Major/Minor R1S issues ignored by Chicago SC

[LeoH]

I have had a mix of issues with the R1S after about 3500 miles. I love the vehicle, but the issues are being ignored by the Chicago SC, and they talk to me as if I was some 10 year old kid who never learned how to read; mind you I spent a good chunk of my professional life taking apart and putting back fighter jets.

I will post the videos that I sent them as well but they are too large to put here, so here is a link to the twitter posts : https://twitter.com/LWHazou

1- Second row seat does not lock in place, and if it lock, it comes sliding willy nilly mid drive with passengers in it - minor injuries to the kids in the seat from being crushed by the back side folding and ramming into the front seat.

2- Car goes into park unexpectedly and wont go into gear, the doors are firmly closed. The logs showed the door was open, even though nothing showed on the dash and I made sure the doors were closed. It was claimed it is a normal operation not to show warnings or errors to the driver sometimes (I was shocked when I heard that, to the point where I just did not respond and just walked away )

3- Tick-tock at low speeds, the SC claimed that is the suspension values opening and closing to balance the vehicle, to which I replied why only the back ones, and can they show me where they are. The SC replied that they do not know where they are, and that is intellectual property.

4- Loud compressor noise comes from the left rear section of the vehicle, the volume fluctuates where sometimes it is so loud I have to stop the vehicle and get the passengers out because they could not take it anymore, the incident I caught on Camera were not as loud, but loud enough to where I could her them while I am sleeping sometimes.

5- Front right area squeaks and creeks even though the car is parked and no key in the vicinity. The service center said there found nothing, but when I returned home I found that the suspension and the general area is squeaky clean, while the rest of the underside is muddy and dirty. I figured they could have diagnosed it, but since the noise did not come back, and them being unprofessional in general, I assume work was done but not documented.

Generally speaking, they have denied the claims twice, or told me not to worry about it and no need to document it. After the second visit, I realized the person there did not know what he was talking about so I walked away, and called Rivian to complain, they told me to schedule another appointment...and upload the videos again because Rivian does now allow them to view uploaded material from previous tickets ( what a dumb thing to do if true ). But what happened is that they claimed a small ball under the seat was causing the issue with the seats unlocking , even though that little ball was in the cubby, and was bought 2 days before I brought in the car, about 6 weeks AFTER I reported the issue. I got home, puts the kids in the car, and that seat just slammed my son into the front seat. So I called in, furious, and at this point I had a lawyer waiting, they told me to bring the car the very next day, to which I replied that I am not going to to drive 1 hour to drop off the car because they messed up and that is as safety issue, so they offered to tow it but told me that seat assemblies might not be covered under the warranty and I might have to pay for the towing.

They care coming to pick up the car, and I just realized I never asked them about a loaner! Will update as soon as I hear from the SC when they evaluate the issue(s)

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[RexRemus]

I gotta be honest... some of those videos look a little sketchy.

The rear seat and the "going into park" ones both seem to have the camera away from your hand "just so" to not always show what you're doing. The compressor is located right where you are recording and it's not unusual that it would make some noise while running, it certainly did not seem excessive, and you didn't record anything from the inside. And the dents from "punching" the door handle don't make sense, the handles are designed to have pressure applied manually if the opening mechanism doesn't work. The vehicle climate controls can be operated via the app and/or pet mode to cool the cabin down even if you can't get in. There should have been no need to "punch" the area "around the handle".

Specifically, in the seat video, every time it folds forward your left hand isn't really clearly visible, or appears to be hitting the release, there might be one time where it seems to fold unexpectedly but again it's REALLY unclear from the video you took.

For the Park issue - all I see is nothing happens till you close the door, and then hit the brake, at which point the car goes into reverse when you hit the stalk up, drive when you hit it down - and then into park, when you press park out of frame - again. How do I know you hit park? Because I can see the stalk move from you pressing the button, then it goes into reverse again as you hit the stalk up. From what I see in that clip it seems to be working exactly as it should.

Can you try horizontal video next time vs vertical - for all of these things - and keep all the relevant parts in frame? It would definitely help convey the issues a little more clearly. And if a video doesn't capture the actual problem - like the case of the compressor - don't take the video... it's only a "problem" video if it actually captures the problem.

I'm not denying there might be issues with your vehicle, what I am saying is that your "evidence" leaves a lot of questions because of how it was shot. Maybe do a second round?

 

[Dark-Fx]

Have heard of others with a rear seat issue that was caused by something obstructing the mechanism from latching properly.

Truck likes to go into park in reverse if you lift yourself off the seat. Unsure if the buckled state matters but it might.

