[Un-Resolved again!] Why am I doing this to myself - long time Rivian customer close to giving up.

[Donald Stanfield]

Sounds like they bit the bullet - new cable harness being installed (Need to wait for it to come in - luckily though it needs to be ordered the transit time should be short! ) Makes sense with all the electrical system failures.

In 13 days the truck will be 6 months old, and not managed to make it a month on the driveway without needing to go to the SC, or 500 miles without a component failing. 1861 miles on the odometer now - I've got considerably more milage on loaners (which are all awesome) than the actual truck: It hurts.

I wish most of the people on here with petty complaints had half the patience and grace you've shown throughout your Rivian ownership experience. You can look at the upside regarding loaners; you're getting less wear and tear as you're putting it all on their vehicles. Not much of a consolation as it comes at the cost of your sanity.

You feel the same way that I do about Rivian, there's nothing else like it. You've proven it by sticking with the brand through all this.

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[Aardvark]

Sounds like they bit the bullet - new cable harness being installed (Need to wait for it to come in - luckily though it needs to be ordered the transit time should be short! ) Makes sense with all the electrical system failures.

In 13 days the truck will be 6 months old, and not managed to make it a month on the driveway without needing to go to the SC, or 500 miles without a component failing. 1861 miles on the odometer now - I've got considerably more milage on loaners (which are all awesome) than the actual truck: It hurts.

@portdirect I really feel your pain for what you are going through. But I also applaud your patience and positive attitude! I hope your truck is good as new when you get it back.

 

[Mellowyellow]

This is kinda like when you send your kid to daycare and they come back with a ton of viruses and you tell yourself as a parent that at least now they are basically bulletproof.

After all this, your truck will now be meticulously put back together and figuratively bulletproof. But also, <knock on wood>

 

[iansriv]

OP-I couldnt have said it better than the two gents @Donald Stanfield and @Aardvark.

 

[Hereforthesnacks]

@portdirect I really feel your pain for what you are going through. But I also applaud your patience and positive attitude! I hope your truck is good as new when you get it back.

I think OP is hoping it’s much better than new in this case

 

[Aardvark]

I think OP is hoping it’s much better than new in this case

I recommend it comes back with an espresso machine in the gear tunnel!

 

[DayTripping]

Sounds like they bit the bullet - new cable harness being installed (Need to wait for it to come in - luckily though it needs to be ordered the transit time should be short! ) Makes sense with all the electrical system failures.

In 13 days the truck will be 6 months old, and not managed to make it a month on the driveway without needing to go to the SC, or 500 miles without a component failing. 1861 miles on the odometer now - I've got considerably more milage on loaners (which are all awesome) than the actual truck: It hurts.

I hope there is light at the end of the tunnel for you at some point. You really shouldn't have to go through this and don't assume that once this is all fixed, it will be clear sailing. I hope it will be but I'll be your cautionary tale.

I had been a long time Audi owner going back to the original Quattro. I can't tell you how many German cars I owned and probably more Porsches and Audis than BMWs or MBs. I had an RS6 . I loved that car, until I didn't. I probably don't have to tell you how much these cars cost but it was a lot more than any Rivian.

It went back, and it went back and it went back, to the dealer. Each time the dealer said they had it fixed. They didn't. I was told that the issues were due to an aftermarket ECU upgrade but it wasn't. It was totally stock. It would throw a CEL and end up on the side of the road sometimes. Long story short, they would blame me, I'd bring it back. They said it was fixed. It would be fine for a few days or maybe weeks, and CEL hell again. They'd take it back and blame me for running an aftermarket chip and I it was stock.

After a few rounds, I got the zone rep involved. They sent some factory techs out and they checked the car out. They couldn't find anything so blamed me. By the 7th time it was back in I'd had enough. I said don't give me the damn car back until is fixed. They swore up and down that there was no issue but they'd check it out again and kept alluding to that I must be doing something to it as they saw a code that there was a 12v power outage which could mean power was lost to the ECU which would would happen if you were doing something with the factory ECU. I hadn't done this. I had an aftermarket sub put in and they disconnected the wiring to do that.

Picking up my car for the 8th time, (I was as patient as Jobe in this case or Portodirect as I had a lot of love for the brand), I literally got in my after the pulled it around. The car was off, I turned it on, and instantly the CEL came on again. That was it. I pretty much let all my pent up frustration out and told them to take the damn car back and to give me my money back. At this point Audi realized they'd really F'd up. Before the end of the week they'd bought back my car. My dealer was great and I'd probably spent close to $2 mil on cars with them over the years as they sold other German cars. I bought an E63S wagon to replace it. What an awesome car that was TBH.

