Wiki Consolidated eMMC Thread (MCU repair) (Black Center Screen)

[David99]

Personally I'd be more worried about parking brake not holding and the car rolling away.

The parking brake is a screw type system. It's a simple motor with a planetary gear set on a threaded bolt. Think about it like a bolt that you tighten and at the end is the brake pad that gets pushed onto the rotor. Once it is it tight, it won't come lose unless the motor actively untightens it. Losing power cannot loosen the parking brake.

 

[Shadious]

Thanks for the information and advice. Much appreciated. I may just have AAA tow it to the service center because I have plenty of free tow miles to use anyway. What is shocking is the Tesla doesn't even advise that there are ANY issues driving without an eMMC. They seem to think it's no big deal to drive this car for two weeks without an eMMC (luckily I have other cars to drive and we aren't really going anywhere) but it seems like a real liability issue.

My wife has also decided not to order the Model Y as a result of seeing what is going on with the S. I am more wiling to put up some issues because I like the car, but seeing that screen go out she lost faith in the idea of a car where everything goes through one screen....

Before buying my model S, I did a ton of research and realized that there were about 4 or 5 common problems with the Model S. The eMMC chip, the screens, the door handles and more recently the dreaded shudder. I am mentally prepared to dea with these issues as they come up and will upgrade/improve the car when that is an option. I agree that the eMMC chip issue is a problem, but it was one that I was mentally prepared for, so it was a bit less difficult for me to swallow. Good luck with whatever car you get instead of the model Y. I can’t imagine what I would want in place of a Telsa at this point...

 

[TonyT]

I assume the missing footnote meant to be at the bottom was going to say "MCU dead but not missing, i.e. still present and all plugged into the car"? With MCU physically removed the main issue is 12V battery dies within hours, after which nothing works.

Nope, I copied and pasted since IronPig was not sure what to expect with dead MCU/eMMC. I should have cleaned it up but was in a rush, Hopefully he got the full details on the main post.

 

[TonyT]

Thanks for the information and advice. Much appreciated. I may just have AAA tow it to the service center because I have plenty of free tow miles to use anyway. What is shocking is the Tesla doesn't even advise that there are ANY issues driving without an eMMC. They seem to think it's no big deal to drive this car for two weeks without an eMMC (luckily I have other cars to drive and we aren't really going anywhere) but it seems like a real liability issue.

My wife has also decided not to order the Model Y as a result of seeing what is going on with the S. I am more wiling to put up some issues because I like the car, but seeing that screen go out she lost faith in the idea of a car where everything goes through one screen....

Yeah, I don't recommend anyone drive it that way if they are not comfortable.

Tesla is a great car, however service may be challenging in future as they continue to expand and really get into the masses and have to service much more people. Hopefully leadership can provide the Service Centers what they need to service all the demand.

I do want them to do really well as I cant see myself driving anything else.

 

[TonyT]

Chip replacement at the SC would be extremely impractical - it's not rocket science but a car repair shop usually doesn't have the tools or staff trained in how to do BGA chip replacements (or deal with possible complications which may arise during a rework). HOWEVER, in this case the solution was obvious, rather than replacing the entire MCU they should have simply replaced the Tegra module, which is absolutely something well within a car repair shop competency. Such repair would be very comparable to the LTE upgrade (which replaces another module inside the MCU), so $500 price instead of $2,500 - and that's at Tesla level pricing (the module itself is much cheaper, for example a similar board but with more memory and using much newer processor retails at $99).

Whether or not the board would have a larger emmc is a secondary issue, as to do that they might have to re-qual the board and its software, which could be expensive so I'm not sure how the economics of that work out, but even with just a brand new 8GB chip and lowered logging, this $500 repair would go a long way.

Would be great if they offer Tegra only replacement. There are a few big things that could be serviced much cheaper if they broke it down.

I will be installing a Jetson in my car soon! But it's not a Nano and it's not going into the MCU.

 

[whitex]

..

The parking brake is a screw type system. It's a simple motor with a planetary gear set on a threaded bolt. Think about it like a bolt that you tighten and at the end is the brake pad that gets pushed onto the rotor. Once it is it tight, it won't come lose unless the motor actively untightens it. Losing power cannot loosen the parking brake.

Yea, but if the car says something is wrong, it may not be working correctly (or at all), hence my suggestion to check each to see if you can see/hear each parking brake engage/disengage. Car says it's not disengaging, but you can drive and roll just fine, something IS malfunctioning.

