It is baffling that Tesla can not provide the same quality of service to everyone.
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Tail light cracks, no impact
- Thread starter Legacystar
- Start date
Gauss Guzzler
Safety Score = 42
This is textbook chemical-induced environmental stress cracking. It would be helpful for you guys to post the chemical that caused it so that others might avoid the same fate. It could have been a quick wipe of rubbing alcohol weeks earlier or some basic car wax but I'd bet it was a polymer/ceramic coat or the cleaner/prep for such a coating.
Polycarbonate has a particularly amazing ability to crack like this. Even just a brief exposure to chemicals can cause it to develop cracks many weeks later. It's possible that Tesla somehow built a bunch of these with inappropriate chemicals in the process but I doubt it. It's more likely that their molding process is leaving unusually high internal stresses which make these lights far more vulnerable than most.
Polycarbonate has a particularly amazing ability to crack like this. Even just a brief exposure to chemicals can cause it to develop cracks many weeks later. It's possible that Tesla somehow built a bunch of these with inappropriate chemicals in the process but I doubt it. It's more likely that their molding process is leaving unusually high internal stresses which make these lights far more vulnerable than most.
The only chemicals that have ever touched my rear tail lights are road salt and Optimum No Rinse soap. No automatic car washes, waxing, or ceramic. (However I do feel like at 2 years old, I probably should have waxed the car by now)
When the tech was reinstalling the lift gate portion of the tail light, he had to lube it up and push really hard to get it on. Took him several attempts to get it in place. If it is not random bad luck or defective tail lights, my best guess is that less than perfect fit is leaving them permanently under pressure.
Gauss Guzzler
Safety Score = 42
He lubricated the tail lights? That could certainly do it. Nearly every type of petroleum or silicone grease/oil will attack polycarbonate like this.
It doesn't usually happen -- it requires all 3 components: stress, chemicals, and time. But when it does happen it's pretty amazing how a brief chemical exposure in one spot can cause a crack to propagate far thru regions of the material that had never been contaminated.
If you get a chance to beat on the broken parts once removed, you'll see that it's nearly impossible to crack them like that. Even the existing cracks won't grow cleanly when you hammer on them or crush the thing in a vice or whatever you can think of.
It doesn't usually happen -- it requires all 3 components: stress, chemicals, and time. But when it does happen it's pretty amazing how a brief chemical exposure in one spot can cause a crack to propagate far thru regions of the material that had never been contaminated.
If you get a chance to beat on the broken parts once removed, you'll see that it's nearly impossible to crack them like that. Even the existing cracks won't grow cleanly when you hammer on them or crush the thing in a vice or whatever you can think of.
He lubricated the mounting points on the car before installing the light (actually after failing to install the light a few times), but some of the lube will end up on the back of the tail light since the point is to make the tail light fit better.
But that was the new light, so that lube can't explain why the original cracked unless they are doing the same thing at the factory.
MaxxGray
Member
I would take that up with management at the Tesla, and I bet they'll cover it as a warranty issue. I've just had to have 2 more replaced, so I'm up to 5 total.
I have! I have! At first I didn't know whether or not this was in Europe or America. But I'm having the problem with Tesla honoring up to their end of the bargain with this warranty crap. So I went ahead and assumed positive intent, and I had my right rear tail light replaced, for i have a 1.2019 Tesla Midrange Model 3 RWD. And only to find out three months later the same thing happened again! there are no impacts there are no physical oddities outside of the scope of the cracks! And I find this whole experience strange because I had a good rapport with the Tesla Tempe, AZ Service Facility. And now because it's outside of the scope of the warranty they don't reply back to my emails I have to contact them, their answers were pretty vague, until they denied me reimbursement. And then I went ahead and started to call Tesla to try to escalate the issue. The most disrespectful thing happened recently two days ago where as I said you know what screw it I'm going to try another service center nearby which is in Scottsdale at first Scottsdale was pretty open and I said look take the time that you need, and go ahead and check the history or the logs or whatever you have to with my account so that I don't have to sit here for the next half an hour trying to explain every single detail that you're not going to pay attention to. These guys were just like robots only to do the same gosh darn thing that Tempe did which is come take a look at it and pretend that they've never seen it before only to tell me that they couldn't do anything because it's out of the scope of the warranty. And this is the kicker I question what if I purchase the part, and let's just say that it happens again do you guys honor it and then they said well yes only if it's defective and I said well having water in my tail light I think that it's pretty defective! And then they said that they could not honor the warranty and I have to talk to Tempe. So they not only denied me again, after seeing this obviously outside of the scope of the warranty, but didn't even want to empathize with me whatsoever and when I put them in a corner they then took tail and ran and tried to blame somebody else as if the Tesla Tempe location is completely separate company from the Scottsdale service center. I'm almost at the point where I'm going to take a legal action. I'm going to attach some images of what I'm going through and i will attach email correspondence where they denied me recently stating that the reason why those cracks happen was because of a third party aftermarket audio system in my car! From that point I just stopped communicating with Tempe because I knew that they were only listening to what they wanted to listen to. There's never been any third party aftermarket hardware in my vehicle. And I believe where they got that from was from the discussion of my last physical visit where I mentioned to them, hey look before I put in a extra audio system I want to get this issue with my tail light resolved! They sent me an email, I kid you not and denied me based on a speculative comment!
