Inside a Tesla headlight

So much that can go wrong and in this case did. What ever happened to KISS

Oh, those poor Californian engineers. Who would have thought that in some parts of the world water just falls from the heavens.

MrTridac

Munro has given away his credibility with his pandering to Tesla fandom and the video views that brings. In recent years he has said many similar silly things.

Bill Kerr

I think rich rebuilds tore apart flooded tesla, there was quite a bit of water damage in the drive units If I remember correctly.

Really interesting to see inside one. Maybe when you are home you could try lighting the modules.

Kevin Hardisty

I have seen more than one Tesla Drive unit with water in it. Just because it doesn’t need air to run doesn’t mean you should drive it on a flooded street.

Lostngone

There was some corrosion under the main connector too. Notably in the area of the data and ground connections.

Big Clive

Didn’t say it had to be working.

c

Sandy Munro said that Tesla's technologies are 4 years ahead of other vehicles, and the lead is growing. So since Tesla's do not require any air to run, they can literally be driven down a flooded street. And that may have been what happened in this case. I think it would've been better if they had used electrolytic capacitors that were shorter; two shorter ones instead of the single one that caused the hole to be cut into the lid. No more holes = no more water inside.

John Lundgren ~ Acme Fixer

Sandy Munro has already done that; besides I assume that there is too much Scottish blood in Clive to take to bits a full working Tesla! 😱👍

John Lundgren ~ Acme Fixer

My last 4 cars have had halogen bulbs in a plastic housing ... like every other car before about what? 2010? Whenever LEDs came in. Halogen bulbs do not have a 0% failure rate, especially if you drive a Subaru and leave them on all the time (they go off with the key - yes, I like keys). They also do not cost $1500 to replace. Not that I'd ever buy a car that can have its operating characteristics changed by a wireless code update that you have no control over ...

Peter Laws

Hindsight is a wonderful thing. He probably didn't know.

Big Clive

A £1200 or $1500 single front light unit needs to be repairable. Anything else is a disgrace. So yes Mr Musk isn't the Saviour he pretends to be, just another greedy person who doesn't give a toss for anyone or anything else other than himself.

Shame Gordon at Efix didn't buy a £30 2nd hand replacement ballast (part number 00201022-04). If he did, he'd have a working headlight.

evilution

Yeah, how dare a part have anything more than a 0% failure rate! No other companies ever have LED headlight ballast failures.

evilution

The headlights and ballasts are made by Varroc. Personally I prefer the idea of a separate ballast as they can be swapped. In this case, 2nd hand replacements are only £30.

evilution

Mechanical aiming, not dimming. No different to most halogen headlights for the last 30 years.

evilution

So Mr Musk self proclaimed Green King and Saviour of Earth produces products that increase landfill. What a surprise, not.

Interesting teardown thanks Clive. Sadly, I think most modern car LED headlights are like this (not serviceable). The complex optics are a fairly specialist area of engineering and as far as I know, most manufacturers usually farm out the development and production of the lights to companies like Hella rather than do it in house.

Rupert Kent

I love my Tesla but I do realize I’m paying at least 3x more for repairs and such. It’s such an awesome vehicle it’s absolutely worth it though. Like driving a space shuttle. Guessing the water ingress wasn’t through normal driving though.

The Griffiths Family

What a useless piece of kit. Mechanical dimming? Good god. All that garbage to replace two coils of tungsten (or whatever is in a halogen bulb). And they didn't get the waterproofing right! If the headlight is this incredibly overcomplicated what is the rest of the car like under the cover? And that doesn't even get into Right To Repair ...

Peter Laws

You likely can buy the module, but its usually yours as soon as you plug it in, no warranty or returns, whereas the whole assembly should have at least one year.

Someone send Clive a full Tesla to teardown.

c