Funky Turn Signal & Mouse Flatulence

Hi Guys,

I managed to catch my intermittent, funky turn signal on video just now as I was running an errand over lunch. This is a problem I've had since delivery (1.19.31) through my current version (1.19.42). It does not always occur. In this particular example, I noticed it pulling into a parking space but shot the video while in park.

In this video, I've got the turn signal stalk in the full up (right turn) position. I'm not holding the stalk or touching it at all. What you can't hear in the video (I don't think) is that every time the turn signal "changed rhythms", I heard a faint squeaking noise--like some air being let out of a balloon with the opening stretched--or like a little mouse fart.

I'll contact Tesla service about this. Just curious if you all had any theories. I was thinking software issue, but today is the first time I heard the mouse fart, which is now making me think it might be hardware-related.

Doug_G said:

Looks to me like the processor is overloaded, and you're getting all kinds of latency. Did you try rebooting the console (press and hold both upper steering wheel buttons for ten seconds)?

I've never seen this, so it makes me wonder if there might be a hardware issue at work - something causing too many interrupts and overloading the processor.

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Yes, rebooting has never completely solved it, but like I said it's fairly intermittent--doesn't happen all the time. I was in park, not navigating, no energy graph updating--you can see I stopped the music--shouldn't have been much going on. I suppose what I failed to check is whether a reboot of the console when this happened today immediately fixed it. I'll keep experimenting--but the mouse fart now has me scratching my head.

raptorweb said:

I have sent video of mine to service and they are going to be in my area in the next few weeks. I will let you know if they find anything out but their guess so far has been software.

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If you notice it happening, pull over, put the car in park, and mute the music. That's the only way I heard it. Actually, I didn't hear it until I was actually recording this video and muted the music.

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dsm363 said:

Maybe Todd's car simply was keeping time to the song in the background?

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That's close to my number 1 useless but cool feature request--could use beat detection--but the actual lights would have to flicker at a boring even rhythm .

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jhs_7645 said:

OK, I have absolutely no valuable insight, or input, but I'd like to nominate this thread for the most awesome title ever. Thanks Todd

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Haha thanks!

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raptorweb said:

I have sent video of mine to service and they are going to be in my area in the next few weeks. I will let you know if they find anything out but their guess so far has been software.

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I plan on calling them on the way home. I'll have to dial manually from my phone though, since the onboard contact list doesn't currently list custom tags for phone numbers . I've got one called "Ownership", one called "Roadside Assistance" in my iPhone's contact list, but they all come in as general numbers under Tesla Motors--completely untagged. Low priority, I know!

I checked the actual light outside while this was happening and it seemed to blink evenly--so a display issue only.

michaelwm said:

Yup, I've had this bug since day one of delivery back in late October, and it's survived two different software upgrades (as of today, I'm on 4.2). I've narrowed it down slightly... through experimentation, I realized that it only happens when my headlights are OFF (DRL and other lighting options don't affect it one way or another). After I figured that out, I can reproduce it VERY reliably. I had the car into the shop once for another issue, but they couldn't reproduce this problem at that time (I didn't know to turn the headlights off to force it). I've been meaning to take it back.

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Awesome. I'll give this a try in the morning and see if I can reproduce. Does it only occur with the right hand turn signal for those of you noticing this issue?

Gave it a test this morning:

First time I tried, I turned off the headlights and put on the right turn signal: the problem showed up immediately. I turned the headlights on and it immediately went away. So I can confirm that the headlights being on has SOMETHING to do with it.

About 20 minutes later, I tried again--this time, it worked properly, even though headlights were off.

Tried again about 20 minutes later, and the problem showed up again.

Tried again about 2 minutes later, and it worked fine. Headlights were off in every case.

So it doesn't seem to be perfectly repeatable, but the headlights do seem to be involved.

Another thing I verified is that the blinker light itself is in fact intermittent, just like the display. I didn't notice this earlier (although I only checked the REAR turn signal last time..so maybe it's only the fronts for me, or I just didn't see it last time).

BTW, I called Tesla ownership Monday afternoon to report this. The Tesla guy on the other end tried calling the D.C. service center--he said there was no answer. He told me he'd leave a message for them to call me back.

Now it's Wednesday morning--still no callback. I guess I'll call again this afternoon.