Model S Technical / Mechanical Issues

[kevincwelch]

Sometimes when I try to swap positions top to bottom with camera and nav screens, one of them goes gray.

Do you get the "floating" back-up cam video that won't swap? I noticed this in the Get Amped vehicles.

This starting to remind me of the 15,000th auto fail in the movie Gung Ho.

 

[Doug_G]

Noticing a higher than expected drop in the “rated range” number after unplugging. After completing a standard mode charge to 251 miles, I disconnected the charge cable. 2 3/4 hrs later rated miles were down to 243.

That could be due to battery balancing, which occurs when you leave the car fully charged. If that is the case, the rate will slow down.

 

[shokunin]

What do you mean "soft" paint that's on the model s? What is the exact paint technology are they using?

Dadaleus was told that he should be careful with the "thin paint" which could be true. I didn't think the get amp tours paint was soft as even with the pictures from later events, the paint still looked good. It could apply to whole car or just the clear coat is thin.

The only advice I got re car washes was that the paint is thin (which seems odd--so maybe I misunderstood and that was actually soft, not thin) and therefore I shouldn't let someone buff it too much.

 

[strider]

I’m seeing many of the same issues and some others.

Noticing a higher than expected drop in the “rated range” number after unplugging. After completing a standard mode charge to 251 miles, I disconnected the charge cable. 2 3/4 hrs later rated miles were down to 243.

As Doug said, it's possible the battery is out of balance. I would keep driving and charging it each night and it'll shake out. Also it's good that you're letting it sit after charging. Balancing occurs after charging so it's good to let it sit for 30 mins or so afterwards (cable can remain plugged in).

 

[DrDave]

Dadaleus was told that he should be careful with the "thin paint" which could be true. I didn't think the get amp tours paint was soft as even with the pictures from later events, the paint still looked good. It could apply to whole car or just the clear coat is thin.

There is no way Tesla would let cars go out with thin clear - that is an instant warranty claim and the vehicle would have to be repainted. If Dada was told this by a rep, it's another case of a rep talking about something they were uninformed about. Until someone can tell me exactly which technology they are using (company and type), I am not buying the "soft" clear pguerra refers to.

 

[pete8314]

I'd suggest a new subforum within the Model S forum. At Priuschat we have a "Care, Maintenance & Troubleshooting" subforum for each Prius model and find it very useful for people to start new threads within that specific section since it covers everything from actual problems to just "how do I XXX" etc.

+1 that idea, I think it'll be a lot clearer to have a dedicated sub-forum for bugs/issues/troubleshooting, ideally with a thread per problem...there seems to be a lot of commonality with the issues cropping up at the moment, or course over time, it won't stay that simple...

 

[mknox]

There is no way Tesla would let cars go out with thin clear - that is an instant warranty claim and the vehicle would have to be repainted. If Dada was told this by a rep, it's another case of a rep talking about something they were uninformed about. Until someone can tell me exactly which technology they are using (company and type), I am not buying the "soft" clear pguerra refers to.

From the Tesla Model S Warranty Guide:

In addition to the above exclusions and limitations, this New Vehicle
Limited Warranty does not cover any of the following:

Any corrosion or paint defects including, but not limited to, the
following:

· Corrosion from defects in non-Tesla manufactured or supplied
materials or workmanship causing perforation (holes) in body
panels or the chassis from the inside out;
· Surface or cosmetic corrosion causing perforation in body panels or
the chassis from the outside in, such as stone chips or scratches;
and
· Corrosion and paint defects caused by, due to or resulting from
accidents, paint matching, abuse, neglect, improper maintenance
or operation of the vehicle, installation of an accessory, exposure to
chemical substances, or damages resulting from an act of God or
nature, fire, or improper storage;

 

[doug]

The easy thing to do was to add a wiki to this thread which I've done.

If you have individual threads various issues you can also link to them in the wiki post.

 

[sublimaze1]

My oh My; there is some scary stuff in these last 28 or so posts. I certainly hope that many of them are because we (purchasers of this vehicle) are just a bit more hard-to-please than the average Joe. The paint issue bothers me. The pixels in the 17" bothers me more. The battery used to bother me the most, but if it is just a matter of "breaking it in", then I can hang in there.

Waiting ... / P188

 

[ggr]

ggr, how did the ranger visit go? The door handle problem sounds a bit disconcerting; the handles have more or less been considered by TMC members to be the most likely piece of mechanical gadgetry to show signs of trouble; probably right up there with the pano roof.

Mods, sticky please...

Smith came down from Costa Mesa. It's an amazingly finicky job... I watched (and probably bothered him, but he's too nice to say so) during breaks between meetings. Took about 3 hours, with many adjustments to be made. As always I am extremely happy with Tesla service.

At some point he rebooted the screens and the stray pointer droppings disappeared. I'm pretty sure they appeared while I was using the nav system, so I'll try that tonight, see if I can duplicate the problem.

 

[FlasherZ]

The pixels in the 17" bothers me more.

Small bugs are to be expected. Overwriting the wrong/video memory because you mishandled a pointer is a pretty common programming mistake. Let's hope all of their code review efforts have been focused on the drivetrain components.

