Table 1 shows one common power train related problems of the 2015 Tesla Model S.
| Problem Category | Number of Problems |
|---|---|
| Power Train problems |
Large drive unit that has previously been replaced by Tesla failed due to coolant ingress leaking through rotor seal. Known issue per 3rd party technicians.
The component that Tesla has stated is the part that is failing is the mcu (media control unit) which was a recalled part at one point but then Tesla decided to replace only a single part of the mcu which was the emmc (embedded multimedia card). Luckily the vehicle was not driving when it completely shut down and would not start back up but I was stuck in a restaurants drive-thru for roughly 4 hours till I could get a tow truck to come tow it. The tow truck had to put the car on dollies as the vehicle would not enter tow mode nor would it enter its emergency neutral mode so the vehicle could be moved. The windows would not go up or down and luckily the trunk was able to open because if not then I would have been stuck outside my vehicle as the door handles did not come out after I got out of it and closed the door behind me. Please read the messages from the tech as you will see that they tried to act as if they did not know what was going on with my vehicle but then I asked something else and they stated exactly what the issue was but supposedly could not confirm it was that unless they charged me a diagnosis fee and "got hands on" which I'm sure that info of what was wrong with my vehicle was nothing they needed to get their hands on. There were no warning lamps or messages until the vehicle shut off on me in the drive-thru and then the warnings started to populate staying that the vehicle was off, vehicle could not detect brake being pressed, and that the vehicle was not detecting the key. The repair estimate is no longer available in my app for some reason, probably because I did not repair the vehicle as they were wanting me to upgrade to the new mcu that is in the current vehicles and it would have been roughly $2,400. 00. Just today, the vehicle would not start, would not move my seat or anything to its memorized position when I got in the vehicle and the screen was frozen, just as it did when the original recall happened of the mcu/emmc, photo/videoattached.
Driving my car and it completely gives out in the middle of traffic without any warning or alter almost causing an accident. When asked about the absence of alert they said I may or may not get one and I should be lucky it just cut off (randomly in traffic mind you) because if it didn’t it would’ve burst into flames. Being the rear drive unit is the second most important part of the vehicle an alert should be given 100% of the time as no alert could cause injury to myself or other drivers. This means there are other Tesla drivers out there with a probable chance of their randomly car stopping without any control of the vehicle endangering lives. This oddly happens 60 days outside my 8 year warranty when I haven’t any issues at all and receive alerts for everything down to my fob key being low on battery. In addition the whole time they were just trying to convince to get a new one because they just happen to be running a limited time promo that I can transfer my free supercharging to a new vehicle if I purchased. A lot of people have reported (down to the day) of their car dying suddenly after warranty but no avail Tesla says they won’t goodwill repair my vehicle although I could’ve died or been seriously injured.
Bought the car used. Had issues with rear drive unit that was replaced under warranty. Similar issue before warranty expired and was checked out by Tesla and noted to be " normal" noise. Later the nose got louder and repeat diagnostic recommended rdu to be replaced at a cost of nearly $8500. I believe that the rdu on older models were defective.
The Model S, which was bought in 2015, had a sudden acceleration while I was trying to park near the entrance gate of the parking lot. The accident happened on may 25, 2023. Fortunately, nobody got hurt and the car was totaled. I feel strongly that this should be investigated, as this can be a very serious public safety issue. It was inspected by the insurance company. There were no warning messages prior to the failure.
Rear drive unit failure failed while driving, letters turned red and car became unresponsive. Car later became responsive between 3-10 seconds. Has occurred 5 times in a week. Dealer claims moisture to drive unit is what caused it and repair was covered under warranty except the harness attached to it, dealer charged me $599 for the harness. If seals are failing and allowing moisture to happen, which then leads vehicles to be unresponsive while driving is a huge risk. Please look into this, there are others online with the same issue.
I am from florida and was passing through vegas. The time was about 9:41 pm. I was on my way from las vegas, nv and I charged the car to 90% and was on my way to the kingman, az supercharger (traveling on u. S. 93). The car was at 32% at the bottom of the mountain (approx +3400ft). The cars indicators showed arrival to kingman supercharger @ 31%. However, while reaching near the cerbat foothills recreation area (approx +4000ft - so approx gradual 600ft climb). The car started to alert me that I needed to pull over as there is no more power. The car still showed 30% power remaining and approx 23 miles. The destination was 2. 7 miles (5 min) away. The car drove for about 20 - 50ft then lost the ability to accelerate. I put my hazards on and had to cut drivers off to get over to the right shoulder (no shoulder on left) before it stopped rolling uphill. There were also no street lights (very dark) and the cell signal was very weak. I was able to call Tesla roadside who saw remotely that the car had 38% remaining power. The battery immediately started dropping quickly while talking to him. The car refused to start/go into neutral when the tow company came. We had it taken back to vegas where it took Tesla over a month to acquire a replacement battery. I slept in the car and was not provided a loaner for months. Even had to get a job there. While waiting for the repair I discovered the cooling system had issues. Tesla won't say it but I am sure the cooling system failure led to the battery not being cooled and dying. The louvers were all broken, and the compressor needed to be replaced. I mentioned to Tesla long before I did this trip that the ac was making noises and they ignored it multiple times. I even recorded the sounds it made and played it for them. I have a video and more info than I can fit in here. Even though there is proof of past issues I still am responsible for the cost of their mistakes. In more ways than 1. I spent the holidays and my birthday stuck here.
