I just got by car back from service a few hours ago. The latest in a long list of things that have broken in my car is the rear window defroster. Tesla determined that they needed to replace the rear window glass in my car car to fix it.
When I went to pick up my car the first thing I noticed is that the new glass installed does not match the rest of the glass in my car. When I gave the car to them the top and rear glass had sort of a bluish tint. Now the replaced glass has a much different black or dark grey color. Here are some pictures. Top glass is on the left and the rear glass is on the right:
https://1drv.ms/u/s!AjL07ap25p51hSQqEJSH6_UkNTqLhttps://1drv.ms/u/s!AjL07ap25p51hSWESM-kmMKAzR5WIf you look closely you can see that even the non-transparent border areas of the glass are different shades on the two panels.
The service manager tells me that they have only one part number for this part, they have no control over what Tesla sends them, they are all like this now and I just need to live with it as there is nothing they can do.
I say it looks terrible and I don't want it like this. No joke as soon as I pulled into my driveway my neighbors who were way over on their properly called over to ask whether it was a new car and commented that they could see that the glass looked different. And this was at nighttime.
I asked the service manager if they can just put my old glass back on as I'd rather live with a non-working rear-window defroster than have it look like this but he said they can't.
I am not happy. I am especially not happy because this was my 6th service visit already for a total of more than 5 weeks in service and I'm already going to have to go in for service #7 because the seal around one of the glass panels is coming up and they need to replace it.
I did notice that a newer car in their showroom also had different tint on the top and back glass but the difference is not nearly as obvious as it is on my car because the top piece is darker so it matches the back piece much better.
My questions to all of you are: Would you accept this? Does any of your cars look like this? What do you think I should do?
Thanks in advance.
Comments
I do not notice any difference in the car on a sunny day.
There have been previous threads about this issue in the past. I consensus is that both panels still have IR and UV protection
Do your panels look as different as mine do? It's quite a striking contrast.
It's also very noticeable under very little light. My neighbors noticed it from their property when I pulled up and my drive / lawn lights were not on. Just a street light further up the court.
And I think most people tint the back roof panel because they do not like the look of how the glass isn't tinted towards the trunk (they want the roof to all be the same dark color).
I am angry because I gave them a car where the glass all matched and they returned the car looking much worse in my opinion.
"I would prefer to have all the roof glass match, but the car did not come that way."
Mine _did_ come that way and I want the car returned to me looking as good as when I gave it to them. I really don't think that's being unreasonable...
You can always ask Tesla if they pay the $150-$250 to tint that front roof piece...
Some of the cosmetic defects (or the cosmetic look of the car... like the roof glass) are just things you are going to have to live with. I have just accepted the car will never look as perfect as I want it to (i.e. mismatched pearl white front bumper). Just love driving the car as best you can.
why not just don't respond if you got nothing to offer to help?
Tesla apparently tinkers with things, but doesn't bother to change the part numbers or codes to match when they make a change. Not a good thing.
I had a protective film installed on the top of the roof (both halves) of my P3D+ to protect the glass from surfboard incidentals like sand, rocks, wax, roofrack straps, etc. in the future when roofrack becomes available. You could do something similar by tuning the hue for either half (or both) until you get an even appearance. Detailing shops can do wonders with protective film these days. Take good pics (daylight, before and after) and send them along with the bill to your Tesla SC asking them to right their wrong.