New owner stuck in valet mode

[jaredm25]

So I have an interesting/terrible combination of issues. Bought a 2014 P85 yesterday and somehow the dealer ended up with it in valet mode without knowing the PIN. I was able to talk Tesla support into expediting the transfer of ownership so I could log into the app and disable it. I thought awesome, now I can actually make the journey home with my new toy rather than leaving it behind for the dealer to figure out. Shortly after I left the car appeared in my account but I have yet to be able to connect to it, car seems to have no cellular connection. Have tried soft reset, hard reset and power off with no change. So now I'm stuck with valet mode and no way to send the signal to turn it off. Oddly support said I could just connect to wi-fi instead but wi-fi is disabled in valet mode. Any options left besides making a service center appointment? Unfortunately dealer is 5 hours away, my bad for thinking everything would be good to go after talking to support.
Is it likely the cellular module is completely dead? Anyone familiar with the cost to replace one?

 

[St Charles]

I'd suggest you attach the car to wifi. There's a good chance the car needs to talk to home base.

EDIT: ugh, didn't realize you couldn't do that. Are you near a service center? If so take it there. the car will likely attach to the corp wifi regardless of valet settings.

EDIT2: You said hard reset. Do you mean factory reset? That may get passed Valet Mode.

 

[whitex]

How close is your nearest Tesla Service Center? Possibly WiFi will auto-connect there (it does outside of valet mode), but if it doesn't, you have someone to talk to about next steps right there (you want your cellular fixed anyways, or you won't have maps on the big screen). If the service center is the dealer you talked about (5 hrs away), I'd make an appointment first too.

 

[jaredm25]

I'd suggest you attach the car to wifi. There's a good chance the car needs to talk to home base.

EDIT: ugh, didn't realize you couldn't do that. Are you near a service center? If so take it there. the car will likely attach to the corp wifi regardless of valet settings.

EDIT2: You said hard reset. Do you mean factory reset? That may get passed Valet Mode.

Thanks for the reply, nearest service center is a couple hours away so I can't just swing by but I may not have any other options than making the trip. By hard reset I mean pressing the scroll wheels and the buttons above for 30 seconds so both screens restart. The actual factory reset option in the menu is greyed out because of valet mode unless there is another way to do it.

 

[jaredm25]

How close is your nearest Tesla Service Center? Possibly WiFi will auto-connect there (it does outside of valet mode), but if it doesn't, you have someone to talk to about next steps right there (you want your cellular fixed anyways, or you won't have maps on the big screen). If the service center is the dealer you talked about (5 hrs away), I'd make an appointment first too.

Thanks for the reply, sounds like a good excuse for a couple hour road trip down to Chicago. Dealer seemed pretty reputable and easy to work with so I might get them to foot the bill if cellular module needs replaced and isn't terribly expensive. They originally offered to truck the car 5 hours to my house if the transfer of ownership couldn't be done right away so I did save them a good chunk of expense by driving it home myself.

 

[jaredm25]

Anyone know if there is a risk of complete lockout if I try too many guesses at the PIN code in the meantime?

 

[ahkahn]

Why don't you just call Tesla support and push them to help you out by disabling the mode for you? Or something?

 

[St Charles]

Why don't you just call Tesla support and push them to help you out by disabling the mode for you? Or something?

The problem, I think, is that the cell modem seems disabled and the car is stuck in valet mode so the OP can't get his car attached to any kind of network. If the Tesla can't talk to home base, how does the mothership issue commands?

 

[jaredm25]

The problem, I think, is that the cell modem seems disabled and the car is stuck in valet mode so the OP can't get his car attached to any kind of network. If the Tesla can't talk to home base, how does the mothership issue commands?

Exactly. Once they added the vehicle to my account I should have been able to unlock it directly from the app myself if it was online. Support hasn't been able to do anything more as they can't see the car online either, just tried the usual resets which didn't bring it back online. Soonest I can get to closest service center for an appointment is a couple weeks so I may have to live with valet mode until then. As nice as it drives with only 25% power output I'm really looking forward to unlocking 100%.
If cellular module does need replaced can the 2014's be upgraded to the LTE rather than the original 3G?

 

[ahkahn]

The problem, I think, is that the cell modem seems disabled and the car is stuck in valet mode so the OP can't get his car attached to any kind of network. If the Tesla can't talk to home base, how does the mothership issue commands?

To my knowledge, unless the cell service is blocked in the particular area the car is in, the modem itself cannot be disabled. I am sure they can get in unless cell service is spotty.

 

[jaredm25]

To my knowledge, unless the cell service is blocked in the particular area the car is in, the modem itself cannot be disabled. I am sure they can get in unless cell service is spotty.

