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Sudden Bluetooth issue (Model S-5.6 firmware, iPhone 5-7.0.4)

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andrewket

Well-Known Member
Dec 20, 2012
5,704
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Up until recently I have been using bluetooth for both phone and media with my iPhone 5 without issue. Occasionally I experienced bluetooth fade, which i describe as the audio quality during a call slowly diminishes until a point that neither party can understand each other. The audio turns into digital junk. If you let it go long enough the phone and the car will unpair. I have a bit of an RF background, and my best guess is that the sync is lost; it's a clocking issue. But this only happened on occasion, and has been a consistent issue across multiple versions of Model S firmware and iOS versions. Reconnecting will cause the phone and Model S to appear connected, but if you place a call there is no audio. Again, this happened only occasionally.

Until two days ago..

Over the course of the past two days, this problem has occurred 5 times. To fix the issue, I have to reboot my phone. Rebooting the 17" console doesn't seem to do it. Normally I would say this suggests a problem with the iPhone. However, I use the same phone in other cars and haven't had an issue. I have not upgraded the software on the phone or the car in weeks. The only thing that changed yesterday was the outdoor temperature. I suppose it's in the realm of possibility that whatever Tesla is using for clock (not wall clock, signal clock) is drifting under the extreme temperatures. But then why does rebooting the iPhone fix the issue and not the 17" screen? The iPhone is not cold when this occurs.

Anyone else experiencing similar issues all of a sudden?

And please don't suggest upgrading the software on the model S. I'm happily staying on 5.6 until the air suspension and charging issues are worked out. For me 5.6 has been the most stable release thus far.

Andrew
 
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I've had a very similar problem, but it's been around for a while. So far my local service center in Vancouver doesn't have a solution. I posted this in another thread, but since yours sounds like my problem as well, I reported it here: Voice quality - Page 7

I have had significant BT issues on my car, even with loaners. The call starts out ok, but then the audio starts breaking up like there are signal dropouts (although switching back to the iPhone itself clears up the problem so it's not a cell signal issue). The best description is the audio starts stuttering and dropping out so its unintelligible.

Note I'm using an iphone 5s and had the same issues on the iphone 5. Haven't tried a non Apple device. I'm on Rogers in Vancouver, Canada.

I think this might be different than the microphone issues others describe here. I can get voice recognition to work ok.

I've seen this problem now on:

1. iPhone 5 with iOS 6.x, 7.0, 7.01, 7.04, as well as iphone 5s on ios 7.04

2. Tesla OS 4.5, 5.6 and 5.8 in my car

3. The same audio breakup/playback resume disconnect issue using the aforementioned iPhone 5 on the two Tesla loaners I've used so far : an S60 and the P85 grey one.

4. Tesla replaced the whole touchscreen unit to see if this fixes the problem, but it has occurred again.

Here's what I've done in addition:

1. Changed the iPhone 5 to iPhone 5S.

2. Full wipe and erase of the iPhone 5S to remove any possible corrupted configuration from prior upgrades.

3. Forgotten the iPhone from MS and MS from iPhone, then re-paired.

3. Reset the main screen and the dashboard screens.

The biggest issue is that this is intermittent, and there are no predictable circumstances when it occurs.
 
I have used the Bluetooth functionality in my car extensively with multiple iPhones without issue. Firmware 5.0, 5.6, and 5.8. iOS 7.x. Matter of fact, we often stream music over Bluetooth, switching between multiple iOS devices.

Are you sure you aren't carrying around some sort of 2.4GHz interference source?
 
I have used the Bluetooth functionality in my car extensively with multiple iPhones without issue. Firmware 5.0, 5.6, and 5.8. iOS 7.x. Matter of fact, we often stream music over Bluetooth, switching between multiple iOS devices.

Are you sure you aren't carrying around some sort of 2.4GHz interference source?

I have a pebble smart watch that is also paired to my phone. I haven't tried removing that from the equation. Good thought.
 
I have had significant BT issues on my car, even with loaners. The call starts out ok, but then the audio starts breaking up like there are signal dropouts (although switching back to the iPhone itself clears up the problem so it's not a cell signal issue). The best description is the audio starts stuttering and dropping out so its unintelligible.
I've recently had calls like this as well in areas where I have made calls with no problem in the past (and with a strong signal)... It generally manifests itself with the caller on the other end not being able to hear me at all, even though I can hear them... After ending the call and re-establishing a new one, they'll report that I sounded garbled at beginning, then nothing.. silence. I'm running a Galaxy Note 3 on T-mobile, but it's rooted with a custom ROM Android 4.3
 
Following up on my own thread...

The problem now occurs on every call. Within 1-5 minutes the audio quality degrades for both parties to the point we can no longer understand each other. If I disconnect the call, about 10 seconds later the car and my phone disconnect (bluetooth). A few seconds later they reconnect and the cycle continues.

The phone works fine in other vehicles. If this isn't a firmware thing, then it looks like it's time for me to schedule a service center appointment at Rockville. Probably bad hardware.

A
 
I hope you find an answer. My local sc has replaced my touchscreen entirely and the issue persists. Not on every call, but many.

I also note when the call gets garbled, and I hang up, the media I was listening to over BT stops, then the phone disconnects from the car. The little blue icon on the car's touch screen status bar goes white, and I have to touch it and re-connect the phone.

Very annoying.
 
I hope you find an answer. My local sc has replaced my touchscreen entirely and the issue persists. Not on every call, but many.

I also note when the call gets garbled, and I hang up, the media I was listening to over BT stops, then the phone disconnects from the car. The little blue icon on the car's touch screen status bar goes white, and I have to touch it and re-connect the phone.

Very annoying.

