Tesla is finally shipping and installing the LED light bar accessory it showed in the original concept. The brand has to apply “blackout film tape” over the light, and Tesla won’t connect the light for owners for legal reasons. Another thing Tesla service center won’t be able to do? Easily remove the light bar once it’s installed. That’s because it’s glued into position.
Offhand, that might sound like a terrible idea as AutoEvolution initially pointed out. And yes, it is a bit strange considering that this is an accessory and that lots of similar light bars bolt into their intended application, but at the same time, the commentary on the glued-in lightbar has proponents on both sides.
Let’s jump into it. Here are some pictures of the bar itself.
You can see the black tape there, which Tesla mentions in its installation instructions thusly:
The blackout film tape must be installed on the lightbar prior to delivering the vehicle to the customer. Only the customer or a third-party entity is permitted to remove the blackout film tape.
Installation of the bar requires cleaning and prepping the windshield surface for adhesion:
Then, after adding primer, an installer lays down urethane adhesive between the lightbar and the windshield.
“Apply masking tape across the off-road light bar to secure the lightbar to the windshield. Allow the urethane to fully dry,” says the instruction guide. Tesla then keeps the vehicle overnight so that the adhesive can cure before the customer drives away.
Actually wiring the Cybertruck lightbar isn’t something Tesla can do, with the company saying in its lightbar-installation instructions:
The Tesla Lightbar for Cybertruck is designed only for off road use. Tesla by law cannot install the lightbar electronics and configure the vehicle for lightbar control.
Still, Tesla does show how to route the lightbar wires into the cabin; this requires pulling up some trim and holding it with a hand-pumped air bag:
And voila: You have your light bar.
Of course, if you want it to, you know, actually work, you have to have a third-party handle it. Tesla has instructions for them, too, and they involve installing some jumper wires in a fairly, uh… simple way — stripping wires, soldering, and installing heat shrink:
Anyway, back to the glue.
The design of the Tesla Cybertruck doesn’t have any real provisions for a lightbar — no place to bolt to, no latches or fixtures. I suppose you could drill into the truck and install rivnuts like some Toyota Tacoma owners do when mounting a lightbar:
Or you could do what Tesla did and use an adhesive. The downside is obvious to anyone who likes to change up their accessories regularly. Removing this thing is going to take time and effort. Based on photos of the urethane in a calking gun, this appears to be a Dupont Betaseal product. If correct it has a tensile strength of over 700 PSI and is waterproof, too. It’s used to keep heavy windshield bonded to metal cars even in extreme crashes, so it should have little trouble keeping a relatively lightweight lightbar bonded to a windshield.
The upside of the installation method is that it gives the truck a seamless/aerodynamic look, it seems like it’s easy enough to do, it should be more easily reversible than drilling, and, with the right prep, it almost certainly won’t fly off while you’re cruising down the highway in traffic. Still, replacing it or the windshield should the original get damaged would be a lot harder than just unbolting that Tacoma lightbar above.
This is a good time to discuss just how strong modern automotive adhesives are, because why not? A decade ago, their use was only just becoming more and more important as cars became more complex. General Motors has used structural adhesive on cars like the Chevrolet Corvette and Cadillac CTS since 2013. The next year it started using them in full-size pickup trucks. This article surrounding the BMW i3 provides a perfect example of that. Adhesives provide a lot of benefits over other methods of adhering one thing to another. Here’s a video of exactly that process.
In the case of a car like the i3, adhesives allows engineers to join pieces of different materials like carbon fiber to aluminum or steel more easily and without as many rattles, squeaks, or stress points.
An article on GardnerWeb.com also highlights another benefit.
One of the things that is somewhat simplified in terms of assembly is when there are mixed materials—such as steel and aluminum—the joining can be performed with an adhesive. While these materials can be welded, it is trickier than when it is steel-to-steel or aluminum-to-aluminum. And while they can be readily fastened, there is the issue of galvanic corrosion that can result at the interface of the materials; the adhesive forms a corrosion barrier. One vehicle that has a combination of two materials is the Polestar 1, which brings together composites and steel. There is some 50 meters of adhesive used in the bonding of the vehicle body.
Last September, Toyota mentioned the additional 108 inches of structural adhesive it used on the GR Corolla over the regular people mover. When the latest Subaru BRZ arrived the automaker pointed out that it was now 60 percent more rigid laterally and boasted a 50 percent increase in torsional stiffness.
All of that is to say that adhesives have been used in much, much more critical applications than a lightbar on a windshield. Customers who plan to keep the bar installed for good shouldn’t worry too much about it falling off if it’s installed right. I’d be more concerned about the windshield cracking.
