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Weird door lighting behavior

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bmah

Moderator, Supercharger Hunter
Global Moderator
Mar 17, 2015
5,955
13,644
Lafayette, CA, USA
I just noticed some truly head-scratching lighting behavior in my two-month-old S85D (tech package with autopilot, v2.4.236). Tonight I was walking past my car in my garage...it has "auto present" enabled in my usual profile, so it extended door handles and turned on the headlights, interior lights, etc. From the left side looking across the second-row seats towards the right rear door, I see a red glow. I think it's weird that the red light in the door (not sure what the name for this is) is on when the door is closed, so I walk around to the right side of the car and look across the rear seats to the left rear door. No glow. Now it's getting weird, so I get in the back seat and start experimenting.

Basically, I see that the red light in the right rear door is always on in this mode, regardless if that door is open or closed. The red light in the left rear door is on when the door is open, off when it's closed.

Then I hop in the front seat and play with the front doors. The red lights in both the left side and right side front doors behave as expected (on when open, off when closed).

Now I'm wondering what it'll take to make the right rear door light shut off. So I turn on the car, light still on. Put the gear shift in reverse and finally (along with a bunch of other lights) that right rear door light turns off.

So I apparently have one door light that behaves differently from the other three doors on the car. (Before someone asks, the car seems to be correctly detecting the open/closed state of all four doors, as seen in the vehicle status on the dashboard screen.)

Anyone else see this? I searched through the forums here and couldn't find any mention of this behavior.

Bruce.

PS. If someone can tell me the correct name for "the red light in the door" I'd appreciate it.
 
Not sure of the correct name for the light. But I just tested on my 85D. Those lights are tied to the door being open for me. I'd bet on a wiring problem. I'm guessing the door handle light and that light got the plugs reversed. So does the door handle light for the door only come on when the door is open?
 
The first thing to do is to reboot both displays and see if the problem persists. The 17" display is rebooted by holding down the two scroll wheel buttons. The instrument display hold down the two upper buttons. If the problem persists, call Tesla.
 
The "red light in the bottom of the door" is typically called a Puddle Light, so you can see the puddle your about to step into when opening the door!, also creates a puddle of light for your exit?

The Puddle light is the white light at the bottom of the door. The red light at the rear of the door frame is part of the door reflector to warn oncoming vehicles that the door is open.
 
breser: Interesting idea of a wiring misteak. The door handle light seems to come on at the correct times (== all of the times that the front door handle light on that side comes on) so I'm guessing it's not a reversed connection, but it's maybe some other type of mix-up.

jerry33: I'll do a reboot once I replenish my supply of round tuits and see if that fixes it. If not, I already have a service appointment coming up for some cosmetic trim issues, I'll bring it up with them at that point.

mrElbe: Thanks, I didn't know what that light was for. (You're correct, it's not the puddle light, and not the door handle light.)

Thanks, all, I'll report back what I find out although it might be after my service appointment next week.

Bruce.
 
Follow-up, after I finally got that service appointment (not Tesla's fault...I had multiple scheduling conflicts that required me to postpone for awhile): It turns out that it was a wiring issue, which they corrected. And the name that my service advisor and service technician used for this light is "emergency on [right rear] door".

Thanks to all,

Bruce.