Yesterday we had an unusual (for Colorado) 36 hours of heavy rain and snow. We were out and about driving both of our Model Ys and all seemed well, until this morning when I woke up and looked at my phone and saw to my horror a text from my neighbor from 4:30AM saying that one of our car alarms had been going off every 15 minutes for almost two hours.
All was quiet by then, but I saw a series of notifications from the Tesla app saying that the frunk on one of our cars was "left open" and the alarm has been triggered. Sure enough the car's status showed the frunk being open, even though it was in reality firmly closed.
First I apologized to my neighbors and turned off the auto-lock feature while parked at home on both Ys to make sure the alarms will remain off while they're in the garage at home. Then I made an mobile appointment on the service app but in the mean time set about trying to figure out a fix myself, since the car was limited to 15mph with the frunk "open" and the soonest service appointment wasn't for 5 days.
Opening and closing the frunk repeatedly and firmly didn't do anything. It would register as closed for a few seconds before the app and car screen showed it as opening again. Peering into the latch with a flashlight didn't revel anything amiss, so I took off the cowl cover and removed the frunk liner.
If you don't know, there are two metal fingers inside the latch assembly that get pushed down by the frunk striker (the hoop of metal on the underside of the hood) when the frunk is closed. These fingers, in turn press down on two microswitches and those switches being pressed tells the car that the frunk is closed.
I tried pressing on the metal fingers with a pick to simulate the hood closing, and same thing—the frunk showed as closed for a few seconds but then went back to open. There was a good amount of pooled water in the plastic support piece located under the frunk compartment and everything in there was fairly damp, so I gave the two microswitches squirts of electrical contact cleaner.
Testing them with a pick showed the frunk "staying" closed for as long as I pushed the switches down, so I crossed my fingers, put everything back together, and have been monitoring things for the past few hours. So far so good and I'm hoping I'll be able to drive the car this week though I still want a tech to check the latch assembly and replace it if needed. But now I'm wondering if there's something that can be done to protect those microswitches from water, both on my Y and on my wife's (which is fine so far)?
I've seen water/dust seals that go along the back edge of the hood and the windshield, but has anyone tried putting a small ring of weather seal just around the frunk latch opening? That way the rest of the under-hood area would drain as usual but water would be prevented from dripping down into the frunk latch. Anyone else with similar experiences?
All was quiet by then, but I saw a series of notifications from the Tesla app saying that the frunk on one of our cars was "left open" and the alarm has been triggered. Sure enough the car's status showed the frunk being open, even though it was in reality firmly closed.
First I apologized to my neighbors and turned off the auto-lock feature while parked at home on both Ys to make sure the alarms will remain off while they're in the garage at home. Then I made an mobile appointment on the service app but in the mean time set about trying to figure out a fix myself, since the car was limited to 15mph with the frunk "open" and the soonest service appointment wasn't for 5 days.
Opening and closing the frunk repeatedly and firmly didn't do anything. It would register as closed for a few seconds before the app and car screen showed it as opening again. Peering into the latch with a flashlight didn't revel anything amiss, so I took off the cowl cover and removed the frunk liner.
If you don't know, there are two metal fingers inside the latch assembly that get pushed down by the frunk striker (the hoop of metal on the underside of the hood) when the frunk is closed. These fingers, in turn press down on two microswitches and those switches being pressed tells the car that the frunk is closed.
I tried pressing on the metal fingers with a pick to simulate the hood closing, and same thing—the frunk showed as closed for a few seconds but then went back to open. There was a good amount of pooled water in the plastic support piece located under the frunk compartment and everything in there was fairly damp, so I gave the two microswitches squirts of electrical contact cleaner.
Testing them with a pick showed the frunk "staying" closed for as long as I pushed the switches down, so I crossed my fingers, put everything back together, and have been monitoring things for the past few hours. So far so good and I'm hoping I'll be able to drive the car this week though I still want a tech to check the latch assembly and replace it if needed. But now I'm wondering if there's something that can be done to protect those microswitches from water, both on my Y and on my wife's (which is fine so far)?
I've seen water/dust seals that go along the back edge of the hood and the windshield, but has anyone tried putting a small ring of weather seal just around the frunk latch opening? That way the rest of the under-hood area would drain as usual but water would be prevented from dripping down into the frunk latch. Anyone else with similar experiences?