When it comes to removing the bar, some solvents, a few feet of fishing, maybe a few razor blades could come in handy — windshield repair specialists deal with this all the time, so it shouldn’t be impossible.
This checks out since the drivers are sniffing glue. cYbErJuNkTrUcK is ugly EV trash. Gasoline forever!
Sounds like any other dealer installed option or manufacturer “performance part” to me. I guess since Tesla doesn’t have dealers this is somehow news?
As far as using adhesive, meh, modern adhesives are no joke and as long as it’s installed properly it should last forever. A side benefit is no additional holes to deal with water intrusion issues.
Yeah, adhesive technology has really come a long way over the last few decades; it simply blows the mind to contemplate the very concept of *structural* adhesives used in automotive manufacturing.
That said, with this particular application, with the CT lightbar installation, it seems like an awful lot depends on good surface prep. How confident would you be about third-party installers taking the time and effort to prep all the surfaces properly?? And that’s gotta be nerve-wracking dealing with adhesive film since such films typically have much quicker grab leaving little if any time to reposition whereas adhesives that come in tubes will often have some modicum of setting time allowing easy repositioning. Ha, reminiscent of the massive decals applied at the factory on some early 1970s Plymouth Hemi ‘Cudas:
https://www.motortrend.com/uploads/sites/5/2017/04/1971-Plymouth-HEMI-Barracuda-side-profile-02.jpg?w=384&width=384&q=75&format=webp
and
https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e7918a4b1051f6e49dcfdb1/1586053633804-DY8KTST5D9V6J6JPWW8I/1970-Plymouth-AAR-Cuda-3.jpg?format=1000w
Reportedly the factory workers got together and told the graphic designers at Chrysler/Plymouth in absolutely no uncertain terms to never ever do that again with specifying such large decals.
I love that AAR ‘Cuda!
Is heat the best way to get the lightbar back off? Or is there another method people use to break down the glue bond?
Semi related: apparently in order to remove the battery on the iPhone 16 you have to connect a 9V battery to some terminals for a couple minutes to electrically separate the glue holding the battery in place.
I would be curious to see how these adhesives hold up over time compared to mechanical fasteners but these trucks are all pavement princesses anyway so I’d be surprised if they were really jostled all that much.
Credit where credit is due, those instructions are pretty good. IKEA level quality.
Oh thank god a CT article I thought we may have to go a full 36 hours without one.
….they’re very different from anything else on the market right now, and engagement makes the site sustainable. Why not?
How sketchy? well not too bad unless the windshield unglues itself and flies off, wait was that the roof?
On a serious note, i would not trust heat shring tubing in a place where water probably sits, seeps and soes its thing, maybe the shmoo filled insulated ones?
https://img.kwcdn.com/product/Fancyalgo/VirtualModelMatting/62dae45cda70a0463f6be23f431b08ca.jpg
the colored rings at the end kinda melt and seal the joint, however, the center solder is a hit and miss
100% agree. You need a continuous piece of unspliced wire anywhere water sits. The heat shrink you’re describing is basically lined with hot melt glue. It’s fine for a couple of weeks, maybe months, outside, but it will leak.
Probably a good time to remind folks that installing lightbars makes cars illegal to drive on the road.
Which is why Tesla is doing this liability shield thing.
What? They’re required to be covered in at least some states, but they don’t have to be removed.
I have a couple of 6″ bars on license plate brackets on my Prius (one an auxiliary high beam, one an auxiliary fog light) and I have yet to get any trouble for them several months later.
Doing a lot of driving on private land with all those extra lights?
Just like regular high beams, the high beam one is never aimed at other vehicles except for brief flashes as necessary for signaling.
And the fog lights aren’t used except in moderate or worse fog.
They’re both from Diode Dynamics and they’re SAE certified.
Well then, someone should rush to inform the cops about all the truck bros driving with them turned on, pointed straight into incoming drivers’ eyeballs!!
Who are we kidding, other than using radar guns while munching on donuts, the only other activity they enjoy is pointing guns at brown people while feeling “threatened” by the higher melanin content.
I called an adhesive “glue” once in front of an adhesives engineer.
He was that exhausted kind of angry when he explained that they aren’t the same thing, and don’t work the same way.
A glue sets hard into surface imperfections to lock two things together. Glue won’t work on a polished surface.
An adhesive bonds to the substrate. This was a very important point to him, and he walked away tired and disappointed.
Carbon fibre things are all held together with adhesive, epoxy on the good stuff.
yeah tell that engineer to have a chat with manufacturers marketing team to label things properly????
Also what do you do if lets say a multipurpose glue works as adhesive for say plastic, but just as glue for glass, come to thing of it, by that theory all glass things should be called glues, and yet:
https://www.perigeedirect.com/collections/glass-adhesives
I dunno, it all sounds dangerously close to chemistry for my liking.
