Things to look for when collecting your M3

[navt]

Plenty of DIY delivery checklists out there but I wanted to post some photos of my "issues" which may not be so obvious when checking over your car.

Detached windscreen wiper hose. I noticed the same on other cars being handed over so assumed redundant, but just sloppy assembly. Easy enough fix. Unclip trim under hood and re-connect to T-connector.

Frunk trim not secure. Looks like it is missing some clips. Service item.

Trim sitting proud beneath windscreen.

Door seals. Make sure they're seated correctly. I could do this myself but raised a service issue.

 

[Generator]

Interesting. My passenger side windscreen washer hose wasn’t connected below the trim on the scuttle panel. Bit shoddy really...

 

[MrBadger]

Seeing this, I need to check washer hose - even though I've seen videos on how subtle drivers side washer is, I'm still not convinced ours is spraying drivers side. Its either crap, or not functioning properly, neither would surprise me. When you press windscreen washer button, you only hear it pumping when both wipers are far left in passenger side. By the time the wipers move right into drivers side, its no longer pumping, so its just left overs of what came out the jets being spread by the blades.

 

[mpandrew]

Seeing this, I need to check washer hose - even though I've seen videos on how subtle drivers side washer is, I'm still not convinced ours is spraying drivers side. Its either crap, or not functioning properly, neither would surprise me. When you press windscreen washer button, you only hear it pumping when both wipers are far left in passenger side. By the time the wipers move right into drivers side, its no longer pumping, so its just left overs of what came out the jets being spread by the blades.

It only pumps at the start of the wipe which actually makes good sense. My driver side spray is much less than the passenger side despite being a shorter pipe run. It was blocked at collection, service improved it but still isnt right. Others similar?

 

[MrBadger]

It only pumps at the start of the wipe which actually makes good sense.

Why does that make good sense? I want it to spray at point I need the vision, not just smearing water and dirt over the drivers side. Passenger side gets a much better clean than drivers side. There is no water spray when blades are on drivers side.

 

[mpandrew]

Why does that make good sense? I want it to spray at point I need the vision, not just smearing water and dirt over the drivers side. Passenger side gets a much better clean than drivers side. There is no water spray when blades are on drivers side.

As i see it, the water squeegees the water as the blades wipe up cleaning it. If it continues to spray on the down stroke the water just gets dumped in the screen and runs off without doing a lot of good. My issue is simply not enough water coming from drivers side wiper.

 

[ianto999]

My wiper hose wasnt clipped in under the trim at the back of the frunk so it rattled when over 50 mph.
Sounds like wiper hose/wiper wash/mirror alignment/window function are all worth checking, as they are all really needed for driving, and can't easily wait for a return to a SC in a few weeks.

 

[elecTED]

When I had a SC appointment around a month ago I mentioned that the right wiper wasn’t spraying. The Tesla guy made me stand outside and I could see much lighter spray of water from the right wiper, kind of into the air rather than a solid jet onto the windscreen. The spray of water is almost invisible viewed from the drivers seat.

The Tesla guy said the left wiper is main sprayer of water.

This is starting to make sense now - these cars were originally designed for LHD. Could this be another oversight when redesigning RHD versions?

 

[Generator]

I would guess that he’s talking out of his hoop. The two wipers have the same jet assemblies, and the hoses lead to a simple plastic splitter coming from the pump. Once connected properly.my wipers started to spray an equal deluge of water.

 

[AndyWrightUK]

I'll add a simple one - make sure the windows close properly!

My car was incredibly noisy above around 50mph - loads of wind and traffic noise entering the cabin. It wasn't until a few days later that I noticed the rear driver-side window wasn't closing flush against the B-pillar seal, the gap was large enough to get my little finger in. If I pressed against the glass as it closed it would seat properly.

Mobile service came out and stripped the door right down, removing the glass and motor lift assembly. He hadn't seen the problem before and rang a colleague in the service centre - that guy said he too was working on a car with exactly the same problem.

