My thoughts on the MCU1 failure debacle and the outcome for Tesla

[croman]

Can you extend the warranty above 100k? (real question, I may have assumed wrong).

Not with Tesla (except some cpo that were greater than 50k but still got 50k warranty) but X care offers plans to 150k and they allow you to go to Tesla and they pay.

 

[ucmndd]

Can you extend the warranty above 100k? (real question, I may have assumed wrong).

Good point, now that you mention it I don’t think so.

Maybe OP’s car had the MCU replaced once already and failed again under the parts warranty?

 

[Krash]

If you bought a high mileage used car from Tesla does the warranty still end at 100,000 miles?

 

[ucmndd]

If you bought a high mileage used car from Tesla it would come with a warranty right?

Yes, but they all end right at 100k miles.

If you buy a used car from Tesla with 70,000 miles, it comes with a 2 year / 30,000 mile whichever comes first warranty.

If you buy a used car from Tesla with 60,000 miles, it comes with a 2 year / 40,000 mile whichever comes first warranty.

and so forth.

 

[Kandiru]

As this article explains, eMMC can hold a lot, BUT the speed
of transfer is much lower, hence the jams:
eMMC and SSD are just different flash storage, right?

Tesla should have not gone cheap, wish they had used SSD instead,
this a premium sedan, not a xxxxin Disney Princess 8" Laptop.

 

[aaron0k]

Tesla should have not gone cheap...

"On Jan. 12, 2015 the Wall Street Journal’s Mike Ramsey wrote... [Elon] told workers to buy USB cables at nearby Fry’s Electronics Inc. stores after a snarl delayed a shipment from China." - WSJ pay-walled​

I'm not sure it is about being cheap. It seems it is more about getting cars out the door, taking shortcuts with testing and quality; accepting that some cars will have to come back.

I think in the early years, that attitude was more about demand, buyers pent up about delivery delays. Then it became more about shoving cars out to meet sales/earnings goals.

 

[Chaserr]

It was about being cheap. The same supplier had better chips with the same delivery numbers, the only difference was price.

 

[houstonian]

"On Jan. 12, 2015 the Wall Street Journal’s Mike Ramsey wrote... [Elon] told workers to buy USB cables at nearby Fry’s Electronics Inc. stores after a snarl delayed a shipment from China." - WSJ pay-walled​

Non-paywall archived link of WSJ article: http://archive.is/XI0yg

 

[P100D_Me]

But it's hard to tell if your MCU1 is going bad or just the usual Tesla software bugs causing the MCU to randomly freeze, reboot etc

 

[sealbeach100d]

I have a 2014 P85 with 106,000 miles, my MCU1 failed at the end of June. My car is still able to drive normally(without some creature comforts). They gave me the option to have the MCU1 replaced at no cost or I can upgrade to a MCU2 for $2500. Very reasonable choices in my opinion. The only bad part is I am still waiting for the new MCU to come in

Unless I'm missing something here, why not just get the free MCU1 replacement & then request the $2.5K MCU2 upgrade?
Then, you'd have your car back quicker & not be at all stressed while waiting for the MCU2 update that you want.

 

[aesculus]

Unless I'm missing something here, why not just get the free MCU1 replacement & then request the $2.5K MCU2 upgrade?
Then, you'd have your car back quicker & not be at all stressed while waiting for the MCU2 update that you want.

This is what I am going to do (I have the extended warranty). So I will see what the offer is at my failure time and then let them replace as they see fit under warranty. Then later I will decide if I want to upgrade or not. The cost difference will be my deductible. And by that time maybe Tesla will have a known and accepted path out of this mess.

 

[Mhoepfin]

I know everyone values features differently, but I’ve had a Model S loaner with MCU2 while my 85D has been been getting a new MCU1 installed (only took them 3 days to find and install). Anyway, I honestly find nothing about MCU2 compelling enough for $2500. Lost interest in the extra games in 5 minutes and I’d rather watch YouTube on my phone, especially with other people in the car. Even the overall responsiveness while improved isn’t something revolutionary. After a few miles it was ho hum. Also it got me to appreciate my old school wiper sensors and the rock solid stability of AP1. This is after a 1,000 mile road trip.

 

[aaron0k]

Honda recalls 608,000 vehicles for faulty software
Causing random reboots and problems with the backup camera.

Hmmm...

