Welcome to Tesla Motors Club
Discuss Tesla's Model S, Model 3, Model X, Model Y, Cybertruck, Roadster and More.
Register

Sudden drop in 3G signal - Redmond, WA Union Hill road area

This site may earn commission on affiliate links.
Hello all,

I have recently experienced a dramatic drop in the 3G signal strength on my MS in my garage...from 2 bars and everything works to no bars and nothing works. I am east of Redmond, WA on Union Hill Road. Tesla thought it might be software related so pushed the 4.1 upgrade to the car (when I was in a stronger signal area) but no improvement. It works fine when driving around the Seattle area or eastside. I can no longer listen to Slacker when working in the garage. :(

I have heard that the connectivity provider is AT&T...has anyone experienced connectivity problems when driving through my area (or weak 3G on your phone?) The problem seems to be localized so it's hard to tell if its the car or the service provider.
 
I assume AT&T is not your cell provider, so you are unfamiliar with coverage in your area. You might try checking AT&T's Root test results HERE. Union Hill Road is good, but things fall off quickly as you move away. If there's no data at your house, if you can find somebody with an AT&T smartphone they can run Root's app on the phone to check. (Of course they could always just check the bars on their phone too; but a lot of phones toy with the bars). AT&T stinks in my garage in SW Redmond too (but to be fair, so do all of the other providers); I see anywhere from 0 to 3 bars. Same thing used to happen when I had a smartphone software company; we sometimes used my house for "poor connection" testing.

If it looks like service should be good at your house, but just your car doesn't like it for some reason, PM me and I can bring my Model S over some time to make sure it's not an issue with your car.
 
Right, my regular carrier is T-mobile, which is also spotty at my house. From the Root test map, there is no signal data at my house for AT&T but I'm adjacent to a green (best signal) block.
I am certain that my signal has dropped dramatically. It can't be blamed on a software update, since I didn't get one prior to the drop. I thought I read somewhere that the cellular antenna was under the headliner by the rear window....I wonder if one of my many passengers in the car this week could have bumped their head in the area and somehow damaged the antenna connection.
Thanks for the offer of driving over to test. Tesla is looking at my case now; we'll see what they say first.
 
Today, Dec 30th, the 3G signal problem on Union Hill in Redmond mysteriously fixed itself. I now have two bars and 3G in my garage again. No firmware update noted; I'm on 1.19.31. I wonder if it was an AT&T problem...
If you see a similar issue again, maybe find a neighbor that has AT&T on a cell phone and see if the same issues apply. Might help to narrow down whether it's a service issue vs. a vehicle issue.
 
Follow up to the original post:

Turns out I had a bad 3G antenna; it was replaced by Tesla service today, now 3G is working great! Apparently there are two antennas, one in each outside rear view mirror.

They also pushed firmware V4.2 to the car. And washed it. Can't ask for better service than that.
 
I had the same problem -- no 3G signal. After reading this post, I called Tesla. Since I was familiar with the tech, he asked if I was feeling "hands-on". He asked me to pull the fuse for the touchscreen (passenger-side fuse box, fuse 51, yellow 20A) and leave it out for 5 minutes.

Pulling the fuse for 5 mins fixed my problem. The tech also said that firmware V4.2 should automatically fix itself when this situation arises, so pulling the fuse should no longer be necessary.
 
Glad the fuse pull fixed it. Seems like there are at least two reported causes for the 3G signal loss, one related to firmware and one to hardware. In my case I was instructed by Tesla service to try the fuse 51 pull but it didn't restore the 3G signal. There was a physically damaged/defective antenna that was replaced.