We’re seeing another sticky situation develop, the same day Tesla recalled 46,096 Cybertrucks to stop them from falling apart because the stainless steel panels are held on with the wrong glue.
This time, it’s the Cybertruck’s off-road light bar that’s flinging itself off at highway speeds. Incredibly, the light bar is also glued in place, so we are wondering if there isn’t another recall coming down the pipe.
Here is one driver whose Cyberbeast tossed his light bar at highway speeds.
Activating the Tesla’s offroad light bar is sort of an ordeal, as it comes glued on from the Tesla Service Center, but not wired, so you need to splice the wires yourself.
Hahaha
Apparently it’s not a legal modification for the manufacturer or a dealership to do, so the customer has to finish the install. They also put blackout tape over the light, with strict instructions for Tesla employees not to remove
That’s my assumption, that it’s some legal dodge. Like “we didn’t wire that light, so if you get in trouble for it, technically, you modded your Cybertruck, because we installed an inert lump of plastic and not an off-roading light. YOU installed an off-roading light.” That sort of deal.
The strange thing, all the other manufacturers do ship pre-wired offroad lights. There’s just something about the Cybertruck one that isn’t up to regulatory standard, I’m thinking.
the stainless steel panels are held on with the wrong glue
Wait, why is this thing glued together instead of fastened with bolts? Is gluing body panels on something other manufacturers are doing or just a tesla thing?
Maybe I haven’t worked on new enough cars, but everything I’ve owned 2005 and prior had everything either welded, bolted, or in the case of interiors they might be held with plastic thingies. Everything structural was bolted or welded though.
They’ve been doing this since the 90s.
and featuring innovative self-piercing rivet and adhesive bonding techniques for critical joints.
That is a combination of rivet and adhesive for additional strength.
Rivets are placed on the Prowler in a one-second cycle. (One interesting aspect of using this mechanical joining method: sheets of different thicknesses can be put together.) But then there is the issue of stiffness. Which led to the need to utilize epoxy adhesives. So now there is a combination of technologies, with rivets used in combination with adhesives. The result is a structure with a stiffness that’s improved by 40%.”At Chrysler,” says Dr. Saad M. Abouzahr, Prowler Materials Executive,
The adhesive improves the the stiffness of the joint that already includes a rivet. Body panels aren’t going to fall off if the adhesive was faulty when there are rivets.
The cybertruck doesn’t use rivets, they went even cheaper than fucking Chrysler.
This isn’t the first time a panel has decided it wants to make a dramatic exit from the Cybertruck. In fact, the boomerang-shaped panel above the doors has a habit of detaching itself, so Tesla recalled every single Cybertruck to apply a more aggressive adhesive, along with a stud and a nut, to keep things in place. What’s surprising here is that the front panel is also popping off for some owners.
Bolding by me to make it very clear that the cybertruck didn’t even have a single nut or rivet holding body panels on.
McLaren’s use panel bond for a lot of their cars IIRC
A McLaren is not an everyday driving vehicle, much less a truck that is supposed to be good for going offroad and all the body strain that goes along with it.
A McLaren also has an extemely light carbon fiber shell, which works well with adhesives. Pretty sure the shell sits on the car as well which is the opposite of heavy panels of stainless steel hanging off the sides.
Hey now, DailyDrivenExotics would disagree.
But also, Tesla still has build issues. Is anyone surprised?
That was in the 90s when they first started. In newer cars some parts are adhesive only. The trunk tire well in my Outback appears to be fully held in with adhesive. Apparently it’s pretty common for the roofs of cars to be only adhered on. Tesla just kinda went balls out with the adhesive. Or didn’t go balls out enough since they’re failing so often.
The difference is that they did a good job, instead of slapping some elmers on the truck and putting a 100k sticker in the window.