Suspension valves are all under the rear of the vehicle, that noise is normal. Compressor can definitely be heard from inside but I haven't personally observed a varied volume, and certainly nothing louder that just a small annoyance.

Front squeaks are probably the aero shutters opening and closing, they get self-tested every time the vehicle comes out of sleep. Nothing else up front moves with the vehicle off.

Sometimes my truck is slow to unlock when it is sleeping. I don't believe Rivian has any sensors in or around the door that detect pressure or someone attempting to open it, but I haven't taken any of that stuff apart to look. If they do have sensors, they must not be active when the truck is asleep, because you can't use them to make the truck wake up if it's unlocked without fully opening a door. If your kids are like mine, they may have been playing with the infotainment system and end up turning on car wash mode, which would make the handles stay retracted even if unlocked. The keyfob works off of bluetooth so proximity to the door handle won't do anything.

 

[iforbes]

Sqeacky Front right is probably the louvre opening/closing. Google search but a little silicone spray will fix that right up.

 

[LeoH]

I gotta be honest... some of those videos look a little sketchy.

The rear seat and the "going into park" ones both seem to have the camera away from your hand "just so" to not always show what you're doing. The compressor is located right where you are recording and it's not unusual that it would make some noise while running, it certainly did not seem excessive, and you didn't record anything from the inside. And the dents from "punching" the door handle don't make sense, the handles are designed to have pressure applied manually if the opening mechanism doesn't work. The vehicle climate controls can be operated via the app and/or pet mode to cool the cabin down even if you can't get in. There should have been no need to "punch" the area "around the handle".

Specifically, in the seat video, every time it folds forward your left hand isn't really clearly visible, or appears to be hitting the release, there might be one time where it seems to fold unexpectedly but again it's REALLY unclear from the video you took.

For the Park issue - all I see is nothing happens till you close the door, and then hit the brake, at which point the car goes into reverse when you hit the stalk up, drive when you hit it down - and then into park, when you press park out of frame - again. How do I know you hit park? Because I can see the stalk move from you pressing the button, then it goes into reverse again as you hit the stalk up. From what I see in that clip it seems to be working exactly as it should.

Can you try horizontal video next time vs vertical - for all of these things - and keep all the relevant parts in frame? It would definitely help convey the issues a little more clearly. And if a video doesn't capture the actual problem - like the case of the compressor - don't take the video... it's only a "problem" video if it actually captures the problem.

I'm not denying there might be issues with your vehicle, what I am saying is that your "evidence" leaves a lot of questions because of how it was shot. Maybe do a second round?

Let me explain rear seat first: In the video I push it back and it slides by itself, then after couple of tries, it locks, then I press the release again, and try to lock it, and it does not. The technician at the service center tried himself and could not lock the seat.

The going into park, that is the issue, you can see the dash where the door is closed, all doors, then I press the break to put into reverse or park, and it shifts back by itself sometimes passing into the hold position. I gave them the time stamp, and the logs show the car not going into gear because the Driver door was open. So we know that there is nothing wrong with the operation, but there a component that thinks the driver door is open, when it is not as shown clearly on the dash. I do press Park because at this point I am trying everything to se if I can break it out of a loop. However, As I mentioned they logs did validate that car shifting to park by itself because the driver door is open, but its is not. And they told me the car might not always show warnings.


As for compressor, yes that is where the air compressor is, which is why at the end I opened it, but those videos where recorded randomly, I just happened to hear it. The first one I was just taking the dog on a walk and compressor noise was already there when the car was not in use. The second one, I was pulling into my drive way when it happened. The interesting part is that if I run the air compressor then it stops. I did ask if there was some sort of a system where the compressor runs to adjust something, and they said no.

The handle punching, let me describe the scenario for you so you can understand it more. Kids and dog load up in the car, I walk away to tell someone something and that car locks ( I do not know if the car lock by itself if it detects passengers, I never asked) but I get close, and the car does not lock, I look inside, the screens are off, the security is not showing that movement was detected, I press unlock on the remote, nothing, my phone app will not connect, when I press unlock it just said "unlocking" but nothing happened. It's hot and at this point I am freaking out, I tried to pull the handles out, tried to press it in, nothing, the car was practically dead. So I started punching the handle and it just came back to life. The next time it happened it was parked with no one inside, that is when I tried the lift gate and realized it does still open so the car is not dead, but probably taking forever to wake up. The third time it happened I recorded it. I hope this gives you some context.


The squeak is an odd issue, because the suspension itself was not adjusting, and I did not know what could have happened, and I am not going to go greasing and spraying without knowing the source, and it did not seem accessible.


