Model S Technical / Mechanical Issues

[wycolo]

> I could get in the car since the window was down, [JohnEC]

Hope you chose to jump in feet first rather than head first. :biggrin:

From reports it seems the 12v batt failures seem to occur overnight, discovered in the morning. Thus I'm planning an actual use for my FRUNK, which I've never even opened since the guys at the Shop demo'ed nose-removal on pick up day. In goes a plastic battery box (with snap-on cover) plus battery cables going to existing 12v battery. The new cables will be connected directly to the existing terminals.

Then on DEATH DAY I'll take the ATV battery from the kitchen (where it resides on constant trickle-charge) and connect it in the new box. It happens to be 3.25x6x6h but the box is much bigger so almost any lead acid battery will fit. Then of course disconnect one terminal of the existing battery and you are good to go. In my case it would be the 225 mile trip to the TM Shop for a fresh 12v batt. Yes, I *would* be motivated.
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[shady]

My new problem is that while driving to work this morning, I was sitting in traffic and the dashboard display switched to the "Car Off" screen. I tried the pedal, and it was still working, however, I then got 4 warnings, ABS needs service, Traction control disabled, stability control disabled and regen disabled. Rebooting didn't help, so when I got to work I called Tesla and they pushed the update (installing now). They believe that will fix the problem and that there isn't a problem with ABS.

So far so good - my update to 4.4 cleared the warnings and they haven't come back.

 

[JohnEC]

> I could get in the car since the window was down, [JohnEC]

Hope you chose to jump in feet first rather than head first. :biggrin:--

Did a running dive head first! OK - just reached in and opened the door.

>From reports it seems the 12v batt failures seem to occur overnight, discovered in the morning... --

Turns out, it was "the universal charger bad and the car reacted to the fault". Not quite sure exactly what that means, but will try to find out more when I pick the car up today. Will be very happy to get back to electric driving even tho it's only been a day.

 

[Super Gizmo]

I updated from 4.3 (.40) to 4,4 today and the update failed. There was an error message on the screen. Now the car can only be locked by turning "Auto Present Handles" off in the settings.

 

[steve841]

I updated from 4.3 (.40) to 4,4 today and the update failed. There was an error message on the screen. Now the car can only be locked by turning "Auto Present Handles" off in the settings.

I had the same thing.... Had to drop by the SC to reinstall the update.

 

[Hank42]

I've got about 1,600 miles in one month and have noticed from the beginning that the car doesn't feel as "stable" as I think it should on the freeway. It doesn't pull left or right, but seems to "wobble" back and forth in the lane as I drive. I can actually feel my head bob from side to side as I drive and I constantly have to input minor steering corrections. It's been suggested that an alignment would help here, but I haven't talked to Service about it yet...

Just curious - does this behavior occur when you are in the center lane of a highway, or in all lanes about the same?
I ask because I had a (high performance) vehicle with the same behavior - had it aligned numerous times to spec. Turns out the problem really only occurred when I was in the middle lane of some local highways, and in fact it was caused by driving on the crest of the road(middle lane was the crest to allow for proper drainage to the left and right lanes. Driving on an absolutely flat road I had no problems.
I later had my alignment re-done *out-of-spec* to allow the car to behave better on roads that were not flat at the cost of some tire wear.

Just my $.02 of experience with a different vehicle - maybe a snack for thought?

 

[mknox]

Just curious - does this behavior occur when you are in the center lane of a highway, or in all lanes about the same?
I ask because I had a (high performance) vehicle with the same behavior - had it aligned numerous times to spec. Turns out the problem really only occurred when I was in the middle lane of some local highways, and in fact it was caused by driving on the crest of the road(middle lane was the crest to allow for proper drainage to the left and right lanes. Driving on an absolutely flat road I had no problems.
I later had my alignment re-done *out-of-spec* to allow the car to behave better on roads that were not flat at the cost of some tire wear.

For me, it doesn't really seem to matter what lane I'm in or what road I'm on. I have about an hour commute each way with about 75% freeway, and have been doing this drive for over 7 years across 4 different cars. I have a fairly good basis for comparison between how my last car (Cadillac CTS) and the Model S performs under pretty much the exact same conditions. The Model S definitely is not as "stable" (if that's the right word) as the CTS and has a noticeable "wobble" back and forth.

The highway I'm on carries a lot of heavy truck traffic, and I had thought maybe the trucks were causing ruts that were just a bit wider than the Model S's track width, but I think that's a long shot. I've noticed it on other freeways as well.

 

[Todd Burch]

My car does not feel unstable at highway speeds, does not wobble, and tracks straight and true when not touching the wheel. Have Tesla look at it.

 

[wycolo]

> Driving on an absolutely flat road I had no problems. [Hank42]

Cars have 'toe-in' to minimize the tendency to wander back & forth. Too much toe-in and you scrub rubber, but the steering is really stable -'no-hands' easy!

NO toe-in, i.e. wheels pointing absolutely straight ahead results in the wandering back & forth. Like pulling a 4 wheel farm wagon. Assuming the S has equal track width front to back you can set up strings down both sides of the car and adjust for, say 1/8 inch toe-in on the front wheels. Test drive and adjust to personal taste. Helps to have some perfect road surfaces available nearby. Keep tabs on tire wear ('feathering') and adjust toe to minimize wear. 1/8 inch is usually a good starting point.
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[mknox]

My car does not feel unstable at highway speeds, does not wobble, and tracks straight and true when not touching the wheel. Have Tesla look at it.

