Model Y tow bar electrics not working

[looseend]

T

[B]looseend[/B] so do you have the towbar fitted but with no active electrics then like james & I? Sounds like a known issue and I wonder why there are no modules available, all used up fixing faults I guess.​

Just had a rant at Tesla to no avail. Time to part with yet more dosh and try plan B.

They haven't actually fitted it as there wasn't much point with the module as I wouldn't be using it without electrics. I wouldn't be happy with third party electrics spliced into the cabling, pretty sure Tesla could use it to wriggle out of any electrics related warranty claims.

 

[chwe]

I don't believe your towbar will be factory fitted, it will be fitted at the service centre before delivery.

Is this a suspicion or based on info from Tesla?

I am not sure why they would go to the bother of offering the towbar at point of sale only to have it fitted in the local service centre as the costs of fitting will be dramatically lower in China I would have thought, and UK-side fitting would add to the 'processing' costs on this side (e.g. someone having to identify cars requiring fitment, booking into the service centre, testing etc).

Not saying it won't be happening, I'm just interested in why you think it would be a UK-side thing?

 

[james.ewence@g]

Is this a suspicion or based on info from Tesla?

I am not sure why they would go to the bother of offering the towbar at point of sale only to have it fitted in the local service centre as the costs of fitting will be dramatically lower in China I would have thought, and UK-side fitting would add to the 'processing' costs on this side (e.g. someone having to identify cars requiring fitment, booking into the service centre, testing etc).

Not saying it won't be happening, I'm just interested in why you think it would be a UK-side thing?

I'm fairly certain because the whole philosophy of Tesla is to not have many variables on the production line. They don't build your car to order, they make cars and match what they have made to orders. Completely different to other manufacturers. There are only going to be a tiny percentage of cars fitted with tow bars so it would be significantly "cheaper" and less disruptive to the production line to add them once in country. I could of course be completely wrong . This is all based upon my own deduction, no confirmed facts.

 

[chwe]

I'm fairly certain because the whole philosophy of Tesla is to not have many variables on the production line. They don't build your car to order, they make cars and match what they have made to orders. Completely different to other manufacturers. There are only going to be a tiny percentage of cars fitted with tow bars so it would be significantly "cheaper" and less disruptive to the production line to add them once in country. I could of course be completely wrong . This is all based upon my own deduction, no confirmed facts.

Makes some sense, but as you say who really knows. I just figure that there are that many orders going in that they'd wait until they are confident they have enough orders coming in with towbars and then run a batch. I'm probably also not helped by the fact that my MY is red, so I hope it is a UK-side thing as chances are the car will arrive quicker overall if it was.

 

[garym999]

Plan B worked!

So, £170 lighter but I have a working towbar & holiday. Only been for a little run but you don’t notice the trailer. When I put the bike rack on it will help in that I'll be able to see it in my mirrors. The live camera view is handy. And you can see the hitch in the rear camera so you can reverse right up to the trailer.

I have tow mode available on the touch screen so I can use it to disable the rear parking sensors, it also disables autosteer. Of course it does not auto detect the trailer as it is not hooked up to the Tesla electrics.

Anyone know if the Tesla electrics are the fully monty ie: supply for fridge etc.? The manual suggests it might be just the basics.

I checked with the manufacture of the kit & no its not specifically designed for the MY (There is an overload issue if fog lights are used, and it requires a wire to be cut. The reversing lights need one of those wire taps which I don’t like). They are working on a MY specific kit however. Thier tech department actually have this kit installed in a MY too. They kindly sent me the pics to aid location and identification of the fog & reversing light wiring. I can do without these as it’s a temporary fix to get me through the holiday.

The install was pretty much plug and play. Two intercept connections at the light clusters. A ground connection to the module and rather than tap the 12V under the seats I simply took it from the 12V socket in the boot. All in about 40mins work. I have left the 13pin socket loose as I did not want to disturb the Tesla install. There is plenty of space behind the bumper to tuck it away. Works passively and have tested it with both LED & filament lighting.

