Headrest shatters vanity mirror

[Rottenapplr]

I was cleaning my car, and moving the driver's seat forward and up so that I could vacuum behind it. The plan was to move it as far forward and as far up as possible to get the as much access as I could to clean all the nook and crannies. Didn't expect the seat to move far enough to damage anything, so I wasn't watching the top of the seat. Instead I was watching the bottom so I could see when it stopped moving in each direction.

I discovered the hard way that, surprisingly, it is possible to push the headrest right up into the sun visor with enough force to shatter the vanity mirror!

If you want to try this yourself (why would you?)... Start with the seat bottom all the way down as far as it will go. Tilt the seatback as far forward as possible. Then, tilt the back of the seat bottom as high as it will go. Finally lift the seat bottom up while watching the headrest. You'll discover that the headrest will come into contact with the visor, and that you'll still have some travel distance available to you. If you continue to raise the seat bottom, you'll hear a cracking sound and the mirror will be shattered.

Note that when this happens accidentally, your heart will sink as you instantly fear that you've cracked the glass roof. Then as you glance up and see where the top of the headrest is, you'll realize that it was ONLY the vanity mirror.

All that being said... Does anybody have any experience with replacing that mirror? Will I need a whole new visor, or can I just replace the mirror? How much might it cost? I'll be calling the service center tomorrow morning.

Didn’t know the chair when up that high.

 

[wondering]

I also discovered my passenger vanity mirror was cracked. They now want $142 to repair.

 

[davidk2213]

I'm in the same boat, anyone get it repaired for free?

 

[jaykaye]

Just noticed my driver side one is cracked in exactly the same way.
I can't imagine Tesla covering it under warranty, so I will likely need to have it fixed at cost to me.
Does anyone know if it's possible to only change the mirror? My assumption is the whole visor will need to be changed.

 

[Durzel]

So I’m a victim of this now, doing the exact same thing as the OP. Still, at least it wasn’t the roof glass.

Kicking myself as all I was doing was installing some vent covers over the HVAC holes under the seats. $8 on Aliexpress has turned into $150+

How do you actually remove the sun visor? I can’t see any obvious way of doing it. I’m guessing because it’s lighted that it’s not as simple as one might think...

 

[jaykaye]

The visor itself will need to be replaced as I dont think there is a way to replace only the glass.

If you ask your SC nicely they may do it under warranty. Although, im not sure if they are obligated to.

 

[MarsOrBust]

Looks like a lot of you guys are now cursed with 7 years bad luck.

 

[Loltes]

I'm reviving this old post to see if anyone was able to get this fixed by Tesla without cost to yourself. I just became the victim of the same issue :-(

Me too! I’ve just done it and was hoping for an easy fix

 

[Huskyfan]

Anyone able to get it repaired under warranty? If enough folks make a claim to NHTSA i think they can force a service call bulletin or something like that which will require Tesla to repair or modify to stop from occurring. May only be for safety related issues. Mine is also broken. Moved seat very far forward and up to vacuum under seats.

 

[Durzel]

Anecdotally I heard of a woman on our local Facebook group who was told it was chargeable, but when she demoed the seat going too far forward at her local service centre they did it for free as a goodwill gesture.

I got nowhere trying to argue that the car shouldn't let you move the seat that far forward, and had to pay for it in full.

 

[ellpapidomi28]

I was cleaning my car, and moving the driver's seat forward and up so that I could vacuum behind it. The plan was to move it as far forward and as far up as possible to get the as much access as I could to clean all the nook and crannies. Didn't expect the seat to move far enough to damage anything, so I wasn't watching the top of the seat. Instead I was watching the bottom so I could see when it stopped moving in each direction.

I discovered the hard way that, surprisingly, it is possible to push the headrest right up into the sun visor with enough force to shatter the vanity mirror!

If you want to try this yourself (why would you?)... Start with the seat bottom all the way down as far as it will go. Tilt the seatback as far forward as possible. Then, tilt the back of the seat bottom as high as it will go. Finally lift the seat bottom up while watching the headrest. You'll discover that the headrest will come into contact with the visor, and that you'll still have some travel distance available to you. If you continue to raise the seat bottom, you'll hear a cracking sound and the mirror will be shattered.

Note that when this happens accidentally, your heart will sink as you instantly fear that you've cracked the glass roof. Then as you glance up and see where the top of the headrest is, you'll realize that it was ONLY the vanity mirror.

All that being said... Does anybody have any experience with replacing that mirror? Will I need a whole new visor, or can I just replace the mirror? How much might it cost? I'll be calling the service center tomorrow morning.

Same thing just happened to me that is stupid that they would allow it to go that far

 

[lisajeano]

I was cleaning my car, and moving the driver's seat forward and up so that I could vacuum behind it. The plan was to move it as far forward and as far up as possible to get the as much access as I could to clean all the nook and crannies. Didn't expect the seat to move far enough to damage anything, so I wasn't watching the top of the seat. Instead I was watching the bottom so I could see when it stopped moving in each direction.

I discovered the hard way that, surprisingly, it is possible to push the headrest right up into the sun visor with enough force to shatter the vanity mirror!

If you want to try this yourself (why would you?)... Start with the seat bottom all the way down as far as it will go. Tilt the seatback as far forward as possible. Then, tilt the back of the seat bottom as high as it will go. Finally lift the seat bottom up while watching the headrest. You'll discover that the headrest will come into contact with the visor, and that you'll still have some travel distance available to you. If you continue to raise the seat bottom, you'll hear a cracking sound and the mirror will be shattered.

Note that when this happens accidentally, your heart will sink as you instantly fear that you've cracked the glass roof. Then as you glance up and see where the top of the headrest is, you'll realize that it was ONLY the vanity mirror.

All that being said... Does anybody have any experience with replacing that mirror? Will I need a whole new visor, or can I just replace the mirror? How much might it cost? I'll be calling the service center tomorrow morning.

That happened to me also!

 

[Baymax3]

Cracked my passenger mirror when loading stuff at Ikea. Contacted mobile service and they say its to a warranty item and they will not cover it. Personally think that its a design flaw, movement of chair should be programable like the memory seats to prevent this type of damage from happening.

 

[dhanson865]

Is this just a Model 3 issue or would moving the seat be the exact same issue in a Model Y?

Also looking at the side view it looks like the workaround (if you think about it ahead of time) is to flip the visor down before raising/tilting the seat to clean. Presumably then the headrest would push on the headliner without cracking anything.

 

[stopcrazypp]

Cracked my passenger mirror when loading stuff at Ikea. Contacted mobile service and they say its to a warranty item and they will not cover it. Personally think that its a design flaw, movement of chair should be programable like the memory seats to prevent this type of damage from happening.

The seats in my 2021 Model 3 SR+ don't go far forward enough to crack it (at least at the height I set it at) so this may have been fixed in later revisions. There is a limit to how far forward and back it goes (I tried with the headrest taken out and also rear bench taken out, the front seat stops before it touches anything). I actually would prefer if seat can go even further forward, as I can remove the headrest and it'll make loading longer cargo more viable without having to put down both seats.

But generally warranty doesn't really cover cases like this. They may cover it under goodwill for a special case though or charge labor only.

 

[roblab]

Vanity, vanity, all is vanity. Even when cracked. I'd bet it's covered, but if not, how much could a new visor cost? At least now all of us will be very aware of where the seat back is while we're cleaning.

 

[rotarypower101]

Was this solved on later revisions?
If yes, when? What ~production date