Attachments
As u can see from this email. The Tesla Service Team definitely employees individuals of a varying nature but none of them have a history in my opinion with servicing vehicles other than electric. In other words Tesla is service we can't really get mad at them that much because they're such a young part of this entire ecosystem which we usually call car repair. I can tell you many stories of how they've even disrespected some of the most well-rounded seasoned veteran award-winning repair shops because their policies try to act as if they're Apple computer. Apple earned their respect mostly because of the way that they took service when they opened the retail locations. It is not the same as it was before I can claim this because I was in the beginning with Apple. At any rate because I have so much history with customer service and these type of conversations it's pretty frustrating to realize that even now after 23 years companies of wealth still have the audacity to not hold themselves accountable when there's a out of scope situation like the ones that we are all experiencing. I have had no aftermarket audio system in my vehicle. And this youngster is trying to tell me he's denying me because of that. And from reading this email we can all agree that he's probably not even seen the inside of a trunk of a Tesla Model 3 that was made January 2019 with a premium sound system that has over 10 speakers and one subwoofer in the gosh darn tail light...... stock!
Attachments
Tesla tail lights on trunk lid fastened with one bolt and 8mm nut. Sealant applied to body during manufacture could interfere with seating of light. Ours were both a little proud and wobbly so investigated. Trimmed high spots of sealant and refitted lights being sure to not give more than finger tension on fixing nuts. Still a little misaligned but not ugly so have laid a bead of sealant at outer edge to fill the gap. This will stabilise the light so as not to have it flex on its one fixing during boot-lid closing. Loving our 3LR to bits. Cheers. Clive Shaw; retired aircraft maintenance engineer and examiner. New Zealand.
I just have my 3rd taillight changed... and the 4th one is on the way (we noticed the crack when the ranger was changing the other taillight).
Was the definite cause identified? I have an October 2019 M3. Weather started getting colder here... and noticed the some cracks after a carwash (but it could had been there before).
Was the definite cause identified? I have an October 2019 M3. Weather started getting colder here... and noticed the some cracks after a carwash (but it could had been there before).
You're 100% wrong... Been fixed for a year and no new cracks. Did the same cleaning routines and put another 20k miles on the car, no cracks. I believe this to be a bad batch of plastic from the manufacturer.
Gauss Guzzler
Safety Score = 42
Well I'm pretty sure it's chemically-induced stress cracking but you're right that the cause definitely seems to be at Tesla's end. There are way too many people having this same issue.
2020 Model 3, both taillights cracked. Quoted ~$500 to replace. Told from the app chat it will not be covered.
Just adding to the list in case anyone is counting.
I'll probably end up ebaying lights rather than fighting with Tesla. Totally sick of that. My center screen only worked half the time on delivery and that took months of progressively angrier emails to fix. Not impressed.
Just adding to the list in case anyone is counting.
I'll probably end up ebaying lights rather than fighting with Tesla. Totally sick of that. My center screen only worked half the time on delivery and that took months of progressively angrier emails to fix. Not impressed.
sorry to hear that man
i had the mobile tech come out and he could see there was no impact damage. it has to be bad batches of plastic becuase hime have not had an issue since.Are you near a service center? I would go through with the invoice estimate and talk to the service advisor (or whatever their title is) when you drop off the car. The few that I've met are SUPER reasonable and I feel like you have a good chance to have them replace under warranty. Worst comes to worst you can say forget it and drive home. It's worth a shot though as I've had good luck with this myself despite being told specifically on the app that this wouldn't be covered.
Forgot to mention - if they do end up covering this under warranty the service advisor will immediately revise (zero out) the estimate on the spot.
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