Hopefully your saga turns out better than mine. Ultimately, they air freighted my car back to the mothership and spent months going over it, trying to figure out what was wrong. At that point I didn't care. They turned me from the Donald Stanfield of Audi into someone who would probably sell my Rivian if VW acquired the company.

 

[woodcan]

Thank you for continuing to update us and provide details as others may be having similar issues but not getting the same attention.

I’m still hoping they get all of your gremlins sorted soon.

Copilot summary:

1. Front Radar / ADAS Fault

• Reproduction Confirmed: On May 27, Rivian technicians drove the vehicle under controlled conditions and successfully recreated the radar malfunction. This confirmed that Adaptive Cruise Control not only failed but also displayed only a single target ahead on the screen following radar failure.
• Diagnostic Findings:
  • Radar firmware parameters were reset and extensive test drives conducted. However the issue persists.
  • The unit continues to log a persistent DTC: “firmware internal failure.”
• Next Action: Engage radar supplier and Rivian engineering in a deep-dive root-cause analysis to isolate and correct the internal firmware defect.

2. Drive-Mode “Conserve Only” Event

• Symptom: The vehicle unexpectedly locked into Conserve mode, preventing selection of Sport or All-Purpose modes.
• Current Explanation: Rivian’s diagnostic specialist reports that the rear-drive unit’s safety “disconnect” feature likely triggered upon detecting an anomalous parameter, forcing Conserve mode.
• Pete’s Observation: At the time of the event, the vehicle was already in Conserve mode and cruising at a steady ~40 mph on a smooth road—no aggressive inputs or off-road conditions.
• Status: No definitive software bug or hardware fault has been identified; Rivian will monitor for recurrence and gather data if the issue reappears.

This radar thing really makes me wonder how many folks have this issue but don’t know because they gave up using ADAS/Cruise Control, never did, or just thought it was working as expected. The one time I tried ADAS it was buggy as hell constantly turning itself off on the interstate so I gave up. I’ve used cruise control like 3 times on this stretch of 30mph road by our house that is tough to manually keep at 30 but patrolled by cops. No cars ahead of me so no clue how it would perform.

 

[portdirect]

I realize I haven’t provided an update here—my only excuse is that life’s been pretty busy lately (an understatement). I’ll share a more comprehensive update soon, but here’s what’s happened so far:

• Truck return and house closing (July 6):
  • 9:30 AM: We closed on our new house.
  • 11:00 AM: We received the keys.
  • 12:30 PM: Chase from the Normal service center dropped off my truck and picked up the loaner.
• Performance since the wiring harness change:
  • I’ve driven about 250 miles with zero resets or electronic glitches—it’s performing exactly as it should.
  • Efficiency is now on par with our Gen 1 Dual—night and day compared to before.
• Cabin noise improvements:
  • Overall wind noise has decreased significantly - though this was something I'd planned to live with, until the team at Normal added it to the tickets following their drives of the truck.
  • There is still some noise near the top of the driver’s door, but the cabin is quieter than ever - approaching that of our R1S when its got roof bars on it.
  • New? high-pitched noise:
    • After about 15 mins of driving, I hear a faint GPU-coil-whine-type noise while driving. It doesn’t correlate with motor load/regent, AC use, or wind.
    • If it persists, I’ll open a ticket—though it’s easily drowned out by cranking up Sub Focus on the stereo.
    • I wonder whether this could be related to the STL service work, where they removed some sound-deadening “diaper” from the front motor/inverter and shaved the motor mounts rather than just correctly installing the underbody panels and charge-port cover.
• Service-center experience:
  • The Normal SC team was outstanding. They turned what felt like a total QC failure—and a frustrating corporate response—into a positive enough experience that convinced me to remain a Rivian customer. If the team in STL had been as proactive, this thread would never have existed.

Conclusion: Unless this truck fails again, I’m keeping it. However, the overall experience has made me hesitant to purchase another Rivian outright; I’ll probably lease next time.

