Cars
Tesla Model Y owners are finding questionable wood trim under the hood of their vehicles
This is not a good look.
Just a heads up, if you buy something through our links, we may get a small share of the sale. It’s one of the ways we keep the lights on here. Click here for more.
If you just spent over $50K on a new Tesla Model Y, you might want to check under the hood. Several users on the Tesla Motors Club forum are claiming the company is using fake wood that you can buy for less than $5 at a Home Depot in parts of their vehicle assembly. Yea, that’s not good.
This all came to light when a Tesla owner attempted to work on their Model Y to fix a faulty panel fitment. It reportedly took the owner 10 hours to do this, and when they came across the vehicle’s Liquid Cooled Condenser, they noticed something strange. What they found was a piece of metal secured with green tape and a small strap. Under the strap was this cheap faux wood holding it all in place.
This isn’t the only instance. After the original forum post, other owners took the liberty of sharing their own experiences. And many cases, they also had wooden pieces in their Liquid Cooled Condenser assembly. One poster jokingly said: “Someone made a run to Home Depot to make Q2 numbers.” I mean, that doesn’t sound wrong.
Image: Tesla Motors Club
According to The Drive, “The trim appears to be providing some strain relief for the strap holding the LCC in place, perhaps to keep the tension from providing unnecessary stress on the condenser during vibration or flexing, or to prevent any sharp corners from severing the strap itself.” But Tesla didn’t always use fake wood for strain relief. There are videos on YouTube that show this assembly with clear plastic parts vs. the faux cheap wood trim.
And naturally, Tesla’s parts catalog doesn’t include this wood bracket in its parts catalog. Hmm, I wonder why. So it’s unclear if this actually a real part or if it’s the company scrambling to get a car out of its manufacturing plant. I’m guessing it’s the latter.
Either way, if I were a Tesla customer who just dropped over $50K on an all-new Model Y, I wouldn’t be happy about this. Sure, it may be doing the job, but I sure as hell wouldn’t want a piece like this in my brand new car. I’m sure most people wouldn’t either.
How would you feel finding something like this in your new $50K+ car? Have any thoughts on this? Let us know down below in the comments or carry the discussion over to our Twitter or Facebook.
Editors’ Recommendations:
- Tesla’s new $8,000 self-driving upgrade is kinda garbage, according to Consumer Reports
- Tesla driver falls foul of UK autopilot legalities
- Tesla wants to implement a sensor that can detect when a child is left in a hot car
- Tesla is “very close” to figuring out fully autonomous vehicles, according to Elon Musk
Follow us on Flipboard, Google News, or Apple News