 

[random155]

My primary thought on this is that Tesla has no competition to force them to offer reasonable customer service. They used to have amazing customer service in order to show people how good direct-to-consumer sales could be. Now we're seeing the dark side of that coin because they've gutted their customer service in what I can only assume is an effort to bolster profit margins to make Wall Street investors happy. They become profitable ahead of schedule and it started happening shortly after they started gutting their customer service. Imagine that, you cut costs and increase profit. The problem is that customers are becoming increasingly pissed and what was once their best asset (word of mouth) is now becoming their worst enemy. Everyone I spoke with previously just heard how amazing and revolutionary these cars were. Now I feel compelled to follow that up with the simple fact that Tesla has the worst customer service of any product I've ever owned. It's not even close either. Until Tesla cares about what this is doing to them or someone else comes along with a product that's even close but with better customer support they're the only EV show in town. Right now they're making hay but that sun isn't going to be shining for much longer. Sadly, we're going to be forced to go back the dealership model but Tesla is ruining about the only chance we're going to have in our lifetime at decent direct-to-consumer car sales through their greed for profit trumping their care for the customer.

tl;dr Tesla "Customer Service" support is the worst. Don't expect them to make any decisions that favor the consumer's satisfaction over the bottom line.

I didnt read past this post, but I've had my fair share of horrible customer service issues in year and a half of ownership. My wife's 2018 explorer recently had 2 warranty issues and let me tell you... dealing with an established car manufacturer with a "normal" customer service / repair model was such a breath of fresh air. I spoke with ACTUAL people. Dealt with a gentleman who has been with the company for 20 years and knew how to get things done for me. If it weren't for Tesla's customer service I would honestly say that I would own at least one Tesla for the rest of my life. I don't think I could justify that statement anymore.

 

[21five]

Looks like Tesla went with a variation on option 3.

 

[aaron0k]

Looks like Tesla went with a variation on option 3.

Option 4: Tesla does the right thing. Retroactively covers MCU's under the 150k Battery/Drive Unit warranty. Tesla reimburses those who had to repair under the old 50k coverage limits.

I got the same notice. I have had a tough road with MCU failures over the years, so I am happy that it looks like I'll be receiving a reimbursement for my first Tesla repaired MCU. I wonder if they will do the same for the 3rd party eMMC repair I had done on my second Model S or for my own labor tearing my dash apart?

Though I could pessimistically wonder if the NHTSA investigations coerced them into taking these actions (ahem, "Warranty Adjustment Program" vs. "Recall")... I'd rather be blissfully 'optimistic' that Tesla may have actually decided to do 'the right thing' (...late than never).

As the wise *** once said "My faith in humanity has been restored."

 

[Krash]

...I wonder if they will do the same for the 3rd party eMMC repair I had done on my second Model S or for my own labor tearing my dash apart?...

Yes to reimbursement for third party repair of cars you still own. It will be interesting to see for those sold or traded. I assume you are joking about your own labor. Maybe if you paid someone else for dash disassembly as part of eMMC repair.

 

[2101Guy]

Seems there would be benefit to Tesla in giving the option of "hey, your MCU1 has failed. We will give you an option of free fix for your MCU1 OR, 50% off the cost of MCU2".

Win/Win all around, no?

 

[Ostrichsak]

Seems there would be benefit to Tesla in giving the option of "hey, your MCU1 has failed. We will give you an option of free fix for your MCU1 OR, 50% off the cost of MCU2".

Win/Win all around, no?

Not if 1) the cost to replace the eMMC is insignificant and 2) the supply of MCU2 isn't currently keeping up with demand. Both of these seem to be the case currently and nobody knows how long those two trends will continue.

I don't envision a scenario where the replacement parts for the eMMC fix suddenly get expensive to shrink that delta either. Maybe if the supply of MCU2 becomes such that they start being able to produce more than they need and a lower cost we see something similar to what you're describing. There's also the possibility that the supply of eMMC to fix the MCU1 gets used up and the cost starts inching upwards or just becomes difficult to get in enough volume quick enough coupled with a lower cost point on the MCU2 but these are all just pipe dreams based on nothing tangible at this point.

I think that the best those with MCU1 can hope for if they want to upgrade is some sort of a discount but it's certainly not going to be half anytime soon. I'm just happy they're going to give us a MCU1 fix for free. One miracle at a time.

 

[slainla]

I put in a request yesterday and will see how it goes. My used car warranty expired in August and I wasn't experiencing too many issues. Just an occasional black screen during start up but I wasn't driving it enough during the pandemic to think it was an issue.

I'm driving a bit more now so so I do notice more blank screens with random reboots while driving.