New Tesla Service Bulletin Tries To Address Model Y Water Ingress

A new sealant is listed as part of the fix for the liftgate water ingress issue.

By: Iulian Dnistran

Jun 5, 2023 at 5:40am ET

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Tesla appears to have issued a new service bulletin to address the problem of water ingress that appears on 2020-2023 Model Y crossovers built at the Fremont and Austin Gigafactories, according to a report on Twitter.

The document (SB-23-10-003) is dated April 27, 2023 and says that “water may have leaked inside the rear trunk area through the liftgate assembly,” with the correction of the problem being described as follows:

Inspect inside the trunk area for signs for water leaks that came through the liftgate assembly. If this symptom is present, reseal the liftgate assembly.

This procedure is aimed at service technicians, and it looks like the amount of time needed to complete the repair is 1.8 hours, according to the service bulletin. Although the instructions for the fix aren’t detailed, looking at the list of required parts, it seems that Tesla will replace the liftgate lamp double-ended stud gaskets and the liftgate lamp connector gaskets, as well as using some Loctite hybrid polymer and sealant to prevent further leaks.

According to Drive Tesla Canada, the American EV company has been aware of this issue for a while, but some owners who went to service their vehicles the first time had to return a few weeks or months later because the issue had made a comeback. Now it looks like Tesla will use a different sealant to possibly stop the problem from reappearing.

Model Y owners can tell if they have the issue described in this latest service bulletin if they notice water on the seals around the trunk or in the sub-trunk. In some cases, water may even escape from the openings of the liftgate itself, as shown in the video embedded below.

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A service appointment should fix the issue permanently this time around, with Tesla saying that the repair can be made either at a Service Center or via the company’s Mobile Service crews.

As always, we’d like to know what you think about this, so head over to the comments section below to give us your thoughts.