Has anyone repaired cooling louvers?

[richrootes]

Just revisiting this, as I have now had everything apart, noted all of the actuators moving, and yet still get errors on the two ‘cond’ shutters

Also, the thermal check now available in the service menu requires the Gateway to be unlocked, so what’s the bloody point in that?

Pretty stumped now, as I don’t really want to pay out for two new louvre motors or mechanisms that appear to be functioning correctly. Interestingly, all of the actuator motors seem to have the same part number. Being connected in parallel (According to the wiring diagram) I guess they have to have their relative duty/purpose on the car hard coded somehow, otherwise how does the car know which one has errored?

Just to double check, the ‘rad’ shutters are the centre ones, and the ‘cond’ shutters are the louvres which are visible externally - is that right?

Cheers all

 

[MP3Mike]

Also, the thermal check now available in the service menu requires the Gateway to be unlocked, so what’s the bloody point in that?

Doesn't it provide instructions to unlock the Gateway? (From what I have seen you can unlock it yourself.)

From the service manual:

edit: it helps if you look at the correct service manual. Duh!

 

[richrootes]

Doesn't it provide instructions to unlock the Gateway? (From what I have seen you can unlock it yourself.)

From the service manual:
View attachment 949557
View attachment 949558

edit: it helps if you look at the correct service manual. Duh!

Doesn't it provide instructions to unlock the Gateway? (From what I have seen you can unlock it yourself.)

From the service manual:
View attachment 949557
View attachment 949558

edit: it helps if you look at the correct service manual. Duh!

Thank you, I’ll give that a go

I was having a poke around on here earlier and saw that the car can’t be plugged in whilst unlocking the Gateway, so maybe this was the issue I ran into (I did try the on screen instructions but thought you needed the RSA token as well)

 

[KalJoMoS]

Just to double check, the ‘rad’ shutters are the centre ones, and the ‘cond’ shutters are the louvres which are visible externally - is that right?

I would agree with this, as when they change one of the condenser cores (RHS on my car) then the part description was “condenser core sub-cool RH”

 

[ResHacker]

Just revisiting this, as I have now had everything apart, noted all of the actuators moving, and yet still get errors on the two ‘cond’ shutters

Yes, I also saw all the actuators smoothly moving without any issues. I'm having for all of them the feedback errors. Nevertheless supercharges still pretty fast, but with both fans at full speed trying to push as much air through radiator as possible, this makes a sense..

Interestingly, all of the actuator motors seem to have the same part number.

Yes, they have.. at least according to the service maual and also some photos I have seen confirmes it.

Being connected in parallel (According to the wiring diagram) I guess they have to have their relative duty/purpose on the car hard coded somehow, otherwise how does the car know which one has errored?

I guess, parallel connection will be done just on the power cords, but not the signal (probably LIN ones), or not? Otherwise there must be some identificator for each actuator specified and also ECU programmed/coded accordingly which I don't think so.

Just to double check, the ‘rad’ shutters are the centre ones, and the ‘cond’ shutters are the louvres which are visible externally - is that right?

Exactly, that is right

Thanks anyway much for your research as I still don't have time to fully focus on this topic (now having trouble with driver window regulator haha ). I think, there're two possible rootcauses:
1) hardware problem in the actuators as the feedback potentiometer resistive trace might be damaged (but for all of the actuators? lol, doesn't seem very likely...
2) some possible SW glitch/bug which I have been noted on TMC yet, might be cleared doing the thermal test or other similar process (THC unit FW flash or so, don't know), will have to ask somebody more experienced..

 

[richrootes]

Yes, I also saw all the actuators smoothly moving without any issues. I'm having for all of them the feedback errors. Nevertheless supercharges still pretty fast, but with both fans at full speed trying to push as much air through radiator as possible, this makes a sense..

Yes, they have.. at least according to the service maual and also some photos I have seen confirmes it.

I guess, parallel connection will be done just on the power cords, but not the signal (probably LIN ones), or not? Otherwise there must be some identificator for each actuator specified and also ECU programmed/coded accordingly which I don't think so.

Exactly, that is right

Thanks anyway much for your research as I still don't have time to fully focus on this topic (now having trouble with driver window regulator haha ). I think, there're two possible rootcauses:
1) hardware problem in the actuators as the feedback potentiometer resistive trace might be damaged (but for all of the actuators? lol, doesn't seem very likely...
2) some possible SW glitch/bug which I have been noted on TMC yet, might be cleared doing the thermal test or other similar process (THC unit FW flash or so, don't know), will have to ask somebody more experienced..

