Model S Technical / Mechanical Issues

[aviators99]

Has anybody had persistent "Low windshield washer fluid" warnings? I got these several times yesterday on starting the car, and got it again this morning. I opened the cap on the reservoir, and there was no fluid visible, so I filled it up and closed the cap. It took very little fluid to fill to the point of being visible, so I figured that it had plenty of fluid and I had just topped it up a bit.

No warning for awhile, but I got one again this evening. I opened the cap, and there's no fluid visible again. I'm a bit baffled. I certainly don't think I put in enough fluid to fill a typical washer fluid reservoir (maybe a cup or two). But, where did that fluid go? I haven't run the wipers at all.

Yes, I also have this problem.

 

[MikeK]

Yes, I also have this problem.

Have you found that it is losing fluid, or do you think it's just a spurious indicator?

- - - Updated - - -

Could someone help me turn off the car? I can't get it to turn off or lock the doors. It lets me get in without the key but says no key inside. It has been on for hours. When I press once in the key fob it just beeps. It will even play music the whole time.

A couple of things I could think to try:

• Reboot the center screen by pressing and holding both the rollers on the steering wheel for about 15 seconds
• Reboot the dashboard display by pressing and holding the top buttons on both sides of the steering wheel as above
• Get in with the key, put the car into gear and then into park again, and then get out
• Plug in the charging cable

 

[cinergi]

Yes, I also have this problem.

It appears to be spewing random errors at startup as of version 4... I've had wiper fluid low warnings a couple times... did nothing about it ... warning went away .. and now it hasn't happened for several days ...

 

[MikeK]

It appears to be spewing random errors at startup as of version 4... I've had wiper fluid low warnings a couple times... did nothing about it ... warning went away .. and now it hasn't happened for several days ...

Ah. Interesting. I've only seen that warning, so I thought it might point to a real issue. I'll begin ignoring it now. ;-)

 

[contaygious]

Fixed it! The right door wasn't closed all the way. I knew this was ping to be a problem....

 

[PRJIM]

Is there a way to turn off auto updates?

 

[JoshG]

Has anybody had persistent "Low windshield washer fluid" warnings? I got these several times yesterday on starting the car, and got it again this morning. I opened the cap on the reservoir, and there was no fluid visible, so I filled it up and closed the cap. It took very little fluid to fill to the point of being visible, so I figured that it had plenty of fluid and I had just topped it up a bit.

No warning for awhile, but I got one again this evening. I opened the cap, and there's no fluid visible again. I'm a bit baffled. I certainly don't think I put in enough fluid to fill a typical washer fluid reservoir (maybe a cup or two). But, where did that fluid go? I haven't run the wipers at all.

YES! I've been getting this intermittently since picking up the car... maybe once a day i get the warning about low washer fluid. haven't bought or added any so don't know if it's real or not, but I'd be surprised if they don't check this at the factory at some point.

 

[bob_p]

The next thing they need to do with traffic is have some way to tell you that it's the left two lanes that are blocked, versus the center, or whatever. Then you could get into a favorable lane well in advance and the whole thing would flow more smoothly...

My 2007 LS has XM NavTraffic - and warns you about upcoming traffic challenges, and can even offer to re-route you around the congestion.

Does the Model S navigation have access to the traffic data? While it's visible on the Google Maps - that doesn't necessarily mean that the navigation software also sees and uses it for routing.

 

[aviators99]

Weird issue with the XM. When I'm listening to one channel and then I use the slider to get to another channel, a few seconds later the slider and display will show the channel number for the old channel. The audio is still for the new channel. I haven't experimented enough to track it down to when it happens, but it happened a few times today.

 

[stephenpace]

Does the Model S navigation have access to the traffic data?

It must. For example, it routed me a different way to Austin than normal due to traffic, and once the voice said something like "warning, accident reported ahead." Integration is subtle, though.

 

[ckessel]

Fixed it! The right door wasn't closed all the way. I knew this was ping to be a problem....

I know Tesla say the required door slam is by design, but when enough customers are having problems that tells me it's a bad design. Most other vendors seem to have normal doors.