 

[Cardo]

Plan B worked!
View attachment 831056
So, £170 lighter but I have a working towbar & holiday. Only been for a little run but you don’t notice the trailer. When I put the bike rack on it will help in that I'll be able to see it in my mirrors. The live camera view is handy. And you can see the hitch in the rear camera so you can reverse right up to the trailer.

I have tow mode available on the touch screen so I can use it to disable the rear parking sensors, it also disables autosteer. Of course it does not auto detect the trailer as it is not hooked up to the Tesla electrics.

Anyone know if the Tesla electrics are the fully monty ie: supply for fridge etc.? The manual suggests it might be just the basics.

I checked with the manufacture of the kit & no its not specifically designed for the MY (There is an overload issue if fog lights are used, and it requires a wire to be cut. The reversing lights need one of those wire taps which I don’t like). They are working on a MY specific kit however. Thier tech department actually have this kit installed in a MY too. They kindly sent me the pics to aid location and identification of the fog & reversing light wiring. I can do without these as it’s a temporary fix to get me through the holiday.

The install was pretty much plug and play. Two intercept connections at the light clusters. A ground connection to the module and rather than tap the 12V under the seats I simply took it from the 12V socket in the boot. All in about 40mins work. I have left the 13pin socket loose as I did not want to disturb the Tesla install. There is plenty of space behind the bumper to tuck it away. Works passively and have tested it with both LED & filament lighting.

View attachment 831047 View attachment 831050View attachment 831051

Let us know how you get on towing with the MY. What kind of mileage are you seeing? On my M3 with the Opus I see between 350 and 380 ish Wh/mi.

 

[garym999]

Will do. What do you get normally? I’m at around 275.

 

[Cardo]

Will do. What do you get normally? I’m at around 275.

Between 220 and 250 depending on the type of run.

 

[haze20]

Same problem for me, Tesla Cardiff didn't even have a test tool until last week. The tool doesn't even fit the electronics when it's installed on the car.
My Altera bike rack light's don't work.
I have been told the below.

"the team are looking into your tow bar situation but it is looking like it’ll need one of these new modules.
Will let you know as soon as I get answers."

 

[WAY_3]

Ask them to take the body control module from their demonstrator or a car in inventory that has the memory chips fitted.

 

[garym999]

Well we have arrived! Travelled yesterday. Oxford to Plymouth. Ferry to Roscoff and then a short 50m drive to site. Electrics worked a treat.

The trailer is light and aerodynamic compared to a caravan but probably still near a ton or so loaded. Put the car in trailer mode & chill. Kept to sped limits and tried to acceleerate as gently as possible. Appart from that you would not know the trailer was there, as smooth as.

Prior to the trip I had racked up 1700miles in the two weeks of having it. My average was 262Wh/mi. The 259mi trailer trip saw a return of 387Wh/,i. The Tesla navigation did not want to route via Plymouth/Roscoff no matter what I tried. Kept try to go via Dover even if using waypoints. Did it as separate journeys once we arrived at each destination. The trip was done with one SuperCharger stop at Exeter for a Very nice breakfast and a 17-89% charge. Arrived at site the camp site with 33%.

As soon as we arrived in France the car updated the time. Manually switched to Km units (would be nice to have both displayed). Spotify gave us 6 Music all the way. Navigation direct to the actual campsite (by name) was perfect.

Now to the holiday. No Superchargers in the area so will be normal chargers via my Octopus Jucie card and what I can squeeze out of the campsite.

 

[garym999]

Well we are back in parched Blighty. All was good. Car towed a treat. The trailer did make for more hassle while stopping to charge, having to unhitch, find a spot to pitch it while charging.

The Electric Juice card worked with the few chargers we tried. The most common ones seemed to be from SDEF and were to be found in most towns. Most often they were a single pillar with two charging plugs one on either side. On the way back to Roscoff we took a short break for sandwiches in a small town while watching the car via Sentry mode while charging. The charge wasnt really needed but I figured it would be enough to keep on top of the AC used while queing for the ferry.

Most of the charging was done at the campsite, being very careful to manage our load by dialing it down to 6-8A and stopping charging if using the kettle etc. The last thing we wanted we to trip the site/pillar breakers and have teh owner comming out to reset. They have not decided their policy on EV charging although they know they need to sort it out. Over our 2week stay we saw 3 other EVs come and go. At the end of our stay we gave them some extra Euros to say thankyou.

