If you are a Model Y owner that has been plagued with water ingress from the liftgate of your Model Y, it looks like Tesla may finally have a fix for you. The automaker has issued a new Service Bulletin to address the issue which will hopefully prevent it from reappearing.
According to the new Service Bulleting (SB-23-10-003) dated April 27, 2023, Tesla says “water may have leaked inside the rear trunk area through the liftgate assembly” of 2020-2023 Model Ys. You can tell if you have the issue if you notice water in the seals around the trunk or in the subtrunk, as in the photo above. You may also see water streaming out of the openings of the tailgate itself, either when it is closing, or if enough water has accumulated it can also stream out when in the fully open position, like in the video below.
While the instructions for the fix aren’t detailed, Tesla says that technicians should “reseal the liftgate assembly” on affected Model Ys, with the fix taking about 1.8 hours to complete. Based on the list of required parts, Tesla will be replacing 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 issues.
Tesla has been aware of this issue for a while, but many owners who have gone in for the previous fix have seen the issue return a few weeks or months later. Tesla appears to have learned from those previous fixes and is now using a different sealant to hopefully stop the issue from reappearing once and for all.
If you have this issue, either for the first time or if you have already taken it to Service to have address and it is still present, Tesla will correct it again for free if you are below 80,000km and still under warranty. According to the bulletin Mobile Service rangers can perform the fix as well if you don’t live close to a Service Center.
Here is a full copy of the Service Bulletin, first shared by The Cybertruck Guy (@cybrtrkguy) on Twitter. You can quote SB-23-10-003 when you create a service request in the mobile app.
