5mo ago

Some Cybertruck Owners Say Their Trucks Are Shedding Body Panels; One Thinks He Knows Why

www.roadandtrack.com

Owners Say Cybertrucks Are Shedding Body Panels; One Thinks He Knows Why

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.crimedad.work/post/542998

"It does suck, because everybody kind of makes fun of the Cybertruck. To the outside person, it's kind of weird, it's ugly, whatever. Once you actually get in it, drive it, you realize it's pretty frickin' cool," he says. "It's kind of been sad, because I've been trying to prove to people that it's a really awesome truck that's not falling apart, and then mine starts to fall apart, so it's just... Yeah, it's kind of unfortunate and sad."

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the trim piece that flew off of his truck is connected to a plastic frame bolted directly to the car; that trim piece, he says, is stuck to the frame with adhesive rather than welded or bolted to anything. That adhesive has seemingly failed in multiple places on his truck, leading to the loosened roofline trim panels.
- How the hell is that thing legal to sell??
  
  I worked at the Tesla plant in Fremont for a bit and most of every car is held together with adhesive. They claim it's super strong and once heated, it's stronger than welding... But, I mean... They are still falling apart and I don't know if that's because the adhesive sucks or if it's because every single day, they had to have someone remind everyone that the glue pattern posted at every station where it's applied isn't just a suggestion, it's an engineering requirement for the structural integrity of the part. People were just slapping the adhesive onto shit in any old way they pleased a lot of the time.
  
  Adhesive binding can be significantly stronger than mechanical bonding when done right.
  ...when done right. Yeah. Guess where I'm putting my money.
  
  There's a reason why the EU won't allow the sale of cybertrucks and it all has to do with ~~build quality and~~ safety.
  Edit: strikethrough added based on incorrect assumption as pointed out below
  
  There's no consumer protection agency anymore. I wonder why.
  
  It's not over here in the UK. They're not road legal.
  
  Adhesives are used everywhere on cars, especially on trim pieces. But you have to prep the parts, which could mean sanding and scuffing, cleaning with solvents, or even (on larger parts) flame or plasma treatment.
  
  Cuz 'Murica!
- What. The. Fuck...
  Are we taking lessons from Samsung now? I mean are they serious? Adhesive for car parts?!
  Well gee, as long as car exteriors don't experience extreme heating/cooling cycles on a daily basis, then adhesive should work just fine. Oh wait.
  It's like they wanted this vehicle to fail.
  
  Adhesive is fairly common in cars now. Some higher end cars are held together almost entirely with adhesives that bond carbon tubs to the frame.
  More info here
  That being said, they're obviously not using it correctly or in the right circumstances on the cybercuck. What a piece of shit.
  
  industrial adhesive exists and is pretty strong.
  I still wouldn’t use it on a car.
- They should have used dutch tape instead.
  
  Dutch tape
  I’m giggling imagining the Dutch localized Duck brand duct tape where the duck is wearing clogs.
- There’s nothing wrong with adhesive. My car window shade things are attached via adhesive.
  However, if it is not an extra attachment, shouldn’t they be clipped in somehow?
I think I know why too - because they are pieces of shit that are poorly constructed.
If you haven't seen the clip, watch the guy that shuts the door kinda hard but not crazy and it no longer opens. Find me another vehicle like that - don't worry, I'll wait.
The clip
- https://youtu.be/S6R0UtJlBGU
  
  Was that a Citroen?
  
  Haha thank you for sharing that
- Geez that's actually awful.
  I really have no idea why anyone would buy one of these pieces of shit other than hype and clout.
  
  And it's only clout among others that like that dumpster.
- Lol the one guy in the comments saying it's fake... I mean it must be, right? We all know how Cybertrucks are famous for their excellent craftsmanship and design...
- Not even Stellantis is that bad. Good grief.
If the in-car cameras don't see you do Heil Hitler before every ride, they will occasionally instruct the computer to drop parts of the car. That is a standard feature. If you do the V sign, it will engage autopilot and crash you into the nearest wall. Pro-tip: if you want to do some sort of anti-nazi activity in your Cybershit, do it in winter, or early spring, as the "truck" can't do fuck, as the wheels don't work on snow or mud.
- Bit of Christine then, but it hates its owner.
"I bought a very expensive piece of shit, and everyone else thinks it's a piece of a shit, but when I try to convince them that it's not a piece of shit... it ends up doing piece of shit things. I just don't get it."
- I also really liked this part
  "[...]I love Teslas," he says. "I'm just trying to share what's going on to better help the engineers to fix this super fast."
  He's just so cute, the way he's keeping his copes up despite everything
- But it's so frickin cool when you drive it!
Toughest truck ever built, bullet proof, yada yada yada.
Well apparently it's not even wind proof. 🤣🤣🤣
Ah, Spring. When the Swasticars shed their winter coats...
The fuck is this website ?
- You went further than I did. I closed the tab as soon as I got that "press and hold" crap. If they value their page that much, they might as well keep it.
- I think it's some CDN doing that because I got that exact page trying to go to digikey yesterday. I had to disable Firefox's tracking protection to get past it
  
