2 road trips, 2 complete headlight system failures

[StealthblackR1S_SD]

We’ve had had our R1s for 2 months and back to back road trips have had major headlight system failure. Pardon the long rant..

Trip 1: just before Christmas we were 250 miles from home, driving about 70mph in light rain (had been raining for about 3 hours)… middle of freeway, major warning lights and instant headlight system failure… talk about scary. Couldn’t see a thing.. complete front and rear tail light systems failed. Luckily found the shoulder and made it about 1/4 mile to an exit with lighting.
As it was prior to Christmas, Rivian had car towed to our hotel and arranged rental… then stated they would need to find a tow back to San Diego service center.. so R1s shows up at hotel around 11pm and wouldn’t you know… after riding on the flatbed… as soon as he unloaded, all lights worked.

Was called day after Christmas and they claimed to fix it, “loose chassis ground connection, cause system malfunction”

Fast forward to today, driving from SD to Park City Utah and after fast charging, I merge onto interstate and tap windshield washers… Warning! Headlight system failure… AGAIN.. luckily this time it was just before dusk and we made it to a small town where we had to get a hotel for the night.

After arriving at hotel, I did a hard rest. Lights came back… so for fun, I tried windshield washer again… FAILURE.. headlights system malfunction.
Coincidence this happened twice in wet conditions? Will have to take to SLC service center where they can inspect Jan 2nd and said if they can’t fix, they’ll tow back to San Diego.. at this point Rivian has lost a fortune on these towing costs alone..

anyone else hear of similar things? A shame 2 years of waiting and 90k and don’t feel comfortable with my family driving in remote areas at night.
So much for “adventure”…

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So much for “adventure”…

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[SPITmadFIRE]

After arriving at hotel, I did a hard rest. Lights came back… so for fun, I tried windshield washer again… FAILURE.. headlights system malfunction.

Just to clarify, do the headlights only malfunction when using the wipers? And they only fail when raining?

I could see some faulty weatherproofing or shoddy grounding still being the issue here, but I'm wondering if the issue reproduces whenever the headlights are turned on in wet conditions. That would include the night time driving in the rain when it first occurred, as well as the daytime rain condition when the wipers were engaged (which would force the headlights to come on).

 

[Electrified Outdoors]

When this happens hold down the hazard button to capture diagnostic data. Schedule service and let them know you did the same. Can't guarantee it will solve the problem but it can't hurt.

Also, there was a FSA for wipers rubbing a wiring harness. If I had to guess this sounds like either a wiring harness or module is having an issue and faulting out

 

[StealthblackR1S_SD]

Just to clarify, do the headlights only malfunction when using the wipers? And they only fail when raining?

I could see some faulty weatherproofing or shoddy grounding still being the issue here, but I'm wondering if the issue reproduces whenever the headlights are turned on in wet conditions. That would include the night time driving in the rain when it first occurred, as well as the daytime rain condition when the wipers were engaged (which would force the headlights to come on).

We live in San Diego, so not a ton of wet driving this year so far. 1st time it happened was about 3hrs into driving in rainy conditions..

this second time it happened, no rain at all, I hit the windshield washer and it instantly went out.. “headlight failure”. After a hard reset, things came back.. so I tried wipers alone… and it didn’t cause the failure.

 

[StealthblackR1S_SD]

Just to clarify, do the headlights only malfunction when using the wipers? And they only fail when raining?

I could see some faulty weatherproofing or shoddy grounding still being the issue here, but I'm wondering if the issue reproduces whenever the headlights are turned on in wet conditions. That would include the night time driving in the rain when it first occurred, as well as the daytime rain condition when the wipers were engaged (which would force the headlights to come on).

to clarify, it wasn’t raining this second time. I just used the windshield washer to clear some bugs… then the failure happened. When we got to a safe location, a hard reset cleared it, so I tried again.. wipers only… everything ok, added washer… then it failed a second time.

 

[Redline]

Super strange…

 

[moosetags]

That sure is a bummer not being able to drive your new Rivian. Hopefully, they will be able to actually get it fixed right this time. Please let us know what the problem was and how they corrected it.

