First time poster, long time watcher. Be gentle with me! I'm hoping the learned folks on here can help. I'm in the UK, in Cambridgeshire. In addition to my Tesla I also have a VW California camper van and an Aston Martin Vantage Roadster. I know my way around cars and I'm pretty good with technology.
In February this year I bought a late 2017 Model X 100D from a used car dealer. A few weeks after getting it home it started behaving strangely. The car dealer is being helpful and rejecting the car is the last thing I want to do, so I'm looking for technical assistance rather than legal assistance, if that makes sense.
While my wife was driving one night (dark, wet, miserable weather), the lights cut out, the wipers stopped, the indicators stopped working, though the car remained drivable. Lots of errors on the screen. She was able to make it home.
I got Tesla involved (not easy as I didn't have the app at that point) and eventually an inspection was booked at my local service centre. They couldn't find the problem, but suggested a 12v battery would be sensible, but couldn't fit one at the time due to not having one in stock.
Fast forward to Monday this week and the engineer turned up and replaced the battery. I took the car out for a drive (dry, sunny) and it seemed fine. I drove the car a day or so later to take my son to Scouts (dark, wet, miserable) and issues appeared again. It also locked me out of the car despite the car appearing to be on - displays lit, stereo playing, heating running, I just couldn't open the doors. I tried locking and unlocking via the key, nothing, and the same from the app, nothing. The only thing that did seem to make a difference was turning off the HVAC from the app. This seemed to 'kick' the systems somehow and I was able to get in.
Locked out video
The short journey home (dark, not wet) after this locking out episode saw a return of the issues my wife experienced, but to me, so I was able to see in addition to losing the lights, wipers and indicators, it also reported that "Authentication was required" despite both the key and my phone being in the car with me. I pulled over and rebooted, restored functionality, only to have the same thing happen again 200 yards further up the road.
Some shots of the error messages generated.
I also got a message about "Power braking assist reduced", a message I'd not seen before or since.
The weird thing is that these issues are not persistent. I've just been out to the car now, and no errors are showing on the screen at all. All seems well.
A strange thing though is clicking I can hear coming from the rear when I open the car and sit down. It disappears when I turn on the heating, and even if I turn off the heating again, it stays off. Video of this below.
Weird clicking, goes away when turn on heating
Other things worth knowing
I have a seven seater Model X, and there is an issue where the seat behind the driver (right hand side of the car) doesn't slide all the way forward to permit access to the third row, unlike the seat behind the passenger (left hand side). Tesla are aware of this and supposably it needs further investigation.
I have replaced the battery in the key with a brand new one of the correct size. I got the authentication error messages even with the fresh battery in the key.
For some reason, I am unable to change the name of the vehicle from the MCU. That option is greyed out. Reported to Tesla.
I've also occasionally experienced issues with the charge port not opening from my Tesla home charger, with the error being reported as "Charge port door sensor fault", though this comes and goes, and currently, has gone.
At the moment the car appears to be fine - it drives ok and responds as you'd expect, with no weird messages, but trust in it is certainly limited and I daren't risk a long drive. My feeling is that there's some underlying issue behind all these problems (loose connection? bad module?), especially given they come and go, but I'm hoping the experts on here can help identify what it might be. My worry is that Tesla will replace the parts that have generated errors, despite these probably being fine.
Any assistance very, very gratefully received, and if more information would be useful, please let me know. Thanks.
In February this year I bought a late 2017 Model X 100D from a used car dealer. A few weeks after getting it home it started behaving strangely. The car dealer is being helpful and rejecting the car is the last thing I want to do, so I'm looking for technical assistance rather than legal assistance, if that makes sense.
While my wife was driving one night (dark, wet, miserable weather), the lights cut out, the wipers stopped, the indicators stopped working, though the car remained drivable. Lots of errors on the screen. She was able to make it home.
I got Tesla involved (not easy as I didn't have the app at that point) and eventually an inspection was booked at my local service centre. They couldn't find the problem, but suggested a 12v battery would be sensible, but couldn't fit one at the time due to not having one in stock.
Fast forward to Monday this week and the engineer turned up and replaced the battery. I took the car out for a drive (dry, sunny) and it seemed fine. I drove the car a day or so later to take my son to Scouts (dark, wet, miserable) and issues appeared again. It also locked me out of the car despite the car appearing to be on - displays lit, stereo playing, heating running, I just couldn't open the doors. I tried locking and unlocking via the key, nothing, and the same from the app, nothing. The only thing that did seem to make a difference was turning off the HVAC from the app. This seemed to 'kick' the systems somehow and I was able to get in.
Locked out video
The short journey home (dark, not wet) after this locking out episode saw a return of the issues my wife experienced, but to me, so I was able to see in addition to losing the lights, wipers and indicators, it also reported that "Authentication was required" despite both the key and my phone being in the car with me. I pulled over and rebooted, restored functionality, only to have the same thing happen again 200 yards further up the road.
Some shots of the error messages generated.
I also got a message about "Power braking assist reduced", a message I'd not seen before or since.
The weird thing is that these issues are not persistent. I've just been out to the car now, and no errors are showing on the screen at all. All seems well.
A strange thing though is clicking I can hear coming from the rear when I open the car and sit down. It disappears when I turn on the heating, and even if I turn off the heating again, it stays off. Video of this below.
Weird clicking, goes away when turn on heating
Other things worth knowing
I have a seven seater Model X, and there is an issue where the seat behind the driver (right hand side of the car) doesn't slide all the way forward to permit access to the third row, unlike the seat behind the passenger (left hand side). Tesla are aware of this and supposably it needs further investigation.
I have replaced the battery in the key with a brand new one of the correct size. I got the authentication error messages even with the fresh battery in the key.
For some reason, I am unable to change the name of the vehicle from the MCU. That option is greyed out. Reported to Tesla.
I've also occasionally experienced issues with the charge port not opening from my Tesla home charger, with the error being reported as "Charge port door sensor fault", though this comes and goes, and currently, has gone.
At the moment the car appears to be fine - it drives ok and responds as you'd expect, with no weird messages, but trust in it is certainly limited and I daren't risk a long drive. My feeling is that there's some underlying issue behind all these problems (loose connection? bad module?), especially given they come and go, but I'm hoping the experts on here can help identify what it might be. My worry is that Tesla will replace the parts that have generated errors, despite these probably being fine.
Any assistance very, very gratefully received, and if more information would be useful, please let me know. Thanks.