Yep, same problem. I'll let you know. Someone at Tesla read this thread and sent a note to the Rockville SC. They in turn called me to schedule an appointment.
 
Please do let me know if they find anything and what they end up doing. I'll reiterate that the Vancouver service center replaced the whole center screen and the issue still persists, plus I've had the SAME issue on TWO different loaners while my car was in for the same issue.

Although the constant seems to be the iphone, this has occurred with an iphone 5 and iphone 5s, even after a fresh reinstall of the 5s, with iOS 6.x and iOS 7, up to the current ios 7.04 on my 5s.

In case it helps, mine is an S85, P16225. Tesla OS 5.8 (1.49.57)
 
I had this exact issue 3 times in a row this morning while I was supposed to be on conference calls. Each time, the call starts out fine, but quickly deteriorated within about 90 seconds. I then give up on it and switch audio back to the phone (iPhone5), the quality is then fine. Then the car drops the phone completely. Then, the car re-establishes the bluetooth connection, and steals the call back. Then we go through the same process all over again, until I initiate the call directly from the phone, at which point the car mutes any audio, but does not steal the call. Luckily this morning was an exception, I do not typically make a lot of calls when driving.

This whole 'dance' is a bit dangerous, honestly just not using the hands-free at all is less distracting. The car is going into the SC next week, so I'll ask them to take a look. Like others, I do have a Pebble, but I have no issues in our other car, so I'm not buying that as a reason.
 
My MS was Dec 2013 delivery and I am going through Bluetooth quality issues too. When I am driving slow (not on highway) it works clearly, but once I get on the freeway, the quality fades to a point that EVERYTIME the caller on the other end cannot hear me at all.

Couple of weeks ago took it to the local Tesla service center and they updated my car's firmware did some testing and couldn't reproduce the problem. But later that week I called the service center from my car and showed how bad the quality was. I also recorded the conversation (by leaving a voicemail at my home number) and emailed it to them. Still no reply from them.. apparently their engineers are looking into it! I can post the recorded filed here if people are interested in comparing quality.

It seems to be the vibration being picked up by the microphone at higher speeds. Maybe some microphones are not mounted properly to isolate the vibration. Anyway, taking it back to another service center to see if they can find anything.

Please reply to this post if anyone had any luck fixing this issue. I will do so if I have any luck!!
 
Yes, please do post the audio. I'm still having this issue and would love to hear another example. I just updated to ios 7.1 last night and haven't had a chance to see if it occurs on 7.1 hit given that it has happened with different ios releases on an iphone 5 and 5s I'm skeptical if 7.1 fixes this.
 
As the temperate outside got warmer the problem became less frequent. I was on a call for 30 minutes the other day before the issue presented itself. When it was at its worst it was 30 seconds. It's getting colder again so I'm curious to see what happens. To Tesla's credit, they read this post and asked me to bring in the car. I've been delaying that because I know they will update the firmware and I'm still (happily) on 5.6 that doesn't have any charging problems or suspension lowering restrictions. Once 6.0 is out and hopefully fixes these issues I'll take it in.
 
I'm almost afraid to report this for fear of jinxing my setup: since I upgraded my iPhone 5s to iOS 7.1, there have been no garbled calls and music resumes flawlessly!

I've never had to work so reliably until now. No new car firmware. Haven't done tons of testing yet but so far it's been spookily reliable. Crossing my fingers!
 
I'm almost afraid to report this for fear of jinxing my setup: since I upgraded my iPhone 5s to iOS 7.1, there have been no garbled calls and music resumes flawlessly!

I've never had to work so reliably until now. No new car firmware. Haven't done tons of testing yet but so far it's been spookily reliable. Crossing my fingers!

I am having the problem and I am on 7.1
 
I finally took it to a different service center (at Burlingame, CA). Within 1 hr after I dropped the car off, the tech called me from my car driving on the freeway and the call quality was flawless. They had replaced the microphone(s) which did the trick for me. Since then I haven't had any issues with the quality and people complaining about static and voice breaking up.

I am attaching two voice recordings here which you may find interesting. One before the fix and one after. Let me know if you have issues with the audio links below.

The BEFORE recording:
Around 44 seconds into it, the voice completely drops off for about 6 seconds.

Around 1:15, I test the quality by directly speaking into my iPhone and then transferring back to bluetooth. To show the quality difference and also to show that the problem is not due to cell network.

The AFTER recording:
Significantly better from the BEFORE as you can hear. The quality is still affected by the speed of the car, but no where as bad as BEFORE.

Hope that helps.

Suresh
 
Thanks for your sound files, Suresh. It will help others. Did you have any issues with your Bluetooth not resuming music playback after a call, or disconnecting/reconnecting, or taking a long time to respond to an "end call" command from the car?

I suspect there are 2 different problems: microphone issues like yours, and Bluetooth connection issues like mine. For some reason right now my iPhone 5s with ios 7.1 on Tesla OS 5.8 is behaving. I'm holding my breath for 5.9 and hoping the good luck stays. So far, I'm leaning more towards a connectivity issue on mine rather than a microphone issue, but I'll do more monitoring to see what happens. I might ask my local Vancouver SC to replace the mics anyway if sound quality remains a issue without the connection dropping bug.

Shumdit: is your problem more of a sound quality issue or a Bluetooth connectivity issue?
 
Mine is of the Bluetooth connection variety. I just upgraded from 5.6 to 5.8.10 and the problem persists. My phone works fine in our other cars. It's likely a hardware problem on the MS. I'm taking my car into Rockville in 2 weeks. I hope they take the problem seriously and replace the board containing the BT controller. As the temperature gets warmer it seems the problem has become less frequent but still persists. Knowing my luck it won't repeat at the service center. I tried to record it the other day but the camera wouldn't work while the phone was active on an iPhone 5.