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Model S Technical / Mechanical Issues

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Ok, that's what I suspected. Yes, the soft metal at the top of the lug nuts has crossed over into "evil" in my book. I've already ruined 4 of them. (Luckily I have an "extra" 20 from the 19" wheels I bought used.)

I hope Tesla comes out with new ones that don't suck.

If you are desperate, you can buy a pack of the official Tesla "black plastic lug nut caps disguised to look like a real nut" and slip them over your dinged ones. Looks OK even on silver wheels although they only come standard on 21" gray wheels, and they are cheaper than a set of new lug nuts. If you want to try them out, you can park next to a recent dark-wheel demo car and swap them on by hand to see what they look like.
 
I have the exact same issue. The seatbelt latch is so recessed on one side that I had to buy an extender from Amazon for guests to be able to buckle up. I mention it to my SC every time I take the car in, but so far no solution offered. This is like the rear passenger window that goes down every time my knee bumps the door window button. I've complained about it forever, even to Jerome and made a suggestion to have the drivers side disable button work for drivers rear window button as well. Complete blow off response. I'm really getting tired of spending my weekends at car shows "selling" Teslas and spending $$ on "educational" materials to help people better understand the car to be treated this way.

Well, I just received an email from Jerome in which he copied my post above into some kind of Tesla form which was pasted into the email.
Basically, he said that there is nothing that they can do about either situation I mentioned and that they have in fact been responsive, including this email referenced.
Wow! Don't know what to say other than I find this very disheartening. Those on this board for very long know how big of a supporter of Tesla I have been from the beginning.
 
Please keep us up to date on what they do for that (e.g. bearing, drive unit, tires, etc.)

As per the local Service Manager, they may replace my drive unit or motor mounts of a new type (they are not sure) next week. Waiting for a loaner to become available next week. I replaced the OEM Continentals to Michelin PS 2 last week because right rear had worn down on the inside edge. Their is a fix for that . The Service center did an alignment and replaced some kind of bolts in the rear along with adjusting the camber etc. so "hopefully" this doesn't happen again.

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Ok, that's what I suspected. Yes, the soft metal at the top of the lug nuts has crossed over into "evil" in my book. I've already ruined 4 of them. (Luckily I have an "extra" 20 from the 19" wheels I bought used.)

I hope Tesla comes out with new ones that don't suck.

Since Tesla is reimbursing me for the new lug nuts, I am going to pay back the Tire Shop guy who had refunded me for installing the new tires. Even though he didn't believe he did anything wrong, he immediately gave me my money back when I showed him the work order in which Tesla had charged me for the lug nuts. This Tire Shop (Diamond Tires) is the best in North Bay with over a 100 Five star ratings on Yelp!
 
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I have a new whining/whistling sound now whenever the car is "on". This is different than the balloon squeal. This is different than the low pitch whine tied to accelerator at any speed. This is different than the rising hum > 60 mph. This is different than wind noise. (By the way, I have ALL of the above sounds...) but now, I have some sort of whistling interference sound. Might be coming from the display?? This one isn't tied to accelerator. This one has the nails scraping on chalkboard effect as it doesn't ever seem to go away and it grits on ya. Sigh. I've complained about some of these to both Queens and Norristown to no avail while I see everyone else's getting fixed or drive units replaced (referring to the accelerator whines and low hum.) Maybe I'll try Springfield NJ next. Hopefully I'll have some better luck there... I did make a recording of this new sound. I'll see if I can YouTube another audio frequency spectral analysis of it later and post it here.
 
If you are desperate, you can buy a pack of the official Tesla "black plastic lug nut caps disguised to look like a real nut" and slip them over your dinged ones. Looks OK even on silver wheels although they only come standard on 21" gray wheels, and they are cheaper than a set of new lug nuts. If you want to try them out, you can park next to a recent dark-wheel demo car and swap them on by hand to see what they look like.
My concern isn't about the look of the dented ones. My concern is that it makes it very difficult to remove the wheels quickly and cleanly.
 
Does this sound like a symptom anyone's ever experienced before?

Car charged overnight, apparently fine. But when I got to car in garage in morning, I noticed the car wasn't waking up. I opened the trunk okay, to put the UMC in, but when I walked to the side, I noticed the chargeport was dark -- usually it's lit. I pressed the button. Nothing. I pressed again. Nothing. Pressed third time, harder, it woke up in let me pull it out.

I moved to the driver's door and the handles auto-presented. I opened back door, put my stuff in, closed door, opened drivers door, got in.

Normally there'd be a big number on dash indicating what the state of charge was. Dash is dark.

Here is where it gets weird: I press the brake, and it is very stiff. Then suddenly there is a loud POP/CLAP sound from under the car, and then what I call the "fridge sound" from the front underside of car, and the brake pedal relaxes, and car wakes up.

Did I catch my Tesla in a deep sleep?
 
