MCU2 display failure

[geordi]

Once again I'm on a road trip, I get into the X last night after dinner and go to back out of the parking place. The instant I put it in reverse, the entire MCU2 screen goes white/grey. The instrument display still functions normally.

Scroll wheel reset has no effect, pulling the battery cable has no effect. I discovered by tapping the screen that the information was still there - it opened the back door b/c I happened to touch the right place where that button should have been. Remote service issued some form of a reset command (that wiped out my trip indicators on the instrument display) and now I have a pale purple border around the white / grey screen... But no other changes. If I had to guess, the graphics card failed.

Has anyone else had this happen? They want to replace the entire MCU AND the display - for a cost near double of what the MCU upgrade was. I'm not impressed by that, especially since they are specifically calling out reman parts in the quote. I'm just trying to get a handle on what I might be walking into here, and if there is a way to prevent it happening again.

I'm just chuffed to minty bits that I get to drive half the width of North Dakota with no access to the range calculations and no control of my radio / inputs. This is a LONG way to go between superchargers with no visibility of the range beyond the percentage on the instrument cluster.

 

[aesculus]

Any chance the brightness went rouge?

You could try the voice command: Decrease Brightness

 

[geordi]

Any chance the brightness went rouge?

You could try the voice command: Decrease Brightness

It reacted - it reduced the backlight / color of the white by 30%... So now it is less bright and still looks the same.

 

[brkaus]

seriously ? Double the cost of the upgrade?

 

[NewbyMaybe]

Try disconnecting the backup cam.

 

[oldsport]

use phone app

 

[geordi]

seriously ? Double the cost of the upgrade?

Yeah, $3300, after the tax and labor: for a reman MCU computer for $1800 and a display for $550. Ridiculous.

Try disconnecting the backup cam.

The computer has definitely been in other modes since then, such as having the normal menu come up when you put it in park - even though I could not see the menu, the touchscreen reacted and opened the back door.

I don’t think it’s the camera. I can understand if that was the only function that did not work. The entire screen is just a field of gray.

 

[geordi]

use phone app

I am doing that for the things that I can actually do with the app. It doesn’t give you control of every function. Notable things that are missing are the ability to change input on the radio, or do anything with the rear air conditioner settings.


It's got to be something with the display or the graphics generation - b/c I just tried it again and the touchscreen opened the frunk when I pressed on a guessed-location of the button. So it is still reacting, just not displaying anything.

 

[geordi]

While traveling tonight, the screen has occasionally changed with black bars or different grey bars… and then for a minute it came back but the colors were weird and the resolution was off. So this really makes me think it’s a graphics card issue.

Too bad it went back to blank, it almost was enough to allow me to finish the trip without a service center visit.

 

[mxnym]

While traveling tonight, the screen has occasionally changed with black bars or different grey bars… and then for a minute it came back but the colors were weird and the resolution was off. So this really makes me think it’s a graphics card issue.

I tend to agree with your assessment, but I've seen bad monitors make a graphics card look bad before, too... That having been said, the "graphics card" is likely integrated into the MCU (while I haven't confirmed, I would be surprised if it was a serviceable component). It seems unlikely (but not impossible) that both are bad. The service center should theoretically diagnose the issue and replace only the required parts (billing you accordingly), but even if they say they will (and actually) do that, the majority of that cost is likely still fixed if it is the graphics card.

 

[geordi]

Agreed on all - it came back at some point overnight and was functional this morning, although the colors were again screwy. I’ve seen where a loose monitor cable can do things like this on other computers, but I also don’t know if there is a cable to the display or not.

I do think that it is more likely than not that the GPU / graphics card / chipset is a permanent part of the MCU, it would make more sense b/c of it being a moving vehicle. Vibration loosening a plug-in card would be a major pain for service to constantly adjust.