Thank you for replying

I did manage to run a thermal test - I originally couldn’t unlock my Gateway because the car was plugged in - big Doh! there

The car did its thing and ‘passed’ - but both Rad shutters failed, even though they open and close. If this is a bug, I wish they’d fix it - and I’m not someone who’ll fire the parts cannon at the car and just replace stuff that seems to be working. New Louvre assemblies aren’t cheap in Canada, but I’m starting to think substituting known good parts is the only sure-fire way here

I’m also wondering if the LIN feedback is resistive or does the motor report that it’s stalled? They must self calibrate, as each time you connect them to the car, they initially rotate in the same direction - you can have the flaps set to any position and they sort themselves out

 

[ResHacker]

Yes, exactly, neither am I as I also like to repair and understand things rather then just throw money out of my pocket. What comes to my mind when you have it apart, maybe you can try to switch one of the rad actuators with the cond one, what do you think? There must be some clear rootcause why this fault is triggered on and it's still not clear to me...Thanks a lot for the research anyway, much appreciated!

 

[maximizese]

I'm wondering if it's a software glitch in one of the patches over the last year. I'm getting two alerts in Service Mode for activeAero and the right radiator shutter no response, but I've confirmed that all shutters and louvers open and close when the car starts, while it's Supercharging, and I believe the shutters on each assembly have multiple positioning configurations. Yesterday while Supercharging I noticed the lower louvers were wide open and pretty but the upper louvers were open but at a sharper angle. Supercharging speeds where normal so I'm not in rush to chase this one down.

 

[ResHacker]

I'm wondering if it's a software glitch in one of the patches over the last year. I'm getting two alerts in Service Mode for activeAero and the right radiator shutter no response, but I've confirmed that all shutters and louvers open and close when the car starts, while it's Supercharging, and I believe the shutters on each assembly have multiple positioning configurations. Yesterday while Supercharging I noticed the lower louvers were wide open and pretty but the upper louvers were open but at a sharper angle. Supercharging speeds where normal so I'm not in rush to chase this one down.

For me there's no reaction of louvers to connection to SuC or wallbox. It just opens and closes repeatedly if I'm moving around the car with my key in the pocket Btw, what do you mean by lower and upper louvers? Those side ones in front of condensers? The upper and lower fins? They're all driven by one actuator on each side, so you probably have the mechanism damaged if the angle of them is much different.

 

[KalJoMoS]

New Louvre assemblies aren’t cheap in Canada, but I’m starting to think substituting known good parts is the only sure-fire way here

Just to be sure, and on the same page, the louvre assembly’s on the sides (RH/LH) are single units and the radiator unit is having two louvres at each side, but is actually one long assembly including car’s horn. What @ResHacker was suggesting was to test does the actuator exchange from the single unit to the centre radiator unit makes any difference?

 

[ResHacker]

What I'm suggesting is just to switch some "faulty" actuator with the ok one respecting the DTCs to see if it will influence the DTCs or not...whether it might be some electrical/physical problem with them itself or not.

 

[Hamen]

I'm wondering if it's a software glitch in one of the patches over the last year. I'm getting two alerts in Service Mode for activeAero and the right radiator shutter no response, but I've confirmed that all shutters and louvers open and close when the car starts, while it's Supercharging, and I believe the shutters on each assembly have multiple positioning configurations. Yesterday while Supercharging I noticed the lower louvers were wide open and pretty but the upper louvers were open but at a sharper angle. Supercharging speeds where normal so I'm not in rush to chase this one down.

How did you check the position of the two radiator louvers? As far as I know, there is no easy way to see them.

 

[maximizese]

How did you check the position of the two radiator louvers? As far as I know, there is no easy way to see them.

I could physically stick my hand through the left and right louvers. I wasn't able to physically verify the center but I ran the Thermal test in Service Mode and verified it was in proper working order. However, the test did signal the SHUTTER_RIGHT_RADIATOR as a failure. Interesting that there's differentiation between the left and right shutters for the radiator and condenser...I figured they were the same.

 

[richrootes]

I could physically stick my hand through the left and right louvers. I wasn't able to physically verify the center but I ran the Thermal test in Service Mode and verified it was in proper working order. However, the test did signal the SHUTTER_RIGHT_RADIATOR as a failure. Interesting that there's differentiation between the left and right shutters for the radiator and condenser...I figured they were the same.

