u/Draygoon2818

Caught some really neat lightning on the camera this morning. This was near Houston.

I received a text saying the VA had made a decision on my claim. Then an email notification came across as I was picking up my phone. Heart started beating a little faster as I knew I didn't have a claim in play. My final claim was decided last week, and I'm good with it. Logged in to look at the claim letter, and it actually took me several minutes to figure out what was going on.

When they decided my last claim, they dated it for back in Feb. I had originally submitted it in Nov of last year, but apparently they had messed up and did not realize that part of what I had submitted, was a new claim. They closed it along with another part of the claim. However, I never received a letter about why the new claim had been closed. So I resubmitted with what the VA rep had told me when I called. That actually turned out to be the wrong form to use. They closed my claim again, but this time issued a letter saying what I needed to do. I resubmitted again back in Feb.

Apparently, someone had looked back over the claim and noticed it should have been back dated to Nov of last year. That's what the decision letter was telling me. I finally saw the date, then looked at my payments to see if it showed there, which it did. Had me scared there at first, though.

Since updating to 14.3, this is now my daily struggle. Happens in the same area, every day. The lane I am in, is the lane I need to be in. The lane to my right becomes an exit only lane, which you will see at the end of the video.

When I get on the freeway, approximately 15 miles back, this is the lane the car stays in. There is a lane to my right all the way, until when you see it end in the video. For some unknown reason, about 2 miles from the exit I am supposed to take, the car inevitably will start getting over to the right. At the beginning of the video, you can see me fighting the turn signal, and the car still starts to get over. Yes, I know I pushed the wrong reason button.

Like I said, it’s an exit only lane. I’ve even let the car figure it out on its own, and that almost turned into an event as people didn’t want to let the car back over when it nearly waited too long to get back over after figuring out its mistake. This has not been a problem before 14.3. It’s quite annoying, though.

I recently installed a sub and amp in my ‘26 Model Y. It sounds amazing now! The issue I have, though, is the sub cuts out after playing for a while. I’m assuming it’s because the amp is overheating. It will only happen after I’ve been playing it for a while, whilst driving around. By the time I get home, it’s usually working again.

What would be the best way to try to prevent it from overheating? Yes, I know the more bass I play the hotter the amp will get. I’m trying to figure out the best way to try to keep it cooler while pumping out the bumps. I’ve thought about relocating it and mount it to the side of the speaker box, though not sure if that will change much as it still won’t have good ventilation. In the lower right corner of the picture with the amp, you can a small part of the one way vent built into the car.

Alpine R2-W12D2
Diamond Audio MICRO81U amp

Yes, in the picture you will also see a Kicker 8” sub, but I have disconnected it.

For those that are wanting to see your DBQs, there is an easy way to file your FOIA request and receive them relatively quickly.

Go to the VA website and login.

Click where it says VA Benefits and Health Care. It's a drop down box.

Click on Records > View all in records

Scroll down until you see Request personal records (VA Form 20-10206) and click the link.

On the next screen, scroll down until you see Start your request, and click the link.

Fill out the info on the first several screens. On the screen where it asks for your SSN, it also asks for a VA File Number. I've only ever used my SSN. I have always left the VA File Number box blank. I don't think it is needed for the DBQ request.

When it gets to the screen where you can select what it is you are wanting, only choose the Claim Exams. That's it. Finish filling out the last few screens and submit it.

The fastest I've had them send me mine was 3 days after I submitted the request. The previous one took 6 days. Mine only involved about 60-something records. If you have a lot of DBQs and stuff, it might take a little bit longer. It is a fairly easy process to request them, though.

Apparently, this tool thought I should have known he was going to come from behind other vehicles, then cross several lanes of traffic to get around others. Apparently, I failed Psychic 101. I don’t think he even left the lane I got over into.