  I grey-listed px-cdn.net and a couple of related things in UBO and was able to get in. It's not worth it. Article summary: "They used glue instead of welds/bonds/clips, and the glue is turning brittle and separating from the steel when it flexes (sometime simply due to temperature change)." More details: "It occurs more frequently, the higher the VIN."
Elon promise: 10nm precision Elon Delivers: truck stuck with glue.
I think the problem with Tesla is that they have too many legacy hires making decisions.
- *too many legacy buyers FTFY
- What's a legacy hire?
Because the truck is embarrassed, it's trying to mask itself
Whatever glue they're using has a different expansion/contraction rate than the stainless steel, and the fairly smooth metal doesn't give much surface area to hold, anyway. So in cold or hot days, you're going to see separation.
And it doesn't help when they don't even glue the right pattern from the factory.
- I find this offensive, it can't possibly be true, because Elon knows more than anybody else on this planet about production. He has said so himself!!
  And one thing we know for sure, is that you can trust Elon. We will have FSD by 2017, and a manned base on the moon by 2024. And Hyperloop will revolutionize public transportation.
  /s
- If I spend 100 grand on something, it better not be fucking glued together.
  I didn’t even glue my wife’s glasses together when they broke, I soldered them. Because glue sucks for attaching metal to anything.
  Could have done bolts on the inside, or fucking rivets, or just welded the edges and it would have been better.
  Cheap ass product sold for premium prices.
  
  The correct glue in the correct amount with the correct pattern against the correct surface will be perfectly fine. That said, they should be bending the edges of the panels around to hold things in place. But I'm sure they're not.
it just flew off while driving
Lol
As someone who isn’t a car guy, this is a legit question: Do other manufacturers also glue panels onto plastic parts?
That doesn’t seem like something that would be the norm but maybe I’m clueless.
Edit: Thanks for clarifying. I certainly learned something new.
- Yes, and many planes and jets are glued together too. This isn't your cheap school glue. That said, Tesla's good at fucking up, so who knows what they did wrong. Probably everything.
  
  They used Elmers because Xelon saw it and thought it said Elons Glue... and then he ate some. I say 'some' but I really meant a few gallons, and that's why he carries around a chainsaw.
- Work for a somewhat expensive automotive brand and yes it is very common. We have cars from $60k to over $400k and beyond, and they all are glued together everywhere you look, that or plastic clips, very little is actually bolted on. Sometimes because in a crash it is better that a piece breaks and fly's off then to stay mounted to the car, and in (most) other cases, probably for cost reasons. But it is a common thing, and has been for a long while, and if executed right, it is tried and true, however if you don't have good quality control and workers who don't care, they're not gonna mount pieces right, and create a hazard
- The rear spoiler thing on my hatchback trunk is starting to peel and I thought it would be easy to remove and repaint myself. But I was surprised to learn it’s just glued on. But it’s just a trim piece of plastic with a brake light and a fluid nozzle in it. Not a body panel per se.
- Yeah it's pretty common for mostly or entirely adhesive to be used for attaching plastic trim panels. Just needs proper engineering and construction that can be verified to withstand the needed stress after endless temperature and humidity cycles. My first guess as to the issue here is either it just wasn't manufactured well because they're all made by underpaid, undertrained and overworked non-union workers or because the engineers didn't properly account for thermal cycling given how unbearably hot I'm sure stainless steel gets in the sun. (I'm sure the steel parts and the plastic parts also expand and contract significantly different amounts due to heat as well, further stressing the adhesive joints)
  
  (I'm sure the steel parts and the plastic parts also expand and contract significantly different amounts due to heat as well, further stressing the adhesive joints)
  They do, plastics have much higher coefficients of expansion than metals
  Edit:
- People are saying yes, but that seems bonkers to me. I've done some extensive repairs for the last two cars I've owned (a Honda and a Toyota), as well as for my mom's Volvo, and I've certainly never encountered adhesives to attach any parts. In my experience it's always hex bolts or plastic clips. I'll admit I don't love those plastic clips, they probably break 1/4 of the time when you remove them, but they seem perfectly reliable when they're in.
  But hey, like I said, I haven't been servicing any American cars, so who knows, maybe it's used all the time. Maybe yesterday's bad ideas are today's tried and true best practices.
  
  The parts that are glued on aren't parts you're going to be removing while servicing it, for obvious reasons
Teslas have had shit build quality forever. They ripped out so many features from the cockpit and replaced it all with a single shitty display. Elon said it's radical and better, fans sucked it up.
He was a scammer right from the start. He bought the company to ride the green wave and rip off idiots with garbage EVs. Everyone knew his shit cars don't cost much money to build, Chinese EV makers proved it.
He couldn't even turn a profit with his fucking company and had to resort to stock manipulation. People seem to forget what a piece of human garbage Elon was all along.
It's no surprise that garbage truck falls apart. Trade it in for the roadster you fucking idiot!
A Tesla owner who wraps the vehicles for a living has come up with a hypothesis as to why his truck lost a piece of its bodywork at speed.
The car is shit and poorly built. I don't think there is much of a mystery here.
It’s going through puberty obviously
Edolf Muskler’s swastikars are self-yeeting out of shame and anxiety at having been built by a corporation owned and run by an unapologetic Nazi. I would, too.
Lmao
@CrimeDad SPOILER: They are moulting.
So this piece essentially becomes a high speed flying knife when it shoots off while driving.
I propose high speed cybetruck street races, where republicans line the street track and cheer - if they believe in freedom. You do believe in freedom... don't you?

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