Now I'm back I need to find out from the SC whats going to happen to sort the electrics, I notice the Towbar option on the shop has been set to "Out of stock".

Anyone need an M3 electrics kit, one careful owner.

 

[looseend]

Anyone had any updates from Tesla about the electrics? Becoming quite a pain not having it.

 

[james.ewence@g]

I had a message from our Tesla account manager (large company car fleet) that she had been told parts in the uk end Sept. I have also seen an appointment appear in service for early Nov but don’t know if the two are related.

 

[AndrewGR]

I’m concerned to see this thread. I have a Y with towbar scheduled for delivery on 23rd September and was planning to tow with it on 24th. Perhaps fortunately trailer mostly has bulbs rather than LEDs but seems some have had no working electrics. Can anyone report a recent delivery of a Y with properly working towbar electrics? I haven’t had any problems with my 3 except for the fog light. Plugging in a trailer disables the car’s rear fog light but doesn’t enable the one on the trailer. On the 3, although fitted with a 13 pin socket, only wired for the equivalent 7 pin socket. Bit mean considering what Tesla charge for a towbar.

 

[james.ewence@g]

I’m concerned to see this thread. I have a Y with towbar scheduled for delivery on 23rd September and was planning to tow with it on 24th. Perhaps fortunately trailer mostly has bulbs rather than LEDs but seems some have had no working electrics. Can anyone report a recent delivery of a Y with properly working towbar electrics? I haven’t had any problems with my 3 except for the fog light. Plugging in a trailer disables the car’s rear fog light but doesn’t enable the one on the trailer. On the 3, although fitted with a 13 pin socket, only wired for the equivalent 7 pin socket. Bit mean considering what Tesla charge for a towbar.

I think this may only have affected the batch delivered in June. I have seen pics of those delivered later with working lights. I don't think it is anything to do with led/filament, affected cars do not have a functioning wiring harness at all.

 

[Greengage]

Well we are back in parched Blighty. All was good. Car towed a treat. The trailer did make for more hassle while stopping to charge, having to unhitch, find a spot to pitch it while charging.

The Electric Juice card worked with the few chargers we tried. The most common ones seemed to be from SDEF and were to be found in most towns. Most often they were a single pillar with two charging plugs one on either side. On the way back to Roscoff we took a short break for sandwiches in a small town while watching the car via Sentry mode while charging. The charge wasnt really needed but I figured it would be enough to keep on top of the AC used while queing for the ferry.

View attachment 841161

Most of the charging was done at the campsite, being very careful to manage our load by dialing it down to 6-8A and stopping charging if using the kettle etc. The last thing we wanted we to trip the site/pillar breakers and have teh owner comming out to reset. They have not decided their policy on EV charging although they know they need to sort it out. Over our 2week stay we saw 3 other EVs come and go. At the end of our stay we gave them some extra Euros to say thankyou.

Now I'm back I need to find out from the SC whats going to happen to sort the electrics, I notice the Towbar option on the shop has been set to "Out of stock".

Anyone need an M3 electrics kit, one careful owner.

I have. MY with the same problem will it work on mine ?

 

[garym999]

Yes don’t see why not as it is passive. Won’t give you reversing lights or fog lights.

Apparently the fixed body controllers are in Europe and on their way to the UK so hoping to get mine this month

If you can’t wait for the official fix you could have my aftermarket kit if you want.

 

[looseend]

Yes don’t see why not as it is passive. Won’t give you reversing lights or fog lights.

Apparently the fixed body controllers are in Europe and on their way to the UK so hoping to get mine this month

If you can’t wait for the official fix you could have my aftermarket kit if you want.

Is that official? Last time I spoke to someone at Tesla I was told they'd call me back at end of October...

 

[garym999]

i had an appointment booked for yesterday but last week the SC reached out saying that although the kit was meant to arrive over the weekend they could not guarantee it so knocked back the appointment to later in the month. I have had to change it to 18th so we will see then.