Model S Technical / Mechanical Issues

[kinddog]

love that there's a "William3" AND a "William13" here at TMC.. quoting each other for maximum confusion...

 

[scriptacus]

Picked up my car today at the factory and drove about 350 miles home to LA. Two issues came up in an otherwise flawless trip:

1) I noticed while checking the charging status of the car via iPhone app at Gilroy that my car was not locked. I have since verified that my car does not auto lock at all, and have emailed ownership. It did auto lock once, just after I picked it up and went to lunch, but has not worked since. I am able to approach the car without the fob and open the doors by pressing the handles to get them to extend.

2) Minor wind noise from the drivers side small triangular window when going ~75mph+. Putting my hand near it, I was able to feel the cold air coming in... Pressing the seals in the area had no effect. Has anyone else had this issue?

 

[jhs_7645]

Picked up my car today at the factory and drove about 350 miles home to LA. Two issues came up in an otherwise flawless trip:

1) I noticed while checking the charging status of the car via iPhone app at Gilroy that my car was not locked. I have since verified that my car does not auto lock at all, and have emailed ownership. It did auto lock once, just after I picked it up and went to lunch, but has not worked since. I am able to approach the car without the fob and open the doors by pressing the handles to get them to extend.

Could it be, since you had just picked the car up from the factory, that the second key fob was still in the car? If it was, this would have prevented it from locking.

 

[znino]

1) I noticed while checking the charging status of the car via iPhone app at Gilroy that my car was not locked. I have since verified that my car does not auto lock at all, and have emailed ownership. It did auto lock once, just after I picked it up and went to lunch, but has not worked since. I am able to approach the car without the fob and open the doors by pressing the handles to get them to extend.

Just to be sure, in the setting you do have Walk Away Lock set to ON right?

 

[andrewket]

Could it be, since you had just picked the car up from the factory, that the second key fob was still in the car? If it was, this would have prevented it from locking.

This was my thought as well.

 

[scriptacus]

Just to be sure, in the setting you do have Walk Away Lock set to ON right?

Had both key fobs with me. Didn't know auto lock was a setting, so i'll check that, but it did auto lock the first time I left the car when heading to lunch with friends. (I recall this because they asked about it and I showed them the status in the app)

 

[Chris]

2) Minor wind noise from the drivers side small triangular window when going ~75mph+. Putting my hand near it, I was able to feel the cold air coming in... Pressing the seals in the area had no effect. Has anyone else had this issue?

Yes I had the same issue. Wind noise at highway speeds coming from the right passenger side. In my case it was a seal issue with the small triangular window. Got it fixed during my last service visit and all is quiet now. Others have reported the same issue before.

 

[scriptacus]

Ok, so the setting was turned off. As far as it seeming to work earlier; when heading to lunch I attempted to lock with the key fob from quite far away... much farther than my Lexus fob works from. I saw/heard no activity from the car and assumed it was out of range.

TLDR; Lexus flashes lights and beeps to confirm a lock from the fob, Tesla does... nothing?

 

[ElSupreme]

TLDR; Lexus flashes lights and beeps to confirm a lock from the fob, Tesla does... nothing?

The parking lights flash a single time. Even when autolocking while walking away. And if the door handles are out, they retract.

 

[pete8314]

I'd still like the beep too though, the doors handles eventually retract regardless, and you look 'nervous' constantly looking around for the flash. Mine has never failed to lock though, except when I left the key in the car.

 

[MikeK]

I would love to have the option to have the car make a BMW-style beep upon locking, at least when locking with the fob. I sometimes let the car lock itself (walk-away locking), but if I'm parking in a busy area, I usually click the fob to lock it immediately. It would be nice not to have to look back at the car while doing that. When driving my mother's BMW 7 series, I just walked away and clicked the key in my pocket, and I would hear the beep and be assured that the car was secure.

 

[ModelS8794]

2) Minor wind noise from the drivers side small triangular window when going ~75mph+. Putting my hand near it, I was able to feel the cold air coming in... Pressing the seals in the area had no effect. Has anyone else had this issue?

I had this wind leak on the passenger side triangle, service center reseated the glass for me, a very quick fix.

 

[mknox]

I would love to have the option to have the car make a BMW-style beep upon locking, at least when locking with the fob. I sometimes let the car lock itself (walk-away locking), but if I'm parking in a busy area, I usually click the fob to lock it immediately. It would be nice not to have to look back at the car while doing that. When driving my mother's BMW 7 series, I just walked away and clicked the key in my pocket, and I would hear the beep and be assured that the car was secure.

I agree. I just walk away from my Cadillac with the fob in my pocket and it auto locks beeping and flashing the lights (both the beep and lights are user-configurable settings).

 

[gg_got_a_tesla]

I would love to have the option to have the car make a BMW-style beep upon locking, at least when locking with the fob. I sometimes let the car lock itself (walk-away locking), but if I'm parking in a busy area, I usually click the fob to lock it immediately. It would be nice not to have to look back at the car while doing that. When driving my mother's BMW 7 series, I just walked away and clicked the key in my pocket, and I would hear the beep and be assured that the car was secure.

I don't rely on the auto-lock any more. I press the fob in the pocket without looking back and as I walk away, I whip my phone out and check on the lock (and charging, if applicable) status. Not a big deal.

Before I adopted this routine, auto-lock failed me only once; well, kind of. It was while at the Oakland Zoo and I was probably several hundred feet away and was surprised to see on the phone that the car was still unlocked! Realized later that my wife's purse with her fob was hidden in the footwell in the trunk - thought fobs cannot be detected in the trunk?! - so, that explains that.

In any case, better safe than sorry. Good old fob press through the jeans pocket does the trick for me.

 

[mknox]

I don't rely on the auto-lock any more. I press the fob in the pocket without looking back and as I walk away, I whip my phone out and check on the lock (and charging, if applicable) status. Not a big deal.

Can you lock/unlock from the mobile app? That would be handy to let someone in to get something out of the car if you're not around, or to lock it if you forgot.

 

[NigelM]

Can you lock/unlock from the mobile app?.

Yes.
.

 

[gg_got_a_tesla]

Can you lock/unlock from the mobile app? That would be handy to let someone in to get something out of the car if you're not around, or to lock it if you forgot.

Absolutely.

 

[napabill]

Had both key fobs with me. Didn't know auto lock was a setting, so i'll check that, but it did auto lock the first time I left the car when heading to lunch with friends. (I recall this because they asked about it and I showed them the status in the app)

With the auto-lock setting "On" I have had one occasion where the car didn't auto-lock. I rebooted the main screen and haven't had the problem since. Not sure if that fixed it, or if by chance one of the doors was ajar when we left.

 

[Blurry_Eyed]

I think if you leave a fob in the main cabin of the car (Trunk, passenger area, glovebox) and lock the car with the iPhone app, someone can touch the door handles and they will present themselves because it detects the keyfob in the car, even with the car locked as indicated by the iPhone app. I haven't tried it out personally, but i'm pretty sure it behaves like that.

I do think if you put the keyfob in the frunk (not trunk) the door handles will not present themselves if someone touches them if you lock the car with the iPhone app. Been to lazy to try out the experiment myself, but I've heard it does that. I should give it a try sometime.

 

[ElSupreme]

You could also wrap the keyfob in aluminum foil, or put it into a metal sunglasses case.