O-Oh. It's happened. Frunk won't open.

[interbear]

Sounds like the Bristol SC saved the day which is good as that’s my local SC too. I don’t actually use the Model 3 frunk for regular things like shopping, it’s instead where I choose to store all of the charging cables and Tesla charger that come with the car plus the extension lead and adaptors I acquired via Tough Leads (which are great by the way). So this would be very annoying if it happened when on a road trip where these cables are essential, such as my current trip to France for the festive period.

 

[Glan gluaisne]

I found the video showing the power frunk mod that includes the manual release cable that's led down to behind the cover for the towing eye:

It looks like it may be possible to make up the same sort of manual release to fit the standard frunk latch. If so, this may be worth thinking about as a precaution. The main snag is that it makes the frunk less secure, in that anyone that knows about this release could use it to open a locked frunk. Maybe all that's needed is some sort of emergency release like this for the secondary catch (assuming that the problem is that it's the secondary catch that fails to unlatch - not sure about this).

 

[PM3 pearl]

If the cable release could be inside the foot well it would secure. I can't believe we are even having to think of a workaround on a £50k+ car.
What if it had been our carry on luggage with passports, tickets, wallet etc
We certainly won't risk it for critical items in future, Tesla have been in touch, I just hope we can get it opened before the online calendar slot of 27th January.

 

[Maz0]

If the cable release could be inside the foot well it would secure. I can't believe we are even having to think of a workaround on a £50k+ car.
What if it had been our carry on luggage with passports, tickets, wallet etc
We certainly won't risk it for critical items in future, Tesla have been in touch, I just hope we can get it opened before the online calendar slot of 27th January.

I get what you are saying, it shouldn’t even be an issue. I just watched a video about a guy buying a 250k Mclaren and it came from the factory with a list of ridiculous owner do’s and dont’s. I don’t think it matters how much you spend anymore, the manufacturers don’t care.

 

[NewbieT]

Happened to me today. Click click sound but not movement on the frunk. M3 2021. Tried pushing no movement. No gap. Washer bottle empty (hence going to open the frunk) so 2 month old car technically not roadworthy. Hope they have a ranger or it’s a 2h round trip to the SC on Monday to get it open. Probably again into 2 to 3 weeks to get a new latch. These SC visits starting to wear thin. Still no sign of a trunk fix or two door cards.

 

[ACarneiro]

Oh, man... that really sucks
I hope it doesn’t happen to me, and it’s disappointing to hear it’s still a problem with brand new cars. You’d think they would have figured out and rectified the problem by now? :/

 

[Durzel]

Happened to me today. Click click sound but not movement on the frunk. M3 2021. Tried pushing no movement. No gap. Washer bottle empty (hence going to open the frunk) so 2 month old car technically not roadworthy. Hope they have a ranger or it’s a 2h round trip to the SC on Monday to get it open. Probably again into 2 to 3 weeks to get a new latch. These SC visits starting to wear thin. Still no sign of a trunk fix or two door cards.

2 door cards? What happened? Damage on collection?

 

[NewbieT]

Oh, man... that really sucks
I hope it doesn’t happen to me, and it’s disappointing to hear it’s still a problem with brand new cars. You’d think they would have figured out and rectified the problem by now? :/

Tell me about it!!!

2 door cards? What happened? Damage on collection?

Glue residue they can’t remove. Common issue late 2020s. You’ve made me think I better check them both rather than just one of them.

 

[GRiLLA]

Happened to me today. Click click sound but not movement on the frunk. M3 2021. Tried pushing no movement. No gap. Washer bottle empty (hence going to open the frunk) so 2 month old car technically not roadworthy. Hope they have a ranger or it’s a 2h round trip to the SC on Monday to get it open. Probably again into 2 to 3 weeks to get a new latch. These SC visits starting to wear thin. Still no sign of a trunk fix or two door cards.

Different topic, but how did you use the entire washer bottle in 2 months? I've had mine for 18 months an never added any washer.

 

[dhrivnak]

This happed to me and a Ranger replaced the bad actuators a 15 minute job as I had the Frunk open for him. I was able to pop it open with some care and an Allen wrench after watching a video online.

 

[rotor2k]

Different topic, but how did you use the entire washer bottle in 2 months? I've had mine for 18 months an never added any washer.

Hah was thinking exactly the same!

 

[Glan gluaisne]

Different topic, but how did you use the entire washer bottle in 2 months? I've had mine for 18 months an never added any washer.

Easy. Because the auto wipers don't work well, the washer gets used more, just to trigger the wipers . . .

FWIW, I've had my car since November 2019, and have topped the washer bottle up twice in that time.

 

[init6]

Easy. Because the auto wipers don't work well, the washer gets used more, just to trigger the wipers . . .

FWIW, I've had my car since November 2019, and have topped the washer bottle up twice in that time.

Not sure i follow, you can trigger the wipers without using the washers.

 

[Glan gluaisne]

Not sure i follow, you can trigger the wipers without using the washers.

Sorry, should have used a tongue-in-cheek smiley . . .

The reason I've used loads of washer fluid is mainly down to living in a rural area, with the summer blitz of bugs. Last summer was unbelievable, I don't think I've ever seen so many dead bugs on a car before.

 

[init6]

Sorry, should have used a tongue-in-cheek smiley . . .

The reason I've used loads of washer fluid is mainly down to living in a rural area, with the summer blitz of bugs. Last summer was unbelievable, I don't think I've ever seen so many dead bugs on a car before.

Gotcha.

 

[Neilman]

Gotcha.

I'm not rural but got the 'refill washers' early January having only had the car new from the first week in September.
I got some 5-litre 'ready to use' washer fluid from Aldi and put around 3 litres in the tank - up to the brim,

(used a funnel as I wasn't sure how messy/splashy it might be - any surplus in my Volvo V70 just dribbled to the ground - I didn't want to splash screen wash into frunk 'bucket')

Dunno how full the screen wash tank was from new?

 

[Billbrown1982]

Hmmm I was planning on using the frunk daily for my work bag, and leaving everything else in the trunk. Maybe thats not the best idea.

I've even ordered some of those gas rams for the frunk too, thinking that might be an even worse idea if the latch is going to stick.

I watched the video for the installation of a frunk modification a few weeks ago, and that showed an emergency release being run down to behind the blanking plate for the place where the towing eye screws in. I wonder if there's a way to just fit an emergency release pull like this to the standard latch?

Might be worthwhile mod, if it can be done fairly easily and allows emergency access to get stuff out of the frunk.

Thats exactly what popped into my head, even some sort of cord that is left inside the frunk for emergencys but could be fished out with a hanger and then used to pull on the latch or something.

 

[NewbieT]

No idea. I am fairly liberal with the stuff.

Started working again today. It was -1 yesterday: can they freeze like locks sometimes can? Surely not. Let’s see if it becomes an intermittent fault. On a positive note I can drive it again now!

 

[Neilman]

There's a replacement frunk lock catch spring on Amazon for £7 (but £5 post ... for a single spring!!)
https://www.amazon.co.uk/GreendRive...1&keywords=frunk+spring&qid=1613347978&sr=8-1
It's supposed to make it a lot easier to close the frunk latch - I wonder if it also improves the jam-ability of the current lock to reduce the possibility of being locked out of the frunk?