general problems of the 2014 Tesla Model S - part 1

The rear door handle has failed and now the door pops open when parked.

After a high-voltage junction box repair performed by Tesla, the vehicle shut down 15 miles after leaving the service center. Tesla replaced the high-voltage harness at no cost but provided no explanation. After the hv harness replacement, new proximity/sensor alerts began triggering that were not present before their hv work. Multiple reasonable diagnostic procedures were refused, including bench-testing the sensors. Tesla is pressuring me to take possession of the vehicle without providing written confirmation that it is safe to operate following the hv system failure and subsequent replacement of hv components. I am concerned the vehicle may have unresolved high-voltage or wiring issues that could pose a safety hazard.

The main touchscreen (mcu1) and instrument cluster on my 2014 Tesla Model S frequently freeze, reboot, or go blank while driving. When this happens, I lose access to defrost, turn signals, backup camera, and speed display. I contacted Tesla service, but they refused to repair or replace the unit under recall ea20-003 or the extended warranty, even though the symptoms match the known emmc 8gb memory failure. The black screen and frozen instrument cluster create a clear safety risk. Tesla should cover this issue under the recall or provide an equivalent mcu2 replacement if mcu1 parts are unavailable.

The recirculation button takes 3 presses to engage/disengage or 1. Sometimes 2. It's supposed to be an "intelligent" design. I'm sure there's software programming that determines when 2 presses are required vs 3 or 1 but to a driver it can be dangerous while focusing on the road. It should just be 1 press engages or disengages recirculation period just like other vehicles. Also, those buttons should be on the main page of the ipad screen. It shouldn't take opening 2-3 different pages on the screen to get to the recirculation button. Buttons that should be on the main page that you don't need to open several pages to get 1. Recirculation button 2. Ac button (it is a serious safety issue when trying to defrost on a humid day but it takes pressing several different buttons to get to the ac button that should just be out in the open like any other car. 3. Suspension height (sometimes you need to quickly change for clearance and if distracted by opening several pages to get to the suspension button, it is a safety issue) all those buttons should be lined up on the far left edge of the screen closest to the driver and preferably towards the top. It's a serious safety issue to be distracted by fidgeting around on the screen to get to those buttons that are supposed to be "right there".

Allows driving without speedometer, was just showing Tesla branding in place.

The vehicles mcu storage files are 100% full, and unable to read or write new data. The caches and nodes to have been cleared several times to restore data storage and writing capabilities. 12v power resets have also been performed as well as factory reset to eliminate potentially corrupt data and free storage space. While at Tesla they reformatted gateway sd card. The vehicle is still unable to take firmware update and unable to unlock vehicle gateway, therefore, a new key fob is not able to be programmed to vehicle. Tesla tested vehicle app remote start capabilities and verified proper functionality. The tech had me uninstall then reinstall the Tesla mobile app, then pair phone to vehicle. They then informed me that a new key fob will not be able to be paired to vehicle until infotainment upgrade is performed. No further repairs possible until info upgrade. To which that isn’t right and my car is inoperable for the second time because of this issue.

I ran out of wiper fluid. This is the 9th time I’ve had to pour a whole gallon of wiper fluid into this car in 289,309 miles. I’m starting to get really frustrated. Also, my friend keeps telling me I have to get the blinker fluid checked.

Air conditioning was stopped working 2x.

So this is actually a complaint about how an existing recall was processed - I’m not sure if this is the right place to submit, if not please let me know. My car is subject to emmc recall and I had the recall service done at the dealer a week ago. When I picked up the car the touchscreen had bubbles and was leaking; they were not there when I brought it in. They claim that the touchscreen problem is age and temperature related and just a coincidence that it happened while in their service center. The cost to repair the touchscreen (which was fine before recall service) is $800+. It feels to me as though they are trying to surreptitiously charge $800+ for a recall that is supposed to be free, by damaging something else and denying responsibility.

Car was parked in a lot for 15 minutes and suddenly accelerated, jumping the curb and hitting a structure. The car seemed possessed.

Traveling on the interstate, car shut down unexpectedly at 70 mph in the fast lane was barely able to clear right most (slow) lane before car cut off, not even safely clearing the shoulder. Warning that brake and gas were both activated at same time which was not done by me. Insufficient time from warning until total failure less than 5 minutes, almost hit by diesel traveling northbound on I-5 power reduced so no ability to use caution to warn surrounding drivers. Currently 5 months pregnant and this failure could have caused bodily injury to myself, unborn baby and others on the road. Tesla performed diagnosis and said that the internal rear drive unit failed and there were no symptoms, alert or prior indication besides unexpected power failure. There are quite a few complaints of drive unit failures with Tesla.

