Yellow screen? Force Tesla to Replace it!

[Skipdd]

W

After losing my arbitration case, the Tesla lawyer has forwarded my info to the local service center. They've scheduled me for a UV repair in a week. So even if you loose, you'll get a UV repair attempt - but only when the tool is conveniently located in your area.

During the arbitration, the Tesla lawyer claimed repeatedly that Tesla's position is that issue is caused by sunlight, and that the UV repair is to the best of their knowledge a permanent fix.

UV Fix Permanency
After the arbitration, but before I received the claim denied response, I reported to the Tesla lawyer example posts in this thread about Tesla service centers claiming repeatedly that the UV fix is temporary. I was rather pointed in my email that it appears either Tesla has an internal communications problem, or the lawyer has an honesty problem. The lawyer re-iterated his stance that the UV fix is permanent, and that I should not to impugn his honesty. So I'll take him at his word, and apparently this whole "UV fix permanency" is just an honest mistake in internal communications. Time will tell.

Root Cause
Because my arbiter focused solely on the sunlight issue in his denial determination - I do think it's important that Tesla prove that sun light is the cause. However, that doesn't seem to be the standard for the arbitration. Clearly Tesla has another internal communications problem - as service centers are telling people the cause is heat and humidity, not sunlight related.

Call for an experiment
If you have a screen in a car manufactured before April 2019, and have not yet incurred the yellow border issue - you have a chance to run an experiment that might save a lot of fellow Tesla owners money and time. Take a piece of opaque black paper - and simply tape it to an area on the left or right of your screen. It should be about 3 inches wide, and at least three inches tall. It should aligned to touch either the left or right border of the screen. Leave that piece of paper in place until the yellowing occurs. Then remove the paper and report whether the yellowing occurred under the piece of paper. If the yellowing occurs under the paper, then the issue is very likely not caused by sunlight.

Any takers?

Would you mind posting your appt date, once it is set? I might have a chance of piggybacking to get the treatment on mine. It’s worth a shot to try.

Thanks.

 

[KArnold]

Of course they are saying it's sunlight. That is in the exclusion list on the warranty. Heat and humidity are not.

 

[TJtv]

Call for an experiment
If you have a screen in a car manufactured before April 2019, and have not yet incurred the yellow border issue - you have a chance to run an experiment that might save a lot of fellow Tesla owners money and time. Take a piece of opaque black paper - and simply tape it to an area on the left or right of your screen. It should be about 3 inches wide, and at least three inches tall. It should aligned to touch either the left or right border of the screen. Leave that piece of paper in place until the yellowing occurs. Then remove the paper and report whether the yellowing occurred under the piece of paper. If the yellowing occurs under the paper, then the issue is very likely not caused by sunlight.

That's a very good proposal for a test. This is something that Tesla should do internally.

 

[PhilDavid]

So the Model S is not designed to be used in areas with sunlight?

Isn't there a reasonable expectation to ensure the car's parts don't fail under "normal use?"

Shouldn't parts not fail due to normal sunlight?

 

[iqless]

I just took delivery of a new inventory P100D from 2018 with 5k miles on it. Didn't realize it then, but there's a giant yellow band on the MCU. It doesn't bother me all that much but it probably means that yellow banding is more about time passed than miles driven.

 

[PhilDavid]

I just took delivery of a new inventory P100D from 2018 with 5k miles on it. Didn't realize it then, but there's a giant yellow band on the MCU. It doesn't bother me all that much but it probably means that yellow banding is more about time passed than miles driven.

Congrats on your purchase but the problem is that the yellow discoloration of defective displays gets worse with time and eventually becomes dark brownish and opaque. It will look hideous with time and impair being able to see MCU controls clearly.

 

[iqless]

Congrats on your purchase but the problem is that the yellow discoloration of defective displays gets worse with time and eventually becomes dark brownish and opaque. It will look hideous with time and impair being able to see MCU controls clearly.

Got it. Thanks for the info. I'll let Tesla know that their "NEW" car has this defect and let's see what they say!

 

[MSVroomVroom]

So the Model S is not designed to be used in areas with sunlight?

Isn't there a reasonable expectation to ensure the car's parts don't fail under "normal use?"

Shouldn't parts not fail due to normal sunlight?

If the issue is caused by sunlight is Tesla being negligent when my car is in for service and they park it out in the sun before/after service? Clearly, I should be doing all I can to keep this fragile item away from sunlight (only drive at night, park in the garage, etc)... shouldn't they?

 

[PhilDavid]

If the issue is caused by sunlight is Tesla being negligent when my car is in for service and they park it out in the sun before/after service? Clearly, I should be doing all I can to keep this fragile item away from sunlight (only drive at night, park in the garage, etc)... shouldn't they?

If the display is not designed to be used in sunlight, at the least there should be a warning about that.

 

[buzescu]

No, it should not be in the car! Are we drinking something here?

 

[markb1]

So, if it's actually caused by heat, some of that comes indirectly from the sunlight. But then just saying it's caused by sunlight is only part of the story, and intentionally leaving out the rest of the story is dishonest. Heat comes from other sources, too, such as the backlight and the MCU. If sunlight indirectly contributed to the damage, and other factors also contributed, is it still excluded from the warranty?

Actually, sunlight is indirectly a factor in pretty much everything! So maybe nothing is covered!

 

[EVortex]

Sunlight actually helps with curing the adhesive, but not enough UV gets in naturally to do it in a timely manner. Some mobile phones have had similar yellow screen border problems caused by improper or poor quality screen adhesives. They make additives that are specifically designed to avoid the discoloration. If you are curious, you might google it and do your research - see what some did to fix their phone discoloration. I am surprised there have not been inexpensive DIY UV solutions here - who knows, maybe there have been and people may be apprehensive to share since UV can be harmful if handled with care. Looks like most people are waiting on Tesla and speculating about cause and solution.

 

[rjdoc74]

Just to add my experience: I lost my phone arbitration. During the call Ryan kept insisting that the FIX IS AVAILABLE EVERYWHERE and made it seem like I haven't allowed them to use the UV light fix. I countered that my SC has no idea about the fix, that it is not available, there is no timeline or even a way to get on a waitlist. No matter what I said, he just kept insisting that I haven't given them an opportunity to use UV light fix which is "available at my SC now". So it came down to my word vs Ryan's. Arbitrator agreed with him.

 

[jwlsh]

I received this email from Ryan today. Seems reasonable to negotiate terms around accepting the repair option prior to agreeing to end Arbitration ( which my case was accepted for ), such as ensuring work is performed under warranty and that failure to completely and permanently eliminate the screen discoloration shall result in the screen being replaced with a new screen. If the screen repair works and the discoloration is eliminated, I'm happy to accept that as a good outcome. If it doesn't work, then, I've done my part to fairly resolve this and now it is on Tesla to do their part, or have the Arbitration process continue.

"
Mr. XXXXX,


We received your arbitration request through NCDS regarding the yellowing you observe around the touchscreen in your vehicle. As you may know, we’ve recently (in the last month) dispatched a repair for this concern and we would like to coordinate that repair without requiring further involvement of the arbitrators. I would happily take lead in coordinating this repair for your vehicle and we can certainly get it completed in the next 30 days, which is what the arbitrator would most likely order even if we went through with that. A number of customers who have also filed for arbitration on this same issue have allowed the repair and been pleased, and for those who refused the repair and insisted on a hearing, some have been denied and some have prevailed, but those who prevailed were awarded a repair – which is what I’m offering now. So, I’m trying to shortcut the process for you and me and save us the time and save Tesla the expense of the arbitration. Would you please cancel the arbitration and permit me to have our service team work out an appointment for you to get this repair done?