Yeah, I intend to, but it's not horribly bad or anything... just noticeable. I may wait for the first "annual inspection" which, based on my mileage, will probably come at the 5 or 6 month point. I currently have about 2,700 miles after a bit over a month of ownership.

 

[Lloyd]

Try switching the steering to normal if you are using sport. I found that the "tracking" of groves was much better NOT using the sport mode. See if anyone else sees this.

 

[neroden]

We've had two occasions of torrential downpour rain lately. The wipers DO NOT go fast enough. It's actually dangerous; I had to slow down to 20 mph on 50 mph roads because of the reduced visibility due to the ineffective wipers. I called Tesla and tried to impress upon them the importance of this. We'll see.

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What non-Performance models got the perforated leather? Was that a Signature thing?

For reference, yes, perforated leather was a Signature thing. It's one of several reasons I cancelled my Sig order, but ended up getting a Standard.

 

[scriptacus]

Yeah, I intend to, but it's not horribly bad or anything... just noticeable. I may wait for the first "annual inspection" which, based on my mileage, will probably come at the 5 or 6 month point. I currently have about 2,700 miles after a bit over a month of ownership.

You should have your tires rotated at ~6,250 miles (I believe it's free), you could get it checked out then.

 

[wycolo]

> The wipers DO NOT go fast enough. [neroden]

Finally driving in rain! Yes, needed more wipes that it chose to deliver at that moment so simply turned wipers OFF and then back ON again. This produces an immediate WIPE. Hey, it works. Have yet to be in a downpour/deluge however. Maybe this summer I'll discover that FAST is just not fast enough.

The moisture detector works fine but eventually it just dies due to drying out or whatever. Again, I turn OFF and then back ON. Human dominates machine!!

Btw, the Tesla wiper action itself is superb.
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[FlasherZ]

I can't say that I've had these problems. I live in "hellish downpour land" here, and the fast speed was enough, and the rain sensors seem to work well.

A tip for those of you who haven't figured it out yet: there are two detents when you push the stalk in -- the first is a "mist" type application that forces a wipe, the second activates the washer.

In fact, if there is one complaint I have, it's that the washer doesn't work worth a damn, it only squirts up 1/3 the way onto the windshield. It's likely adjustable but I haven't futzed with it enough yet.

 

[neroden]

For some information, this is "clouds burst and fall on you" rain such that the storm sewers on some streets are overflowing and spilling out into the street.

It's been happening fairly often in recent years around here. There's a reason most cars' wipers have a FAST speed which is actually fast, rather than the leisurely speed at which the Model S wipers go even on top speed. It's not good to get caught in a torrential downpour, but you can't always pull over and wait half an hour for it to end; we need wipers which can handle it. It's a must-fix because it's a safety issue.

This really should be pretty easy to fix. Absolute worst case: new wiper motors, beefier power cables to them, and revised software. Best case, some subset of that. I consider this a warranty issue, as most cars provide tolerable visibility in extremely heavy rain, and the Model S does not.

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I can't say that I've had these problems. I live in "hellish downpour land" here, and the fast speed was enough,

Obviously not sufficiently hellish. Since these torrential downpours started happening around 5 years ago, I've had to widen my drainage around my house to prevent flash flooding of my patio. Does that give you a picture of what I'm talking about?

 

[mknox]

Try switching the steering to normal if you are using sport. I found that the "tracking" of groves was much better NOT using the sport mode. See if anyone else sees this.

I thought it was actually a tiny bit better in Sport, but prefer Normal on surface streets. I kinda wish Tesla would implement a speed-sensitive feature to the steering effort (as well as to the audio level of the sound system).

 

[Tommy]

We've had two occasions of torrential downpour rain lately. The wipers DO NOT go fast enough. It's actually dangerous; I had to slow down to 20 mph on 50 mph roads because of the reduced visibility due to the ineffective wipers. I called Tesla and tried to impress upon them the importance of this. We'll see.

Setting the wiper speed issue aside, at what speed do you consider a safe speed to drive in a torrential downpour. Personally I wouldn't feel it safe anything above 20 mph no matter what the road speed was posted at. I do understand your concern; certainly better to have faster wiper speed than needed vs. speed not fast enough.

 

[neroden]

Setting the wiper speed issue aside, at what speed do you consider a safe speed to drive in a torrential downpour. Personally I wouldn't feel it safe anything above 20 mph no matter what the road speed was posted at.

Fast enough to avoid getting rear-ended by the lunatics behind me. I breathed a sigh of relief when I got to the bit with a hill-climbing lane and could let them pass me.

In this case, 30 mph. If I didn't have lunatics behind me, I'd happily go at 20 mph.

I do understand your concern; certainly better to have faster wiper speed than needed vs. speed not fast enough.

 

[jomo25]

In fact, if there is one complaint I have, it's that the washer doesn't work worth a damn, it only squirts up 1/3 the way onto the windshield. It's likely adjustable but I haven't futzed with it enough yet.

Thought I read that the washer nozzles are adjustable using a pin or something. It was noted somewhere in a thread and it's referenced in the Google Docs Delivery checklist.