All in all, once I called and they saw the clip again, they came and picked up this morning because this is a safety issue, but Seat Assemblies according to them might not be covered, which I get it if someone was doin crazy shit with their car, but if a 10 year old sitting on it caused an issue, they will be covering that.


Out of curiosity, does your car have the tik-tok noise at low speeds?

 

[LeoH]

Have heard of others with a rear seat issue that was caused by something obstructing the mechanism from latching properly.

Truck likes to go into park in reverse if you lift yourself off the seat. Unsure if the buckled state matters but it might.

Suspension valves are all under the rear of the vehicle, that noise is normal. Compressor can definitely be heard from inside but I haven't personally observed a varied volume, and certainly nothing louder that just a small annoyance.

Front squeaks are probably the aero shutters opening and closing, they get self-tested every time the vehicle comes out of sleep. Nothing else up front moves with the vehicle off.

Sometimes my truck is slow to unlock when it is sleeping. I don't believe Rivian has any sensors in or around the door that detect pressure or someone attempting to open it, but I haven't taken any of that stuff apart to look. If they do have sensors, they must not be active when the truck is asleep, because you can't use them to make the truck wake up if it's unlocked without fully opening a door. If your kids are like mine, they may have been playing with the infotainment system and end up turning on car wash mode, which would make the handles stay retracted even if unlocked. The keyfob works off of bluetooth so proximity to the door handle won't do anything.

I have not thought of the Aero shutters, are they only on the left side? I do not hear it from the right side. And it seems to be an easy enough lube fix, not sure why they dragged. But interesting you say that, because the front right area was very clean when I picked up so they probably did lube it but did not find a defective part.

The park issue, I think it does not shift if there is no weight, but the issue was sensing a door open when it was not.

The problem with the tick tock, is that it happens at low speed only, and I have seen multiple reports of half-shaft issues, that is what is concerning me.


For the unlocking, I tried to pull the handle open and it did not, but that was also a thought, I figured they might have turned wash mode and then screen cleaning mode, but the boys where in the third row, and the girls and the dog were in the second row, and they were all buckled.If the boys were in the second row, then I would have suspected, but the girls follow the rules The second time it happened, there was no one inside. Generally, I found the lock/unlock proximity unstable, its either too good, or not good enough.

I have heard some noises before but they were normal, just like when you adjust the height, that is very ordinary. But they other ones are rare and vary, and only stop if I run the air pump in the trunk, or just wait long enough for it to eventually stop or drive for a while.

 

[LeoH]

And just to be clear, my biggest issue is not the problems within the car, I expect issues as an early adopter, its more about the manner the SC handled them and sense of carelessness.

 

[SoCal Rob]

The handle punching, let me describe the scenario for you so you can understand it more. Kids and dog load up in the car, I walk away to tell someone something and that car locks ( I do not know if the car lock by itself if it detects passengers, I never asked) but I get close, and the car does not lock, I look inside, the screens are off, the security is not showing that movement was detected, I press unlock on the remote, nothing, my phone app will not connect, when I press unlock it just said "unlocking" but nothing happened. It's hot and at this point I am freaking out, I tried to pull the handles out, tried to press it in, nothing, the car was practically dead. So I started punching the handle and it just came back to life. The next time it happened it was parked with no one inside, that is when I tried the lift gate and realized it does still open so the car is not dead, but probably taking forever to wake up. The third time it happened I recorded it. I hope this gives you some context.

This is concerning but I may have a suggestion which could help even though everything should work with phone as a key (PAAK) every time. When your phone showed "unlocking" but nothing happened, did you try closing the app and relaunching it or using an NFC card on the driver’s door handle? This could be an app issue and not a vehicle issue. It shouldn’t happen, but trying the things I mention here could help or provide more info for Rivian to troubleshoot.

 

[LL75]

And just to be clear, my biggest issue is not the problems within the car, I expect issues as an early adopter, its more about the manner the SC handled them and sense of carelessness.

I feel you. Service center favorite quote . " Within specs"

 

[LeoH]

This is concerning but I may have a suggestion which could help even though everything should work with phone as a key (PAAK) every time. When your phone showed "unlocking" but nothing happened, did you try closing the app and relaunching it or using an NFC card on the driver’s door handle? This could be an app issue and not a vehicle issue. It shouldn’t happen, but trying the things I mention here could help or provide more info for Rivian to troubleshoot.

I do not have the PAAK setup, and at the time I did not have the card with me. To be honest, my thought was that it could be a keyfob issue, because the unlock button should have worked. In the heat of the moment, I just wanted to get the kids and dog out of the car.

