Sigh: FM and XM radio failure on 3.0 retrofit vehicle and Raleigh service center says won't fix under warranty

[X Fan]

My 2.5 vehicle was one of the thousands of S & X's that were retrofitted to V3 for free if you had purchased FSD functionality. This was done in Feb of 2020.

Recently, my FM Radio and XM failed & appears to not have worked since the .13 SW update. Tesla Engineering in conversation with center says change the radio. However, Raleigh says they won't fix under warranty & says it will be $500 to change out. They must be getting confused with the V1 to V2 update (eMMC problem fix too).

Having said that, has anyone who received the retrofit encountered this situation whereby a post retrofit radio failure is now customer responsibility?

Help????

 

[MP3Mike]

The AP3 retro-fit has nothing to do with the radio module, and would not extend the warranty on it.

Are you out of the bumper-to-bumper warranty? (4-year/50k miles)

 

[X Fan]

The AP3 retro-fit has nothing to do with the radio module, and would not extend the warranty on it.

Are you out of the bumper-to-bumper warranty? (4-year/50k miles)

No

 

[cobra]

Did they install a FM radio at the time of the retrofit? It hasn’t been included in recent upgrades without additional cost. Or wait, do you have V1 or V2?
Did you have FM radio after the retrofit ever?

 

[X Fan]

Did they install a FM radio at the time of the retrofit? It hasn’t been included in recent upgrades without additional cost. Or wait, do you have V1 or V2?
Did you have FM radio after the retrofit ever?

Some history. There are many of us that had v2-2.5 units that were promised upgrades to v3 (lots Of articles in this in early 2019 and Tesla published letter Full Self-Driving Computer Installations saying such and began implemerging the retrofits in late 2019. Mine was done in feb 2020.

My vehicle along with many others I suppose that had FM-XM capability didnt lose a thing when the new boards were installed. And for 15 months thereafter FM-XM worked fine.

Only this spring did I notice a problem which occurred after the .13 SW update. On TMC, I had seen others complain about the loss too but figured it would return with the next update.

Since it didn’t I took it to service and the “it isn’t covered due to info unit upgrade” is the answer I received. Unfortunately, 2019/2020 is a lifetime ago for Tesla employees and I’m sure that the Raleigh service center guy wasn’t around, is misinformed or Tesla has just changed its policy.

 

[MP3Mike]

Since it didn’t I took it to service and the “it isn’t covered due to info unit upgrade” is the answer I received. Unfortunately, 2019/2020 is a lifetime ago for Tesla employees and I’m sure that the Raleigh service center guy wasn’t around, is misinformed or Tesla has just changed its policy.

You got the Infotainment Upgrade? That is new information. If you got that, which you would have had to pay for, it does not come with a new XM/FM tuner.

Just to be clear do you have a new MCU that has the Netflix app?

 

[X Fan]

You got the Infotainment Upgrade? That is new information. If you got that, which you would have had to pay for, it does not come with a new XM/FM tuner.

Just to be clear do you have a new MCU that has the Netflix app?

It was part of Tesla retrofit at no cost for folks that had 2.0-2.5 vehicles and had self driving purchase cars.

Full Self-Driving Computer Installations | Tesla Support

While no Tesla vehicles are fully autonomous today and require active driver supervision, the FSD computer is capable of delivering intelligent performance and control to enable a new level of safety and autonomy, without impacting cost or range. Learn more about FSD computer installation.

www.tesla.com

This is NOT a V1 conversion vehicle. I gather even TMC members who weren’t impacted are not knowledgeable about this but a quick search on this site would showcase that there was a lot of discussion on this (particularly S forum) in 2019.

 

[MP3Mike]

It was part of Tesla retrofit at no cost for folks that had 2.0-2.5 vehicles and had self driving purchase cars.

Full Self-Driving Computer Installations | Tesla Support

While no Tesla vehicles are fully autonomous today and require active driver supervision, the FSD computer is capable of delivering intelligent performance and control to enable a new level of safety and autonomy, without impacting cost or range. Learn more about FSD computer installation.

www.tesla.com

This is NOT a V1 conversion vehicle. I gather even TMC members who weren’t impacted are not knowledgeable about this but a quick search on this site would showcase that there was a lot of discussion on this (particularly S forum) in 2019.

There are two different retrofits that could have been applied to your car:

1. AP2/AP2.5 to AP3: This is what you get for "free" by purchasing FSD. This does not impact the Infotainment system or radios.
2. MCU1 to MCU2: This is a $1,500 - $2,500 upgrade of the Infotainment system, and requires you paying an extra $500 to keep FM/XM.

You said you had the first one performed more than a year ago, that would have no impact on your radio.

Again, do you have a new MCU that has the Netflix app or not?

 

[X Fan]

There are two different retrofits that could have been applied to your car:

1. AP2/AP2.5 to AP3: This is what you get for "free" by purchasing FSD. This does not impact the Infotainment system or radios.
2. MCU1 to MCU2: This is a $1,500 - $2,500 upgrade of the Infotainment system, and requires you paying an extra $500 to keep FM/XM.

You said you had the first one performed more than a year ago, that would have no impact on your radio.

Again, do you have a new MCU that has the Netflix app or not?

Once again I’ll state: THIS IS NOT A 1.0 car. Geez ive owned multiple Tesla’s for 5+ years and know the difference. I also have a 1.0 car too btw.

 

[MP3Mike]

Once again I’ll state: THIS IS NOT A 1.0 car. Geez ive owned multiple Tesla’s for 5+ years and know the difference. I also have a 1.0 car too btw.

1.0 what? AP1? (That is what I assume you mean by 1.0 since you are talking about AP upgrades.)

If your car came with MCU2, I'm not sure why you are bringing up the upgrade to AP3. It has absolutely nothing to do with your issue. Especially since it sounds like the radios continued to work for more than a year after the upgrade.

 

[cobra]

Once again I’ll state: THIS IS NOT A 1.0 car. Geez ive owned multiple Tesla’s for 5+ years and know the difference. I also have a 1.0 car too btw.

Oh, so it's a 2018ish X, after MCU2 was included? I didn't realize this. Seems odd they wouldn't repair then, but if it's really a software issue, maybe there is nothing to repair (wether they know it or not...) Do you have a second service center you could take it to? Or do they do ranger visits in your area? (Not that a ranger would be able to do the replacement, but if they come out, you may get an actual knowledgeable answer rather than what the service center told you already.)
It seems service centers vary a lot in how helpful they are. My recent visit for the infotainment upgrade went fairly well, although they did that paid work very happily, but my charging issue was reported as 'nothing found.' However, it hasn't happened again after the upgrade, except when having obvious charge plug issues. So I'm not sure what to make of that. They did suggest I get service out to look at our charger. But the charge behavior changed completely after the service visit. So it didn't make sense to get the charger looked at for the problem that went away... Anyway, they may be cutting down on how much warranty work they are willing to do based on cost. Seems bad, but also seems like there are a few threads here about issues like that.

 

[X Fan]

Positive ending....they escalated issue to "mgt", recognized that this was a different retrofit situation and replaced the radio under warranty. It now works.

So....if you are someone that had the retrofit and your radio fails, keep in mind that service center employees are often new to the company and don't know Tesla's service history on S & X's.