Welcome to Tesla Motors Club
Discuss Tesla's Model S, Model 3, Model X, Model Y, Cybertruck, Roadster and More.
Register

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

This site may earn commission on affiliate links.
Exactly my predicament yet when the ranger came to replace my right side he stood back and said "you know you may want to put in a request to get the left one swapped out, it looks more yellow than the new one". sigh. I might just wait a bit before I do that.

my biggest problem with this issue is that I have PPF on the front end, including headlights. So, every time a headlight is replaced, I have to get new PPF installed on it. That’s not cheap.
 
They may be losing serious money on these. June 2018 and they already replaced 5. One more incoming. Whoever makes them if not Tesla should be out of business by now.

Honestly it's surprising that Tesla is still replacing these. They stopped replacing the screens for yellowing and refuse to fix my instrument cluster screen with a yellow border. DRL's aren't legally mandated in the US are they? Or have they become? Maybe it's because they're considered a safety feature that they aren't refusing to replace.
 
Honestly it's surprising that Tesla is still replacing these. They stopped replacing the screens for yellowing and refuse to fix my instrument cluster screen with a yellow border. DRL's aren't legally mandated in the US are they? Or have they become? Maybe it's because they're considered a safety feature that they aren't refusing to replace.
Totally disagree. They are under warranty. The LCD is somehow different because they did come with a fix. They fixed for me both LCDs with the same tool.
 
Totally disagree. They are under warranty. The LCD is somehow different because they did come with a fix. They fixed for me both LCDs with the same tool.

Same! It's a poorly designed unit and Tesla should be held accountable for any part of it failing. It's totally on them for not doing proper QA and then not improving the design. So far, since I bought my S in December 2019, they replaced two headlights for this. With how far back this is going, and with the reports of way newer units failing too, I wouldn't hold my breath that they'll fix the problem anytime soon.

btw, Mr. buzescu, I like your name. Not many of us around here. S'trăiţi! ;)
 
JAN 2017 S75D-nee-S60D high-mileage owner here.

Curious to see if other members with a S (or X) built in this time frame experienced any issues with the DRLs. By DLRs, I mean the "halo" which borders the LED headlight enclosure.

Earlier this year the passenger side DLR partially failed where a portion of the DLR was not illuminated. I suspect one underlying lights (LEDs?) in the DLR strip went out, but never directly asked that question. I observed no other defect in the DLR or headlights at the time. I filed a service request under warranty. A ranger was dispatched by Tesla Service, diagnosed the issue, requested the replacement part - an entirely new headlight assembly - and then returned to swap it out when the part came in.

Shrugged it off to Tesla being Tesla and did not think anything more of it until the driver's side DLR did the exact same thing a few weeks ago. Like before, a portion of the DLR halo had gone dim but the headlight itself appeared to be functioning normally. Dropped it off at the SC they replaced the entire driver's side headlight assembly.

I can understand parts breaking but am suspicious the exact same failure occurred twice. This suspicion leads me to question if the supplier Tesla used to provide illumination to the DLRs had a defect in the manufacturing process - hence the thread. Curious to see if any other members with similar late 2016 / early 2017 build S's (or X's) experienced similar issues.

FWIW I've got ~49k on the car and the two part numbers that were replaced were:
  • Drivers Headlight Assembly - HD/LP ASY, SAE UP-LEVEL, RH (1053571- 1 00-D) / Covered by 50k warranty
  • Passenger Headlight Assembly - HD/LP ASY, SAE UP-LEVEL, LH (1053570- 1 00-D) / Covered by 50k warranty
  • Bonus fact: Service said the part cost ~$1.2k + labor (asked as I'm rapidly approaching the 50k mark and debating whether or not I want to extend the warranty).
View attachment 315208
June 2016 build S70 (75) driver's side halo light very dim, needs replacement. 46,000 miles. Will get it done next week, just before warranty expires. This is literally the only issue I have had since the car was new.
 
Noticed yesterday that the DRL on the headlight they replaced in June has now "burned out." Scheduled a service appointment for next week. That's #4 for me.

Two more replacements for me. Driver side failed a couple of weeks ago and now the passenger one is out too. So that makes 6 or 7 for me. Both covered under parts warranty.

Tesla tech indicated there is no new revision so I expect to be replacing them again in a year or so. Can’t believe they haven’t produced a fix yet. Must be costing them (or their vendor) a fortune.
 
Two more replacements for me. Driver side failed a couple of weeks ago and now the passenger one is out too. So that makes 6 or 7 for me. Both covered under parts warranty.

Tesla tech indicated there is no new revision so I expect to be replacing them again in a year or so. Can’t believe they haven’t produced a fix yet. Must be costing them (or their vendor) a fortune.

Constantly changing them, even if under warranty, is not a solution. To be honest, I wouldn't want a Tesla technician to disassemble my front end and take of the bumper that many times. Especially since the last one who did that, really was bad at his job. Pure luck that I was near him and noticed he had forgotten to put some bolts back *facepalm*.
 
  • Disagree
Reactions: PhilDavid
Constantly changing them, even if under warranty, is not a solution. To be honest, I wouldn't want a Tesla technician to disassemble my front end and take of the bumper that many times. Especially since the last one who did that, really was bad at his job. Pure luck that I was near him and noticed he had forgotten to put some bolts back *facepalm*.
They told me these are new revisions. Mine got changed in January and May, produced in Mexico in Jan and March, same part but for sure new revision.
 
FYI for anyone that is interested. My passenger headlight failed again (twice on driver, twice now on passenger) and out of warranty. I took a risk and bought a used headlight on eBay and installed it myself. Pretty simple process to take off the bumper and replace. From what I've read on this forum and from Tesla directly, I was under the impression it was NOT plug-n-play and the firmware needed to be updated once the new light is installed. To my surprise, it was plug-n-play and worked immediately!
IMG_2523.JPG
5R5jP9RlSrahpgCvRCB%Ow.jpg
dTIfGivMSA6+5S8+15a7cg.jpg
 
FYI for anyone that is interested. My passenger headlight failed again (twice on driver, twice now on passenger) and out of warranty. I took a risk and bought a used headlight on eBay and installed it myself. Pretty simple process to take off the bumper and replace. From what I've read on this forum and from Tesla directly, I was under the impression it was NOT plug-n-play and the firmware needed to be updated once the new light is installed. To my surprise, it was plug-n-play and worked immediately! View attachment 551899 View attachment 551900 View attachment 551901

Nice work!

That's what I heard too about the firmware being required but when a tech changed out mine, he said that there's a chance it's not needed. Mine also worked after he plugged them in but he also "refreshed" the firmware.

What are you going to do with the bad light? I would absolutely love to see a teardown and to find out what's the thing that lights up that DRL and how it works. Maybe we could even find out how/why it breaks.
 
What are you going to do with the bad light? I would absolutely love to see a teardown and to find out what's the thing that lights up that DRL and how it works. Maybe we could even find out how/why it breaks.

Would definately want to see this as well. Quite a lot of them burning out and cars are out of warranty. This could perhaps be a DIY fix? One can always hope :)