Yellow screen? Force Tesla to Replace it!

[Downtown]

Has anyone in LA/OC had their yellow screen borders fixed via the UV tool? If so which service center location? Thanks.

 

[P100D_Me]

MCU1 has an 8GB chip and it is 100% formatted. There's less than 500MB of free space nowadays, so that means all writes to the chip happen in the same 500MB over and over.

I'm sure I read that the main issue is Tesla are writing everything to flash rather than keeping things in a RAM buffer that would be written to flash 'as needed' rather than constantly.

 

[mtndrew1]

Has anyone in LA/OC had their yellow screen borders fixed via the UV tool? If so which service center location? Thanks.

A friend of mine had her S done at Burbank and was very pleased with the results.

 

[markb1]

I'm sure I read that the main issue is Tesla are writing everything to flash rather than keeping things in a RAM buffer that would be written to flash 'as needed' rather than constantly.

I thought it was Linux kernel messages, which are basically useless, except in development. Even if they were cached in RAM and then written to the eMMC in batches, it wouldn't help much. Better to just write to RAM and then discard.

Anyway, the reduced free space means the chip is limited in where it can write in flash. So all the writes get concentrated in that 500MB of free space. The less free space, the more the writes are concentrated, and the faster the flash wears out.

 

[markb1]

Good news! Their machine is still working! (Even the service advisor seemed a little surprised!)

I got my car back from the Miramar-San Diego service center, and the yellow is mostly, if not completely gone! Upon close examination, there might be a hint of it, but it also might just be my imagination. Anyway, for all practical purposes, it's gone, and if it stays that way, I'll be very happy!

 

[Ken7]

Great success at the Syosset service center. Mine was very bad to start, one of the worst the mobile tech had seen. Post-service, I see no evidence of the yellowing. You see others post pix but until you see the results on your own screen, you can’t appreciate the results.

 

[P100D_Me]

I think we all need to cross our fingers this UV fix is permanent, if we need screens replaced it'll be a massive battle.
I can't help but think this 'fix' was to push cars outside the warranty period before it yellows again.

 

[Ken7]

If this fix was to cure glue that hadn’t been properly cured before, why would you think it’s that temporary? Thus far nobody that’s had this fix has had a recurrence. It seems to me that some screens that were replaced, were already yellowing again in a similar time frame.

 

[Skotty]

Do Model 3's have the yellow banding problem?

 

[Ken7]

Do Model 3's have the yellow banding problem?

Nope, different screen.

 

[VT_EE]

Do Model 3's have the yellow banding problem?

Nope

 

[BPeter]

I'm sure I read that the main issue is Tesla are writing everything to flash rather than keeping things in a RAM buffer that would be written to flash 'as needed' rather than constantly.

That is the reason that the MCU1 chip is wearing out. MCU2 having much more free space just means it can take far more punishment before it fails. With just 500MB of free space MCU1 lasts 4 years so with 65x that free space MCU2 should last much longer. They should fix the logging issue, but even if they don't MCU2 still can write way more logs before it fails.

If this fix was to cure glue that hadn’t been properly cured before, why would you think it’s that temporary? Thus far nobody that’s had this fix has had a recurrence. It seems to me that some screens that were replaced, were already yellowing again in a similar time frame.

The yellowing fix hasn't been around for very long. People who have had replacement screens yellow had their replacements way earlier than 2 months ago.

 

[Ken7]

Such optimism throughout these threads.

 

[P100D_Me]

Such optimism throughout these threads.

In fairness it is hard to stay positive towards the brand when they are becoming more and more difficult to deal with.

 

[BinaryField]

I got fed up with Tesla's response and was able to get a courtesy buyback at slightly less than what I paid for after going through the lemon process.

A simple screen replacement under warranty was all I wanted and in the end they forced my hand and took a bath on my P100D.

Good luck to everyone on here.

Any chance you could write some more about the details of your lemon law claim? Information on the process would be great reference for anyone dealing with this in the future.

I encountered the yellow border issue less than a year into ownership and also experienced Tesla kicking the can down the road with some vague promises of a fix. I no longer own the car and it is past the lemon law period anyway, but in hindsight, I should have gone after it. At the time, I did not know that it also applied simply for value-reducing defects - at least in California. Another factor was that Tesla would cancel my service appointments for the screen. That technically does not satisfy the lemon law criteria if they won't even attempt to fix the problem. I wouldn't have known how to deal with that.

Thank you!

 

[whitex]

Such optimism throughout these threads.