Would using a Kuject Heat Shrink Solder Seal Wire Connector be inadvised in this location? Or perfect for this location. I love those things.
I’m not sure I can think of another manufacturers own part that requires installation by a third party.. surely someone knows one right?
Dealerships are a third party for anyone but Tesla. Your local Jeep dealer installing lift kits is not owned by Jeep, Tesla’s direct sales model is what makes this necessary.
This is a sometimes used method for certain options that are relatively easy to install so it gives the dealer optionally – you like that car but want air conditioning- we can do that (Mitsubishi back in the old days did a lot of this- OEM A/C installed at the dealer). Sometimes OEMs have their own facility to add options after assembly – I think BMW does this in Spartanburg. This “postponement” strategy lets the factory keep going while keeping customers happy by having the exact product they want by adding it later in the process.
Let’s be optimistic here. There is actually a part of a Cybertruck that won’t attempt to slice your flesh open. Kudos for small blessings.
Seems like a perfectly normal standard Tesla solution.
Apparently lightbars are illegal on the road. So basically they’re screwing you over while covering their butts.
Sounds like tesla.
They’re required to be covered while on road. Of course, no asshat running lightbars will ever cover them.
Any 2nd gen Xterra with the Pro4x package got roof lights from the factory, that also came with covers from the factory. You’d just pop them off if needed.
I don’t believe they are required to be covered in Nevada unless the law has been changed recently. Obviously, if they are turned on while driving down the road you can be ticketed. But that never happens, right.
All Tesla manufacturing techniques are sus
Sometimes they’re also cringe.
Am I doing this right?
Skibidi or whatever is the proper insult in this case.
SKIBIDI IS NEVER THE ANSWER!!!
Oh,crap. I am so Ohio..
I can’t believe this heap of garbage is as popular as it is.
It is not, in reality. Don’t remember they said they had 2millions reservations they were so sure about ? They’ve sold less than 10k in a year, they pump them out of the factory but nobody is buying.
Well they also said it would start at $40k, not $100k, and I’m sure the vast majority of those 2million reservations were focused on that part or just placed a reservation for the hype train.
This seems like a non issue. So they are properly installing a light bar. How is this news?
no, somebody else is installing the light bar. Looks like Tesla are trying to weasel out of any kind of ‘responsibility’ for it’s installation and usage..
They install it, they just won’t wire it.
Then they just mount it, not ‘installing’. Usually installing something means it will actually work afterwards, otherwise you’re using words like Tesla calling something “self-driving”
I think at that point you’re getting into semantics. I would be totally fine and capable to do the wiring, so if Tesla mounted it, I could finish it off easily enough so I would count that as installed even if it’s not completely there. Calling the ADAS suite “Full Self Driving” is deliberately and dangerously deceptive and I can’t believe it’s legal. To me that’s a completely different scenario. I can’t take their FSD garbage and in 30 minutes have it actually be fully self driving.
I’m 100% talking semantics, I think words are supposed to mean something, not get assigned meaning on the fly.
I mean, to a layman, they may assume that “just an adhesive” means it’s not properly installed. So explaining that is helpful, I think.
Structural adhesives have been around a long time in marine, aerospace, and automotive. The Lotus Elise (real name) stands out in that they advertised a 50% increase in structural rigidity by its use.
https://www.compositesworld.com/articles/structural-adhesives-part-ii-aerospace
“Lotus Elise (real name)”
What you did there, I see it. And I laughed.
I don’t get it
DT calls his fiance “Elise (not her real name)” for privacy reasons. We go along with it because we respect her privacy around here and we love the in joke.
So wholesome. The Autopian comment section is such a breath of fresh air compared to most others’.
Yup! Although I thought her name was Dottie…ha ha
I came here to say this, less the excellent joke.
I went to an IMechE lecture once, expecting to have a nice long sleep, but it was Tony Shute from Lotus talking about the Series 1 Elise.
The front crash structure on an Elise is composite and is bonded on to the front of the aluminium chassis (which is also bonded together, but heated up in an oven to cure it). The crash structure holds the front body clamshell on and also includes the radiator ducting and the tow eye. That bond between composite and chassis can tow the car. In production since 1996, and still strong enough to tow with 28 years later.
I take credit for suggesting that we all call the future Mrs. Tracy “Elise” rather than “she who cannot be named” or “Voldemort”. It was in the comments to an article and David liked it and adopted it.
Rumpole of the Bailey referred to his wife as “She who must be obeyed”
Rumpole was referencing H. Rider Haggard, his novel “She” was published in 1887. I really must get out more!