Both the main lcd computer screen and the speed display have leaked the liquid crystal fluid out from the displays due to high cabin heat even with the cabin heat protection feature enabled. This has been brought to Teslas attention and they are requesting I pay $1750 to upgrade the entertainment system which replaces both screens but I have not asked for an upgraded entertainment system. I am asking that the flat lcd panels do not leak from heat in the first place !.

As a concerned vehicle owner, I would like to draw your attention to the recent recall related to the front trunk hood of my vehicle. According to the national highway traffic safety administration, if the primary latch is inadvertently released and the secondary latch is not engaged, the hood could open unexpectedly, obstructing the driver's view and increasing the risk of a crash. This recall specifically impacts my vehicle, and I am deeply concerned about the safety risks it poses to me and other drivers on the road. While I understand that recalls are a common occurrence in the automotive industry, I believe that the responsible party should take full responsibility for addressing this issue and ensuring that all affected vehicles are repaired in a timely and effective manner. The safety of drivers and passengers should always be the top priority, and I strongly believe that the responsible party should bear the cost of repairing this potentially dangerous defect. I urge you to take immediate action to address this recall and ensure that my vehicle is repaired as soon as possible. I appreciate your attention to this matter and look forward to a prompt resolution that prioritizes the safety and well-being of all drivers on the road. " my hood latch unexpectedly has opened during a drive on the freeway and street. I almost crashed and had to pull over multiple times to get it fixed. There is an active recall for this vehicle 2014 Tesla Model S front hood latch, but apparently my vehicle does not qualify. Its a known issue and would like to speak to Tesla to add this year and model to the recall and reimburse me for the charges.

On hwy 156, a farm country road near hollister, California, a motorist travelling immediately behind a white Tesla reported that the Tesla suddenly and inexplicably accelerated from 55 mph to 65 mph and crossed the double yellow lines. It made no apparent attempt to cross back into the original lane. In less than 3 seconds -- 170 feet by chp ground measurement -- the Tesla collided head-on with a semi traveling in the opposite direction. All four occupants in the Tesla were killed instantly. The truck driver was injured, but not seriously. The four deceased occupants were my daughter (53), my twin granddaughters (14), and my grandson (12). According to the chp report, all wore seat-belts. The airbag for the driver did not deploy, but the other three did. My grandson was ejected and dismembered but the other three were not. His seatbelt status is therefore questionable. Her grief-stricken and angry ex-husband, father of the three children, accused the driver of deliberately committing suicide and took the lives of the three children with her. Yet from the chp investigation, the four had just enjoyed a pleasant outing in their favorite restaurant and shops for several hours with no sign of anyone distraught. The restaurant receipt shows no alcohol was consumed. They had texted people and showed nothing out of the ordinary. Forty minutes later, they all perished. Her mother and step-father, her boyfriend, her best friend, and other close acquaintances, were all surprised by her sudden death. No suicide note was found anywhere, not in her journal and not in her media posts. No despondent communication of any kind was conveyed to anyone. Her extreme devotion to the children would make her willfully taking their lives very uncharacteristic. If not suicide, what made the Tesla behave so strangely and deliberately? NHTSA has been investigating Tesla crashes involving sudden left turns into oncoming traffic. Please use your expertise and resources to investigate this.

During my ownership of the car I have experienced very severe issues with the door handles. In total I have replaced 5 door handles in just my ownership. Meaning that I have replaced the same door handle more than once. One particular instance I had an issue while I was on a job where both the door handles on the driver side failed at one time. One was a mechanical malfunction and the other was a software related problem. I ended having to climb across the car for 3 weeks before they could get me into my appointment. Tesla has the ability to fix the problem. They have stated several times to me that it is just an outdated door handle with poor parts that they used on the first generation. If you have a child locked in the car it could be a serious issue.

Driver's door handle does not function. When car is unlocked, the door handle pops out but the door will not open. I had this same issue two years ago with the front passenger door handle and see that this is a recall item on my model (s) for vehicles starting in year 2016. Don't know why the 2014 sedan is not included in this recall, as it should be. It is a safety concern.

The door handles on my car get excessively hot in warmer weather. My 7 year old daughter burnt her hand attempting to open the door. I’m unsure of what material they are made out of, however it is impossible to open without using something to put over them first. I will be getting a temperature on them today. I’ve never had this be an issue with any other vehicle previously.

Noticed very loud hvac fan noise when car trying to cool off battery during moderate to warm weather. Taken to Tesla service center found to have broken front vent louvers which were replaced.

