Bent 3rd row back of seats whenever raise seats

[rdiggidy]

Picked up my 7 seater Y about a week ago. Upon pickup I had the Tesla employee show me how to access the 3rd row and raise and lower the 3rd row seats. While he showed me, the back of the 3rd row seat caught on the trunk floor (the moveable piece in the trunk that covers the well in the trunk) and it bent the back of the seat (see pic).



He immediately had a Tech come out and look at it and they ordered a new piece to replace the bent back seat and they are coming out tomorrow to actually do the replacement of the damaged part.



I asked the tech who came to look at the damage and assess if a new part was needed, if this was a common problem and he said it was and it’s just a bad design. The Tech explained that you have to move the floor cover every time you want to raise the seats or else the rear seats will get caught and bend.



I am wondering if anyone else has a 7 seater Y that DOES NOT “catch” like this. I am trying to decide if this is a universal bad design or if mine has a unique problem I should lean on Tesla to resolve long term.



There is no way I (or my wife/kids) are going to remember every time (for the whole time I own the car) to move the trunk floor every time the rear seats are raised.

If this is a universal problem, anyone find a solution? I am wondering about cutting/trying to modify that trunk cover/floor so it doesn’t touch the rear seats…..just doesn’t seem like I should be having to do that on a brand new car!!

 

[rdiggidy]

can’t seem to upload a video of the issue, but here it is:

3rd row seat bending

 

[JOLush]

I joined just to be able to comment and say, we have the same issue on our 3rd row with the bottom of the seats. They are bent bad. looks like a design flaw.

 

[rdiggidy]

I joined just to be able to comment and say, we have the same issue on our 3rd row with the bottom of the seats. They are bent bad. looks like a design flaw.

Thanks for the response, at least I know I’m not the only one….

Tesla came out today and replaced the bent one….took 30 seconds. While the new one it isn’t catching at the moment, the tolerance is so tight I am sure it will again (with kids doing it).

I did notice that flipping the trunk floor upside down, while not a great solution, does allow a little room and may temporarily alleviate the problem while I try to come up with a more long term solution.

I may end up trying to cut the trunk floor piece to make some space in there….

 

[azyoungs]

Thanks for the response, at least I know I’m not the only one….

Tesla came out today and replaced the bent one….took 30 seconds. While the new one it isn’t catching at the moment, the tolerance is so tight I am sure it will again (with kids doing it).

I did notice that flipping the trunk floor upside down, while not a great solution, does allow a little room and may temporarily alleviate the problem while I try to come up with a more long term solution.

I may end up trying to cut the trunk floor piece to make some space in there….

Did you have any further issues with this? We looked at a Y yesterday that had this going on in the third row, very similar to your pictures.

 

[rdiggidy]

It’s just a bad design.

But I resolved the issue by cutting this piece off. That little filler piece is what the back seat catches on. I used an exacto knife.

It leaves a small gab between the back seat and the trunk piece (the width of the piece that was just cut off), but it resolves the bending back seat issue.

 

[WheresMyKeys]

FWIW I have a 7 seater in which the 3rd row has seen plenty weekly up / down use (down during the week, up on weekends) and haven't had this issue.

That said, I also nearly immediately after delivery put in the 3D Maxpider 7 seat trunk liner, and during use the floor liner fold and squeezes into the crack between the seat and the sub trunk cover, so I could see it sort of helping to prevent this specific issue.

 

[illusion]

FWIW I have a 7 seater in which the 3rd row has seen plenty weekly up / down use (down during the week, up on weekends) and haven't had this issue.

That said, I also nearly immediately after delivery put in the 3D Maxpider 7 seat trunk liner, and during use the floor liner fold and squeezes into the crack between the seat and the sub trunk cover, so I could see it sort of helping to prevent this specific issue.

No it does not . I have the 3d maxpider liner and it still got bent. Please be careful as it might happen with you too. Horrible design

 

[illusion]

View attachment 965040

It’s just a bad design.

But I resolved the issue by cutting this piece off. That little filler piece is what the back seat catches on. I used an exacto knife.

It leaves a small gab between the back seat and the trunk piece (the width of the piece that was just cut off), but it resolves the bending back seat issue.

Can you post more pictures of this . Just faced this issue and will like to see how your fix is holding up. Funny thing is I always kept my third row unfolded as once I folded it on the sear belt leaving a scar on the backrest. But there are times I just need to fold them and this happened

 

[hyp36rmax]

I don’t have this problem… at least yet. 4K miles.

 

[yamsta]

Seems like a design flaw in that the back covers of the 3rd row seats are not clipped in on the bottom. If you see this video you'll see the guy talks about it around the 7:34 mark.

I just picked up a new model Y last month and I also faced the issue. What I did to help was to make 4 holes on each seat back bottom and run a long zip tie and tie it around the brackets inside the seat. To do this I first popped off the seat backs--maybe 9 or 10 clips that all pop right off. Then made holes that correspond to where the zip tie would come out and then attached the seat backs again and cinched down the zip ties (pics below). Now the backs are completely flush and do not ever lift up. Its not the most cosmetically pleasing fix, but I do have 3DMaxspider seat back protectors that cover everything up.