How to tell if mobile access is turned off?

[JMG]

Do you get a specific pop up on your mobile app telling you that it has been turned off, or does it just fail to connect to the car?

I ask because my Model S is in the body shop (two weeks today). See my old thread for why. Anyway, like any "normal" owner on this forum would do...:wink:, I've been watching it's movements closely and often. One thing I've found frustrating is that it would be moved out from the back (locked and gated storage lot) into the front parking lot and it would be left there all day. It would sit in this exact same spot from 8 AM to 5:50PM without being moved. So I know these are days that it is sitting without any work being done on it. Of the 10 business days it has been at the shop, I'd say 75% of the time this was the case. In fact, I never saw it actually inside a building until just a few days ago when I finally called them out on it.

After an email from my service writer that said, "unfortunately repairs are taking longer on your Tesla because of the location of the charge port" . I kindly replied back with "I understand, thanks for the update. Out of curiosity, did we have to order replacement parts? Or is your Tesla specialists busy with others? Because I've noticed that it will sit in the exact same parking spot outside in the front parking lot all day without being touched for majority of the days it's been at the shop. I'd like to know because the insurance company only allowed me a specific number of days of rental car coverage based upon your estimate of how long it will take to fix the car." About 35 minutes later, the car was moved into a bay and the trunk and rear door were open, and it was charging.....amazing.

So now, as of this past weekend, I can't access it at all. Ever since Saturday, it just has the little circle and won't connect. I even downloaded VisibleTesla and it won't connect either. Just curious if they finally just turned off remote access.

 

[trils0n]

You will get a message remote access has been turned off when you try to access it with the app.

 

[green1]

it's possible (likely) that if they are actively working on the vehicle that they disconnected the 12V battery, that would prevent any communication to the vehicle.

 

[JMG]

it's possible (likely) that if they are actively working on the vehicle that they disconnected the 12V battery, that would prevent any communication to the vehicle.

I hope this is the reason! I still can't connect and it isn't giving me a message that remote access has been turned off. I haven't been able to connect for about 2-3 days, so hopefully that's a good sign that they are working on it.

Thanks both for the responses!

 

[green1]

Of course it only indicates that they started work, not what pace they are working at or how many breaks they take from the work...

 

[TomServo]

I think at this point I'd drop by the facility and see what's going on.

 

[Tuan]

They turned mine off when I dropped the car off for wind-noise service. I had to turn it back on after they were done.

 

[mknox]

You will get a message remote access has been turned off when you try to access it with the app.

I've never seen that... it just times out and fails to connect. I have an iPhone. Could it be different on Android?

My car was in a Tesla approved body shop a while back and I noticed that I couldn't connect (as described above). I called the shop to find out why and they told me it was their "policy" to turn remote access off just like Tesla does when the car is in Tesla shop.

With "Valet Mode" blocking the ability to turn remote access on or off now, I wonder how shops will deal with this going forward? Wonder if there is some secret override code that Tesla has to get past Valet Mode? I think it's likely.

 

[Cyclone]

The last time my car when to Tesla for service, I forget to engage Valet Mode, and they never turned off remote access. They did replace the 12v positive terminal, so there was a while I presume the car had no 12v battery connected and I couldn't connect then. Currently, my car is with them again, but with Valet Mode on. Tesla does have access to bypass Valet mode and disable remote access, but again, they have not.

 

[JMG]

I think at this point I'd drop by the facility and see what's going on.

I would have certainly by now, but it's an hour and a half drive for me.

Still no access as of this morning, and no return to my email I sent yesterday morning.

 

[Lump]

Service center scraped my front bumper fortunately I had XPEL on it so they took it down to my installer to have the XPEL replaced, remote access was turned off the entire weekend so I couldn't see its location or status, anytime Tesla hands off the car to a third party RA should not be allowed to be turned off.

If they retrofit parking sensors (goodwill) this all could have been avoided :biggrin:.

 

[JPP]

...anybody know if Valet mode locks the remote access???

 

[Cyclone]

...anybody know if Valet mode locks the remote access???

It does. When in Valet Mode, you cannot change Remote Access.

 

[Lump]

Frunk is locked while in valet mode so in my situation & probably other instances access to the trunk would be needed, the option to exclude locking the frunk or a all new service mode can be thrown in the suggestion box.

 

[mknox]

Frunk is locked while in valet mode so in my situation & probably other instances access to the trunk would be needed, the option to exclude locking the frunk or a all new service mode can be thrown in the suggestion box.

Curious to know what the use case for the frunk might be. I for one like the idea that it is locked out for many reasons, not the least of which is so that some curious valet doesn't open it to "check it out" then slam it down incorrectly causing a dent or crease. Couldn't you put whatever you need access to in the rear trunk when valet mode is needed?

 

[Ingineer]

Curious to know what the use case for the frunk might be. I for one like the idea that it is locked out for many reasons, not the least of which is so that some curious valet doesn't open it to "check it out" then slam it down incorrectly causing a dent or crease. Couldn't you put whatever you need access to in the rear trunk when valet mode is needed?

Well, if it's in for service, they might need access under there for many reasons. Fluid check, Battery, fuses, etc.

 

[mknox]

Well, if it's in for service, they might need access under there for many reasons. Fluid check, Battery, fuses, etc.

Right. I was thinking of non-Tesla Service scenarios. But even in the Service scenario, I believe Tesla has a code to over-ride Valet Mode anyway if they needed to get in there.

 

[Cyclone]

Right. I was thinking of non-Tesla Service scenarios. But even in the Service scenario, I believe Tesla has a code to over-ride Valet Mode anyway if they needed to get in there.

Indeed they do

 

[lucy]

Nov 2016 - supposedly this is a "new" thing. My car got damaged while waiting for service (sounds like this happens a lot, WTF?), and since there was an open ticket for repair, even though I did get possession of my car back until the service and repair could be completed, remote access had been disabled by Tesla. Unfortunately they DID NOT INFORM ME of this, I was going nuts deleting, reinstalling, resetting, etc. By reading this thread I see that it is maybe not a new thing, yet another fib told to the customer.

Just wondering how they are going to handle things once the tide swells with Model 3 owners in a few years. If not for this site we would all be in the absolute dark instead of just wearing very dirty glasses.

 

[OCRyan]

I can confirm that this is a new thing. I picked up my car from service on Friday and the app kept saying that mobile access was not enabled. I double checked, triple checked, logged out, logged in, uninstalled, re-installed, etc... Finally I called support. They said that there is a new feature that will lock you out if there is an open repair order. I guess the login process checks this database now and if it finds an open order it gives you the message. They told me to call my service center and have them close out the repair order. I did and then the app started working fine. I would hope that a future app update would give a more informative error message.