Out of warranty repair

[Shock-On-T]

The modem in my MCU is apparently playing up, and Tesla Service want to charge $4100 for a new MCU. It would be a like-for-like replacement if the old 3G MCU.

The car is less than 3 years old, but has 107,000km so is beyond the warranty.

Does anyone have an opinion about whether this should be covered under Australian Consumer Law? It seems too early for such an expensive failure in such an expensive car.

 

[AEdennis]

The modem in my MCU is apparently playing up, and Tesla Service want to charge $4100 for a new MCU. It would be a like-for-like replacement if the old 3G MCU.

The car is less than 3 years old, but has 107,000km so is beyond the warranty.

Does anyone have an opinion about whether this should be covered under Australian Consumer Law? It seems too early for such an expensive failure in such an expensive car.

If the problem is the modem... The LTE upgrade (in the US about 3 years ago) is a replacement modem and that was approx $500USD

 

[Shock-On-T]

If the problem is the modem... The LTE upgrade (in the US about 3 years ago) is a replacement modem and that was approx $500USD

Strange, they told me that the modem was soldered to the MCU at that the whole MCU would have to be replaced.

 

[NoMoGas]

Strange, they told me that the modem was soldered to the MCU at that the whole MCU would have to be replaced.

You can get a MCU on ebay for around 1000.00 US, the LTE upgrade may also help, plus there's a guy here that can repair MCU's. Lots of options now.

 

[meowsers]

The modem in my MCU is apparently playing up, and Tesla Service want to charge $4100 for a new MCU. It would be a like-for-like replacement if the old 3G MCU.

The car is less than 3 years old, but has 107,000km so is beyond the warranty.

Does anyone have an opinion about whether this should be covered under Australian Consumer Law? It seems too early for such an expensive failure in such an expensive car.

i would push hard for an ACL repair. A reasonable person would not expect that component to fail so quickly. Stand up for your consumer rights.

 

[Shock-On-T]

I asked them about the modem replacement, and they told me it’s not actually soldered on as they originally said. I’ll be generous and say they were trying to keep things simple for me.
But, they said that they’ve never been able to get the modem upgrade working in Australia. That’s why they don’t offer that here, and why they would need to replace my whole MCU.

 

[miimura]

You should ask them how much the labor is to install and update a used MCU that you bring in. There should be an MCU available from salvage vehicles in Australia.

 

[AEdennis]

I asked them about the modem replacement, and they told me it’s not actually soldered on as they originally said. I’ll be generous and say they were trying to keep things simple for me.
But, they said that they’ve never been able to get the modem upgrade working in Australia. That’s why they don’t offer that here, and why they would need to replace my whole MCU.

Ok.. Understanding that modems may have different frequencies for AUS vs. US that might indeed be true. But that is a big oversight.

 

[EcoCloudIT]

@ShockOnT you are 100% covered under the ACL....km's has no bearing on a non-moving part in the car...it's a critical component and it is not fit for purpose if failing after only 3 years....

 

[paulp]

@ShockOnT you are 100% covered under the ACL....km's has no bearing on a non-moving part in the car...it's a critical component and it is not fit for purpose if failing after only 3 years....

Agree you wouldnt expect a critical part in a car of that price to only last 3 years. I’ve just had the same argument over a heater at home that we use 2 months each year and it lasted 2 years and 2 months. I argued it only lasted 4 months, and I expect a $10k heater to last longer. They reluctantly agreed ‘on this occasion’ to repair it at no cost.

 

[Shock-On-T]

Agree you wouldnt expect a critical part in a car of that price to only last 3 years. I’ve just had the same argument over a heater at home that we use 2 months each year and it lasted 2 years and 2 months. I argued it only lasted 4 months, and I expect a $10k heater to last longer. They reluctantly agreed ‘on this occasion’ to repair it at no cost.

It’s actually against the law for them to say “on this occasion” or “as an act of goodwill” when doing an ACL repair. They are supposed to acknowledge that it is being done because of ACL.