Brian

 

[SPITmadFIRE]

to clarify, it wasn’t raining this second time. I just used the windshield washer to clear some bugs… then the failure happened. When we got to a safe location, a hard reset cleared it, so I tried again.. wipers only… everything ok, added washer… then it failed a second time.

Yeah that's very concerning. I'd be surprised if this is a software issue, my money would be on either a faulty ground or the wiper motor fouling on a wiring loom like 240vPlug suggested.

I hope they get you sorted out quickly and confidently! Sorry about the scary issue!

 

[Riviot]

to clarify, it wasn’t raining this second time. I just used the windshield washer to clear some bugs… then the failure happened. When we got to a safe location, a hard reset cleared it, so I tried again.. wipers only… everything ok, added washer… then it failed a second time.

This definitely sounds like the wiper wire FSA.

 

[defcon888]

We’ve had had our R1s for 2 months and back to back road trips have had major headlight system failure. Pardon the long rant..

Trip 1: just before Christmas we were 250 miles from home, driving about 70mph in light rain (had been raining for about 3 hours)… middle of freeway, major warning lights and instant headlight system failure… talk about scary. Couldn’t see a thing.. complete front and rear tail light systems failed. Luckily found the shoulder and made it about 1/4 mile to an exit with lighting.
As it was prior to Christmas, Rivian had car towed to our hotel and arranged rental… then stated they would need to find a tow back to San Diego service center.. so R1s shows up at hotel around 11pm and wouldn’t you know… after riding on the flatbed… as soon as he unloaded, all lights worked.

Was called day after Christmas and they claimed to fix it, “loose chassis ground connection, cause system malfunction”

Fast forward to today, driving from SD to Park City Utah and after fast charging, I merge onto interstate and tap windshield washers… Warning! Headlight system failure… AGAIN.. luckily this time it was just before dusk and we made it to a small town where we had to get a hotel for the night.

After arriving at hotel, I did a hard rest. Lights came back… so for fun, I tried windshield washer again… FAILURE.. headlights system malfunction.
Coincidence this happened twice in wet conditions? Will have to take to SLC service center where they can inspect Jan 2nd and said if they can’t fix, they’ll tow back to San Diego.. at this point Rivian has lost a fortune on these towing costs alone..

anyone else hear of similar things? A shame 2 years of waiting and 90k and don’t feel comfortable with my family driving in remote areas at night.
So much for “adventure”…

We had the same issue within a month of taking ownership back in May. We were able to drive it....just not at night. The "bat signal" (Rivian logo) wasn't even working. They had the R1T for 3 weeks. They couldn't figure out what was wrong....they replaced all the sensors, computers and nothing. THey brought in a system guy from Normal Illinois and after 4 days of them being here, they used a camera scope and ran it through the truck and found that it was a bad connection that was shorting out.

I would mention that to the SC. Tell them to call Ryan at the West Sacramento service center. Mention that it was a Blue R1T in May/June (last name: Butters/Schlotthauer).

 

[StealthblackR1S_SD]

Defcon888…. Thank you!

I will mention that, also the wiper FSA. Hopefully something they can get fixed in a few days before a 700 mile drive back home.

 

[Killer95Stang]

Sure seems like it is related to the multi-switch of the wiper/ headlight stock. Ice vehicles had these types of issues all the time when the turn signal/ wiper/ headlight switches would go bad. Maybe things are even worse now, since all signals go back through the Canbus causing error situations that also shutdown entire systems to protect itself.

 

[StealthblackR1S_SD]

Update as of 05Jan. SLC service center was unable to replicate the issue, so they are awaiting a visit from an engineer this week to further troubleshoot.
Defcon888 … I mentioned your case and to call the Sacramento service center, not sure if they will, but appreciate the insights.

Now we (continue) to wait.

 

[Scoiatael]

You might want to report this to the ntsb. Something like this is very dangerous and Rivian should be putting in much more effort in tracking down the cause.

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