On the lucky side of things, I have maintained communication with the previous owner and he confirmed that the MCU2 was installed less than 4 years ago, so it should be under warranty. The service writer found it in the history, and didn’t laugh me out of the room when I said it should be under warranty… So there’s some hope there. They can keep the parts if they fix it free, but if I’m paying then I want everything back to play with on my own. (I don’t think they’d like that option much)

 

[geordi]

It will be replaced today - NOT under warranty (I am going to investigate this later) as they are claiming it is beyond time and mileage. This seems odd since 2021 is not more than 4 years before 2023, and this should not be beyond 50k miles either.

$1800 for the entire MCU, at least this time it is not listed as a reman part. $220 in labor. I'm not impressed with having to pay ANOTHER 2k to Tesla (This car has already cost me over 4k at a service center) but they did agree to return the old MCU with surprisingly little (none) pushback. Maybe it can be useful to someone else (@wk057 ?) for tinkering.

 

[oldsport]

ao good thread - pics plz

 

[geordi]

Have the images not shown on your screen? I can see them….?

 

[Ackman999]

Just curious, in a pinch, couldn't you use ABRP on your phone to navigate with charge stops included?

 

[geordi]

I was trying that - two issues, I was in the middle of nowhere North Dakota, nearly 50% range from the Jamestown supercharger as it was (at least I knew my route back by that point as it was on the 3rd of 4 days at that location)… I was using the Supercharger map app to get me to each location on the way to Minneapolis where the nearest service center was.

The second issue is the larger one: Density of Superchargers / distance between is pushing 80-90 miles. For an X90 using between 440 and 500 wh/mi at highway speeds… That starts to get close to the limit. Yes I know the car THINKS it gets 223 miles at a full charge, but Tessie (and the energy screen of the MCU) both have the real-world range more like 140-180 miles with that kind of load and consumption.

It basically means that in this area of the country, I can pass anything I want on the road, OTHER than a supercharger. If I skip one, there is a zero point zero chance I would make the next one. At least I don’t need to wait for a 100% charge at each, I can usually leave at about 75 or 80% and be comfortable at the margin for the next leg, arriving with around 20% usually

 

[ngng]

I was trying that - two issues, I was in the middle of nowhere North Dakota, nearly 50% range from the Jamestown supercharger as it was (at least I knew my route back by that point as it was on the 3rd of 4 days at that location)… I was using the Supercharger map app to get me to each location on the way to Minneapolis where the nearest service center was.

The second issue is the larger one: Density of Superchargers / distance between is pushing 80-90 miles. For an X90 using between 440 and 500 wh/mi at highway speeds… That starts to get close to the limit. Yes I know the car THINKS it gets 223 miles at a full charge, but Tessie (and the energy screen of the MCU) both have the real-world range more like 140-180 miles with that kind of load and consumption.

It basically means that in this area of the country, I can pass anything I want on the road, OTHER than a supercharger. If I skip one, there is a zero point zero chance I would make the next one. At least I don’t need to wait for a 100% charge at each, I can usually leave at about 75 or 80% and be comfortable at the margin for the next leg, arriving with around 20% usually

440 - 500 is crazy high!

 

[oldsport]

doin 65mph my wh/m is 220 consistently

 

[geordi]

doin 65mph my wh/m is 220 consistently

This is on a Model X?

I had reason to drive for a 50+ miles on flat roads (North Dakota) at 65 with the autopilot on, and got 320 wh/mi which seems about the best I have ever seen from it. This is with 19" Tsportline wheels (255/55 so same outer diameter as the 20" tires would be) at 55psi and not towing or carrying anything outside the car. 220 seems exceedingly good.


Meanwhile, they got the replacement done and the nice new MCU looks and operates perfectly... And after some discussion about the length of warranty for this component (turns out it is 2 years / 25k miles) they agreed that it could be a warranty replacement even though it was about 60 days over. Very happy with this service center in Minneapolis. The XM radio doesn't want to communicate for some reason so they are going to look at that in the morning, but otherwise all is well on this one. Don't know what happened to the old MCU2, but I also got that back too! I'll play around with that at some point in the future or maybe there's a market for the parts.

 

[ngng]

doin 65mph my wh/m is 220 consistently

lol, on what planet? I don't even see that in our 3!