 

[iansriv]

I realize I haven’t provided an update here—my only excuse is that life’s been pretty busy lately (an understatement). I’ll share a more comprehensive update soon, but here’s what’s happened so far:

• Truck return and house closing (July 6):
  • 9:30 AM: We closed on our new house.
  • 11:00 AM: We received the keys.
  • 12:30 PM: Chase from the Normal service center dropped off my truck and picked up the loaner.
• Performance since the wiring harness change:
  • I’ve driven about 250 miles with zero resets or electronic glitches—it’s performing exactly as it should.
  • Efficiency is now on par with our Gen 1 Dual—night and day compared to before.
• Cabin noise improvements:
  • Overall wind noise has decreased significantly - though this was something I'd planned to live with, until the team at Normal added it to the tickets following their drives of the truck.
  • There is still some noise near the top of the driver’s door, but the cabin is quieter than ever - approaching that of our R1S when its got roof bars on it.
  • New? high-pitched noise:
    • After about 15 mins of driving, I hear a faint GPU-coil-whine-type noise while driving. It doesn’t correlate with motor load/regent, AC use, or wind.
    • If it persists, I’ll open a ticket—though it’s easily drowned out by cranking up Sub Focus on the stereo.
    • I wonder whether this could be related to the STL service work, where they removed some sound-deadening “diaper” from the front motor/inverter and shaved the motor mounts rather than just correctly installing the underbody panels and charge-port cover.
• Service-center experience:
  • The Normal SC team was outstanding. They turned what felt like a total QC failure—and a frustrating corporate response—into a positive enough experience that convinced me to remain a Rivian customer. If the team in STL had been as proactive, this thread would never have existed.

Conclusion: Unless this truck fails again, I’m keeping it. However, the overall experience has made me hesitant to purchase another Rivian outright; I’ll probably lease next time.

Glad it worked out for you mate. I would have ran for the hills ages ago. Cheers.

 

[portdirect]

Glad it worked out for you mate. I would have ran for the hills ages ago. Cheers.

So the trucks back up at normal being serviced again :

• A Pillar appliqué on the drivers side came loose - and started causing a massive amount of wind noise. Mobile service came out and replaced it, which made things a bit better but above ~50 mph it was sounding like a convertible with the top down.
• The truck was making a whistling noise whenever driven at city speeds.
• The camera system is FUBAR, blending footage between cameras, and also failing to record many gear-guard incidents etc: (and yes - this issue has been present from the moment the truck was returned from its last visit to the SC, it just took me a couple of weeks to notice - and is also why the new Rivian only ADAS was insane when I tried it on my partial update)
  • Normal have identified this as an issue with the *internal* ssd on the AXM connected to the CV5.
  • Additionally they are replacing a side mirror assembly.
• The camera issues may be why the truck failed to update to the newest firmware, and required the trip to the SC to resolve.

 

[waitingonanr1s]

I don't know how you're sticking through this. Mine is back in the shop again while I roll around in another Enterprise rental - this time with ADAS issues that they still can't diagnose after 1 week at the service center (they see the faults but all the data is corrupt from over 2 dozen diagnostic captures and timestamps I provided).

I'm at cumulative day 28 of service on my May delivery and I'm trying to hold myself back from calling them today to get the lemon buyback processing. So frustrating. I hope they get your vehicle fixed - you definitely deserve it with all the grace you've given Rivian.

 

[hammick]

My biggest complaint with our R1S Tri is panel alignment. They finally got the doors aligned to my satisfaction at the cost of the hood now being misaligned with the passenger quarter panel. Had it in recently for this and it's better but still off. Thinking of aligning the hood myself if possible.

 

[Donald Stanfield]

So the trucks back up at normal being serviced again :

• A Pillar appliqué on the drivers side came loose - and started causing a massive amount of wind noise. Mobile service came out and replaced it, which made things a bit better but above ~50 mph it was sounding like a convertible with the top down.
• The truck was making a whistling noise whenever driven at city speeds.
• The camera system is FUBAR, blending footage between cameras, and also failing to record many gear-guard incidents etc: (and yes - this issue has been present from the moment the truck was returned from its last visit to the SC, it just took me a couple of weeks to notice - and is also why the new Rivian only ADAS was insane when I tried it on my partial update)
  • Normal have identified this as an issue with the *internal* ssd on the AXM connected to the CV5.
  • Additionally they are replacing a side mirror assembly.
• The camera issues may be why the truck failed to update to the newest firmware, and required the trip to the SC to resolve.

When you're able to get six trouble-free months out of your car, we should all throw you a parade with Rivian sponsoring it.

 

[portdirect]

When you're able to get six trouble-free months out of your car, we should all throw you a parade with Rivian sponsoring it.

Knowing our luck - the 6 months of 0 trouble with the T will be the day somthing happens to the S!

Anyway about to head out and up to Normal now, and burn some hotel points. Have meetings in the AM and can’t afford to loose another day of work to this. Will get some snaps of the construction work too for those that are interested

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