On September 7, 2021 I was driving in heavy rain conditions. The rain was so heavy I could only drive at speed of 25 mph. My car displayed a message "car may not restart - service required" I pulled under a canopy of a gas station and put the car in park. The car did not restart after that and was towed to Tesla service center. The next day I was told that a rapid mate vehicle side connector failed due to water ingress and that hv battery needs to be replaced due to same damage. I was presented with a $23622. 54 invoice even, though, the battery is covered under existing powertrain warranty. The car was never driven into standing water or a puddle. Water has not entered the interior of the car. The battery and other electrical components of the car are poorly insulated / isolated presenting the risk of water damage and or electric shock under ordinary driving conditions.
After having my battery coolant heater replaced on February 22, 2021 I noticed problems with my car starting up slowly. Note error messages were noted on my vehicle however. On March 10 while driving home from work on a smooth straight freeway the entire electrical system in my car failed causing propulsion to go off line and the brake pedal to lock up and become non-functional until the system rebooted. For approximately 20 to 30 seconds it was impossible to depress the brake pedal. Fortunately I was on the freeway and pressing the brake pedal wasn't required. I am concerned about the safety of this vehicle now since I had mistakenly believed that there was redundancy in the systems that would preserve brake function in the midst of a power failure. There is no manual hand brake. I am extremely concerned that a system failure like this could happen again as I am approaching an intersection, a school zone or going down a steep decline. I have attached invoices from the original service with the battery coolant heater that was replaced as well as the subsequent service after the incident where the technicians identified that the drive unit was improperly connected.
On afternoon of November 23, 2020, 2015 Tesla Model S 85d was in motion with single occupant, turning right turn into residential area off city street. Driver heard loud and deep metallic sound and immediately slowed. Warning message similar to 'unsafe to drive, pull over safely' appeared on dash. Driver stopped car right away and heard 3-4 loud, identical sounds. Driver heard another sound followed by loud 'pop' and smelled something burning. Driver immediately exited and saw smoke billowing from below the vehicle. Driver moved away. There was another loud 'pop' sound and flames started visibly shooting outward and upward from the front passenger wheel well area, mid-cabin and rear passenger tire well, charring the curb and grass next to vehicle. Fire continued to burn through passenger door, front of car (frunk), and underside of the car. Fire department and police department arrived on scene within minutes and extinguished fire. Fire damage to exterior was visible to front tire well and front passenger door. Additional fire damage noted inside rear passenger door. Cause is currently unknown.
The main control unit central screen froze and I could not get the car to function for about 7-8 mins. During this time, all major functions of climate control, rear view camera, and the car itself was non-functional. Even when the car functions, there are many times when the computer starts to go slow. Sometimes causing the touch screen to get unresponsive during driving the car. And a few times, the touch screen has even gone dark and non-functional while driving the car. History before this latest incident: note that this has happened many times in the past 1. 5 years. I took the car several times to the Tesla service shop and they used to just tell me to reboot the computer and they managed to reset the computer a couple of times while in warranty. Finally at one point after the warranty expired, the computer completely died earlier this year and Tesla service advised that I need to get the computer mcu replaced at my own expense of about $1200. I did that. Now after about 6 months of the new replaced mcu, the problem has started happening again, just like it happened about 1. 5 years ago. Computer slowing down and now two times, freezing up. I am frustrated at how easily this computer keeps getting into problems and causes potentially safety issues when the computer may go dark while driving or trying to back out of the garage or parking lot without visibility from the rear view camera when it happens. And I'm afraid that this new computer mcu may be on its way again for completely dying a second time in the same year. I am attaching the photo of the state of the car from today's incident (1:15pm 11/16/2020 pacific time). I hope you would investigate this closely since in the past Tesla has been telling me that this is normal wear and tear and I can't accept that this kind of thing is anywhere close to normal behavior for a critical part of the car.
