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Glove box latch failure

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JPP

Active Member
Feb 4, 2013
3,088
1,355
SF Bay Area, CA
Just had an interesting failure on my S85. Unlocked the car, disconnected the ChargePoint J1772 and adapter, closed the charge port, got into the car, popped open the glove box to stow the adapter, then went to close the glove box and it would not latched closed. Tried a bunch of times to get it to latch without success. Upon further investigation, I could see that the latch mechanism was retracted. If I pressed on the glove box release, the latch would extend, the immediately retract. It would not stay extended. No obvious loose or missing parts. Called Tesla service--they had never heard of any failure like this, and had a limited repertoire of things to try. They had me try to reboot main display with both rollers on steering wheel. No joy. Then they had me pull the 2 20 amp fuses and reinsert them to power cycle the circuits that they thought might be culprit. Again, no joy. My additional concern was the glove box light--would it stay on if the glove box was left open and the car was powered off/locked. I did not want to run down the 12V system. No-one had the definitive answer. So now I have a piece of blue painters tape holding the glove box closed, and will have to make the pilgrimage to Fremont next week.

Anyone have any ideas?
 
Check the door latch to see if it is springing out, it could be jammed

its normally poped out so it can latch with the frame of the door
DSC01049.JPG


you can see in this pic it is spring loaded and will compress if pushed in
DSC01050.JPG


when you press the button it will activate the solenoid to push the latch on the door in to release
DSC01052.JPG
 
You might have hit a home run. I will need to look at this when I get a chance. I know for sure that on the left side of the door there is NOT a protruding spring loaded latch. I assumed that the solenoid on the left frame of the box was the latching mechanism, not the UNlatching mechanism. The latch inside the glove box door itself must have jammed. Wonder if gentle prying with a small screwdriver will work. Will report back ASAP. Many thanks, especially for the photos. Not sure why Tesla phone support did not explain this possibility.
 
OK-so went to look at the issue armed with the excellent info from AC1K. Turns out that the latch in the glove box door is stuck into the door. I cannot get it to pop out with gentle prying. Not sure what the failure is--broken spring? Will need to go to Fremont next week for a fix. Probably new door--looks like a 1 piece unit. Wonder how much of the dash they will need to deinstall to replace the door.

IMPORTANT---if the glove box door is not tightly closed, the glove box light DOES stay on even if the car is closed and locked. A potential problem running down the 12V system.

News later after the repair......
 
maybe this will help

3rii2d.jpg


no seriously, you can probably gently tap it with a hammer to see if it will loosen itself, or you can push the tab in even further (again, gently), if you feel no spring resistance, the spring probably shot out somewhere and will need to be replaced.
 
I tried to pry the button out of the door--could not get it loose. Nothing to wiggle. AC1K--I have a degree in engineering, so I am very familiar with the use of a hammer to fix delicate mechanical/electrical systems. I did try some measured taps with a hammer--no luck. When I try to pry it out with a small flat bladed screwdriver, it comes out a couple of millimeters, and then snaps back in. I think maybe the spring is dislodged and now is exerting force to keep the latch in rather than out.

Thumper--the lamp looks like it is an LED, so likely low wattage. FWIW, in the fuse box #47 is a 5A fuse labelled Glove Box Light. Not sure if it would affect anything else, so as long as I can keep the glove box closed, I'm good.

I did e-mail Jerome G just to let him know the glitch and what the telephone service team was telling me, so that he could maybe update their 'knowledge base' when the next victim calls in.

As always, thanks to all the TMC members for input--nice to have a deep and broad panel of experts to tap into.
 
Actually the release button and solenoid mechanism work fine--no jamming. It's the spring loaded locking button on the glove box door itself that has failed.

