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Late 2016 / Early 2017 S Owners: How Are Your Daytime Running Lights Holding Up?

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Mine went out after 5 and 7 months of ownership, both replaced november 10th 2019, After washing the car next day, drivers side was faulty again (go figure), so had it replaced 2 weeks later. Hope these last a bit longer. (took delivery Dec 7th, 2018)
 
It's not the light bulb, it's the piece of plastic that conducts the light apparently.

No. The entire assembly must be replaced. The DRL is integral to that piece. I cannot find the courtesy invoice that states a $2200 price for that assembly; let's forget that price was ever mentioned. Prices for new parts on ebay are considerably less and even with a shop rate of $150-175/hour and a $800 price for a light assembly from Tesla (for instance) there is no way it could have been $2200 except through my faulty memory!
 
Well, a mobile tech replaced both headlights today. For now, all I can say is that I miss my old lights with burnt DRLs.

All the action happened during daylight and silly me let him go without taking the car back to the garage and making him check height alignment. I only asked and he said "generally they come set up properly from the factory" (Spoiler: They do not!).

Night time came and sure enough the left light is stuck in the lowest position possible. Basically the hot spot is 15 feet in front of the car. Maybe not clear from the picture but it's way to low to safely drive at night. The right one needs adjustment too but that's fine.

Here comes the fun part. Apparently the height adjustment mechanism is not working on the left light. I can spin it, I see the little plastic thing spin and go in/come out but there is zero movement in the light beam :confused:


Bonus headache: the right headlight assembly is not aligned properly. What's in the picture is the pointy end toward the nose. It sticks way too far out.


Both replacement headlights appeared to be completely new from the factory with 11/2019 date on the stickers.

Stand by for the conclusion after the next appointment (hopefully in a few days)

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Welcome to the best of Tesla service...

One of my lights isn't aligned properly with the quarter panel after replacing as well but it's within "Tesla tolerance" so I don't mind. It's not like this is a Kia where all the things are properly aligned.

Right, that's not going to bother me too much either, especially knowing that I can just fix it myself if I get too bored. I kept watching the tech today and taking off the frunk, bumper and headlights is really easy. No special tools needed.

Here's a naked pic of the front, just some eye candy :)

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It's not the light bulb, it's the piece of plastic that conducts the light apparently.
not sure if this has bee nsaid previously but I think the DRL part of the light assembly is CFL not LED. it seems to be the CFL aka fluorescent tube failing prematurely.
This also negates a diy/local shop repair as the tube would be a custom part.
Problem with a CFL is typically shorter life than LED, the flip side being that only one CFL is required where you would need mabe 20 LEDs any one of which could fail.
Some enterprising headlight guru might be able to strip one down and work out how to put in an LED strip instead - that would be a great mod for those out of warranty, and could even be done with the same unit, so no recoding necessary.
 
not sure if this has bee nsaid previously but I think the DRL part of the light assembly is CFL not LED. it seems to be the CFL aka fluorescent tube failing prematurely.
This also negates a diy/local shop repair as the tube would be a custom part.
Problem with a CFL is typically shorter life than LED, the flip side being that only one CFL is required where you would need mabe 20 LEDs any one of which could fail.
Some enterprising headlight guru might be able to strip one down and work out how to put in an LED strip instead - that would be a great mod for those out of warranty, and could even be done with the same unit, so no recoding necessary.
The DRL strips are absolutely not fluorescent bulbs. They’re LED.
 
Apparently the height adjustment mechanism is not working on the left light. I can spin it, I see the little plastic thing spin and go in/come out but there is zero movement in the light beam

Update on this, maybe helpful for other getting new headlights. I fixed the thing myself.

As I said the height adjustment was spinning freely and the mechanism was not moving the beam. I turned it all the way to the low end (where the beam apparently was stuck) and forcing it just a tiny bit, the mechanism "popped on", caught the rack, not sure how to explain but from there it started working and I could raise the beam to where it needs to be. Great quality control :confused:

All good now but I have to say the beam pattern makes the headlights one of the weakest points of the Model S. Can't believe they couldn't get some better quality lights made.

By the way, both units are brand new (11/2019), made in Mexico.
 
not sure if this has bee nsaid previously but I think the DRL part of the light assembly is CFL not LED. it seems to be the CFL aka fluorescent tube failing prematurely.
This also negates a diy/local shop repair as the tube would be a custom part.
Problem with a CFL is typically shorter life than LED, the flip side being that only one CFL is required where you would need mabe 20 LEDs any one of which could fail.
Some enterprising headlight guru might be able to strip one down and work out how to put in an LED strip instead - that would be a great mod for those out of warranty, and could even be done with the same unit, so no recoding necessary.
I’d settle for just knowing which wire to cut to turn them off. They’re not required in the US and frankly they’re so dim I’m not sure they really help that much anyhow. Ideally, Tesla would just put a switch in the software to turn them off the way you can with the HID assemblies