Car charged overnight, apparently fine. But when I got to car in garage in morning, I noticed the car wasn't waking up. I opened the trunk okay, to put the UMC in, but when I walked to the side, I noticed the chargeport was dark -- usually it's lit. I pressed the button. Nothing. I pressed again. Nothing. Pressed third time, harder, it woke up in let me pull it out.

I moved to the driver's door and the handles auto-presented. I opened back door, put my stuff in, closed door, opened drivers door, got in.

Normally there'd be a big number on dash indicating what the state of charge was. Dash is dark.

Here is where it gets weird: I press the brake, and it is very stiff. Then suddenly there is a loud POP/CLAP sound from under the car, and then what I call the "fridge sound" from the front underside of car, and the brake pedal relaxes, and car wakes up.

Did I catch my Tesla in a deep sleep?

Yes ... pretty much normal. Usually a double tap on the FOB helps speed things along.
 
It was confirmed as a slave charger issue and doorlatch/handle problem. 4 hours of work. Of course no Tesla Loaner available. Bummer.

Got my baby back from service today. Slave charger cause of failure listed as Boost pre-charge circuit fault. Door opening randomly cause stated as faulty door handle.

They also adjusted door strikers and latches to close with less force since this was a problem I noticed. They did some TSB work (Front Lower Control Arm Washer install) and supposedly updated the FW, but my version is at 5.8.2 - which is lower than I saw on the forums from some folks - the one that fixes the balloon noise is 5.8.8.
 
Anyone seen this? It is the first time I notice it in almost a year and a half...

Normally, I plug in my char with the standard cable (plugged into my wall 14-50 outlet giving 40A and 240V) and within 30 seconds, the charging starts and everything immediately ramps up. On the dash is the +kWH indication that quickly ramps up from 0 to +10kWH. This gets to the +10kWH reading I would say within a minute.

You must be looking at the wrong indicator. Charging at 40 A from 240 V is 9.6 kW, which means it will take 1 hour to reach 10 kWh, not 1 minute. 5 kWh after 30 minutes is exactly right.
 
Just had my first service (car deliver Sept. 2013) for condensation in the backup lights and non-opening panoramic roof. Got a lecture about never use anything but soap and water on the wheels - all wheel cleaners are abrasive and/or acidic. The roof needs parts that are on order, they re glued the backup lights, re painted gratis the brake rotors, and got a lot of service bulletin items. The service bulletin items were a lot of new stickers particularly more prominent stickers for first responders, new lower arm suspension bushings (car feels stiffer), and other minor updates. Had the service center pop out the wheel centers so I could put on the 'T' decals. Other than having to rub off some glue drips the service was fine. Didn't say how long for the parts order but did say it would be a two day service as they have to cut out the roof glass from their seals.
 
Just had my first service (car deliver Sept. 2013) for condensation in the backup lights and non-opening panoramic roof. Got a lecture about never use anything but soap and water on the wheels - all wheel cleaners are abrasive and/or acidic. The roof needs parts that are on order, they re glued the backup lights, re painted gratis the brake rotors, and got a lot of service bulletin items. The service bulletin items were a lot of new stickers particularly more prominent stickers for first responders, new lower arm suspension bushings (car feels stiffer), and other minor updates. Had the service center pop out the wheel centers so I could put on the 'T' decals. Other than having to rub off some glue drips the service was fine. Didn't say how long for the parts order but did say it would be a two day service as they have to cut out the roof glass from their seals.

Lower arm suspension bushings!? Was this a service bulletin? What model do you have? Any improvements in the wind? Would this be considered a partial P85+ upgrade?
 
Lower arm suspension bushings!? Was this a service bulletin? What model do you have? Any improvements in the wind? Would this be considered a partial P85+ upgrade?

Unless he's referring to these (pic below) which I received in January, if it really is upgraded lower arm suspension bushings, this might actually be the first confirmed "included hardware upgrade" with the service. If I recall posts from lolchamp these bushings are standard on ALL cars now regardless of model. I wasn't expecting to get these retrofitted for free with the service but hey if they are doing that, that's great and can't wait to get them when I go in for service!

yde5usav.jpg
 
Unless he's referring to these (pic below) which I received in January, if it really is upgraded lower arm suspension bushings, this might actually be the first confirmed "included hardware upgrade" with the service. If I recall posts from lolchamp these bushings are standard on ALL cars now regardless of model. I wasn't expecting to get these retrofitted for free with the service but hey if they are doing that, that's great and can't wait to get them when I go in for service!

yde5usav.jpg

We're correct, it wasn't the bushings rather lower control arm nuts and washers, sorry. Also done, added felt tape on curtain airbag canister to correct panoramic roof creak and applied loctite on c-pillar brightwork to correct creak.
 
Darn, I was getting all excited for new bushings. What affect do the washers have on performance?

I'm told the washers (Nordlock that go on the lower ball joint nuts) protect against loosening of the front lower ball joints. Loose ball joints would certainly make for a sloppy front end. The system looks sounds to me. It's hard to imagine these large nuts with thread locker on the nuts loosening up, but I bought a set anyway just in case they might be important. It's cheap insurance as I see it, especially for those of you still in warranty. :smile: