Friends,
This thread follows up on a post in a different thread, and provides the whole saga of my journey to 4.2; it wasn't pretty, but it wasn't as ugly as it has been for others. I'm posting all this here, in case it's useful for others who might be in the same boat.
Back in July, I took delivery of a really pretty red used S75D from Tesla, manufactured in November 2016. The Tesla used car web page said it did 0-60 in 4.2 seconds when I bought it; awesome. For the first couple of months, I really enjoyed the performance, but then I stumbled across a thread suggesting that some/many S75Ds could be "uncorked" to deliver 0-60 in 4.2 seconds instead of 5.2 seconds, through a software update. Some folks suggested that even cars sold as doing 0-60 in 4.2 seconds actually were doing it in 5.2 seconds and still needed uncorking.
So, I started testing. Sure enough, when I video recorded the speedometer during a 0-60 repeatedly, I could never get the time below 5 seconds. So, I requested a service visit for my car to be uncorked.
The day before the service was scheduled, I got a text message saying, "the pack you have is not capable of being uncorked." At which point, I said, "um, so, my car was sold to me as doing 0-60 in 4.2 seconds, and I have the screen shots to prove it." The service rep asked if I had a screen shot of that, which I did (ALWAYS GET A SCREENSHOT). Now, he was like... "oh, I will need a little time to figure this out," and then basically cancelled my appointment. "Usually, these changes are handled over-the-air. I have done these upgrades in the past and a physical connection to the car is never needed." (Yeah...)
At this point, I got in touch with my sales rep, whom I still really like. After I sent her the screen shot (because she said that, post-sale, she couldn't see the specs), she apparently got in touch with some engineer and had an update pushed to my car to uncork the car. She seemed certain it was done.
I was hopeful, but driving the car the next day, I couldn't tell any difference. I contacted the local Tesla service center rep, and he said that someone had done something, and "today your car is completely different." He seemed sure that my car could do 0-60 in 4.2, and even suggested I take it to a local track to try it. Though possible, this was inconvenient. I did more video recorded speedometer runs, all still north of 5 seconds. Then, I came across a post talking about the Teslemetry app, and I bought that, and--sure enough--5.2 seconds.
Through the same posts, I learned about a fellow forum user who had a similar problem (S75D sold as 4.2 but delivering only 5.2), and who ultimately had to send Tesla a letter promising recourse to the state consumer affairs bureau if they did not rectify the issue. THAT got some attention and, eventually, Tesla fixed his problem by (among other things) replacing the "Pyro Fuse Pack" with a new version. Was THAT what I needed?
I made a new appointment for a service visit, this time including the Teslemetry result and specifying the Fuse Pack replacement as a possible solution. The same Tesla service rep seemed surprised to hear from me again, as though I'd been hallucinating about my car's performance. He even AGAIN canceled my service visit, saying they would look at my car's data remotely, and scheduling the car for a service center visit five days later.
I dropped the car off on a Tuesday; for the first time out of three service center visits (the first two were for other things), they gave me a loaner instead of Uber credits, and I should have known that meant something. At the end of the day, when I contacted the SC, they said they were backed up and hadn't even looked at the car. (Grrr...)
Finally, the next day, they started looking at the data from the car. By then, I'd provided a SECOND Teslemetry snap showing another 5.2 0-60, and they asked for specifics on when those runs were captured (presumably to find them in the car's data stream). During a phone call when they asked for some other info, the SC rep concurred that the car SHOULD do 0-60 in 4.2 (whew), but felt that the Fuse Pack was among the least likely issues. That was toward the end of the day (a Wednesday), so they kept the car again overnight.
The next day, I checked the Tesla app again after noon, and I was surprised to see that the car was projected to be available at the end of the day. When I texted with the SC, they said that--despite the earlier uncorking attempt and despite the earlier SC rep's assertion that the configuration of the car had completely changed overnight because of it--the performance setting had NOT been changed from the basic P3 to the added performance P1 setting. In a voicemail I discovered later, I learned that apparently the OTA update hadn't fully worked and that the SC needed to attach a laptop directly to the car to make it work (remember the SC rep who'd said, "a physical connection to the car is never needed.") Great!
So, I took the loaner to the SC, dropped it off, and found my car. I'm a very conservative Tesla driver, aside from on-ramps, merging, and things like that; I like to save my fun! So, I went a couple of blocks before trying to see if it worked. (Before I tell you, let me say that my sales rep told me that the difference wasn't necessarily as noticeable as you might think. Heh.)
HOLY F--K!
That's what I thought to myself as I took my foot off the accelerator. I was genuinely nervous. I'd gone just part of a block, and I was genuinely shocked. I know, it's not a P (which I've driven). But, the car had changed completely. WHAT was my sales rep THINKING?!
OK, I'll stop. Many of you know exactly what I'm talking about, and many more of you have never known the absence of the bliss.
So, what do I take from this. First, if your S75D is doing 0-60 in north of 5 seconds, and you have any doubt that it might be uncorkable to 4.2, you should pursue it. Second, if your car was SOLD as doing 4.2 and it can't get to 60 below 5 seconds, go after Tesla hard to make it right; I was trying to keep my powder dry, but was totally prepared to get a lawyer. Third, if they DO try an uncorking and it doesn't seem to work, get them to try again, including through a laptop at the SC. Fourth, don't blindly trust what the online sale ticket says; it may not be 100% right. Finally, if you're buying a used Tesla FROM Tesla, get screenshots of EVERYTHING before you hit the button that puts down your deposit. After that, you can't get those back (except possibly through the excellent EV-CPO).
I am happy that this worked out as it did, angry that the car I spent $54K on didn't arrive as advertised, and grateful that I didn't have to wait for a hardware update. I still haven't been able to do another Teslemetry test (tomorrow), but this thing is a beast now.
Please let me know if you have any questions,
Todd
This thread follows up on a post in a different thread, and provides the whole saga of my journey to 4.2; it wasn't pretty, but it wasn't as ugly as it has been for others. I'm posting all this here, in case it's useful for others who might be in the same boat.
Back in July, I took delivery of a really pretty red used S75D from Tesla, manufactured in November 2016. The Tesla used car web page said it did 0-60 in 4.2 seconds when I bought it; awesome. For the first couple of months, I really enjoyed the performance, but then I stumbled across a thread suggesting that some/many S75Ds could be "uncorked" to deliver 0-60 in 4.2 seconds instead of 5.2 seconds, through a software update. Some folks suggested that even cars sold as doing 0-60 in 4.2 seconds actually were doing it in 5.2 seconds and still needed uncorking.
So, I started testing. Sure enough, when I video recorded the speedometer during a 0-60 repeatedly, I could never get the time below 5 seconds. So, I requested a service visit for my car to be uncorked.
The day before the service was scheduled, I got a text message saying, "the pack you have is not capable of being uncorked." At which point, I said, "um, so, my car was sold to me as doing 0-60 in 4.2 seconds, and I have the screen shots to prove it." The service rep asked if I had a screen shot of that, which I did (ALWAYS GET A SCREENSHOT). Now, he was like... "oh, I will need a little time to figure this out," and then basically cancelled my appointment. "Usually, these changes are handled over-the-air. I have done these upgrades in the past and a physical connection to the car is never needed." (Yeah...)
At this point, I got in touch with my sales rep, whom I still really like. After I sent her the screen shot (because she said that, post-sale, she couldn't see the specs), she apparently got in touch with some engineer and had an update pushed to my car to uncork the car. She seemed certain it was done.
I was hopeful, but driving the car the next day, I couldn't tell any difference. I contacted the local Tesla service center rep, and he said that someone had done something, and "today your car is completely different." He seemed sure that my car could do 0-60 in 4.2, and even suggested I take it to a local track to try it. Though possible, this was inconvenient. I did more video recorded speedometer runs, all still north of 5 seconds. Then, I came across a post talking about the Teslemetry app, and I bought that, and--sure enough--5.2 seconds.