 

[Robert.Boston]

I know Tesla say the required door slam is by design, but when enough customs are having problems that tells me it's a bad design. Most other vendors seem to have normal doors.

Does it help to close the passenger door first? I wonder whether the last door closed, regardless of side, is simply meeting with air resistance.

 

[v12 to 12v]

My 2007 LS has XM NavTraffic - and warns you about upcoming traffic challenges, and can even offer to re-route you around the congestion.

Does the Model S navigation have access to the traffic data? While it's visible on the Google Maps - that doesn't necessarily mean that the navigation software also sees and uses it for routing.

The Google Map does show traffic flow. I believe it picks up signals from Android phones that are on the road to determine the speed of traffic. There is traffic data for areas that I never imagined possible. (At the same time, I find it quite creepy and I doubt that I would buy an Android because of this and other data collection issues.)

The navigation system does not offer up any route changes to compensate for congestion.

- - - Updated - - -

It must. For example, it routed me a different way to Austin than normal due to traffic, and once the voice said something like "warning, accident reported ahead." Integration is subtle, though.

Maybe this is a regional feature. It didn't happen today when we came upon a back up due to an incident.

 

[Ben W]

Just ran into a strange situation with my Model S (Sig Special Performance #61). The car had been charging for a couple days on 110v, then left on the plug for about 12 hours "full", with about 245 miles showing in Standard mode. Then I took the car out to drive, and immediately got the dotted orange warning line on the speedometer indicating that the power was limited to about 200kW. (Normally it can go to 320+kW.) This doesn't make much sense; the batteries shouldn't have been too hot after sitting for two days in a Los Angeles parking garage, and the charge level wasn't too low. (Low charge can reduce max power.) Any idea what else could trigger this power limit? I took a screenshot to send to Tesla, and will ask them too.

 

[contaygious]

I had the power reduced issue today and I almost towed the car because I couldn't drive on the freeway, but they told me to hit power off and wait a minute and repeat 3 times and I did it and it fixed my issue so I could go fast again. They said there is a fix in date 3.5 I don't have yet so I'm just waiting for that and 4.0 to come still.

 

[Nickjhowe]

I've updated the Wiki Post at the top of this thread to start to summarize the issues and fixes people have reported. Any and all contributions accepted.

 

[EarlyAdopter]

The Google Map does show traffic flow. I believe it picks up signals from Android phones that are on the road to determine the speed of traffic. There is traffic data for areas that I never imagined possible. (At the same time, I find it quite creepy and I doubt that I would buy an Android because of this and other data collection issues.)

Do you have an iPhone or a Windows Phone 7/8? Apple and Microsoft collect the same traffic data on their phones.

Apple says it's building 'crowd-sourced traffic' service for iPhone users

Apple had a particularly bad bug a year ago where the phone's full location history was being kept in a file on the phone, never getting cleared, and it would end up backed up on your computer too, so anyone who got access to either could see every place you've ever been.

Apple issues statement on iOS location controversy, says fix is coming

In any case, the data sent to the service is anonomized and, at least for Android, the first and last few miles of each trip are dropped to ensure no data is kept about where you live or go. If it bothers you so much you can always opt out.

 

[aviators99]

Here's a picture of the XM bug. Apparently, it persists between trips, because I switched to 226 yesterday, and the picture is from today. The audio is coming from 226.

 

[PRJIM]

Today my cluster showed regen, abs and traction control were all disabled. I tried to reset the cluster with the upper buttons but this had no effect. I ended up having to pull the fuses in the frunk. This happened twice. Very strange.

Sidenote: The Model S is borderline undrivable with T/C disabled.

 

[Psullivan]

Today my cluster showed regen, abs and traction control were all disabled. I tried to reset the cluster with the upper buttons but this had no effect. I ended up having to pull the fuses in the frunk. This happened twice. Very strange.

Sidenote: The Model S is borderline undrivable with T/C disabled.

Hi, When you say the car is borderline undrivable with traction control disabled what do you mean exactly?