It is of interest to me that the design of the latching system is very different from other cars I have owned, all of which have had a mechanical lock/latch on the door, and no electrical release. Tesla chose to allow an electrical release, likely in part to allow the glove box to lock automatically when the car was locked (no key required to secure the glove box). I personally might have contemplated a design with just the solenoid in the left side of the dash, containing a spring loaded pin. You would press the button to retract the pin, and the door would open. The latch/pin would, at rest, protrude. When you closed the glove box door, the pin would retract (like a latch on a conventional passage set), and then pop back out to secure the glove box. Thus 1 solenoid and mechanism, not the solenoid plus the additional spring loaded mechanism on the door of the Model S glove box, the latter which has jammed/failed on me.
 
Destructive testing....thanks. I fooled with my left hand latch with a small screwdriver (smaller than the one in your photo) and could not get it to pop out. I will re-investigate both sides, but assume that the 2 latches are not interconnected.
 
Destructive testing....thanks. I fooled with my left hand latch with a small screwdriver (smaller than the one in your photo) and could not get it to pop out. I will re-investigate both sides, but assume that the 2 latches are not interconnected.

they are interconnected actaully, if you push one in, the other goes in too, i dont know if it has a central pivot but this crappy diagram illustrates what happens when you push/pull on either one

2013-07-31 22_14_08-Document1 - Word.jpg
 
You are my hero!!!! So after seeing how you did your destructive testing/repair, I went back and studied the right hand side of the glove box door. I could almost not even see the right hand latch as it was really offset from the opening. I grabbed a small screwdriver and with a bit of manipulation managed to get the latch to pop out, and then (as per your excellent diagram demonstrating that, in fact, the 2 latches are interconnected) the left hand latch popped out too. Now all is working as designed (...but is the design overcomplicated and maybe not so robust?). No need to visit the Fremont SC. Many, many thanks for all of your extra investigation and effort on my behalf. I hope I can pay it back/forward on these great TMC forums.
 
...and to show you how committed and involved the principals at TM are...I had e-mailed Brian, my Fremont service liaison and Jerome G. to let them know about my glitch and the things I had tried in an attempt to fix the problem. Jerome initially responded and was glad that Brian would fit me in next week to fix the glove box. Once I fixed the glovebox myself tonight at about 9:30 pm Pacific time, I e-mailed both of them at 10:06 pm to report success, and suggested to Jerome that he might want to pass the information along to engineering. At 10:24 pm, I get this reply from Jerome:

Dear Mr. JPP:

Thank you very much for your message and bring this issue (and resolution!) to our attention. I am copying Eric Bach, our engineering director for interior systems, on this message to ask him to investigate further.

Many thanks again!


...with his message and the entire e-mail thread forwarded to 3 others in the TM organization. Pretty amazing!!!
 
Ahh thats great to hear you fixed it, i figured it couldn't be that hard to fix it, its just a glove box lol

its good that TM is going to look into the design, there are some improvements that can be made to the design so it doesn't get jammed as easily, for a while my own glove box wouldn't open because of the owners books (both french and english) kept putting too much pressure on door so the latch couldn't fully retract. i actually called in with a design improvement suggestion for that.
 
Jerome Guillen at Tesla Motors is simply amazing. You can tell that he honestly cares and goes above and beyond to make sure issues are addressed promptly and professionally. Tesla has a tremendous asset in Mr. Guillen and I hope he remains at Tesla for a long time. We need people like him in executive management.
 
Glove box light

My additional concern was the glove box light--would it stay on if the glove box was left open and the car was powered off/locked. I did not want to run down the 12V system. No-one had the definitive answer. So now I have a piece of blue painters tape holding the glove box closed, and will have to make the pilgrimage to Fremont next week.

Anyone have any ideas?

FYI - From the owners manual
To open the glove box, press the switch located
to the right of the touchscreen. If you leave the
glove box open for five minutes, its light
automatically turns off.
 
Google brought me here when I had the same problem. One of the latches was buried way off where it should pop out. Screwdriver would not get it back in but I used a small pocket knife point to poke it and had it back in place and functioning in under a minute. Has survived several open/closes.

Hopefully they will get a long-term fix for this when I bring my car in next time but I am good for now :smile:

Scott