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To MCU2 or not to MCU2?

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Heads up, now's the time to do this. It appears there is a price increase underway. I requested the upgrade via the app, and the automated estimate came back as USD $1750. I then looked at www.tesla.com/support/infotainment and it still shows the $1,500 price. I chatted back to service and they lowered the estimate back to $1,500 because that's what's on the website.

MCU INTEL HW3 UPGRADE-FOR
TEGRAAP3.0 -NORTH AMERICA(9874563-00-A)

Note that the price is higher for vehicles with autopilot 2.0 or 2.5.
Also I chose to pay an additional $500 for the FM radio.
There's no additional labor.
How did you go about requesting the update via the app if it's not an option in the "Upgrades" section anymore?
 
I totally disagree...MCU2 is not worth it for AP1 car....unless you r watching a tons of movies and play video games....and surfing the net constantly...had MCU2 for over a year

Other than that...MCU1 w the recall fix is adequate...U r not gaining anything except entertainment.

Navigation works just the same

I did upgrade the mcu on our AP1 car. It responds quicker, the navigation works better, of course the entertainment as you said, the web browser, two new screens not just one, and more. I cannot imagine why everyone doesn't pay the $1,500. I understand it's going to 1700, still a good deal. But then we each have our own opinions.
 
Would you please elaborate on this?
Hey, @Droschke, reliving everything we did on this project is sort of futile, because Tesla won't help you. But if you would like to know some of the highlights, you can read up. There's a owner that is not a frequent poster here, called Teslatap. (teslatap.com). He's a good guy that I correspond with nearly daily, and have for years. He and I have partnered on a couple of projects, adding FM radio to MCU2 was one of them. We would have been shocked if it worked in the end. But we are certain we failed because Tesla would not even consider enabling the FM digital option in the gateway configuration for me.

I'm giving you the bottom line upfront here. After we had the M3 FM radio module installed and connected in my S, I made a SC appt and went down. Service Manager met me at the door. (They know me personally.) I asked and offered to pay for them to make the gateway change. No way Jose'. Teslatap and I had been publishing on TM, TMC and his teslatap.com space for weeks while we worked on this. SM told me, that corporate had been following our progress and had specifically notified the SM and SAs to not work on my car. Explanation was "we don't want a different/hybrid out there that we would have to maintain". Tried talking around that idea. Nope, nada.

I'm getting too old. I thought, but I can't find a TMC thread devoted strictly to the FM radio. Also the TMC moderators divided my MCU2 install and installing new repeater cameras posts up into separate threads. So that might explain why I can't find all of it. I guess its buried in this one, where I reported that the Honolulu SC had installed my MCU2. (I was one of the first [accidentally/mistakenly] to get MCU2 in the country. Feb 2020. I did find one of my post - post the install, You can read up part of my posts here with #129. If you work your way backwards you likely will find more in this same thread. But my posts were not as nicely worded as my buddy, teslatap's published rundown of the entire project. Here> Teslatap is great at writing about the Tesla.

You can look through this article. I gave $35 for a Model 3 FM module. We found wiring diagram, and TT made the Ethernet digital cable, 3D printed a cap/cover/mount and sent it to me. I removed my old radio, figured a way to install the M3 unit. I removed my MCU2 so I could plug the digital cable in. Most/not all of those pictures were of the inside the car were my efforts. the cable and 3D cover are his pictures. We learned as we went.

Its still installed in my '17. It does not work. But we are confident its because the SC won't enable it. I'm not going to hack or let someone hack my $70-80K car to get the radio working. I did not even consider trying to do it myself or with help. Frankly, I am quite pleased with Tune In. I am so old school, I only listen to 50/60's oldies. I never really cared to get the radio working. The reason TT and I worked on this, knowing it was 90+ likely Tesla would block us or not help anyway, we to try and soften some of the bad comments people had about getting MCU2 and there was no option to get the radio added back. We pretty much gave up in Sept 2020. And in late Oct/early Nov, Tesla started saying the digital radio would be available for $500 "pretty soon". There was never any hint outside Tesla, but we believe those of us that worked on this, pretty much put Tesla on the spot to make it an option.

By the way, TT and I had some excellent help and advice from @Art VandeIay and @KyleDay.
 