 

[whitex]

Would be great if they offer Tegra only replacement. There are a few big things that could be serviced much cheaper if they broke it down.

I will be installing a Jetson in my car soon! But it's not a Nano and it's not going into the MCU.

Since Tesla is not letting the customers keep the old MCU's, this is a great profitable operation for Tesla. They are effectively charging $1,800 to replace a $10 EMMC (so let's assume the total cost is $200 with all the rework and testing) - taking advantage of their monopoly. Service Centers are not profit centers (per Elon)? ROFL. The only reason SC's are not making money is because they eat all the warranty repair costs, factory corrections, and Beta replacement costs when Tesla deploys a failed new experiment (my 2017 Model S required 3 or 4 mirror assembly replacements because Tesla rolled out a new design without testing it and it kept failing every 2-4 weeks until engineering finally rolled out a fixed part. If Service Centers were to bill Tesla for all warranty repairs like with all other auto manufacturers, they would be amazingly profitable.

 

[sdoorex]

If Service Centers were to bill Tesla for all warranty repairs like with all other auto manufacturers, they would be amazingly profitable.

That would also be a great incentive for Tesla to get it right, or mostly right, the first time. Instead there are a lot of cars like our with multiple replacements of the same components though in my case it has been the door handles thrice and the MCU which had both the yellow border and eMMC failure. That's among a plethora of other warranty replacements whereas my wife's Ford, which we have had for a longer time but put a little less mileage on, has had just a single warranty replaced item which was a failed 12V to 120V inverter.

 

[IronPig]

Yeah, I don't recommend anyone drive it that way if they are not comfortable.

Tesla is a great car, however service may be challenging in future as they continue to expand and really get into the masses and have to service much more people. Hopefully leadership can provide the Service Centers what they need to service all the demand.

I do want them to do really well as I cant see myself driving anything else.

I ended up driving it in today. The only thing I regret is driving without the turn signals. I wasn't sure if it was just the indicators on the screen that weren't working or the actual lights. Turned out it was the lights. The hazards work but the turn signals do not.

The other issue I realized is that it hadn't been charging at all. Luckily I had a full battery when it died so the drain from the last two weeks wasn't enough to limit my range to get to the service center safely.

 

[IronPig]

Before buying my model S, I did a ton of research and realized that there were about 4 or 5 common problems with the Model S. The eMMC chip, the screens, the door handles and more recently the dreaded shudder. I am mentally prepared to dea with these issues as they come up and will upgrade/improve the car when that is an option. I agree that the eMMC chip issue is a problem, but it was one that I was mentally prepared for, so it was a bit less difficult for me to swallow. Good luck with whatever car you get instead of the model Y. I can’t imagine what I would want in place of a Telsa at this point...

That's wise. As long as you are ok with these issues and possibly driving a car with no eMMC etc, it's fine.

I ordered my Model S in early 2014. At the time I could see the door handles would be an issue because it's a dumb design, but a lot of the other issues - and particularly the degradation of the service center experience - were not known to me. But of course we got the extended warranty at the time because it's a new car and company.

I live in LA and also can't imagine driving anything other than an electric car on a daily basis. To date nobody has been able to deliver anything close to the experience of owning a Tesla. But the Taycan changes that.... The fit and finish of the Taycan is something Tesla won't be able to match for a long time. I will be eager to see what issues it has over the next two years as I will likely sell this S when the extended warranty expires.

As for the model Y for the wife, she needs to feel safe and confident in the reliability of her car. She might just do another round in a Prius - which she loves. I am pretty sure she would love the 3 or the Y and maybe we'll still get her one at some point, but her feelings about technology and risk/inconvenience mitigation are different than mine and I have to respect that.

 

[Dave Smith]

It's odd with how much Tesla has had to spend replacing the parts of motors, lights, batteries, and MCUs . That they are seeming to go down the road toward hoping that people will over look the design flaws to just have something with that magical "T" on it.

Now I'm not even going to pretend I didn't just take on one heck of a project to basically polish up an older model S to use as my daily driver. I to over looked some basic things to accept owning a used Tesla. So buying one new for 2 to 4 times the cost those small issues become quite large.

It's a special type of car. And being a first leaves it with the growing pains of being just that. Maybe we all have gotten used to how conventional cars are made. tiny changes every 4 or 5 years. Staying with in the safety box at all times. some come out with major appeal while others just seem to be on the assembly line to be the style item of the year.