Went through 3 school zones today. I don’t live somewhere where I normally have to worry about going through school zones, so haven’t really seen how well FSD does in one. Today though, I had to go to the county appraisal district office to turn some paperwork in. The first part of the video is when I was going to the office. There is a school across the street from the office. The direction I was coming from, I had just turned off of the highway feeder road. It did quite well. The second and third parts of the video were after I left. The third part has a 30 mph school zone as the road has a higher overall speed limit. The first two school zones are in a 35 mph and 30 mph speed zone, respectively.

Edit: Meant to say that all of these are in Standard mode.

'26 MY

In chill mode, minding my own business, when I saw a car start merging into the lane to my right. She apparently decided to keep coming over into my lane even though I was right next to her by the time she was fully in the lane to my right. FSD jogged me a little to the left to keep her from side swiping me. It did need to wait a couple seconds to react as a car was in the lane to my left. Not too shabby.

Now to go download 14.3.2, as I was just notified it was ready to update, 5 minutes ago.

Finally finished my little project of upgrading the subwoofer and adding a subwoofer. It has turned out pretty good, and it definitely thumps.

The first thing I did was replace the stock subwoofer. As you can see in the pictures, the magnet is just tiny. While it put out a decent amount of bass, there was room for improvement. I went with a Kicker CompR8 8" DVC subwoofer. I had to buy an adapter so I could attach it to the speaker box, as the stock sub has a wider plate where the screw holes are. The screw holes on the Kicker sub will not line up with any part of the box. I ordered the Metra 82-8606 from Amazon. I did add Soundskins Sound Deadening 1/2" wide tape on both sides of the adapter, just to make sure it made a good seal. The sub box is ported, and the port is just above the sub. I thought it was a sealed box until I went to attach the adapter ring. The stock sub is a DVC 2x80W 4ohm speaker. The speaker wires have attachments on the end, with one being larger than the other. The larger attachment is the positive wire. Luckily, I did not have to cut off the attachments, as the connections on the Kicker sub are push button, and the holes were large enough to accept the attachments. I did have to move the larger attachment around a little before it fit in the wire hole. The bass difference with just this done was impressive. It seemed to me as an improved amount of bass.

The second thing I did was install the 12" subwoofer in the deep well. This took considerably more time and effort. I bought a kit online that included everything I needed. I chose the Alpine R2-W12D2 DVC subwoofer. It's powered by a Diamond Audio MICRO81u 1 channel amplifier. I tapped into the speaker wires for the input to the amp. The hardest part was running the power wire from the 12V connection that is near the air filter in the frunk. Getting the wire through the firewall was no small feat. If you have large hands, you might want to find someone with smaller hands, or have some long pliers. I happened to have long pliers, but it was still a pita. The sub box is a sealed box. I did add some polyfill to it. I also wired the sub in a 1ohm configuration to give the sub the full 600W from the amp. I had tried it in a 4ohm configuration first, and while it hit pretty good, I felt as though it could do more. Putting it in the 1ohm configuration definitely made a difference. It does a nice back massage now and you can definitely feel the air moving through the car.

I haven't decided yet whether or not I'm going to put a hole in the bottom of the deep well so I can run the speaker wires through it. The only time you actually see the speaker wires is when I have the trunk floor off, so it's not particularly a necessity. The amp comes with a control knob that I mounted on the bottom rear of the screen. It makes it easy to adjust the amount of bass. My wife is not particularly fond of heavy bass. I usually have to turn the sub down whenever she is in the car, so the control knob is a nice addition. I ran the wire for it at the same time as the power wire.

If you have any questions, let me know. It was a fairly easy project. The end result is absolutely nice. The amount of bass is pretty ridiculous, and it makes me smile.

Edit: Tested the sound with the following songs:
Long After You're Gone - Chris Jones
Clint Eastwood - Gorillaz
For Real - Rittz
Ratata - Skrillex
Lying From You - Linkin Park
Cruise - Florida Georgia Line

2nd Edit: Someone asked me, but deleted the question, so I thought I would go ahead and answer it. This is a '26 MY Premium. Brought it home at the end of April '25.