2, I've had that a few times when trying to open the doors after being by the car with them closed for a while. Seems like a security feature to lock the doors even if a fob is nearby if there hasn't been any activity in a while, and every once in a while I get unlucky with the timing.

 

[whitex]

For charger port not opening: The antenna is in the rear glass. I've found that pressing the button as you're holding the charge handle next to the port doesn't always work, Press is before and it should. Or just hold it a little higher so that the charge handle has a direct view of rear window. This has been consistent on 3 Model S's so far. Oh, if your hatch is open, it may be harder to open the charger. If you have MS with auto closing charge-port, you can always just press the charge door with your finger (if the car is unlocked I think) and it should open for you.

 

[sethgodin]

Thanks to everyone who chimed in. I appreciate it.

To clarify:
--it's not geography based, so I'm hesitant to blame it on electrical interference from a particular spot on the planet..
and
--the door closing thing happens when I try to open a closed rear door.

Thanks again.

 

[smsprague]

#3 TuneIn issue is what I experience in my 2014 Model S.

 

[harry]

The first two described problems could be related to the car not seeing the key fob consistently. There are a LOT of situations in which the key fob is blocked from the car. As other posters have noted, a phone will block the RF "line of sight" to the car, but in addition, if I have a lot of change in my pocket the fob won't be recognized if the coins are between the fob and the outside of pocket. Also, I have a windbreaker which has some sort of (aluminized?) shell that blocks the fob completely. I have a metal pill box I sometimes carry which does the same thing. You might want to explore whether the fob is recognized reliably if you hold it in your hand.

 

[FloridaGary]

The only issue I had in the past was bluetooth not connecting to my iphone when I enter the car. It turned out being an issue with my phone's bluetooth and not Tesla. Sorry to hear about your issues and surprised that your service center isn't taking this more seriously.

 

[David29]

Charger port.hold down the button on the handle for two or three seconds. It doesn't really respond to a quick push.

I have the second generation Tesla Wall Connector (aka HPWC), which has the new style button. Usually the port opens with just a momentary push of the button. When unplugging, I just wait a few seconds for the circuit to disconnect and so on. But occasionally when disconnecting, I have had to hold the button down, and once or twice I have actually climbed into the car and clicked "Unlock port" on the charge screen to release the cable when unplugging. A bit annoying but I haven't worried about it too much.