Geez Dude, thought I was pushing the limit of generational reference!
The CyberTruck definitely skews fashion over function, so maybe all that matters is that the install on this looks nice.
In terms of function, I cannot imagine how bad the glare off the giant windshield and shiny hood will be. On top of that, as good as modern adhesives may be, trusting glue on a surface that will see 110+ degrees on summer days in direct sunlight seems iffy.
Elegant design. Elegant execution.
Lol. An “elegant design” wouldn’t have one stripping wire and hand soldering the conductors. Looks like they cheaper out by not providing a connector.
If you can’t see the elegance in wire striping, I don’t know what to tell you. Take it off. Take it 1/2″ off. Oh ya, baby. Now twiiiisst.
Somebody at Tesla was sniffing that glue when they came up with this.
Is this the first instance where soldering wires will not void your warranty? And why couldn’t they just provide a connector to tap into the wiring?
This is the biggest issue. Gluing it on is annoying but not as big a deal as the wiring IMO
I’m curious who gave the ok to soldering wires on a car. Once upon a time, I worked in automotive wire harness manufacturing and I was always told that a crimped connection is much stronger and more secure than a soldered connection, especially for a butt splice like the video demonstrates. The solder can fall apart due to vibration, while a properly crimped connector physically and electrically becomes one with the wire.
Have that knowledge and physical/electrical properties changed? Is this another case where the chief asshat overruled the engineers who (should) know better?
Yeah, soldering being explicitly called out in the instructions was the much bigger WTF moment for me.
There’s plenty of incredibly strong epoxy out there, just don’t use it to bond a titanium ring to a carbon fiber tube…
Inline crimps also exist, I know because I’ve used them to repair parts of engine harnesses that have outlasted the engine and the car as a whole.
With the likely high replacement cost of these windshields, might as well budget another light bar. Unfortunately, since the odds are a windshield break happens after the influencer money for making videos about the CT have dried up, it might end up being a long afternoon with a heat gun, trim removal tools, and some solvent.
CyberTruck owners about to experience even more abuse.
Do lightbars of this type actually have any purpose, or is this purely for aesthetics?
Yes, the lightbar actually does serve a purpose. It distracts people from the giant windshield wiper.
I run a light bar, ditch lights and rear flood lights on my off-road truck (and only use them off-road). They make a remarkable difference compared to the factory lights when it comes to running forest roads at night, particularly for seeing critters in / beside the road.
The rear facing flood lights are great for backing out of trouble.
“…and only use them off-road”
somehow, i don’t expect CT operators to adhere to this constraint…hope i’m wrong.
I mean, only speaking for me, but even in PA (plenty of off-road enthusiasts) I don’t think I see people with light bars on on the road. Confusingly bright low beams, sure, but never light bars. I feel like that could be enough for a cop to pull you over?
At least once or twice a week I see some turd in a truck running his grill or bumper mounted lightbar during a bright clear day. Never seen one get pulled over, but I sure hope they do.
Around here (Indiana/Kentucky) you can’t drive anywhere at night without seeing someone with at least one blinding light bar affixed to their truck.
I know light bars have their place and time, but I don’t think they’re necessary to drive to a Walmart in suburbia.
I completely agree. Sucks they’re abused.
Bsed on my own experience, they are definitely needed to drive around in the Chicago suburbs, and even in 20mph subdivisions. For ‘safety’!! 😀
If 100% of my experience with lightbars is to be believed, it is used to blind other drivers, even in midday, across divided highways.
If correctly installed, your RPMs should dip when switched on, and are correctly aimed when the overwhelming luminosity of your roadgoing lightgirth cannot be ignored or even safely encountered, searing afterimages of each LED into the retinas and damaging the optic nerves of your weak, puny victims that were fool enough to use the road while you were out driving.
If everyone that drives in front of you or past you doesn’t feel like they just came from an NFT rave, add more light bars, being careful to ignore the FOR OFF-ROAD USE ONLY stickers, warnings, and advisories attached or thereto describing said lightbars.
Light bars are great tools when used properly. Lots of our farm equipment now has them for farming at night. But yes, some bad eggs insist on misuse of them. Which is why you are starting semi trailers with polished rear doors. If your headlights are the legal hight and properly adjusted the doors don’t reflect, since they are 4 foot from the ground. However high beams, lifted trucks, and light bars are reflected back in all their intensity.
Interesting…..
In seriousness, I believe and agree with you. It’s just the idiots rolling around town with those things on full blast ruining my perception of them. I’ve been blinded by a 94 civic that had one mounted below the radiator, alongside the countless brodozers that are antagonism manifest.
To improve the driver’s visibility by destroying everyone else’s, obviously.
How do you win without making losers, right?