mknox
Well-Known Member
They do glare, but the fogging was horrendous without them. I had my vents done pretty early on. You're in New England. Do you find the defrosters work okay in the winter??
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They do glare, but the fogging was horrendous without them. I had my vents done pretty early on. You're in New England. Do you find the defrosters work okay in the winter??
Sure.
They didn't ask me about the vents, and if they hadn't told me they'd done it, I don't think I would have noticed. They told me about it as follows: "Since we had your dash apart, we installed updated dash vents." This suggests to me that the installation is rather involved, something they aren't going to do just by itself.
Given better windshield defrosting vs glare (?, not even sure what you mean by that), I'll take the updated vents.
HankLloydRight
No Roads
I've only had one winter so far, and if it's messy out ("wintery mix") or worse, I drive my backup ICE. I don't take out the Model S unless it's pretty clear out (low precipitation). So I hadn't once noticed a problem with the vents or fogging.
In my car, there are no actual "vents" -- it's just mesh from the back of the binnacle to the windscreen.
When I had my car in for service, I had a newer loaner which had the new vents which reflect up in the windscreen. I found the reflection of the vents very distracting compared to my car which has no reflections, since it's just mesh. So I know how everyone says the fogging is really bad, but until I experience it myself and decide that the glare from the new vents is less of an annoyance, I don't want them installed.
My dash vents were installed when the SvC was prepping my car for delivery.
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Just remember, you can only elect to have this work done during your warranty period. Once the warranty expires, Tesla will no longer install service bulletin items free of charge - you will have to pay.
mknox
Well-Known Member
Unless you have a pre-paid Service Plan. It's supposed to include "hardware and software" upgrades... whatever that means.
ZBB
Emperor
I also have an early car with just the mesh, and have never asked about swapping in the vents. I live in AZ, so fogging is rarely an issue, but the few times I've needed to defrost, its worked fine. One of those was last winter during a day trip up to Flagstaff and temps ranged from ~20 to 40F...
Well, the written pre-paid service agreement makes no mention of any hardware upgrades. I've read it several times. I don't remember reading of anyone asking for a TSB during an annual when out of warranty. Actually, I think Tesla denied Andyw2100's request to replace his windshield per an old TSB free of charge, because he was outside of his warranty period. If getting that replaced as part of annual service (aka hardware upgrade) was an option, I'm sure he would have taken it.
HankLloydRight
No Roads
Cyclone
Cyclonic Member ((.oO))
The 2012 windshields were prone to a stress fracture on one side. They also were manufactured before Tesla started putting the "black dot RF area" for transponders (YMMV on effectiveness).
Andyw2100
Well-Known Member
I think you're referring to yobigd20, who had an issue with not being able to get his windshield replaced once he was out of warranty, even though there was a TSB for it. I'll look for the post and come back and edit this post with the link to it. I've only had my P85D since December, and it's my first Tesla.
Edit: Here's the post--
Tesla is not publishing service bulletins, keeping them (per NHSTA complaint
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mknox
Well-Known Member
I knew I'd seen it so I went to the Internet Archive Wayback Machine and found this from Tesla's web site in mid 2013 (when I purchased the plan):
What's interesting as I browsed various versions (by date) of Tesla's web site is that the language does vary month over month. For example, this snipit makes no reference to "software upgrades" but a version from a month or so earlier does.
All I know is that they were "advertising" hardware upgrades when I purchased the plan, and it was one of the reasons I did so.
Andy, thanks for the correction. Sorry, all the screen names start to look the same after a while.
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Totally agree with you. But what Tesla says on the marketing page doesn't appear in the actual written pre-paid service agreement. That's where I think it's a problem - they said one thing on the web page, without really explaining it, yet the actual agreement says nothing about it. So where does that leave us? Any time anyone has requested a hardware update under the pre-paid, they've been denied. At least I have not read a single incident of anyone receiving a hardware upgrade that was specific to having pre-paid or annual service.
HankLloydRight
No Roads
I had gone through every page on archive.org, there was a progression on that page. This benefit started life as "New Features". Then it changed to "Hardware Upgrades" for quite a while. Then for a very brief period of time, it was changed to "Service Related Hardware Upgrades" and then shortly after that, removed entirely.
That's obviously not the point. Tesla told me when I bought the plan that "Hardware Upgrades" are upgrades to equipment already installed on your Model S.
mknox
Well-Known Member
Exactly. Problem is, when I purchased the plan, it was at the time that they were saying it was the only way to get "hardware" and "software" upgrades and that you had to have the inspections to maintain your warranty. Later, I noticed even those without the Plan were getting OTA software updates anyway, and any hardware upgrade I got (Gen 2 door handles, defroster vent etc.) were being provided to those without the plan too! To add insult to injury, Elon later came out with a blog post saying you no longer need the inspections to maintain the warranty!
So again, does Elon's blog post about the warranty trump the agreement or is it the other way around? My understanding is that the warranty agreement I have still specifies the inspections. Half the time I can't tell what to believe.
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So help me to understand then... what hardware upgrades do I get as a purchaser of the pre-paid plan that those without the plan wouldn't get?
Perfect example of what I would consider a hardware upgrade. But Tesla considers it either a warranty claim or a TSB. Even if you had a service plan I'm pretty sure the upgrade would have been denied if you were out of warranty.
HankLloydRight
No Roads
That specific question still remains un-answered. If/when I get an answer, I'll let you know.
mknox
Well-Known Member
I suspect we'll never know, or that there is, in fact, no distinction. But you know what? In spite of the confusion/frustration here, I'm willing to cut Tesla some slack. I was an early adopter and knew it. I am not really surprised that Tesla has had to "fine tune" things as they go. It probably would have gone over like a lead balloon if they told someone without the Plan that they couldn't have the defroster upgrade and would just have to suffer with the fogging (for example). At the end of the day, I have always been treated very well and can't begrudge the fact that others who didn't purchase the Plan have been as well.
HankLloydRight
No Roads
Or, they could just charge their cost (parts+labor) for these hardware upgrades for people who didn't buy the service plan.
Is there a list anywhere of all the "free" upgrades that Tesla has done for all owners that weren't TSB or warranty items? Things like:
Defrosters
Floor mats
Sun Visors
Front brakes
Door handles (warranty?)
What's missing from this list?
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