Considering how fast Tesla came into the spot light and seemed to just thrash everything. I think Tesla has let that go to their head. forgetting what makes them special. It's pretty close to how apple has the outside appearance of the ideal tech company but deep down inside there are issues. Perhaps Tesla as a whole should share the issues more openly, work together with third party shops to make a more complete experience for people out side of the rebellious DYI owners.

I'm lucky that my wife has been accepting of going with an electric vehicle and accepting the possible growing pains. Along with the list of minor things I have to address.

 

[quack724]

I think I'm part of the club. Jan 2016 MS 85D. Center screen blank (but drivers screen ok). i could not connect to the car via the mobile app. Went to the car and held both scroll buttons for 4 minutes twice. Also tried both scroll buttons and pressing down brake for 4 minutes and still no go. Im the past 6 months, I had warning indicators where I would lose connectivity and blank center sceen but during these previous times , the issue was resolved by holding the two scroll buttons for a few minutes, Not today. I think my luck ran out. I am in the SF Bay area. I know of EVfixme , but is there a local bay area shop that could do the same? I don't really want to take apart the car. A friend mentioned Phil Sadow in Berkeley ? Anyone ever get this fix from him?

I was able to connect with Tony and one of Tony's customers who can help me with disassembly and reassembly. My total expected cost will be about 40% cheaper than getting a MCU 1 replacement from Tesla SC. I don't really want to go MCU1 replacement route as I believe it will simply fail for the same reason again. I don't mind paying 40% less but it's still a heft sum. I just want to be sure I am fixing the right problem. Given what I described above, are there other possible root causes that could have led my screen to go dark and not come back?

 

[EV-Fixme]

We have fixed over 300 like this

I was able to connect with Tony and one of Tony's customers who can help me with disassembly and reassembly. My total expected cost will be about 40% cheaper than getting a MCU 1 replacement from Tesla SC. I don't really want to go MCU1 replacement route as I believe it will simply fail for the same reason again. I don't mind paying 40% less but it's still a heft sum. I just want to be sure I am fixing the right problem. Given what I described above, are there other possible root causes that could have led my screen to go dark and not come back?

We have fixed over 300 like this. Just hoping we get it before files are lost.

 

[dZeiS]

Today, a local Tesla SvC fixed the missing keys (after MCU blackout and 3rd party memory change) with the help of Tesla Europe via remote connection. Now everything works again.

I was charged 350 Euros ($375) and the car was in for 7 hours (mainly waiting for the support from Tesla Europe).

 

[world101]

Today, a local Tesla SvC fixed the missing keys (after MCU blackout and 3rd party memory change) with the help of Tesla Europe via remote connection. Now everything works again.

I was charged 350 Euros ($375) and the car was in for 7 hours (mainly waiting for the support from Tesla Europe).

What did you say to the service center to get them to replace the VPN keys? I’m in the same situation with an unreadable eMMC.

 

[EV-Fixme]

Today, a local Tesla SvC fixed the missing keys (after MCU blackout and 3rd party memory change) with the help of Tesla Europe via remote connection. Now everything works again.

I was charged 350 Euros ($375) and the car was in for 7 hours (mainly waiting for the support from Tesla Europe).

Awesome, I'm glad they are starting to allow it there with the more consumer friendly right repair laws. Hopefully we can get that level of service in US also soon.

 

[dZeiS]

What did you say to the service center to get them to replace the VPN keys? I’m in the same situation with an unreadable eMMC.

Here is what I wrote in the app appointment text field:

 

[4hpx]

@Tony, I am a new member here with model X having the mcu rebooting issue. I need help. I don’t know how to message you. Could you please pm me? Thanks!

 

[Dreaminofsurf]

@TonyT, also a new member here. 2013 model S. My wife notices the Bluetooth dropped, then the music. Now turn signals. Sounds to me like the eMMC.

I need to build my forum cred.. before i can PM

 

[dZeiS]

After having my car back online, I noticed that the liftgate doesn't work in app. Nor the frunk or opening the locks. Other functions work normally.

I have now factory reseted the car, updated the fw to the latest version, removed and installed the app on my phone but nothing helps.

Any clue? I think Tesla missed some cert file that needed to be recovered. I'll send them a message so they can check what's wrong with it.