Code VCLEFT_a273 was reported by the “Left vehicle controller” controller in the car. The letter “a” in the middle places it among entries of the alert type.
Vehicle Controller Left — the left body controller. It runs the left-hand doors, windows, mirrors, seats and their heating.
The most common type. The car logged the event and may have shown it on the screen. The range is wide — from something trivial that clears itself to something that needs attention.
This is how the fault is named inside the car's firmware. For codes without a description it is the most precise clue there is — the name itself says what the event is about.
The text below comes from Tesla's technical documentation. We leave it in the original English so that translation cannot shift its meaning.
Front handle is stuck unseated, vehicle will not sleep
Mirror stalled unexpectedly while folding or unfolding
If folding motor current exceeds 0.5A or decreases below 0.1A after 500ms from beginning of actuation. Or timeout from current state after 5 seconds.
Succesful mirror fold or unfold
Mirror might be halfway between folded and unfolded
Trailer Light Controller shut off due to high current consumption
There is a low RPM current bang condition on the brushless motor
The HVAC blower resumes running normally at RPM target.
The HVAC blower will not be able to run. A reset will take effect to attempt to clear the fault.
Copy it exactly, letter and number included. Photographing the screen is safest — codes often differ by a single digit, and mixing them up leads somewhere else entirely.
Some codes clear after a screen restart or after the car sits locked for a few hours. If the code does not come back, it was usually a one-off glitch.
A one-off entry and a code that appears after every drive are two different things. It helps a service centre enormously if you know exactly when it shows up.
With airbags, brakes, steering and high voltage there is no point waiting it out. With the other groups you can watch and see whether the code returns at all.
Error codes are only part of the picture. For cars on TesList you also see battery health pulled straight from the vehicle, plus a price calculator that works out from current listings what a given car is actually worth today.