No, there are four actuators all together - two for ‘rad’ and two for ‘cond’

You can get to your failed actuator to check it by removing the frunk - it’s held on to the large plastic cowling with two torx screws

 

[LonelyMS]

Guys, need advice/help.

Recently (a few weeks ago) I noticed lack of A/C power and a few days ago it stopped cooling completely. I am already scheduled at Tesla to do the refill, but after reading this thread I fear that also louvers arent functioning...

I've read they should open/close or cycle even after plugging in the AC, true? Or whats the best way to find out?

Also checking my service menu, error codes, it gives me:

THC_w0122_condLeftShutrNoFeedbk
THC_w0126_condRightShutrNoFeedbk
THC_d0018_activeAero

Car was bought 2nd hand, its 2015 70D model. I do recall checking the service error codes a few months ago and these were not active, so they are new...

Googling error codes return this thread: Model S 2014 - active alerts just in service mode
Where a guy said: The " thc_" items are not a problem but when I worked for Tesla I would clear mine. There is a toolbox sequence that can be run to re-sync the active aero flaps and will clear this. No chance a SC will do this anymore with the volume of customers they have now.

 

[ResHacker]

I guess, parallel connection will be done just on the power cords, but not the signal (probably LIN ones), or not? Otherwise there must be some identificator for each actuator specified and also ECU programmed/coded accordingly which I don't think so.

Sorry guys, just correcting myself as those actuators really uses LIN they're wired in parallel including the bus. What I have learned, there might be run some auto-addressing protocol to easily determine the position of each actuator. So in case of removal/replacement it should be auto addressed again. Nice explanation made here. Nevertheless still not clear the rootcause of those no feedback errors which THC ECU is throwing us. As for me all of the louvers are sending it, I might buy one working actuator and try to switch it with some of the faulty one...

 

[ResHacker]

Recently (a few weeks ago) I noticed lack of A/C power and a few days ago it stopped cooling completely. I am already scheduled at Tesla to do the refill, but after reading this thread I fear that also louvers arent functioning...

The lack of A/C power will be most likely connected with something else apart the louvers problem. Nevertheless it is interesting there's no other fault connected with AC triggered. I have triggered the same errors including also the radiator louvers and AC itself works just fine. The only downside which I believe is caused by the not properly working louvers are the fans running at full speed = very laud when AC preconditioning or car charging on SuC while high temps outside.

I've read they should open/close or cycle even after plugging in the AC, true? Or whats the best way to find out?

Yes, after each AC/DC connection they're supposed to cycle. Or even after a car access attempt + also during FW upgrade.

Googling error codes return this thread: Model S 2014 - active alerts just in service mode
Where a guy said: The " thc_" items are not a problem but when I worked for Tesla I would clear mine. There is a toolbox sequence that can be run to re-sync the active aero flaps and will clear this. No chance a SC will do this anymore with the volume of customers they have now.

I have also read this info and also seems to me most like a sw bug. I have scheduled a SC visit, so will ask them whether there's any way it can be cleared by some sync or whatever procedure, will inform there.

 

[LonelyMS]

Right, so they both are not working and they are closed, so not stuck open due to some damage or similar.

Its odd that both of them would malfunction at the same time, unless they are both connected to the same "relay"? Hopefully its just some "calibration" error that can be quickly resolved. I am schedueled on friday so will report back.

 

[ResHacker]

Right, so they both are not working and they are closed, so not stuck open due to some damage or similar.

Mine also doesn't respond on the mentioned triggers (connected charger or so..). But as I have mentioned in the thread above, while I'm moving around the car with the key in my pocket, they started opening/closing repeatedly without any issue.

Its odd that both of them would malfunction at the same time, unless they are both connected to the same "relay"?

This also turns my suggestion towards a SW glitch. There's no "relay", as they all seems to be connected parallel on one signal line fed by LIN protocol. Yes please, report back and hope they're not going to force you instantly into a replacement instead of proper diagnosis I know it might be in many cases much faster and less painful, but we want to learn here something about our loved cars, or not?

 

[KalJoMoS]

Right, so they both are not working and they are closed, so not stuck open due to some damage or similar.

Have you seen this discussion, there is this simple test to clarify what is broken and how it will be fixed.