I think you are correct, I have not found any mention of an option to disable cellular. After travelling significant distance including through urban areas with no data connection my only conclusion is it's completely dead.

 

[ahkahn]

Another silly question, @jaredm25 , but have you tried rebooting the vehicle? Two scroll buttons? If the LTE modem is dead, this will reset it. I've had mine crap out and then after a reboot it reconnects.

 

[StarLog]

Until it is in your name, and you have control via the app, no way to change it.
This happend to my friend as well, he had to wait 3 days for it to transfer into his name.

 

[StarLog]

If cellular module does need replaced can the 2014's be upgraded to the LTE rather than the original 3G?

Yes it cost my friend here in Florida around $348 to total install the LTE

 

[jaredm25]

Another silly question, @jaredm25 , but have you tried rebooting the vehicle? Two scroll buttons? If the LTE modem is dead, this will reset it. I've had mine crap out and then after a reboot it reconnects.

Yes, have tried the 2 button as well as the 4 button reboot a few times. I read that some others had to use those reboots to resolve intermittent issues with cellular connection but appears mine is permanent rather than intermittent.

 

[jaredm25]

Until it is in your name, and you have control via the app, no way to change it.
This happend to my friend as well, he had to wait 3 days for it to transfer into his name.

One support agent told me it takes a few days for the transfer to be complete and this issue might go away after that is done. But the first agent I talked to the night I bought the car was very helpful and had the car showing up in my account and in the app right away so I don't think anything is going to change further with that. I feel after I had the car for only a few hours I already knew more about it than most of their support agents unfortunately.

 

[jaredm25]

Yes it cost my friend here in Florida around $348 to total install the LTE

Thanks, that sounds very reasonable for any Tesla part/repair. If that is what is required and I end up with an upgrade over what originally came with the car I would be pretty happy. Still going to request the dealer cover it.

 

[Kupua]

I just bought a preowned Tesla M3. I called and Tesla Call Center, told me one thing... Absolutely DO NOT put it in valet mode. Unfortunately your ride is in limbo-land. Prior owner and valet and new owner.

I think your best bet is to go to a service center and take ALL of your sales doc's. Hope they can get it out of limbo-land. If that doesn't work, are you able to talk to the dealer and get the prior owners intel? With their login info they should be able to back out of valet? That may be worth a try, if not best bet.

Yes, Tesla says a few days but what is that exactly? I bought mine on 5/28 and I'm still waiting. Today is 6/5/2019, I think that's a few days (has passed) and should be done by now. But reality should not be days, should be at the very least multiple days if not 2.5 weeks (wondering)??? Hence I started a new thread to try to get other new buyers to post their experience and we can gage how long it can take.

So hope the Tesla Service Center can fix it as like any other online company these days, it's so difficult to get any kind of assistance. Good luck.

 

[jaredm25]

I just bought a preowned Tesla M3. I called and Tesla Call Center, told me one thing... Absolutely DO NOT put it in valet mode. Unfortunately your ride is in limbo-land. Prior owner and valet and new owner.

I think your best bet is to go to a service center and take ALL of your sales doc's. Hope they can get it out of limbo-land. If that doesn't work, are you able to talk to the dealer and get the prior owners intel? With their login info they should be able to back out of valet? That may be worth a try, if not best bet.

Yes, Tesla says a few days but what is that exactly? I bought mine on 5/28 and I'm still waiting. Today is 6/5/2019, I think that's a few days (has passed) and should be done by now. But reality should not be days, should be at the very least multiple days if not 2.5 weeks (wondering)??? Hence I started a new thread to try to get other new buyers to post their experience and we can gage how long it can take.

So hope the Tesla Service Center can fix it as like any other online company these days, it's so difficult to get any kind of assistance. Good luck.

Maybe I was lucky enough to get the right support agent on the phone but she got the transfer of ownership done almost immediately after I emailed pics of sales docs. That is why I THOUGHT everything was going to be fine until it became obvious the car was never going to get a cell connection making the app useless. I had a service visit scheduled but they changed it to mobile service so I have a technician coming to my house tomorrow. Hopefully they can repair/replace cell antenna and all will be normal.
So although it didn't matter much for me it may be worth trying to talk somebody on phone into doing the ownership transfer right away. Maybe make up a sob story about being 6 hours from home with a crippled car like me.

 

[olealgo]

I have a bench model 3 mcu in valet mode. LTE is enabled. I've got a model S mcu here too, but daughter board emmc died before I could retrieve memory dump, or else I could check if it's the same in the model S mcu as well

Good luck