I'm not sure what he ended up doing, but he's got it working better, if not quite 100%. I'm booked in for other work doing in January and will need to get them to have another look.

 

[elecTED]

Have had a look at the hose and t-connector mechanism for the windscreen washer. Nothing blocked up. The only difference is the right outlet feeds the left wiper and seems to get most water of the water when demanded.

I reversed the hose connections on the t-connector and noticed the right wiper received more of the water but the water was being used less efficiently (see pic of windscreen).



I put the hose connectors back in the original configuration as there seem to be a more even and effective use of the water when the left wiper receives more.

 

[Sixer]

Another item to check. Check Rear wheel liners are on correctly. Mine were not attached correctly which meant rear parking sensor was fully visible in wheel arch so would have probably lasted 10 mins in winter salt spray. Also had the frunk trim issue. Sorted the wheel arch liner myself and got the SC to sort the frunk on delivery

 

[DenkiJidousha]

Plenty of DIY delivery checklists out there but I wanted to post some photos of my "issues" which may not be so obvious when checking over your car.

Trim sitting proud beneath windscreen.
View attachment 485337

How was this addressed on your car?

It took me 6 months to notice this, but I have the same gap at the base of the windscreen on my December 2020 delivery UK Tesla Model 3. Lifting the wiper makes it more obvious:

 

[Nick77]

Weird that those issues in the OP weren't noticed by the staff at the delivery centre. Surely they give it a quick glance over when they're prepping the car for sale?

 

[MrBadger]

Weird that those issues in the OP weren't noticed by the staff at the delivery centre. Surely they give it a quick glance over when they're prepping the car for sale?

Erm, nope. Tesla do not know the meaning of PDI, hence all the build quality issues. Thankfully its getting better, but probably more because cars made on the MiC line are less rushed allowing them more time to do a proper job of building them in the first place.

 

[Adopado]

Weird that those issues in the OP weren't noticed by the staff at the delivery centre. Surely they give it a quick glance over when they're prepping the car for sale?

If you are ever at a service centre when they are having cars delivered you will be staggered by the numbers. It's not like your local dealership where the car is prettied up with a bow and flowers in the boot. It's mayhem. Individual customer care inevitably falls by the wayside. They obviously do give them a bit of attention but they never used to do what I would regard as a full PDI. In 2019 the Edinburgh Service Centre for example (which had one of the better reputations ironically) was supplying cars to all of Scotland, all of Northern Ireland and even to the Newcastle and north east England! There are more service centres nowadays so in theory there should be less pressure across the country. The cars made in China seem to be more consistently put together so the chances of problems should be reduced.

 

[Sparkeur]

These are very useful checklists. I went over my new car with what I thought was a lot of care but after the obvious gaps in two sills (which were dealt with) it still took me three months to find a badly scratched piece of door chrome behind the mirror housing and a definite paint repair job on the left hindquarter. Just couldn't see them before...maybe the addition of a little dirt helped...

 

[navt]

How was this addressed on your car?

It took me 6 months to notice this, but I have the same gap at the base of the windscreen on my December 2020 delivery UK Tesla Model 3. Lifting the wiper makes it more obvious:

View attachment 675765

Not sure. Logged it and they sorted it out. I’d leave it to the SC to sort it out.

 

[DenkiJidousha]

Not sure. Logged it and they sorted it out. I’d leave it to the SC to sort it out.

Cheers - I did log it and they want me to bring the car in, so it looks like they'll fix it (and something about the heating which sounds like a general recall issue as-and-when this batch of cars come in for other work).

 

[DenkiJidousha]

Good news - mine is fixed. Apparently it was just the plastic cowling under the windscreen (and bonnet) needing clipping back in. Told it was just a quick job, and most of the 1.5 hours they needed was replacing the A/C sensors.

Bad news - three of the four '70 plate Teslas I looked at the Edinburgh SC also had this poorly aligned fitting below the windscreen glass. I suspect a lot of the cars delivered in late 2020 from the USA will have this - but easily addressed if you're having the car in for anything else.