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

[ucmndd]

Service guy told me they had to replace the entire headlight unit

That’s their protocol, and understandable from a service perspective, but it’s certainly not impossible to service just the broken LEDs. I speculated several months ago that this would be a great little cottage industry for someone as more of these roll off warranty...

 

[ucmndd]

It's happening again to the same light, only nine months later. They're of course telling me I need to pay for the replacement as the vehicle is out of warranty now even though the part is less than a year old and obviously defective.

I’d keep pushing on this. Most parts replaced under warranty carry their own minimal warranty, usually 12 months. You should explicitly ask what the warranty is on replacement parts.

 

[Ampere_90D]

2016 Model S (refreshed type). Drivers side upper accent light died within a week of buying the car, passengers side died a few months ago, drivers side has died again just this week.

 

[MMC-]

No one will want to hear this.

Early refresh 2016 Model S. I've had the right side replaced 4 times and the left 3 times. Car less than 3 years old. Have not had to pay for one yet but I expect that day is coming.

 

[Alset4S]

So far so good. Keeping fingers crossed that if they're gonna fail it will be at around 40k

 

[RayW]

Just got my third DRL 'brown-out' in 2-1/2 years. I hope Tesla has a back room in Fremont replacing 10-cent parts in these $1.2K head light units.

As an added bonus, finally got my first yellow ring on the screen (yay!) and second sticking window. I'll BBQ some burgers for the Mobile Ranger when he visits for the day.

 

[djlott]

I had my passenger DRL burn out 50% at 16K miles. I had it replaced by Tesla mobile. By 19K miles, the same DRL is out. Will be calling mobile service again.

 

[P85DBeast]

I've had both my headlights replaced before, but not for the DRL but for a humming sound. Thankfully I've never had the DRL issue.

 

[TSLA Pilot]

To provide a counter point, I've got a July 2016 (refresh) with 55k and haven't had any issues that I'm aware of. Though, granted, I don't check them very often. Now that I'm out of warranty I guess I should never check them again.

And U didn’t buy the Extended Warranty!?!

Now that’s crazy.

 

[_jal_]

Dec 2016 MS75 - I had my driver's side replaced last year sometime. About 2 weeks ago the passenger side went out just all at once. No browning effect. A consequence of this is that I get the "broken turn signal" sound and it blinks at twice the rate or whatever. I can see them blinking in reflections, but there is no green turn signal indicator on the dash. Then no drivers assistance features work on that side! It won't auto change lanes to that side, if I put the signal on and then manually change lanes I get the lane line rumble alert, etc.

In Range Mode with the headlights off everything works because the DRLs are off.

Parts are on order Seems like a lot of hassle to go through for a running light

 

[jfoxny]

Mine just failed on the passenger side. August 2016 Model S @ 51k miles. I assume there's not recall for this.

My drive side DRL went a couple of months ago and was replaced a few weeks back. Today, however, I noticed that the bumper is separating from the headlight housing. Wondering if that was from the repair.

=

 

[FlatSix911]

Dec 2016 MS75 - I had my driver's side replaced last year sometime. About 2 weeks ago the passenger side went out just all at once. No browning effect. A consequence of this is that I get the "broken turn signal" sound and it blinks at twice the rate or whatever. I can see them blinking in reflections, but there is no green turn signal indicator on the dash. Then no drivers assistance features work on that side! It won't auto change lanes to that side, if I put the signal on and then manually change lanes I get the lane line rumble alert, etc.

In Range Mode with the headlights off everything works because the DRLs are off.
Parts are on order Seems like a lot of hassle to go through for a running light

Do you have any evidence that the DRL's are off with Range Mode on... another urban myth lives on!

 

[⚡️ELECTROMAN⚡️]

Thx to this thread I checked mine. They are still ok at 30,000 miles, but I will keep an eye them. How much are these going to cost to fix out of warranty?

 

[⚡️ELECTROMAN⚡️]

I didn't have any problems with the led headlights I bought on novsight last year. I would recommend that you use LED.

What exactly does this mean?

 

[⚡️ELECTROMAN⚡️]

2017, Jan and Feb, two Model S's in our garage.

No problems, but then I wasn't checking! Will check when I get home.

YES, get Tesla's extended warranty (nee "Service Plan") before your window of availability expires as it is likely to pay for itself many times over!

If not, then it's a cheap form of peace-of-mind/mechanical insurance!

If the extended warranty Is going to pay for itself many times over then the Model S is much less reliable than I thought. I plan on doing minor repairs myself, like door handles. What else is there, headlights? Are headlights diy-able?

So for a four year extended warranty it's $4,250. You're fairly confident that a Model S will cost many times more than that to maintain from 50,000 miles to 100,000 miles. I find that highly unlikely. I'm fairly confident it will cost many times less than the price of the extended warranty.

 

[ucmndd]

Do you have any evidence that the DRL's are off with Range Mode on... another urban myth lives on!

This is 100% true on post-refresh US cars. I even posted photo evidence for you in another thread. Range mode = DRLs off.

 

[ucmndd]

So for a four year extended warranty it's $4,250. You're fairly confident that a Model S will cost many times more than that to maintain from 50,000 miles to 100,000 miles. I find that highly unlikely. I'm fairly confident it will cost many times less than the price of the extended warranty.

I just hit 77k. Knock on wood, but my post-warranty repair cost to this point is: $0.

 

[jfoxny]

Thx to this thread I checked mine. They are still ok at 30,000 miles, but I will keep an eye them. How much are these going to cost to fix out of warranty?

I believe I read that they are around $2k to replace as they replace the entire headlight unit. Tesla covered both of mine under warranty even though technically I'm out of warranty by mileage (not time).

 

[TSLA Pilot]

My drive side DRL went a couple of months ago and was replaced a few weeks back. Today, however, I noticed that the bumper is separating from the headlight housing. Wondering if that was from the repair.

View attachment 400016 =

Yes; it is.

Bumper has to be partially removed for headlight replacement.

Ranger visit should take care of it, but tacky that it occurred in the first place.

 

[_jal_]

Do you have any evidence that the DRL's are off with Range Mode on... another urban myth lives on!

Yes. When range mode is on, they are off. Unless the headlights are on.