I did order an extra keyfob, and now that you mention it, after I picked up the car on Saturday, everytime I go in, it asks me to use the key card even though I have the fob, but after few seconds it goes away.

 

[LeoH]

I feel you. Service center favorite quote . " Within specs"

and when I ask them about the specs, they would not tell me

 

[SoCal Rob]

I did order an extra keyfob, and now that you mention it, after I picked up the car on Saturday, everytime I go in, it asks me to use the key card even though I have the fob, but after few seconds it goes away.

Yikes, that’s with a fob!!!

I’d definitely forward the detail about the key card prompt to Rivian Service since it sounds like something is wrong with the fob configuration/assignment, the fob, or the vehicle.

I think the fob and entry system is a case where Rivian probably would’ve been better off going with an off-the-shelf solution, assuming that suppliers have something standard that other manufacturers incorporate into vehicles. Something with a button (physical or capacitive touch) which wakes the vehicle and causes it to verify presence of a fob like virtually all other manufacturers seem to do would be an improvement, in my opinion.

 

[LL75]

and when I ask them about the specs, they would not tell me

yeap. went to service center twice about alignment pulling right and been told within spec. I gave up and went to the third party alignment instead.

 

[RexRemus]

Let me explain rear seat first: In the video I push it back and it slides by itself, then after couple of tries, it locks, then I press the release again, and try to lock it, and it does not. The technician at the service center tried himself and could not lock the seat.

The going into park, that is the issue, you can see the dash where the door is closed, all doors, then I press the break to put into reverse or park, and it shifts back by itself sometimes passing into the hold position. I gave them the time stamp, and the logs show the car not going into gear because the Driver door was open. So we know that there is nothing wrong with the operation, but there a component that thinks the driver door is open, when it is not as shown clearly on the dash. I do press Park because at this point I am trying everything to se if I can break it out of a loop. However, As I mentioned they logs did validate that car shifting to park by itself because the driver door is open, but its is not. And they told me the car might not always show warnings.


As for compressor, yes that is where the air compressor is, which is why at the end I opened it, but those videos where recorded randomly, I just happened to hear it. The first one I was just taking the dog on a walk and compressor noise was already there when the car was not in use. The second one, I was pulling into my drive way when it happened. The interesting part is that if I run the air compressor then it stops. I did ask if there was some sort of a system where the compressor runs to adjust something, and they said no.

The handle punching, let me describe the scenario for you so you can understand it more. Kids and dog load up in the car, I walk away to tell someone something and that car locks ( I do not know if the car lock by itself if it detects passengers, I never asked) but I get close, and the car does not lock, I look inside, the screens are off, the security is not showing that movement was detected, I press unlock on the remote, nothing, my phone app will not connect, when I press unlock it just said "unlocking" but nothing happened. It's hot and at this point I am freaking out, I tried to pull the handles out, tried to press it in, nothing, the car was practically dead. So I started punching the handle and it just came back to life. The next time it happened it was parked with no one inside, that is when I tried the lift gate and realized it does still open so the car is not dead, but probably taking forever to wake up. The third time it happened I recorded it. I hope this gives you some context.


The squeak is an odd issue, because the suspension itself was not adjusting, and I did not know what could have happened, and I am not going to go greasing and spraying without knowing the source, and it did not seem accessible.


All in all, once I called and they saw the clip again, they came and picked up this morning because this is a safety issue, but Seat Assemblies according to them might not be covered, which I get it if someone was doin crazy shit with their car, but if a 10 year old sitting on it caused an issue, they will be covering that.


Out of curiosity, does your car have the tik-tok noise at low speeds?

Appreciate the clarifications, currently mine does not have the tick/tock - but it's very new and still very low mileage. I still feel getting some better video that fully captures the issues is helpful, but I am glad/hopeful that the SC can examine things and get it squared away. It was just genuinely hard to "see" actual issues happening and KNOW it was "the issue" - many things just looked normal/expected based on what was on screen.

Also be aware that Hold is normal, Hold is not Park. Regardless, it seems like you got some more contact with the SC, best of luck

 

[LeoH]

Appreciate the clarifications, currently mine does not have the tick/tock - but it's very new and still very low mileage. I still feel getting some better video that fully captures the issues is helpful, but I am glad/hopeful that the SC can examine things and get it squared away. It was just genuinely hard to "see" actual issues happening and KNOW it was "the issue" - many things just looked normal/expected based on what was on screen.

Also be aware that Hold is normal, Hold is not Park. Regardless, it seems like you got some more contact with the SC, best of luck

Mine has less than 4000 miles, but it came like that from the factory.

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