man with hands inside Tesla

Hoovies Garage/YouTube

‘Did it just explode in your hands?’: YouTuber’s Cybertruck tuneup over malfunctioning windshield wiper goes haywire

It turns out the issue stemmed from a fluid leak.

 

Marlon Ettinger

Tech

Posted on May 9, 2024

YouTuber Tyler Hoover, who runs the popular channel “Hoovies Garage,” uploaded a video on Wednesday showing himself bringing his new Tesla Cybertruck to his mechanic for a tuneup. Yet his mechanic, YouTuber David Long, also known as The “Car Wizard,” quickly came to realize that he was in for a shocking surprise.

Hoover opened the video by singing the praises of the truck, talking excitedly about the attention it draws and how much his kids love it.

“My four-year-old son… thinks it is a Transformer [in] real life, in person… they love this thing, so that’s a big plus,” he said.

One big downside, though, was the fact that the truck’s distinctive single windshield wiper had already stopped working correctly.

“As you can see, I’m not sure if this is right or not, but it’s just barely spreading anything,” Hoover said while explaining how the window washing feature may be failing due to a leak.

Before looking at the windshield wiper, Hoover showed Long the interior of the truck, including how to shift gears—which can only be done from the dashboard touchscreen.

“What do you do if the screen dies or goes blank?” Long asks.

“You’re stuck,” Hoover answered.

“Man, this thing is weird,” Long said as he started driving, though after some time he called it “pretty cool.”

But when he started looking under the hood, things got a little more dicey. 

It turned out that the washer fluid which wasn’t coming out of the windshield wiper had been leaking after all—all over a section of the mechanics under the hood.

Unrecorded

“You see how the fluid is draining down through here?” Long asked, pointing to a section on the exterior of the windshield. “It’s getting inside the car right here and just getting everywhere. You can see it’s actively dripping here too, it gets all inside the car.”

“So then if it rains, water’s going to get in there?” Hoover asked.

“That’s exactly right,” Long replied.

The two YouTubers discovered a few other janky problems, including a weak plastic cover that seemed to crack open and spray out a mystery fluid.

“Did it just explode in your hands?” Hoover asked.

“I just voided your warranty!” Long joked.

Cybertruck owners have documented their fair share of early problems with the truck, including software problems in the touchscreen dashboard which cripple the car, and a front trunk which closes down on fingers with a vengeance.

Users have also reported some problems with the distinctive single windshield wiper in recent days, with one person on the Cybertruck Owners Club Forum complaining about the wiper motor burning out in pouring rain 40 miles after picking the car up.

“Was fun to drive while it lasted, currently waiting on service center to receive new part and make repair,” they wrote. “Drove 3.5 hrs to pickup [the] truck, so disappointing having to leave without it.”

“I feel your pain. Mine never worked. Going in to get it serviced but heard it’s a 6-hour fix,” replied another user.

“I am on my second replacement wiper motor…” added a third. “Hopefully this one will last.”


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*First Published: May 9, 2024, 1:32 pm CDT