Software update failed, “Contact Tesla service”

[clmason]

hey all, just wondering if anyone can share insights on this particular issue.

Software update tried to install overnight. In the morning I see the update failed and now im getting an alert that says “Software update required. Contact Tesla service”.

I drove the car and everything is fine as far as I can tel except for auto steer and cruise control will not activate. And the nagging alert to seek service will not go away.

I tried calling tesla service but every time the hold time is 20 minutes+ and have not been able to reach a person before I had to hang up for other reasons. I went online to schedule an appointment and the earliest slot available is oct 5th.

So just kinda looking for others with a similar experience or advice.

My 3 is running v8.1 (2018.43.1 3dd3072).

 

[jabe]

same thing happened to me yesterday... called service..they looked at logs..couldn't see why issue happened..going to reset my update in 3 to 5 business days...
the alert is still up but car still works fine..
jb

 

[mblakele]

Cross-posting...

My update to '36 failed too. So did my first update, to '34, but this time I have a red error notice "Software update required Contact Tesla Service". I can still put the car in D, and it charged normally overnight. The phone support tech didn't think it was urgent, and didn't say anything about pushing an update. Instead she said the car would check for an update in the next 24-48 hr, and I should keep it on wifi if possible.

 

[jamnmon66]

Same thing happened to me going to 34.x. Called service. They resent the update and it was fixed the next day.

 

[monkeydad]

Same thing happened to me. The update has been pushed 2 more times to my car, once over lte and once while connected to wifi,but both times the car did not accept the update.

I contacted service and the technician connected remotely but wasn't sure why this was happening and said that it would not help to just repeatedly push the update since the car "was not recognizing".

Have a service appointment in 2 weeks to bring the car in and have it hooked up to their system. Was told ranger service could not help with this issue.

Been driving it with the "contact tesla support" message on my screen for the last week without issue, other than not having autopilot functionality.

 

[clmason]

thanks for the replies. I was able to get in touch with Tesla service and they scheduled me for an appointment today. Hopefully I'll get it fixed today. In the meantime I disabled the wifi because my 3 has poor reception in my garage.

 

[monkeydad]

follow-up post.

software update pushed 2 more times since my last post.

The most recent push was successful and all warning messages resolved.

Time to cancel my service appointment. I love it when my car fixes itself.

 

[apacheguy]

follow-up post.

software update pushed 2 more times since my last post.

The most recent push was successful and all warning messages resolved.

Time to cancel my service appointment. I love it when my car fixes itself.

WTF? The same update had to be pushed 4 times in order for it to work? Something is seriously out of whack with your car.

The only reason a firmware update should fail is if one of the ECUs refuses (repeatedly) to flash. This should happen extremely rarely unless there is a hardware fault.

 

[dhrivnak]

I too had an issue with about 6 failures. I too was told a Ranger could not fix and I would have to go to a service center. Bummer as I am 190 miles out. Two days later a Tesla Engineer called and pushed a new package and it worked. He said they knew of an issue and were working to correct. So report it and have a bit of patience.

 

[mongo]

If the software versions get out of sync on different modules, I think the standard update code aborts. Tesla may be tweaking the pre-check behind the scenes to allow the update. I've read of this with different version seats and such.

 

[apacheguy]

If the software versions get out of sync on different modules, I think the standard update code aborts. Tesla may be tweaking the pre-check behind the scenes to allow the update. I've read of this with different version seats and such.

Well, not exactly. A firmware mismatch is possible if the ECU refuses to flash. But the gateway will retry the flash up to 9 times and will send hard reset commands to the ECU over UDS. If that still fails, then you receive the update failed message. Generally, this would be indicative of a hardware failure. I honestly don’t see how resending the update 4 times fixes any of this.

 

[dendenyc]

I had exactly the same thing last week...I kinda panic'd but called Tesla service. They told me it was a known issue with the last update and that they added my VIN to be on the fast-track list to get updated as soon as the fix was available. I called Tesla at about 9:30am, the fix was available by time I was done with work at 6pm, I updated it and it went back to normal.

I think you should hold the line with Tesla service, the feeling I got when I spoke to them was that they ONLY fast-tracked me getting the fix because I called. They indicated that the reason the update didn't work was because the update had certain options flags turned on and my car (since it didn't have those options) shouldn't have gotten the update.He didnt go into what options those are but at this point I can only speculate that the update was for M3P or M3P+ and since I have the RWD M3 it bricked my unit. Car drove fine, but the display had the annoying "call tesla" message. Hope this helps.

 

[mblakele]

My update to '36 failed too. So did my first update, to '34, but this time I have a red error notice "Software update required Contact Tesla Service". I can still put the car in D, and it charged normally overnight. The phone support tech didn't think it was urgent, and didn't say anything about pushing an update. Instead she said the car would check for an update in the next 24-48 hr, and I should keep it on wifi if possible.

100+ hr later and still no update, so I decided to try phone support again. After 30-min on hold, we tried another steering-wheel reset, holding down both scroll-buttons until a T logo appeared on the screen. That didn't clear the error message. As a next step he said he'd request a "repackaged" update for my vehicle and I should see it in 24-48 hours. The impression I got was that a given vehicle won't attempt to install the same update twice, maybe based on the version number or on a hash value. So they have a workaround where they repackage the same code with a new version number or hash, to fool the updater. That's partly speculation on my part though. All he really said was that they had to repackage the update, and that they had a tool for it.

He also said that my vehicle's update logs showed a "gateway error" during the last install. He said that this was an error on Tesla's servers not in the vehicle. More speculation: a problem on Tesla's servers would be consistent with the flood of new 3s checking for updates. If so, no doubt Tesla's working on adding more capacity and maybe also making the install process more robust in the face of errors.

Whatever happens, he got rid of me for another day or three.

 

[clmason]

Update on my issue... called and scheduled a service. They took the car Monday afternoon. Fixed the software and a bunch of other things I didn’t even know about that were needed as mine is an early build. Even rotated the tires. A bit of an annoyance but the car is back tonight and I’m not complaining.

 

[hrmax]

Update on my issue... called and scheduled a service. They took the car Monday afternoon. Fixed the software and a bunch of other things I didn’t even know about that were needed as mine is an early build. Even rotated the tires. A bit of an annoyance but the car is back tonight and I’m not complaining.

How did you get into service so quick? The earliest slot I see is out over a week too and I have the same issue.

 

[clmason]

How did you get into service so quick? The earliest slot I see is out over a week too and I have the same issue.

The rep who I spoke to on the phone was able to get me in sooner than the slots available on the website.

 

[Dnssup]

Mobile team thinks it’s my lack of a working cabin heat causing the failed update. Ordered a some part for the resistive heating unit, said it should be a week. I’m not so confident.

 

[tipton]

this happened to me as well. emailed local service center, they pushed the update to me again, it installed perfectly the 2nd time and message went away. your update failed for some reason (or installed half way) you need the update again. calling your local service center or emailing them is probably the quickest way to get it fixed.

 

[mblakele]

No luck on my third update. This time the version number and hash didn't change, so I suppose this was the repackaged update I was told to expect.

Phone support says there's a communication problem between two vehicle components, and he'll refer the problem to a diagnostics team. He advised that they'll probably push an invisible patch to my 3, then send a new or repackaged update to test the patch, and to expect all this to take up to 96-hr because the diagnostics team may not be able to get to it on the weekend.

I still have a service appointment scheduled, but it'd be nice to get this fixed over the air. It'd also be nice if I end up with v9.

 

[mblakele]

No luck on my third update. This time the version number and hash didn't change, so I suppose this was the repackaged update I was told to expect.

Phone support says there's a communication problem between two vehicle components, and he'll refer the problem to a diagnostics team. He advised that they'll probably push an invisible patch to my 3, then send a new or repackaged update to test the patch, and to expect all this to take up to 96-hr because the diagnostics team may not be able to get to it on the weekend.

I still have a service appointment scheduled, but it'd be nice to get this fixed over the air. It'd also be nice if I end up with v9.

I'm up to six failed updates. On Monday the SC team asked me to check the heater: it doesn't seem to work. Today someone on the diagnostics team contacted me, and asked me to check the glovebox light. It isn't working. According to him, that means the problem has to be fixed at the SC. Good thing I already have an appointment.