H-o-w-e-v-e-r, this has been mentioned many times now, and maybe should be on every page here, so everyone going in sees it. Once and a while, - sometimes, the SC's tech forgets to pair the security certificates so your remote access works. Everyone that goes to pickup their MCU2 upgraded car, needs to check remote unlocking via the Tesla app to insure the pairing was completed.
They forgot to do this on my eMMC replacement, and didn't notice the app unlock didn't work for a week or two. I called the SC and they gave me the same "we aren't allowed to update remotely any more" line. I had to make a second trip to the SC, 2 hrs away. At least it was quick and they told me I didn't need to schedule, just call before coming in.

I use the FM radio to listen to audiobooks on my little Sansa Clip MP3 player, using an FM transmitter. Kludgy, but it works.

Tesla couldn't be bothered to include a 3.5 mm jack to plug the MP3 player in directly. Given that many of us, myself included, use phones via Bluetooth to listen to audiobooks nowadays, I suppose that makes sense. Audiobooks ripped from CDs work best on my MP3 player however.

Haven't actually listened to radio in perhaps five years but I always found ads and DJs annoying and prefer music on my USB drives.
Couldn't you also just copy them onto a USB drive?

I’m glad at least some realize that not everyone lives and drives in data connected areas.
Some of us do most of our driving in rural mountainous areas where there is no cell data AND no Sirius (shadows from mountains)
 
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They forgot to do this on my eMMC replacement, and didn't notice the app unlock didn't work for a week or two. I called the SC and they gave me the same "we aren't allowed to update remotely any more" line. I had to make a second trip to the SC, 2 hrs away. At least it was quick and they told me I didn't need to schedule, just call before coming in.
@tga, yeah, sorry you had to go through that. Yes, we too learned the 'fix" process had been complicated with "can't do that remotely" any more. We posted that too when we learned it in later posts. There's no place good where all the lessons learned could be published or point people to, to save them effort. Well, no place where its easy to find. But thanks for mentioning it. You putting your post there helped. Someone will see it, we will never know it, and they will check theirs before the leave the SC. And your post because it real life and most recent will get the attention it deserves. Thank you.
 
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I upgraded to MCU2 after buying a used 2016 Model S (wanted the free supercharging again) and now the car feels new again. Got used to the faster speed and features like faster voice commands and newer map features (waypoints etc) of a 2020 Model 3 that I returned waiting for the CT. it was hard to use the MCU1 again. I can't recommend this enough and will be doing it next in my ol' Model X.

Cheers!
 
I totally disagree...MCU2 is not worth it for AP1 car....unless you r watching a tons of movies and play video games....and surfing the net constantly...had MCU2 for over a year

Other than that...MCU1 w the recall fix is adequate...U r not gaining anything except entertainment.

Navigation works just the same
Politely disagree, it's not just entertainment, you get improved map performance and voice command speed. It's night and day. You also gain newer features with the maps such as waypoints. It's like a $50 Android Tablet vs an iPad in terms of responsiveness. Everyone will have to decide whether the user experience is worth the price though, but at $50k+ for the car, the $1500 seems like peanuts.

Cheers!
 
I'm having issues with my instrument cluster dying at 'hot' temps (75F+) when entering the car or even when driving. The only method of resurrection is by steering wheel resets, sometimes it even happens again afterward. Has anyone had this issue? I'm afraid just DIY replacing the IC screen wouldn't resolve it.

I'm deciding between upgrading the MCU2 vs upgrading to LTE and DIY replacing the IC screen but I am unsure if that will fix my dying at hot temps issue. I have not seen too many with my exact temp issue. Any guidance would be greatly appreciated.

Sorry for the off-topic cry for help. As informative as the forums are, I'm afraid this is a one-off issue :(.
 
I'm having issues with my instrument cluster dying at 'hot' temps (75F+) when entering the car or even when driving. The only method of resurrection is by steering wheel resets, sometimes it even happens again afterward. Has anyone had this issue? I'm afraid just DIY replacing the IC screen wouldn't resolve it.

I'm deciding between upgrading the MCU2 vs upgrading to LTE and DIY replacing the IC screen but I am unsure if that will fix my dying at hot temps issue. I have not seen too many with my exact temp issue. Any guidance would be greatly appreciated.

Sorry for the off-topic cry for help. As informative as the forums are, I'm afraid this is a one-off issue :(.

Upgrading to MCU2 is the consensus.