If that’s ok with you, kindly let NCDS know and I’ll coordinate with your service manager to get it done.

Thank you!

<<Redacted>>

 

[alloverx]

Maybe we need ice-packs for the screen to keep it cool.
i.e. when you park your Tesla, you lay the ice pack on the screen to keep it cool.

 

[MSVroomVroom]

I received this email from Ryan today. Seems reasonable to negotiate terms around accepting the repair option prior to agreeing to end Arbitration ( which my case was accepted for ), such as ensuring work is performed under warranty and that failure to completely and permanently eliminate the screen discoloration shall result in the screen being replaced with a new screen. If the screen repair works and the discoloration is eliminated, I'm happy to accept that as a good outcome. If it doesn't work, then, I've done my part to fairly resolve this and now it is on Tesla to do their part, or have the Arbitration process continue.

"
Mr. XXXXX,


We received your arbitration request through NCDS regarding the yellowing you observe around the touchscreen in your vehicle. As you may know, we’ve recently (in the last month) dispatched a repair for this concern and we would like to coordinate that repair without requiring further involvement of the arbitrators. I would happily take lead in coordinating this repair for your vehicle and we can certainly get it completed in the next 30 days, which is what the arbitrator would most likely order even if we went through with that. A number of customers who have also filed for arbitration on this same issue have allowed the repair and been pleased, and for those who refused the repair and insisted on a hearing, some have been denied and some have prevailed, but those who prevailed were awarded a repair – which is what I’m offering now. So, I’m trying to shortcut the process for you and me and save us the time and save Tesla the expense of the arbitration. Would you please cancel the arbitration and permit me to have our service team work out an appointment for you to get this repair done?


If that’s ok with you, kindly let NCDS know and I’ll coordinate with your service manager to get it done.

Thank you!

It takes a while for the arbitration hearing to be scheduled anyway. I would not cancel the hearing until the repair has been completed and marked as warranty.

 

[Paladin732]

Just to add my experience: I lost my phone arbitration. During the call Ryan kept insisting that the FIX IS AVAILABLE EVERYWHERE and made it seem like I haven't allowed them to use the UV light fix. I countered that my SC has no idea about the fix, that it is not available, there is no timeline or even a way to get on a waitlist. No matter what I said, he just kept insisting that I haven't given them an opportunity to use UV light fix which is "available at my SC now". So it came down to my word vs Ryan's. Arbitrator agreed with him.

The trick is to call a few service centers that morning and get names of people you spoke to and times of call. He can't dispute that when you have multiple data points.[/QUOTE]

 

[MSVroomVroom]

Just to add my experience: I lost my phone arbitration. During the call Ryan kept insisting that the FIX IS AVAILABLE EVERYWHERE and made it seem like I haven't allowed them to use the UV light fix. I countered that my SC has no idea about the fix, that it is not available, there is no timeline or even a way to get on a waitlist. No matter what I said, he just kept insisting that I haven't given them an opportunity to use UV light fix which is "available at my SC now". So it came down to my word vs Ryan's. Arbitrator agreed with him.

Sorry your case didn't go well.

I guess Tesla isn't above resorting to flat out lies to win one of these cases. It really is disgraceful how they are behaving over this. Honestly, their dismissive and combative attitude over this is more upsetting to me than the actual issue itself.

 

[rjdoc74]

The trick is to call a few service centers that morning and get names of people you spoke to and times of call. He can't dispute that when you have multiple data points.

[/QUOTE]

He just calmly and consistently kept insisting that the fix is available. I don’t think a few random names would have made any difference.

 

[rjdoc74]

Sorry your case didn't go well.

I guess Tesla isn't above resorting to flat out lies to win one of these cases. It really is disgraceful how they are behaving over this. Honestly, their dismissive and combative attitude over this is more upsetting to me than the actual issue itself.

Just waiting for a class action lawsuit. That’s all.