Bodywork - Disconnect sensors/lights - Need to reset CPU?

[tonwes]

Planning to buy an S85 with quite some dents. Need to exchange the front bumper and two doors. One lower corner of a rear wing (door side, above battery) would require aluminium works, for which I visited a Tesla bodywork specialist. (see pic, but not relevant to this post).

Tesla bodyshop warned me that you cannot simply disconnect the electrics connected to bumper (e.g. sensors, fog lights) and doors (e.g. mirror, window switch/motor), as it would require a reset of the central CPU (and he does not wnat to do this as a service).

Is he right? Anybody experience with such exchanges of doors or bumpers?

Ton

 

[David.85D]

I’ve removed bumpers (with all the lights, parking distance sensors, etc) without needing a reset.

having worked on BMWs, I’d guess you would have trouble if you unplugged the door airbag (or any airbag) while the car was awake. Might even accidentally detonate. Local firefighter warned me about them... you should be able to properly shutdown the car (find the instructions, this is a very short version), disconnect the 12V battery, including the fireman’s loop, wait a bit for capacitors to discharge, do your work, then reconnect everything.

 

[tonwes]

@David.85D , shutting down comprises opening windows & trunks, closing various cpu's/screens using the console and then disconnecting the wires, am I right? It is a 2015, am I correct that the only way to disconnect is at the oddly placed battery underneath the air filter?

Anybody experience with disconnecting the wires to door air bags (after removing the 12V). Agree this is safe with no 12V?

Thanks for responses so far!

 

[David.85D]

“Anybody experience with disconnecting the wires to door air bags (after removing the 12V). Agree this is safe with no 12V?”


I would go farther - shutting down the 12V first is the only safe way. I’ll try to find a link for you tomorrow.

it’s pretty routine task in BMW world as they are always breaking window regulators. As bad as our door handle gears... the process was: Open all the doors and hatch. Get the windows where you want them, disconnect the battery. Wait. Wait more. Then unplug the airbag and disassemble the rest of the door

 

[David.85D]

P.S. if you didn’t do this first - again on BMW - you risked your fingers but were guaranteed to throw a code the moment you unplugged the airbag and would have an airbag warning light the normal cheap code readers couldn’t clear. That’s what you are trying to avoid here, since no one (or extremely few) has root and/or the Tesla software to clear errors.

 

[whitex]

@David.85D , shutting down comprises opening windows & trunks, closing various cpu's/screens using the console and then disconnecting the wires, am I right? It is a 2015, am I correct that the only way to disconnect is at the oddly placed battery underneath the air filter?

Anybody experience with disconnecting the wires to door air bags (after removing the 12V). Agree this is safe with no 12V?

Thanks for responses so far!

I had a ranger replace passenger side airbag on a 2015 MS (part of the Takata recall). He disconnected the HV battery (via the emergency responder loop) and then the 12V battery, after which he just opened the dash and replaced the airbag. After reconnecting everything, the car booted and that was it, there was no connecting laptop/toolbox or calling in any push from the mothership.

 

[tonwes]

...He disconnected the HV battery (via the emergency responder loop) and then the 12V battery, after which he just opened the dash and replaced the airbag. ...

Sound promissing. The HV might be an overkill. Any easy way to disconnect the 12V? The battery connectors would be the most logical way, but in the Tesla these seem tucked away under the dash air filter.

 

[KalJoMoS]

I just recently get front bumper off-and-on without any issues, even did not disconnect 12V. On front bumper it is one big connector behind RH front light that has both sensors and fog light attached, all is fine since.

 

[tonwes]

I would risk this with the front bumper, but with doors and air bags, I feel more comfortable disconnecting the 12V

 

[David.85D]

I just recently get front bumper off-and-on without any issues, even did not disconnect 12V. On front bumper it is one big connector behind RH front light that has both sensors and fog light attached, all is fine since.

I don’t disconnect 12V for bumpers either. Just airbags or other sensors/controllers that might cause an error code