Someone just posted this on Facebook. It's the new rear appliqué redesigned to eliminate the moisture problem in the clear lenses in the reverse lights. The letters are more prominent. Supposedly all cars made now will have this.Can be retrofitted apparently.
I'd love to receive this retrofit FREE, as my lenses still fog up. They used to fill up with dust as well, but the service center seems to have corrected that issue. Actually on 2nd thought, never mind. I'm afraid they'll make it worse.
This photo does not show the ends, which are the source of the problem, so it's hard to determine what changes were made other then raising the letters a bit more. Are the back up lights obscured? How are they handled? The new design will make it easier for us to cut out the letters for our lighted appliqué, shown in FLDarren's post.
The ends (from what I’ve been told - and photos I’ve seen) have no outer lens, so they have either figured out a way to waterproof the inner lens, or it already is. The fogging issue was between the outer lens and the inner lense.
I heard reports of this new appliqué being field tested by Jerome on one of his cars 8-12 months ago. Wow, it sure took a long time to get the modification into production...
I was wondering why the hell they had an outer lens in the first place. could have been designed much better.
I don't quite understand what you are saying. My issue (at least) was moisture trapped between the appliqué (outer) and the inner lens. If they have indeed removed the outer lens altogether, then the only place the moisture would be hiding is in an evaporated form
Ooh, I want! I haven't complained about my foggy lenses, because I assumed nothing could be done to fix it. Guess I have to contact service and see if I can get on the list!
My rear appliqué has been off a couple of times for backup light fogging and once to replace my rearview camera that crapped out. I still have fogging in the backup lights and I even get a fair bit of fogging/moisture inside the tail lights, mostly the left one. Each time, they told me that they had re-applied it with some new and improved technique.
If this is truly a fix it should almost just be a recall as nearly every Tesla owner I've spoken to has fogging in the tail-lamps - some more than others.
During the lighted appliqué group install at delanman's house a month or two ago we developed a solution that works quite well. The extreme edges of the appliqué pull away from the tail light just a bit, allowing moisture to enter. When we reinstalled the appliqués we added a dab of clear silicone sealant to each end then taped them down for 24 hours. That appears to work. I've not had moisture in mine since. - - - Updated - - - That's why I wanted to see a photo of the ends of the new version. If there's no clear lens, the moisture won't show, but then the back up lights won't show either. So how they redesigned the ends is what matters most, not what they did with the raised TESLA letters.
The pulling away at the ends has been my observation as well. The silicone trick sounds like a good solution.
I think I have an answer to my own question about the design of the ends of the new Model S appliqué. My SC told me the new appliqué would be paired with a redesign of the tail lights. Having just seen the photo below of the Model X rear end, I now think I know the solution: the new appliqué will not extend over the tail lights and the back up lights. Easy solution to the moisture problem. Maybe in fact the Model S and Model X will share the same appliqué and tail lights. Seems quite plausible.
See this thread: http://www.teslamotorsclub.com/showthread.php/44876-Tesla-still-delivers-cars-with-moisture-in-reverse-light-housing! Interesting that it has been well over a year since I saw the prototype new applique on Jerome's Sig Red S. I would have thought that a production version would have been out by now. Maybe as noted above the decision was made to do a full redesign of the rear lighting as artsci notes above.
According to my SC this has been through several iterations, including ones that were intended to prevent the ends from lifting off and allowing moisture in. The Model X solution seems the best way to go. If one looks carefully at the Model X appliqué the raised and squared off letters are there.
I guess that doesn't bode well for retrofits on existing cars. Even if Tesla did agree to replace both lights and the chrome strip, the car body may end up being tweaked to accept the new tail light assemblies.