New M3's Missing IR Roof Material?

[trempulant]

Hi all,

I just took delivery of a Model 3 w/ HW3 on May 1st. I noticed while washing the car that the moon roof does not turn orange like some previous pictures of the first M3's and Model X's. From the inside and outside, it looks like there is a tint ,but I'm not sure if Tesla decided to change the coating for the moon roof to remove that orange glow w/ water on it.

Does anyone have any insight on this? I live in Socal where the heat gets really bad so I'd like to know whether or not I should schedule a look to see if something actually is missing.

 

[ewoodrick]

The first had the colorization on the full window, in the fall, the back lost it, evidently they may have removed all of it. Significant testing by forum members indicated no protection difference

 

[trempulant]

The first had the colorization on the full window, in the fall, the back lost it, evidently they may have removed all of it. Significant testing by forum members indicated no protection difference

That's reassuring to hear and I appreciate your response; I'd rather avoid bringing it in for a service if I can.

 

[TMThree]

Tesla no longer makes all the glass in house. They have 3 other suppliers and they do not have the same refraction with water on the roof. That said, supposedly there is no difference in UV/IR protection.

Someone posted a picture of their car having the opposite problem - the roof and side windows had the orange glow when wet. It actually looks pretty terrible because the rear glass has no orange tint, so the car looks like a mismatched set of glass panels when the car is wet.

 

[dmurphy]

My front half of the roof has the orange tint when wet, but the rear does not... interesting look!

 

[Yv3s]

I would love the orange look on my white tesla

 

[M3Rider]

The orange tint seems to be fully phased out.
My car is from Q3 2018 and only has top window with the tint and the glass on the back has no tint on it - that's when they started using a different glass supplier, it was orange tint on both pieces of glass prior to that. Don't really like the mismatch, so you're not worse off.

Prior to this Tesla phased out Alcantara interior material with the newer cars having less and less of it - first pillars, then visors.

Your car is now consistent, the glass transition is fully complete. Congratulations!

 

[dmurphy]

The orange tint seems to be fully phased out.
My car is from Q3 2018 and only has top window with the tint and the glass on the back has no tint on it - that's when they started using a different glass supplier, it was orange tint on both pieces of glass prior to that. Don't really like the mismatch, so you're not worse off.

Prior to this Tesla phased out Alcantara interior material with the newer cars having less and less of it - first pillars, then visors.

Your car is now consistent, the glass transition is fully complete. Congratulations!

Mine is April and has the half-tint. Front glass is orange, back glass is not. Kinda odd.
Pillars and visors aren’t alcantara - only door panels. Kinda miss it. My Cadillac had micro suede pillars and the front of the dash - very nice indeed. Miss that.

 

[srs5694]

I recall hearing that one of the quality problems Tesla has been experiencing is with cracks in the car's huge glass expanses. Does anybody know if these problems are related to the glass supplier, and therefore if the risk of glass problems developing might be correlated with the visible tinting of water on the glass? I suppose there's nothing to be done about if even if a given car could be identified as being at higher risk of problems, but it'd be nice to know. (FWIW, my car was manufactured in March of this year and has the visible tinting on the glass roof, but nothing on the rear window.)

 

[M3Rider]

I recall hearing that one of the quality problems Tesla has been experiencing is with cracks in the car's huge glass expanses. Does anybody know if these problems are related to the glass supplier, and therefore if the risk of glass problems developing might be correlated with the visible tinting of water on the glass? I suppose there's nothing to be done about if even if a given car could be identified as being at higher risk of problems, but it'd be nice to know. (FWIW, my car was manufactured in March of this year and has the visible tinting on the glass roof, but nothing on the rear window.)

Seems like it was related to stress, not very frequent and usually occurs early on, so replacement would be covered under warranty.
It's been a while since I read about this.

 

[fajitamondays]

I recall hearing that one of the quality problems Tesla has been experiencing is with cracks in the car's huge glass expanses. Does anybody know if these problems are related to the glass supplier, and therefore if the risk of glass problems developing might be correlated with the visible tinting of water on the glass? I suppose there's nothing to be done about if even if a given car could be identified as being at higher risk of problems, but it'd be nice to know. (FWIW, my car was manufactured in March of this year and has the visible tinting on the glass roof, but nothing on the rear window.)

Mine's a Dec 2018 build (no tint on the back half), and I have a growing stress crack on my rear glass.

 

[trempulant]

Tesla no longer makes all the glass in house. They have 3 other suppliers and they do not have the same refraction with water on the roof. That said, supposedly there is no difference in UV/IR protection.

Someone posted a picture of their car having the opposite problem - the roof and side windows had the orange glow when wet. It actually looks pretty terrible because the rear glass has no orange tint, so the car looks like a mismatched set of glass panels when the car is wet.

Oh that's good to know and a relief to know. I actually would have preferred the orange look, always thought it looked unique to Tesla cars.

 

[trempulant]

Mine's a Dec 2018 build (no tint on the back half), and I have a growing stress crack on my rear glass.

I would definitely take a schedule with the service center, pretty dangerous to be driving with a crack on the windshield.

 

[fajitamondays]

I would definitely take a schedule with the service center, pretty dangerous to be driving with a crack on the windshield.

It's on the rear window right above the center brake light. There's about a two month wait to get an appointment at my local service center. Thankfully I found a cancellation for next week.