Compare the optimism:negativity ratio now to 2012-2016 days and you may find that the ratio has been dropping for the last 3 years. I guess you could say the Elon fanboy bubble is bursting? Hey, I used to be one too, telling anybody who would listen they should buy a Tesla. Oh the good old days...

 

[whitex]

Another factor was that Tesla would cancel my service appointments for the screen. That technically does not satisfy the lemon law criteria if they won't even attempt to fix the problem. I wouldn't have known how to deal with that.

That sounds like a giant loophole in lemon law - simply refuse to service the vehicle would get the manufacturer off the hook. "Brought your car in for the same thing twice? You are now black-balled and no longer eligible for service". This isn't an issue with a dealer model, where the dealer is on the customer side (unlike Tesla service centers, dealers make money on every warranty repair visit), but with Tesla direct sales model the lemon laws may need some amendments.

 

[BinaryField]

That sounds like a giant loophole in lemon law - simply refuse to service the vehicle would get the manufacturer off the hook. "Brought your car in for the same thing twice? You are now black-balled and no longer eligible for service". This isn't an issue with a dealer model, where the dealer is on the customer side (unlike Tesla service centers, dealers make money on every warranty repair visit), but with Tesla direct sales model the lemon laws may need some amendments.

I did a little bit more reading on this issue. I'm no lawyer, but this is what I found: according to "Lemon-aid for Consumers" from the CA Department of Consumer Affairs,

The California Lemon Law requires a vehicle manufacturer that is unable to repair a vehicle to conform to the manufacturer’s express warranty after a reasonable number of repair attempts to replace or repurchase the vehicle.

Although there is no set number for “reasonable repair attempts,” California’s Lemon Law Presumption contains guidelines for determining when a “reasonable number” of repair attempts have been made.

The California Lemon Law covers the following new and used vehicles sold or leased in California that come with the manufacturer’s new vehicle warranty [...] The California Lemon Law applies throughout the duration of the vehicle manufacturer’s original warranty period. Consult your vehicle manufacturer’s warranty manual for warranty periods pertaining to your vehicle.

The criteria for number of repair attempts and time out of service are simply guidelines to presume that a vehicle is a lemon. So my plain-English understanding is that a vehicle can still be declared a lemon regardless of the number repair attempts, depending on the severity of the situation. Would it have been enough for me to show that Tesla was evading service of my vehicle? A lemon law claim could have at least resulted in them addressing the problem if not forcing them to buy back the vehicle completely.

 

[whitex]

I did a little bit more reading on this issue. I'm no lawyer, but this is what I found: according to "Lemon-aid for Consumers" from the CA Department of Consumer Affairs,



The criteria for number of repair attempts and time out of service are simply guidelines to presume that a vehicle is a lemon. So my plain-English understanding is that a vehicle can still be declared a lemon regardless of the number repair attempts, depending on the severity of the situation. Would it have been enough for me to show that Tesla was evading service of my vehicle? A lemon law claim could have at least resulted in them addressing the problem if not forcing them to buy back the vehicle completely.

For things like yellow screen, they can make sure they cancel all appointments, therefore resulting in zero attempts are repair. It probably would not be hard to convince a judge or jury that zero attempts does not fall into reasonable number of attempts. The problem here is that the manufacturer controls the attempts to repair due to the direct sales and service model, vs. dealer model.

When Tesla first introduced the direct sales model, I was all for it. 4 cars later, I'm over it and totally see the benefit of the dealers. The main thing, they typically fall on the customer side, not on the manufacturer side. They don't mind fixing things, they make money on each repair. They will also support you with you lemon law claim.

 

[Ken7]

When Tesla first introduced the direct sales model, I was all for it. 4 cars later, I'm over it and totally see the benefit of the dealers. The main thing, they typically fall on the customer side, not on the manufacturer side. They don't mind fixing things, they make money on each repair. They will also support you with you lemon law claim.

I don’t know who ‘they’ is, but in my experience it’s not the manufacturer in the dealer model. In my one experience filing (and winning) a lemon law case, the manufacturer did everything they could to dissuade me from pursuing that path. Right up to the end, within minutes before entering the arbitration room, the manufacturer’s (Mazda) rep said, “You seem like a nice couple, but you won’t win this case”. Instead they tried offering an insulting cash settlement. That simply made my wife and I more determined to win, which we did. Supportive? Hardly.

So I see no difference in filing a lemon law claim with either the Tesla model or the dealer model. Neither model results in a manufacturer who is eager to help you down the lemon law path.