The vehicle was part of the emmc recall, we paid out of pocket, approved for reimbursement but Tesla refuses to actually pay.

We have owned this car for a couple of months. Today, when I pulled into a parking spot at my office, the car accelerated quickly as soon as I made the turn to get into the parking spot. It jumped the curb and I barely missed hitting the office building. My feet were not on the gas pedal, the car did this on its own. None of the sensors went off to warn me of the curb like it normally does too. You can see from the skid marks how hard I had to slam on the brakes. Car damaged on front, assuming the windshield wiper fluid line was also cut with the fluid on the ground. Pictures attached.

My 2014 Model S Tesla only has 61,000 miles on it. Yet the mcu continually freezes and crashes. Especially on long trips. Tesla claims my 8gb emmc in the mcu is not malfunctioning due to accumulated wear. But they are not able to diagnose what is wrong. I read the Jan 13th NHTSA recall with interest. Although the symptoms are similar, excess "read/writes" of the emmc chip does not explain the problem in my mcu. There are other reasons that the mcu in my 2014 Tesla s is malfunctioning and crashing. I have videos to show the problem but I cannot load videos on this site.

I have had repeated failures related to the main display (mcu) on my Tesla Model S, included failure to start when the car was powered up, "crashing" during driving, "locking" or "freezing" of entertainment screens onto the display that remain even while driving, and slow response to instructions. It was initially replaced under warranty with a remanufactured mcu1 unit in February 2020. The car continued to have problems and I scheduled service two more times during 2020 and Tesla refused to replace the hardware each time. They said they "cleared the memory" and "reset the firmware". This solved the immediate problems but the problems returned, sometimes within days. I have heard anecdotally that Tesla reduced data logging to try and preserve the life of these units; ironically, I believe, this results in Tesla saying there was nothing logged and thus refusing to replace the hardware. In January of 2021, out of concern for the safety of my car, I paid $2500 to upgrade from mcu1 to mcu2 based on staff saying that would solve my problems. It has not. In the 10 days since the upgrade, it has "crashed" 2 more times while driving and "froze" part of the display another time while driving. I have lost unexpectedly : navigation in the middle of a complicated interchange, the rear camera needed to reverse safely, many controls including lights, heating, ac, and charging. With the mcu2 crash, I also lost the dashboard display (e. G. Speed). Finally, the implementation of the display of the rear camera in mcu2 (the rear camera is the same) is bad - at night the display is so dark it is almost useless. This is a step backwards. I have been repeatedly told an impending firmware update will fix the problems. I have received several updates, but none fixed the problems. The attached photo is the most recent crash of the new mcu2.

Two problems: my car is giving off warnings about the suspension. And so far Tesla refuses to fix it even though the car is under warranty. 2) the center control unit is slowing down and some of the functions aren't working. So for example, my backup camera would not come on today. Again Tesla is refusing to fix this and suggesting that I wait firmware fix. And this has been going on for the better part of a year.

The entire screen went black and it started showing the backup camera. I couldn't fix it even by restarting it. Notifications included- center display unavailable, it also affected the turn signal while driving and cruise control. Other safety features of the vehicle were also unavailable.

In 2019 my main computer screen went blank. And didn't come back on. I was able to drive but had no defogger or other safety features. Tesla replaced an mcu computer module. It happened again in 2020. I brought it back January 14 2021 and instead of replacing the unit with a 64 gb unit (the original was a 6 gb unit) they emptied out some information to make more room. I see this as a temporary fix. I am not confident this won't happen again. My car is still under an extended warranty.

I would like to provide information regarding 2 preliminary evaluations in 2020 that NHTSA has opened for a Tesla vehicle. 1. The expanded probe June over touchscreen failures. 2. 2015-2017 Model S and 2016-2017 model x vehicles regarding failure of left or right front suspension fore links. I would like to point out that although NHTSA is used to dealing with "model year" vehicles, it is well known that Tesla does not follow the calendar year models like over manufacturers. They introduce new features, fixes, modifications in real-time. I wanted to let you know this as your evaluations maybe should not be cut to the calendar year and possibly gain information on the time when Tesla implemented a change to the production. I am including two invoices that I have had to pay this year and here are some concerns. 1. April2020 - mcu replacement. My replaced mcu is still exhibiting the same issues where I can have no rear camera, no blinking sound, extreme delays in the touchscreen, random reboots. I am currently providing evidence to Tesla in order for them to fix under warranty. The onis is on me however it seems. Tesla's own recall for this issue has a limit of 8 years or 100,000 miles. This is not covering the fact that it is older vehicles that exhibit this issue. This is a defect which has been proven by independent post-Tesla service personnel which I can provide you direction to review that info. My point here is please do not let them get away with providing a half-solved solution. The mcu in question is using non-commercial grade emm memory. 2. November2020 - failure of the left or right front suspension fore links. After a visit to a local service station, they mentioned there is a problem. Attached is the invoice from Tesla replacing the fore links mentioned here. In summary, my car was made in the u. S. I hope you will hold Tesla accountable.

