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379

Some Cybertruck Owners Say Their Trucks Are Shedding Body Panels; One Thinks He Knows Why (www.roadandtrack.com)

submitted 6 days ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

95 comments fedilink hide all child comments

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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[–] [email protected] 157 points 6 days ago (12 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 129 points 6 days ago (9 children)

How the hell is that thing legal to sell??

[–] [email protected] 123 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (4 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 62 points 5 days ago (1 children)

it’s stronger than welding

(X) to doubt

[–] [email protected] 25 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Adhesives can be incredibly strong.

[–] [email protected] 27 points 5 days ago (7 children)

But never a weld.

MEK welds styrene. Cynocrylate forms a mechanical bond. MEK will be stronger in tension, cyno stronger in shear.

[–] masterofn001 16 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Good ole methyl ethyl ketone.

Dropped a rubber boot in a vat of it once to see what would happen.

No idea why, but it came out much larger/expanded.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 5 days ago

Fun fact, you can shrink barbie doll heads in acetone.

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[–] [email protected] 28 points 5 days ago (2 children)

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.

In other words, the things were being designed by underqualified engineers who didn't understand factors of safety, design for manufacturability, or that precision comes at a cost.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 5 days ago (1 children)

I suspect the real issue is the workers aren't given enough time on the line to do this correctly so they just churn them out to hit the needed metric knowing it will fail after being delivered to the owner.

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[–] [email protected] 12 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Essentially every car has a windshield and trim attached only by adhesive, and has for decades. This ought to be a solved problem.

Is that trim piece steel? Maybe something about the material, usually they’re gluing on plastic trim pieces. They’re relying on heated adhesive but it’s a long skinny piece made of a material that conducts heat?

[–] [email protected] 11 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Yeah, used properly, adhesive can be stronger than just about any other form of fastening. Properly is the key word. Contaminates, or improperly prepped surface will drastically reduce the effectiveness.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 5 days ago

Hell, surface coatings to protect against rust are a multi-billion industry and they often require very specific application methods and even a little deviation can fuck up the bond.

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[–] [email protected] 43 points 5 days ago

There's a reason why Musk is paying to dismantle the government.

[–] [email protected] 34 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (1 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 11 points 5 days ago (1 children)

I thought it was purely due to inadequate rounding of angles on the body due to stricter pedestrian safety laws that the EU has. Does the EU have some kind of build quality testing and standard that the cybertruck failed?

[–] [email protected] 11 points 5 days ago

I actually didn't quite remember the reason, so I checked it. The rounding is one main reason and the fact it is so heavy it requires a drivers license for trucks, as well as basically no demand. So no build quality requirements failed, but definitely safety related.

[–] [email protected] 38 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Adhesive binding can be significantly stronger than mechanical bonding when done right.

...when done right. Yeah. Guess where I'm putting my money.

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[–] [email protected] 24 points 5 days ago

It's not over here in the UK. They're not road legal.

[–] [email protected] 24 points 5 days ago

There's no consumer protection agency anymore. I wonder why.

[–] [email protected] 27 points 5 days ago

orange is the new blue

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[–] [email protected] 53 points 5 days ago (2 children)

"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."

[–] [email protected] 15 points 4 days ago

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

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[–] [email protected] 50 points 5 days ago

Ah, Spring. When the Swasticars shed their winter coats...

[–] [email protected] 74 points 6 days ago (5 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 15 points 5 days ago (6 children)

https://youtu.be/S6R0UtJlBGU

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[–] [email protected] 51 points 5 days ago

Toughest truck ever built, bullet proof, yada yada yada.

Well apparently it's not even wind proof. 🤣🤣🤣

[–] [email protected] 55 points 5 days ago (1 children)

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.

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[–] [email protected] 14 points 4 days ago

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!

[–] [email protected] 28 points 5 days ago (2 children)

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.

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[–] [email protected] 33 points 5 days ago (2 children)

The fuck is this website ?

[–] [email protected] 16 points 5 days ago

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.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 5 days ago (1 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 12 points 5 days ago

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."

[–] [email protected] 22 points 5 days ago (2 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

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.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 5 days ago (3 children)

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.

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[–] [email protected] 26 points 6 days ago

Because the truck is embarrassed, it's trying to mask itself

[–] imvii 14 points 5 days ago

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.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 5 days ago

it just flew off while driving

Lol

[–] [email protected] 13 points 5 days ago

It’s going through puberty obviously

[–] [email protected] 20 points 6 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (6 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 28 points 5 days ago (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 5 days ago

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.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

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

[–] [email protected] 8 points 5 days ago (1 children)

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)

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 days ago

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