Model 3 cabin air filter; horrible engineering

[JeffKeryk]

The Model 3 stacked cabin air filters are serviced behind a typical panel, but not like Honda/Toyota that snap in and out.
There is a Torx T20 screw into plastic securing the panel; it's in a tough location. The aftermarket kids include the wrong size Torx tool.
On early cars like our 2018, the screw is at the top of the panel; a horrible design. Later cars, not sure when, reversed the location.

I think some owners contort themselves laying on their back across the seat.
A cabin air filter service should take 5 minutes. I will finish the job tomorrow.

Youtube it if you are interested. It is a pain and I am not generally one to snivel about this stuff.
Elon's wack. OK, my snit is over. For now anyways... Ha!

 

[wpod]

Do not get me started of poor engineering.

 

[Torrid]

Oh that’s irritating. I haven’t gotten that far as to deal with it. How often do you replace yours?

 

[97prizm]

The Model 3 stacked cabin air filters are serviced behind a typical panel, but not like Honda/Toyota that snap in and out.
There is a Torx T20 screw into plastic securing the panel; it's in a tough location. The aftermarket kids include the wrong size Torx tool.
On early cars like our 2018, the screw is at the top of the panel; a horrible design. Later cars, not sure when, reversed the location.

I think some owners contort themselves laying on their back across the seat.
A cabin air filter service should take 5 minutes. I will finish the job tomorrow.

Youtube it if you are interested. It is a pain and I am not generally one to snivel about this stuff.
Elon's wack. OK, my snit is over. For now anyways... Ha!

There's most likely multiple different iterations of this as Tesla seems to randomly change parts in the name of "progress." The model y already has 3 frunk latch changes I think in its first year. Good luck figuring out which version is yours after 10 years or so.

 

[JeffKeryk]

Oh that’s irritating. I haven’t gotten that far as to deal with it. How often do you replace yours?

1st time in 5 years. Don't have many miles on the car. Your Model Y will be much easier as the screw is on the bottom.
Maintenance has been such a pain so far, all that blue warsher fluid! Over a gallon! Sheesh.

 

[Torrid]

1st time in 5 years. Don't have many miles on the car. Your Model Y will be much easier as the screw is on the bottom.
Maintenance has been such a pain so far, all that blue warsher fluid! Over a gallon! Sheesh.

Oh I have a 3 so I'm thinking unless something changed I'll have the same problem.

Funny you say that, that's all I've done is top off the washer fluid. I think I may have put air in the tires a couple of times too.

 

[earlyre]

could be worse... This is 13-18 Ford Cmax, and Escape:

 

[JeffKeryk]

Oh I have a 3 so I'm thinking unless something changed I'll have the same problem.

Funny you say that, that's all I've done is top off the washer fluid. I think I may have put air in the tires a couple of times too.

Oh yeah, another guy on the Lexus forum just got a Y to go with his Polestar, Bolt and Lexi. Your 3 is newer; they moved the screw to the bottom of the tab cover. Still tight but much easier than my car. You can see it at the top of this pic. You have to crawl well in and up to ever see it in the car.

 

[Kiwi_ME]

The filter on my Kona EV, much maligned as being based on a non-EV-dedicated platform, can be changed in under 2 minutes.

Munro Associates has a recent video covering the evolutionary differences between a couple of Tesla's cylindrical-cell type battery packs. These of course have serpentine cooling extrusions wrapped partly (about 90°) around each cell, which sounds great in principle, but requires potting the assembly to avoid movement between the cells, cooling channels and electrical connections. The efficiencies gained in producing a simple round cell have incurred a cost when translating that into a rectangular application space.

A large potted assembly has inherently high rigidity combined with low strength. Essentially it has to be cradled carefully to avoid imposing excessive torsional or bending loads from the car body through the pack housing into the potted module. The other issue with using a potting foam is that the mechanical properties are not 100% assured when applied into a blind space. This leads to requiring a more conservative approach to ensure reliability.

Part of good design practice in general is using design techniques that are easy to analyse, provide smaller production variations and eventually result in better production economics.

Tesla would have had to use a structurally-rigid enclosure to avoid module cracking problems and no-doubt that's why that evolved into deleting the floor pan and marketing that assembly as the 'structural pack'. That adds complications to sealing the pack against the body, nevermind the added difficulty of swapping packs.

The alternative is to use smaller modules that are essentially floating inside the housing and tolerant of that flexure. That's pretty much what many other EV makers do using pouch cells. I wouldn't be surprised if Tesla slowly moves away from using cylindrical cells.

Another recent trend in EVs is to separate battery pack coolant from the interior of the pack to avoid a coolant leak bridging electrical potential and resulting in a 'thermal event' some hours after an accident. All current Hyundai/Kia and VW EVs use designs that place the cooling panel fully outside the actual pack housing.

 

[andrew_j]

Tesla is improving however car building is not their forte yet.

 

[JeffKeryk]

Chapter 2... There is a little peg in the bottom of the cover tab plate that fits into a slot; proper fitment allows for a slight snap back into place. Don't drop the upper screw as it can easily get lost. Don't ask me how I know. The heavy orange wires, which are there to help properly burn down the car, will hold the cover plate in place. Don't ask me how I know.

Next time I will probably use Tesla filters because these were pretty darn tight. Maybe that's good? I used these from Amazon.
By the way, I love this car. So I ONR warshed it as we had a little rain late last week. All good.

 

[PandaBear]

Move fast and often instead of move slowly and well tested. You can't have it both ways so just be glad it is only a cabin air filter.

 

[JeffKeryk]

Move fast and often instead of move slowly and well tested. You can't have it both ways so just be glad it is only a cabin air filter.

In 2021, I think, they moved the fastener to the bottom of the cover plate. Access is still bad, but far easier, and the best fastener is no fastener.

 

[97prizm]

1st time in 5 years. Don't have many miles on the car. Your Model Y will be much easier as the screw is on the bottom.
Maintenance has been such a pain so far, all that blue warsher fluid! Over a gallon! Sheesh.

I like having a large washer fluid reservoir. My geo took an entire gallon. The neon about 95% of a gallon leaving a tiny bit left over being irritating.

 

[BillyHW]

could be worse... This is 13-18 Ford Cmax, and Escape:

OMG, engineers boggle my mind.

 

[vavavroom]

At least your car hasn't been assembled around the fuel filter like it was the warp core.