MIC 2021/22 AC problem - anyone in the Oz forum had this?

[NoTimeToLose]

There's a thread in the general M3 forum discussing AC effectiveness issues with 2021/22 Shanghai model 3s:

Late 2021 onwards MIC Model 3s Have poor/faulty air conditioning from factory

After 4 Months of sending my Model 3 (December 2021, china factory) back to the service center for blowing on my knees and being told that "nothing was wrong" and everything being correct in the dash, it turns out that I was just the first of people noticing that the Model 3 with the new Heat...

teslamotorsclub.com

Have any of our Australian members experienced this?

 

[NoTimeToLose]

100+ views and no responses - I guess that answers my question!

 

[johnchidgey]

Yes. My M3 won’t blow cold air above my chin, and in summer it was annoying as hell. Now I know there’s a problem I’ll keep an eye on this for any updates.

 

[RichardV]

I have a 2021 October built M3 LFP. I was not impressed with the A/C over summer but couldn't really point my finger on what was wrong. It was a relatively mild summer so did not cause a problem very often. Not having anything to compare it to I thought it might just be a bit weak.

I have also not been impressed with the heat from the A/C over winter though for the opposite reason, it overheats the cabin based on what I set it to. Even setting it to 20C it will build up to 26-28C easily which I find too hot. I have mostly gotten away with it over winter by relying on either no A/C, solar heating being enough or trying to force fan only mode which I think you still can with the right juggling of the setting but would have to try it again to fully explain the sequence. Fan only or no A/C is problematic when de-misting is required. On occasion I have resorted to opening all the windows to cool off the car, though that has mostly been when relying on solar heating only. Even in the solar middle of winter the solar heat is enough to overheat the car.

I have checked the temperature in cabin with a separate thermometer as well as reading the tesla cabin temperature off of scanmytesla CAN read sensor. The tesla cabin sensor seems to track the separate thermometer. The separate thermometer just lags the internal tesla sensor by a bit. I have also found that the temperature reading from the tesla app lies to you, which seems to be the only way to see the inside temperature from a typical users point of view. When driving or still inside the car the app reports the temperature as set at about the right time as it heats up but it then caps the temperature to the set point whilst the tesla internal CAN read data and separate thermometer continue to rise. But if you then park and leave the car the app internal temperature then starts to correctly read/track the CAN internal temperature.

Anyone else notice problems with over heating when using the AC in winter?

 

[BDB2088]

I just went and tested, can confirm. This is real.

I took delivery in March and was away for all of April, so the time I even needed aircon was limited given how rained out our March was in Sydney. But I remember thinking "im not feeling the aircon on my face", my old car like most had the directional vents that you could point.

The easiest way to test this is turn you air con up and set it to "middle height" and you should immediately feel air on your right leg as the steering wheel isn't obstructing the vent, there is NO AIR FLOW from just above the air vent all the way to the top of the windscreen. This essentially means there's no air con above chest height. RIDICULOUS. That air flow difference isn't changed if you add in the "high" and "low" height levels for the aircon.

Am I reading the other thread correctly that this is fixable but would need to be a service job?

 

[Leeroy]

Yes I too have had this issue with my 2021 MIC model. Had it back to the SC who said they pulled it apart and nothing was wrong. Another customer car was there with exactly the same complaint. I don’t have a problem with the temperature, but unable to get the airflow high enough and I’m not overly tall at 5’ 10.

Interestingly I had a current model M3 loaner whilst they changed my windscreen and it was totally fine. Could get the air flow noticeably higher.

 

[ChrisSFoot]

I have had this issue for two years and have now had it fixed. More details here: Late 2021 onwards MIC Model 3s Have poor/faulty air conditioning from factory