 

[mknox]

My oh My; there is some scary stuff in these last 28 or so posts. I certainly hope that many of them are because we (purchasers of this vehicle) are just a bit more hard-to-please than the average Joe. The paint issue bothers me. The pixels in the 17" bothers me more. The battery used to bother me the most, but if it is just a matter of "breaking it in", then I can hang in there.

I hear you. Based on my mileage, I expect to blow through the warranty in about two years, and so far as I know there is no extended plan available. The warranty itself is pretty skinny (i.e. no paint or corrosion coverage at all - very unusual). I hear all of the very positive comments on how Tesla bends over backwards to make things right, and I'm sure that's true... but I do worry about expensive, uncovered repairs in just a few short years from purchase.

 

[chmod a+wrx]

My oh My; there is some scary stuff in these last 28 or so posts. I certainly hope that many of them are because we (purchasers of this vehicle) are just a bit more hard-to-please than the average Joe. The paint issue bothers me. The pixels in the 17" bothers me more. The battery used to bother me the most, but if it is just a matter of "breaking it in", then I can hang in there.

Waiting ... / P188

Battery.....not sure......

Screen.....this is probably a simple software or programming error......these things are typically easy to fix......

 

[Todd Burch]

I hear you. Based on my mileage, I expect to blow through the warranty in about two years, and so far as I know there is no extended plan available. The warranty itself is pretty skinny (i.e. no paint or corrosion coverage at all - very unusual). I hear all of the very positive comments on how Tesla bends over backwards to make things right, and I'm sure that's true... but I do worry about expensive, uncovered repairs in just a few short years from purchase.

I wouldn't worry too much. We're very early in the rollout of a new product, so there are bound to be issues. They will be ironed out...and each new car off the line (and every new update) will fix issues. The great thing is that it looks like the drivetrain--the truly most important part of the car--seems to be rock-solid so far.

 

[RDoc]

Small bugs are to be expected. Overwriting the wrong/video memory because you mishandled a pointer is a pretty common programming mistake. Let's hope all of their code review efforts have been focused on the drivetrain components.

I don't agree this is a minor software bug. I haven't seen that kind of software error since I stopped using assembly language. Something has to be very wrong with the OS and/or compiler to overlay memory addresses like that in a modern system. If they're using assembler, or some unprotected language like C, then there are likely going to be a lot of bugs.
My suspicion is that the video hardware is broken.

 

[aviators99]

I don't agree this is a minor software bug. I haven't seen that kind of software error since I stopped using assembly language. Something has to be very wrong with the OS and/or compiler to overlay memory addresses like that in a modern system. If they're using assembler, or some unprotected language like C, then there are likely going to be a lot of bugs.
My suspicion is that the video hardware is broken.

I totally disagree, and I have 37 years of programming experience to back it up. Unfortunately, FlasherZ is correct, and this is a common programming mistake. It's something Microsoft is somewhat infamous for. If one of my programmers makes this mistake, they become someone else's programmer.

 

[ahimberg]

Does someone have a picture of what this looks like? I have seen pixely lines that are hardware problems (had a vertical band of shimmery caused by overheating once), and patterns that are software, a picture might help the guessing

 

[smorgasbord]

...the dashboard (small) screen has smatterings of black pixels with a semi-regular pattern.

Got a picture to post?

 

[KenEE]

From the Tesla Model S Warranty Guide:

In addition to the above exclusions and limitations, this New Vehicle
Limited Warranty does not cover any of the following:

Any corrosion or paint defects including, but not limited to, the
following:

· Corrosion from defects in non-Tesla manufactured or supplied
materials or workmanship causing perforation (holes) in body
panels or the chassis from the inside out;
· Surface or cosmetic corrosion causing perforation in body panels or
the chassis from the outside in, such as stone chips or scratches;
and
· Corrosion and paint defects caused by, due to or resulting from
accidents, paint matching, abuse, neglect, improper maintenance
or operation of the vehicle, installation of an accessory, exposure to
chemical substances, or damages resulting from an act of God or
nature, fire, or improper storage;

That's just standard warranty speak. It's only covering Tesla against external circumstances beyond their control. Paint and corrosion *are* covered if the problem is or is caused by a manufacturers defect.

 

[pguerra]

From the Tesla Model S Warranty Guide:

In addition to the above exclusions and limitations, this New Vehicle
Limited Warranty does not cover any of the following:

Any corrosion or paint defects including, but not limited to, the
following:

· Corrosion from defects in non-Tesla manufactured or supplied
materials or workmanship causing perforation (holes) in body
panels or the chassis from the inside out;
· Surface or cosmetic corrosion causing perforation in body panels or
the chassis from the outside in, such as stone chips or scratches;
and
· Corrosion and paint defects caused by, due to or resulting from
accidents, paint matching, abuse, neglect, improper maintenance
or operation of the vehicle, installation of an accessory, exposure to
chemical substances, or damages resulting from an act of God or
nature, fire, or improper storage;

Soft paint or not, the weak warranty on the paint would suggest to me that putting Opti-Coat 2.0 on the vehicle would not be a bad idea.

I really hope this car exceeds my expectations ...and in a positive, not negative, way! Right now, things aren't looking too hot. Hopefully, "all the bugs will be ironed out" and "it's early in the production roll out" and "Tesla will take care of it" , etc.

Only time will tell.