Through the same posts, I learned about a fellow forum user who had a similar problem (S75D sold as 4.2 but delivering only 5.2), and who ultimately had to send Tesla a letter promising recourse to the state consumer affairs bureau if they did not rectify the issue. THAT got some attention and, eventually, Tesla fixed his problem by (among other things) replacing the "Pyro Fuse Pack" with a new version. Was THAT what I needed?
I made a new appointment for a service visit, this time including the Teslemetry result and specifying the Fuse Pack replacement as a possible solution. The same Tesla service rep seemed surprised to hear from me again, as though I'd been hallucinating about my car's performance. He even AGAIN canceled my service visit, saying they would look at my car's data remotely, and scheduling the car for a service center visit five days later.
I dropped the car off on a Tuesday; for the first time out of three service center visits (the first two were for other things), they gave me a loaner instead of Uber credits, and I should have known that meant something. At the end of the day, when I contacted the SC, they said they were backed up and hadn't even looked at the car. (Grrr...)
Finally, the next day, they started looking at the data from the car. By then, I'd provided a SECOND Teslemetry snap showing another 5.2 0-60, and they asked for specifics on when those runs were captured (presumably to find them in the car's data stream). During a phone call when they asked for some other info, the SC rep concurred that the car SHOULD do 0-60 in 4.2 (whew), but felt that the Fuse Pack was among the least likely issues. That was toward the end of the day (a Wednesday), so they kept the car again overnight.
The next day, I checked the Tesla app again after noon, and I was surprised to see that the car was projected to be available at the end of the day. When I texted with the SC, they said that--despite the earlier uncorking attempt and despite the earlier SC rep's assertion that the configuration of the car had completely changed overnight because of it--the performance setting had NOT been changed from the basic P3 to the added performance P1 setting. In a voicemail I discovered later, I learned that apparently the OTA update hadn't fully worked and that the SC needed to attach a laptop directly to the car to make it work (remember the SC rep who'd said, "a physical connection to the car is never needed.") Great!
So, I took the loaner to the SC, dropped it off, and found my car. I'm a very conservative Tesla driver, aside from on-ramps, merging, and things like that; I like to save my fun! So, I went a couple of blocks before trying to see if it worked. (Before I tell you, let me say that my sales rep told me that the difference wasn't necessarily as noticeable as you might think. Heh.)
HOLY F--K!
That's what I thought to myself as I took my foot off the accelerator. I was genuinely nervous. I'd gone just part of a block, and I was genuinely shocked. I know, it's not a P (which I've driven). But, the car had changed completely. WHAT was my sales rep THINKING?!
OK, I'll stop. Many of you know exactly what I'm talking about, and many more of you have never known the absence of the bliss.
So, what do I take from this. First, if your S75D is doing 0-60 in north of 5 seconds, and you have any doubt that it might be uncorkable to 4.2, you should pursue it. Second, if your car was SOLD as doing 4.2 and it can't get to 60 below 5 seconds, go after Tesla hard to make it right; I was trying to keep my powder dry, but was totally prepared to get a lawyer. Third, if they DO try an uncorking and it doesn't seem to work, get them to try again, including through a laptop at the SC. Fourth, don't blindly trust what the online sale ticket says; it may not be 100% right. Finally, if you're buying a used Tesla FROM Tesla, get screenshots of EVERYTHING before you hit the button that puts down your deposit. After that, you can't get those back (except possibly through the excellent EV-CPO).
I am happy that this worked out as it did, angry that the car I spent $54K on didn't arrive as advertised, and grateful that I didn't have to wait for a hardware update. I still haven't been able to do another Teslemetry test (tomorrow), but this thing is a beast now.
Please let me know if you have any questions,
Todd
