Services
Tesla MCU Repairs

Note: Due to extremely high service volume, we are unable to accommodate any additional MCU repair inquiries at this time.
057 Technology offers a few services related to the Tesla MCU (17" touchscreen computer) in the Tesla Model S and X vehicles.We perform all of these services at our location in Hickory, NC. We can usually schedule an appointment for you to bring your vehicle, or we can arrange shipping for your vehicle. Aternatively, we can work with just the MCU itself, shipped to our location. If you're not sure which service is right for you, see our FAQ below, or Contact Us and we'll be happy to help.
Some base pricing is listed below for some related services. Pricing does not include sales tax (if applicable) or shipping to or from our facility, and some situations may require additional labor.
- $399 for a working Tegra board with working eMMC (includes a core return of a Tegra card with a bad eMMC)
- $150 labor for us to match a bad card with an MCU or full car present at our shop
- $449 for a replacement MCU touchscreen (for screens with bubbles, yellowing, etc)
- $100 for touchscreen install
- $749 for a full MCUv1 with working eMMC and good screen
- $250 to program a new MCU to match with an old MCU (requires old MCU present)
Pricing is subject to change, and can vary depending on the exact vehicle and situation. Most services have some lead time. Many MCU services done with shipped components take around a week.
Please see our FAQ below, and contact us with any questions. Always contact us before shipping any components to us.
Q. What exactly is the issue with MCU v1 that I've been hearing about?
A. Tesla vehicles with MCU v1 (Model S and X vehicles built before roughly February 2018) are starting to suffer failures due to flash memory wear. This can cause anything from long load times and sluggishness all the way to a complete failure of the MCU (black screen, not booting). The root cause is Tesla's excessive use of logging on the infotainment portion of the system (separate from the normal vehicle logs, which are written to an internal SD card and don't affect this issue). There is generally no reason to keep such logs on such a setup beyond development purposes, but Tesla's software will cycle this portion of flash memory multiple times per day. These flash chips are usually only rated for an average of 5,000 to 10,000 write cycles before failing. The automotive environment (high heat, large temperature swings, etc) tends to shorten the life of flash memory in general, as well. Since the used flash memory chip is a hard wired and mostly non-serviceable component, failure of this usually means replacement of the entire MCU is required to correct the issue.
Q. Do I have MCU v1 in my car?
A. If your car is a Model S or Model X built before approximately February 2018, then you have a car with MCU v1.
Q. I have a Model 3, or a Model S/X with MCU v2. Does this issue affect me?
A. In short, no. The longer version: Technically all of the Tesla vehicles suffer from flash wear due to excessive logging. However, only MCU v1 is substantially affected by this, as nearly 100% of the flash memory is in use on these units. Model 3 and MCU v2 vehicles have larger flash memories, which will mitigate the issue for quite some time. Hopefully before it becomes an issue, Tesla will fix the underlying problem via a software update. Overall, there isn't much that can be done about this on Model 3 or MCU v2 vehicles at the moment anyway.
Q. How do I know if my car's flash memory is failing?
A. There's no way to know 100% without full diagnostics, but here are some things to look out for: If you end up getting in your car, and the car sits with a black MCU with the instrument cluster hanging on "Please wait, systems are powering up" for several minutes before the MCU starts. If the MCU stays black and does not function at all. If the MCU is unreasonably sluggish with normal tasks taking extended periods of time to respond (for example, pressing the "Controls" icon and having to wait 20 seconds for the menu to appear). If text or images that make up the UI appear scrambled. Etc.
Q. What can I do to help prevent or slow flash failure?
A. There's nothing you can do while the car is running, however you can limit the amount of time the MCU is active and logging. Enable "Energy Saver", and disable "Always Connected" in your vehicle settings. This will ensure that the MCU sleeps when possible. The cost to this is a slightly longer startup time upon entering the vehicle, and a slower response to use of the Tesla mobile application.
Q. Are you able to repair MCUs with this flash problem?
A. In most cases, yes. However, this is a physical task that must be done at our facility. There is absolutely no way to diagnose or repair this issue remotely. At a minimum, we need the MCU's Tegra CPU board at our facility, however having the entire MCU is better. Having the entire vehicle present is even better than that.
Q. Can I fix this myself? Can you fix it remotely? Is there anything I can do without bringing my MCU or car to you?
A. In short, no. You can do the mitigations mentioned above to limit flash wear, however. If you have the correct skill set (capable of desoldering, reading and copying the flash, and replacing fine pitch BGA components on a heavily populated PCB with damaging) then you can do this, but I highly recommend against this. Also, since this is a physical part issue, there's nothing we can do remotely.
Q. Can you send me a new part and I'll replace it myself?
A. No. The MCU is programmed uniquely per vehicle. We can not send a component to replace, as this would not be programmed to match your vehicle. There is no way to get the required information from your vehicle to do this without the MCU physically present, and we do not do any sort of remote hacking of vehicles to get this information.
Q. If I send or bring my MCU, CPU board, or entire vehicle for this repair, can you do it?
A. In most cases, yes. See some details below.
Q. How does the repair work?
A. We will attempt to recover the vehicle-specific parts of flash memory from your existing flash chip, and copy this over to a CPU board that already has a repaired/replaced flash memory chip. Once that's done we can match up the firmware with your vehicle and install the replacement CPU board. Your old board will be used as a core return, eventually have its flash memory chip replaced, and go on to serve someone else's repair.
Q. Won't the flash just fail again?
A. When we replace the flash memory, we replace it with a physically identical chip, but with a larger memory size. This should effectively mitigate the logging issue for decades, as Tesla's software will never use the full memory. Using less than 100% of the flash leaves the unused portions available for wear leveling.
Q. Can you stop the logging?
A. Kind of, but we won't. We can hack the firmware on the vehicle, during the replacement process, to stop this logging... however this comes with some caveats that are generally not welcome, such as no more software updates. In short, it's only really sensible to do on vehicles that have been forsaken by Tesla's ridiculous "unsupported vehicle" policy (ie, cars Tesla refuses to service for one reason or another, usually due to a salvage branded title).
Q. My car is fine, but I want to replace the flash preemptively. Will you do this?
A. No. Honestly, we have more than enough work to handle in just helping folks with units that need this repair now.
Click for details on some specific services: