Tesla opens, then closes, then sort of reopens access to toolbox featuring repair manuals, service information, and more

Tesla yesterday made a change to give owners free to access a toolbox that can help them diagnose and potentially repairs issues themselves.

First revealed by @greentheonly, the Tesla hacker said he was told the new access wasn’t intentional, but that it also didn’t pose a security risk so there was no rush to fix it. The move to give access to these features would make sense due to recent “right-to-repair” initiatives in several jurisdictions, including Massachusetts.

Now it appears Tesla has had a change of heart as the “bug” has now been fixed and the access has been revoked, even for those who were able to sign up for an account yesterday. But not entirely.

The process involved two steps that began with signing in on the Chinese version of the automaker’s service website.

go to https://t.co/HsZn65ADDw and then you create account with country set to China and access level: diagnostic + software.

in second screen fill in some extra details like this: pic.twitter.com/oXgYDfz023

— green (@greentheonly) December 3, 2020

After clicking on the Register button in the top left corner of the screen, all you had to do was enter your information and select “General Access + Diagnostics Software” from the dropdown menu. This is what appeared for green when he signed up, but when we were able to successfully sign up before it was shut off, it was changed to “Regular Visit (Personal)”.

Once inside, you had access to repair manuals, service information, vehicle diagnostics, and more. To take full advantage of the toolbox, you would also have been able to physically connect a computer to the on-board diagnostic port. Green shared several ways in which you can do so, with instructions for the Model S and X, and Model 3.

for model 3 it’s in a driver footwell.

Also use 192.168.90.125 ip.

Now enjoy your tinkering! pic.twitter.com/e4ytF4Mzdr

— green (@greentheonly) December 3, 2020

Now when registering, or even when signing in with our account that we were able to successfully use yesterday to access repair manuals, you have to register for a subscription. There is the option to select a no-cost 1 hour subscription though, if you really need to.