At 30,500 miles a series of failures occurred while I was driving to san diego on the freeway. The center entertainment screen flicker and then turn off entirely. I was on autopilot mode at the time and it turned off without warning. Fortunately, I had my hands on the wheel and was prepared to take over driving when the system failed. At the same time, when the center display turned off, I lost functionality of all controls of the car that required access to this display (ventilation, suspension, sound system, rear view camera, suspension settings, autopilot. . . ). At the same time, multiple failure messages appeared on my main instrument cluster regarding inability to charge, and system failures. This was all preceded by longer and longer times for the car to boot up and be able to be driven. At the end, the car wouldn't boot up and was disabled. I was forced to have it towed to a my mechanic where it was diagnosed as a faulty mcu computer, which I paid to have it replaced.
Middle screen went out putting the car in 'limp mode' happened in the middle of the night and we didn't have headlights or turn signals! happened while driving about two hours from home when we tried putting a route in the touch screen after setting the automatic update for 2 am the following morning. The car has 101k miles the warranty expired at 100k miles. We notified Tesla of the problems we've been having with our screen freezing and rear view camera randomly not working while it was under warranty but the techs said 'everything is fine and it must have been a fluke' now that the car is out of warranty the now suddenly know the problem and a solution! this defect is scary and left us stranded and unable to navigate to a safe area off the highway in the middle of the night without headlights!!! why would they jeopardize safety over money!.
The main vehicle screen stopped working. Complete loss of rear camera image display when reverse gear is selected, resulting in reduced rear visibility when backing. No control over battery charging commands. Many times when I place the vehicle in reverse the camera would not display a rear image. Now my screen is completely black and nonreponsive.
The contact owns a 2015 Tesla Model S. The contact stated that stated that while driving at an unknown speed, the vehicle decelerated independnetly. The media control unit (mcu) became inoperable. The vehicle was towed to Tesla located at 8500 tyco rd, vienna, va 2218, (703) 761-4679, where it was diagnosed that the mcu failed and needed to be replaced. The contact was provided an estimate for the mcu replacement. The manufacturer was not made aware of the failure. The vehicle was not repaired. The failure mileage was approximately 65,132.
The contact owns a 2015 Tesla Model S. The contact stated that the media control unit touch screen was inoperable. The contact stated that while attempting to recharge the battery, the system flickered and failed to charge. The contact stated that the back-up camera was also inoperable. The vehicle was undrivable. An independent mechanic went to the residence to inspect the vehicle and the contact was informed that the media control unit needed to be replaced. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was notified of the failure. The failure mileage was 89,586.
Center console display and computer failed as described in NHTSA pe20010, was replaced under warranty approximately January 2018. Replacement unit is now showing initial signs of same failure (extremely slow start-up now including blank instrument cluster when entering/starting car; cellular connectivity and navigation failures; unusual sounds or lack of auditory feedback for vehicle controls, blank black screen for backup camera, etc. ).
Media control unit went completely out after a few months of trouble. Car took longer to start up and controls of safety features were not working. This happened while starting car and also was not available while vehicle was in motion which caused a dangerous condition.
The main computer display and memory card fails - freezing all safety monitoring of the car, lose control of charging (I. E. Refueling) . Suspension control lost, basically everything frozen without this - it is known common failure emmc chip.
Mcu failed. When it failed car would not shift into drive. Before failure mcu was constantly rebooting while driving. During reboot would lose headlights, turn signals, radio, and air conditioning. Complete failure occurred while stationary. Rebooting occurred while driving.
With the recent news on NHTSA investigating Tesla Model S touchscreen unit problems, I like to add my experience for the record: on 01/31/20, my computer screen died which limited the car's functionality (e. G. No hvac, radio, bluetooth, etc). On 02/06/20, Tesla came out to inspect my car, and verified I needed to replace the computer. The technician admitted how bad the problem was for productions with mcu v1 computers. But before the technician left, he performed a battery disconnect which made it worse. Now the car was not able to charge which forced me to take the car immediately to Tesla to replace the computer. On 02/19/20, the replacement computer was installed at the cost of $2,122. 50. To add, Tesla would not let me keep the original computer without an additional core charge of $500. 12 days later on 03/02/20, Tesla announced an infotainment upgrade on the backs of these ongoing issues: https://electrek. . Read more...
