Tint shop removed front dashcam and showed damage

[jo6829]

Hi
I left my M3 at the tint shop for adding front window tint.

They then sent me this photo of the disassembled front dashcam and pointed out damage to the cable.

A few questions:

1) is it normal that they need to disassemble this part when installing tint?

2) is it normal that this yellow tape is there? Is that added by tesla factory?

I wonder if they somehow caused the damage when disassembling this part but they of course claim they did not.

If the yellow tape was added before and not by the tesla factory it at least shows it has been opened before and likely damaged then.

Curious to hear if someone has experience with this.

 

[PauliePucks]

I don’t have my windshield tinted, but the rest of the car is. Not sure, but if I had to guess, maybe they remove the camera and housing since they do spray a lot of liquid on the glass and film during placement of the film? The tape looks like detailers masking tape, which again would be protecting the electrical stuff from overspray.

From the looks of the damage to the wire, looks like it got nicked with a straight edge. My initial thought was someone was cutting that tape to mask the camera housing and cut the sheathing by accident.

If it’s just the sheathing that’s cut, you could wrap it with electrical tape to protect the exposed wiring and you’ll be good to go. I would test everything thoroughly before doing that, though.

TL;DR: the tint guy probably did it

 

[ChrisOtt]

TL;DR: the tint guy probably did it

Yeah, Tesla would have made some sort of concoction with plywood

 

[lUtriaNt]

they dont have to remove the camera.

ive had two teslas and both times the front windscreen was tinted and i had the top part of the windows tinted limo black. im in los angeles, and i had this done at two different tint shops. both times this never happened.

it possible they removed it and damaged something in the process, but thats my speculation.

what i would do is go to yelp and find this tint shop. id find some folks who had their model 3 tinted there and ask them if they removed their camera.

of course if the camera acts up after installation, thats a good piece of info that the installer is at fault.

 

[jo6829]

Thanks all,

When I picked the car up they said they needed to remove the plastic trim piece to attach the tint underneath it. And it does seem to cover 1/2 inch or so under the plastic housing so I can understand why they did that. But odd if other tint shops don’t seem to do it.

They said the tape was just masking tape they put on before applying the tint, which is when they saw this damage and took the photo.

They also said that they did not use a knife and that this was a “common damage to find on Teslas”.. anyone else heard about this “common” damaged of cut cable housing on tesla front cams or anywhere else?

They said they did wrap the cable in electrical tape before closing it up and I checked the front camera and its working well.

Since I have no proof of their wrongdoing and the camera is functioning well I guess I’ll just have to let it slide and ask the Tesla tech to check it on the next service. I assume I will have to pay for cable or even front cam replacement at that time.

 

[PauliePucks]

Main thing is that it’s working correctly. Tesla may cover it under warranty if it’s due to a pinch point or something that was done at the factory that caused undue stress on the harness.

They may try to get out of it by saying your tint installer did the damage, however, given that the installer provided you with pictures of the damage prior to the tint being installed, Tesla may agree to replace it for you under warranty.

I have no clue how involved replacing that harness is, maybe another member can shed some light on that. Glad everything works, let’s see the finished product!

 

[rjpjnk]

From the pic it does appear minor, and that simply wrapping with electrical tape will fix this perfectly well. That is good news because I suspect the fact that you tinted your windshield and messed with their cameras may cause Tesla to say anything that ever goes wrong with anything related to the windshield will be your responsibility. The fact that it's taped up now is evidence it was tampered with. That's the only downside I can think of. I wouldn't worry. Keep the picture for your records.

 

[lUtriaNt]

yeah i dont know brotha, "common problem" -- what is the "problem" this issue is causing? if it was that way before they removed it, how could it be a "problem"? your camera was working fine prior right?

as i said i have had two teslas and both had ceramic tint done to the front and the dark stirp up top. both tint shops did not have to remove the camera. im not totally buying what the installer is telling you, but if everything is working then that is all the matters.

 

[Big Dog]

my first reaction was that the wire was rubbing against something inside the housing and the insulation wore off as you drive and bounce along the roads. Is your car new? How many miles?

 

[jo6829]

my first reaction was that the wire was rubbing against something inside the housing and the insulation wore off as you drive and bounce along the roads. Is your car new? How many miles?

It is 1 year old with 10k miles driven

I wasnt there to see it with my own eyes but from the photo it looks like a knife cut since the edge looks cut clean.