Repeat failures of the center console screen and complete replacement of the instrument panel. Center console screen has had issues since purchase with going to black screen and rebooting. Now the screen will not reboot and all safety and convienience features are disabled. No rear view camera, side and back detection cameras, ac, stereo, headlight, braking function controls, I have a call into Tesla, but no response so far. I am afraid that I will not be able to charge the car, this has happened to many owners. This is a known issue and Tesla refuses to recall. I will probably need to replace the mcu at a cost of $2500. 00, this on top of replacing a defective instrument panel (it delaminated) at a cost of $750. 00 (it was $1500. 00, Tesla reduced to $750. 00 and demanded that I say that I was fully satisfied with the repair prior to the work or they would not reduce the fee). My vehicle is out of warranty by less than 7k miles. The insturument panel was at less than 500 miles out of warranty. The rebooting of the center console screen happens when driving and has been occuring since purchase. Tesla stated it was a need to reset because the car was processing too much data. . Read more...

My automobile has become unresponsive. When I attempt to start it, the message "systems are powering up" appears but nothing happens. This has happened on several occasions and now 2 days in a row and am unable to drive the car as it does not allow me to. I have waited over 15 minutes with still no response. It had remained parked for 3 days before trying to operate it. I am unable to reset the power on the car since the media control screen stays black. The Tesla app will not connect to the car. The windows, lights, door locks still operate, but I am unable to shift the car into drive to get to a service center. I am told it will be $195 to diagnose. I have 102,132 miles. The issues started occurring approximately 50k miles after I purchased it. In February of this year, I replaced the 12v battery after a warning indication appeared and told me I needed to. At this time, there are no indications.

The mcu screen has bubbles in it and every so often just goes black.

Drove out of town and parked the vehicle in driveway for about 5 hours, when I retuned to drive it back (10 pm) center touch screen was blank. I noticed that there was loss of function of nearly everything in the vehicle. I could still drive it but with ability to use turn signal lights, or headlights (very dangerous drive at night). Steering wheel buttons, ac, audio, phone bluetooth, and all controls of the vehicle were completely lost. It was 90 degrees outside that night and had to drive without ac, I could not make or receive phone calls due to black screen, sun roof could not be opened. Basically the vehicle became a bare basic vehicle without any of the safety features or even the basic feature such as signal lights. I am not sure if there was an emergency if airbags would have responded either! the car felt just too scary to drive!! odometer would not count the miles too, odometer is lost and app shows the mileage from yesterday (even though I drove 50 miles on it to get home), I even notice battery started draining faster while I was driving it back home. . Performed soft and hard reset per Tesla website recommendations without ability to restore any of the functions or make the center screen display anything. I attempted connecting through the Tesla app, and although I was able to connect to the vehicle, the car would not respond to app for any of the controls, climate etc. Contacted Tesla next morning and they stated that since vehicle is out of warranty that I will have to bring it to service center or tow it if unsafe to drive and pay for repair to restore its functions. The small dash screen still was working, but continues to display a message to "wait while vehicle systems power up". It is completely an unsafe car at this time on every level.

Media control unit(mcu) failed due to design flaw of memory being overwritten until it hits a limit. Once the limit is hit, the mcu no longer works. The mcu controls the back up camera and turn signals. Both no longer work and I am not able to view the back up camera or signal lane changes or turns while driving.

The battery took a huge 10% drop which seemed to be across all similar models to prevent fires from occurring. I believe this should have been a recall instead of limiting the battery and the last time this car was in for service, Tesla was not able to update the firmware further for any additional limitations that might be preventing fires.

The media control unit (mcu) failed - this control unit should not be a consumable or wear part - when it fails the turn signals do not operate, the windshield defogger cannot be operated, and many other critical safety systems impacted - the mcu has been acting up and not normal for past 9 -12 months then finally failed completely 07/27/20.

My mcu (control screen) failed, went black and didn't come back. The car was stationary in a parking lot. I did a reboot and it failed to reboot. Contacted Tesla and took to service center where they said it needed to be replaced.

Mcu failure - emmc failed, resulting in loss of hvac, charging notifications, turn signal clicks, headlight controls, loss of rear view camera etc.