 

[Shock-On-T]

Update:
Thanks all for your helpful replies.
So, they pretty much gave up and then did a factory reset. Strangely, this has restored 3G connectivity, but only one way.
The car cannot be reached by engineering remotely, and the app can’t connect to the car, but the car can stream music and update maps etc.
I took the car and they charged me 0.5hr labour, which I was happy to pay. The spent all day working on it.
When I got home I realised Allow Mobile Access was switched off, probably the default setting after factory reset. I re-enabled, hoping this would allow app access. It didn’t.
Now strangely, if I try to turn mobile access off again it prompts for account credentials (normal) but doesn’t accept my email/password combo. Same when trying to do another factory reset, asks for email/password and doesn’t accept it. I’m 100% sure I’m typing correct details. I’ve even deleted the app, re-added and the app accepts the email/password and shows my car (but with no connection). I phoned roadside assistance in the US and they aren’t able to see my car (shows offline for a month) even though I can stream live radio and zoom in on maps etc at the same time.
Seems to me to be a firewall issue, but I guess I’ll have to go back to the service centre. Maybe I should try Alexandria rather than St Leonard’s?

 

[Shock-On-T]

 

[PJF000]

Update:
Thanks all for your helpful replies.
So, they pretty much gave up and then did a factory reset. Strangely, this has restored 3G connectivity, but only one way.
The car cannot be reached by engineering remotely, and the app can’t connect to the car, but the car can stream music and update maps etc.
I took the car and they charged me 0.5hr labour, which I was happy to pay. The spent all day working on it.
When I got home I realised Allow Mobile Access was switched off, probably the default setting after factory reset. I re-enabled, hoping this would allow app access. It didn’t.
Now strangely, if I try to turn mobile access off again it prompts for account credentials (normal) but doesn’t accept my email/password combo. Same when trying to do another factory reset, asks for email/password and doesn’t accept it. I’m 100% sure I’m typing correct details. I’ve even deleted the app, re-added and the app accepts the email/password and shows my car (but with no connection). I phoned roadside assistance in the US and they aren’t able to see my car (shows offline for a month) even though I can stream live radio and zoom in on maps etc at the same time.
Seems to me to be a firewall issue, but I guess I’ll have to go back to the service centre. Maybe I should try Alexandria rather than St Leonard’s?

I had sort of the same problem. Wasn't getting updates and would not connect to wi-fi for probably a year or so. I got updates when at a SC and they pushed it through 3G. Had (supposedly) 2 replacement MCU's and problem persisted. Everything else worked other than no wi-fi or updates. They went through factory resets etc - still no good.
Eventually, they said my wi-fi connection from home, which was setup to connect automatically at home (it never did), was causing some sort of conflict and when it was deleted the wi-fi connectivity came back after Tesla service somewhere in the world fiddled with it remotely.
I don't know if what they were saying was true, or if knew what they were doing, or even replacing the original MCU (twice), but I didn't care about the details, and was happy that it was eventually fixed. I didn't care because it was under warranty at the time and I just kept on their case until thay resolved it. It also wasn't a huge deal that I didn't have wifi other than I had to get service to push through a 3g update. I only cared when they tried to charge me and I laughed pointing out it was a re-curring problem from the warranty period (by mileage, not time). All in all, they were trying their best but in reality probably didn't have much of a clue.

 

[possum22]

I say your eMMc chip on your MCU is dying, my car's MCU done a full reset(lost all settings/trip info) while I was driving, while said it had mobile access, tried a voice command and says "No Internet connection", my car had 23k km & 6 weeks out of warranty at the time.
The MCU has since died, car won't charge(fireman's loop disconnected, 12V battery on solar/battery charger), car is going to Brisbane next Monday by truck. I question Tesla about ACL, they don't want to know about it, in my last email to them saying it should be covered by ACL, they didn't answer about that bit.

 

[EcoCloudIT]

@possum22 , simple....have your lawyer send a letter....problem solved....they simply legally have absolutely no leg to stand on.

 

[mrpseudonym]

Update:
Thanks all for your helpful replies.
Maybe I should try Alexandria rather than St Leonard’s?

^^ this

I recently had an issue and had to give up on Artarmon. Ben and the guys at Alexandria are much more helpful

 

[Shock-On-T]

^^ this

I recently had an issue and had to give up on Artarmon. Ben and the guys at Alexandria are much more helpful

Ben is at Alexandria now? That explains why I didn’t see him lately. He’s great, that settles it, Alexandria it is.

 

[tobygriffin]

Ben is at Alexandria now? That explains why I didn’t see him lately. He’s great, that settles it, Alexandria it is.

I thought he finally had enough. He was a man about to crack, when last I saw him (at St Leonards).

 

[Fastdad]

You can get a MCU on ebay for around 1000.00 US, the LTE upgrade may also help, plus there's a guy here that can repair MCU's. Lots of options now.

Whoa the guy here that will repair???