Table 1 shows one common other fuel system related problems of the 2020 Tesla Model 3.
| Problem Category | Number of Problems |
|---|---|
| Other Fuel System problems |
12v battery failed without warning. Car was parked. Was unresponsive. Could not unlock the car. Able to open trunk and passenger side door only. Drivers side would not open. Touchscreen black no power to do anything car essentially dead with no warning. There should have been on screen display informing driver of the need to replace 12v battery. There was none. Car needed to be towed. If this has happened while we were in the car we would have been locked in. Tow operator jumped the battery to open hood. Touchscreen restarted but car still unresponsive. Multiple warnings on screen. Tow mode would not work so car needed to be pulled with the rear wheels locked onto tow truck.
This happened on 2/18/2023. After I charged my car at a local supercharging station, I drove on the local roads for about 2 miles when the car started shutting down. I could barely steer, and the computer monitor stated that the brakes were turning off, and other parts, like cameras, were losing functionality. I pulled over into the local park. I was frightened that my car was no longer functional and that I could be in grave danger driving again. I tried to call Tesla but no one answered. I had to go through the app. My dad came and we found a youtube video that said to walk out of the car to let it restart. Looks like it happened to another owner. We did that and the car started functioning again. Not sure why it did this after a charge. But it happened again 3 mos later when I was on the freeway. Luckily, I knew what to do from prior experience. But I am mindful of this whenever I supercharge my car. I wait after charging to drive. This shouldn't be the case and Tesla should tell people of this issue. I tried to tell Tesla service when I went in for another repair but they ignored my comments.
The rear drive unit of our Tesla failed on our Tesla Model 3 2020 (2 years at the time of incident). It is no longer available for inspection as it was replaced by Tesla. We had our drive unit fail for our 2020 m3 driving in the middle of what is considered one of the most dangerous freeways in California (110). After all the warnings came online, we had 30 seconds before the entire car stopped. Of the warnings (power reduced, acceleration and top speed reduced, automatic emergency breaking is disabled) there was no indication that the car would shut down. We made it to the exit ramp, but couldn’t make it to the shoulder so we blocked the entire exit. 511 was able to come in and help tow our car to a safer location. We took it to Tesla to be serviced and when asking the service rep if there’s any way we could have seen this coming, she just brushed it off as “it happens” and that there was no way to tell. It took us a while to feel comfortable with that.
We had Model 3 with instance of unintended acceleration at the gate of a parking lot. This car was bought in may 2020. On December 6, 2020, she was on the way out of the parking gate and suddenly the car accelerated, hitting the side wall of the gate. The car flew over a two-way street, resulting in a compound fracture of her right hip requiring internal fixation and transfusion. The vehicle was inspected by the police. There were no warning lamps, messages, or other symptoms prior to failure.
At a drive thru fast food tapped the peddle and the car launched and hit a truck in front of me.
I made a right hand turn from a full stop out of the parking lot into the farthest left lane intending to turn left. There were a line of cars ahead of me. As I was turning into the lane and let my foot of the accelerator pedal the car accelerated rapidly into the back of the vehicle ahead of me. It happened very quickly. It felt as though the vehicle took over on it's own. The car hit the vehicle once and then continued moving and it the vehicle again - so twice in all.