Nhtsa action number: dp19005 - investigation subject : battery management software updates our Tesla Model S software "update" greatly reduced the amount of total charge, and speed that we can charge our battery. We called Tesla, and initially they said that our battery had "degraded" and that was causing the problem. We responded that our battery is not even 4 years old (the car was purchased December 22, 2015), and batteries don't suddenly "degrade" 15 - 20% in one week. Tesla maintenance then admitted that the problem is due to a software update that reduced the speed and total charging of the battery "out of an abundance of caution". The service rep assured us that he was looking at our battery stats on line and there is nothing wrong with our battery. Fine, we said, if there is nothing wrong, take the crippling software update off. Sorry, can't do that, was the response. Your car is one of a number of cars that have had battery fires. It has a gen 1 battery (built before April 2016). We are researching the problem, and do not understand why this is happening. Ok, if you are aware of defective batteries, just replace our battery. The response was "sorry, we cannot due replacements at this time. " my wife needed to drive 500 miles up to oregon to be present for her mom's cancer surgery last week. She could not take her Tesla, as it now takes an hour and a half to "supercharge" the amount it used to receive in 35 to 40 minutes. She is afraid to drive the car. We read that in at least one of the Tesla battery fires, the electric door handles would not operate and the passengers could not get out of the car. The Tesla carries our family and loved ones. Tesla appears to be putting economics above safely in this matter. We need NHTSA to investigate to determine if it is safe to continue driving this car. Thank you.
My car's charging speed was significantly reduced following a software update. I used to charge at 116kw until about 25% state of charge but now I barely get 90kw at that state of charge.
Since may software updates, I don't know the real reason why Tesla limit my car's battery: maybe to shut off a single battery module like the one that caused a car to catch fire in shanghai (same year model as my car). . . Or decrease the battery voltage to reduce potential fire. . . But is it right and legal that I paid for a top of the line performance Model S p85d and now Tesla limited it to only 68-69 kwh? I would not mind if I paid for 70 kwh and be limited by Tesla to 68 kwh, but my battery is 85 kwh and limited to only 68kwh! the power also seemed to be reduced and charging is taking much longer. What made me really mad is that Tesla went behind my back and cheated like that using ota updates.
Nhtsa action number: dp19005 - investigation subject : battery management software updates starting with a software update in may 2019, Tesla capped the max voltage the high voltage battery would charge to. They claim they did this "out of an abundance of caution" after several non-crash fires happened to these models. Tesla took action to downgrade horsepower and range along with all other aspects of performance through a total voltage cap after claiming to be releasing a fire-safety update, but officially no safety update was released. This change happened while the car was parked in my garage and stationary. Is this car at risk of non-crash fire? is it safe to park in my garage? since Tesla has refused to answer any of the above questions and only made vague statements implying a safety risk - to the press, not to me - I seek definitive answers from an NHTSA investigation.
On may 20, 2019, this car was issued a forced, ota-update from Tesla, versions 2019. 16. 1 and 2019. 16. 2 as a result of what is believed to be a response to the series of multiple battery fires worldwide involving Tesla's electric vehicles. Without disclosing what the software updates would do or what negative affects they would have, Tesla forced these updates without telling my client and other affected owners that their batteries would be limited and charging speeds would be throttled, effectively and significantly decreasing the range and speed of charging for their cars. Tesla advertised my client's specific year, make and model (2015 Model S 70d) as having an approximate epa estimated 240 miles of range. This case has been filed as a class action which is already pending in the u. S. District court, northern district of CA, case number 5:19-cv-04596-vkd, by the named class plaintiff and representative david rasmussen. This office represents mr. Rasmussen, as well as mr. Lin and various additional owners of these affected vehicles, including residents in different states across the county. To date, Tesla has proffered the explanation that the updates were done in order to promote the health and battery longevity for the vehicles, however, there is a correlation between the age of these cars, the recent fires, and any corresponding warranties with these cars by which Tesla appears to try and avoid. Thus, customers are left completely without any remedy to the issues caused by Tesla, as ncds arbitrators across the u. S. Are unable to come to terms with the fact that Tesla has committed these illegal, unfair, deceptive, and fraudulent acts, or are unable to due to the limited scope and requirements by which ncds arbitrators are bound to.
Starting with a software update in may 2019, Tesla capped the max voltage the high voltage battery would charge to. They claim they did this "out of an abundance of caution" after several non-crash fires happened to these models. Tesla took action to downgrade horsepower and range along with all other aspects of performance through a total voltage cap after claiming to be releasing a fire-safety update, but officially no safety update was released. This change happened while the car was parked in my garage and stationary. . Read more...
The contact owns a 2015 Tesla Model S. The contact stated that the vehicle experienced unintended acceleration after making contact with a curb. It was discovered that the automatic transmission feature was turned off. The contact stated that the failure occurred without warning. No dealer the car is purchased directly from California. The manufacturer was contacted, but no further communication was initiated. The failure mileage was approximately 6,000.