Five problems related to owners/service manual have been reported for the 2016 Tesla Model S. The most recently reported issues are listed below.
The only manual for operation of my car is on screen. The car computer will not load the screen for the manual so we have been unable to access any safety or operation manuals for months. I again took my car to Tesla service this week and the service department said they have no fix. There is no other operation manual and to wait for a firmware update they may help but they are not sure. They refused to replace the mcu. My car is still under full warranty. We suspect the issues with loading the manual is related to failure of the touchscreen/mcu. We have had increasing episodes of our screen going dark requiring us to pull over and not drive until computer reboots. We are unable to use our back up camera when the screen is black. The map features loads very slowly. This is a complex car and we need to be able to look up information regarding safe operation.
The emmc flash memory is failing, leading to the main screen blacking out for several minutes both while driving and when at stop and when the car is booting up. This prevents adjustment of several components including climate (fans, defog, ac), manual lighting, cruise control/autopilot, etc. It has been happening for over a month, progressively getting worse. Tesla is telling us we have to replace the flash memory (~$500, but there is no guarantee the problem won't reoccur), or replace or upgrade the mcu (~$1500-2500). The car was recently upgraded to full self drive hardware (paid for in 2016) and others have reported that this contributes to the memory dying, so we contend this design flaw should be repaired by Tesla for free.
First time: mcu went blank 2 25 2020 2016. 5 ms 75d 92,180k miles mfd by Tesla 7/16 build date. Drivivg to Tesla service center charlotte, nc. First repair 25 Feb 2020: "concern: customer states the touchscreen is blank confirmed mcu was blank and did not respond. Performed 12v reset and display did not come back on. Necessary to manually install firmware update and then install a second package using over the air method. Firmware packages successfully installed and center display return to operation. High memory usage was due to satellite map data. If this symptom returns, replacement of the mcu will be necessary. Correction: general diagnosis price $175. 00 second time: mcu went blank 3 30 2020 Tesla service center removed and replaced the mcu. Total cost to me amount . . . $1,544. 40. My safety issue was the ac and heat and defrost inoperative. Along with my Model S unable to charge and loosing charge. When my black screen happened my ac/heat did not go to default. . . It just didn't work. I live on a mountain and when I was driving to the Tesla SC in charlotte 117 miles away, on a cold morning the windscreen fogged up. I had to wipe it with a rag on a stick. Other owners have mentioned this on youtube. Com videos as a safety issue. . Read more...
On 1/18/20, I was travelling in my 2016 Tesla Model S p100d eastward on anderson hill road toward the intersection with purchase street. The stop light was red. I was driving 1mi under the speed limit of 35mph. The outside temperature was around freezing, and a wet snow had begun 5-10min earlier, with minimal accumulation. I know exactly how fast I was going because I had cruise control on. I was not on autopilot. Just cruise control. When the intersection and stop light came into view, I tapped the break to disengage the cruise control, and then depressed the break to slow the car. Nothing happened. The breaks would not engage. And neither did the regenerative breaking. I do not feel that I was skidding or sliding. It simply felt as if the car had no idea I wanted to brake. It was very very strange. In those few seconds it became clear to me there was a good chance I would be dead shortly. As it happens, I was struck broadside by a large suburban travelling northbound on purchase street perhaps 25 miles an hour. Both he and I seem to have emerged relatively unscathed (physically, anyway) thank god. But I want to know what happened to my car. Can you please contact Tesla and demand all the information from the cars computers - and their computers at hq - so we can find out??? what happened was extremely dangerous, and could have killed both me nd others. To summarize: brake failure, both manual and degenerative, in 2016 Tesla Model S caused massive collision with both cars totalled.
The mcu (master control unit) is the 17" touch screen display that controls most of the functions of the vehicle. Vehicle has been plagued over it's live with freeze up's and reboots. April 2019, screen locked up and would not restart, which caused vehicle to loose propultion, power assisted brakes, power steering, window controls (had to use emergency manual release to exit vehicle, then go back in and squeeze between the seats to get my disabled son out of the back as the back door handles did not operate either and had to try and find the well hidden manual release hidden under the carpet with no markings to get the rear door open and him out of his car seat). Vehicle also would not go in to park, I had to use my shoes (with steel toe) under the wheels to keep the vehicle from rolling down an incline. This also prevented the hood from being opened to potentially pull the power to the vehicle to force a reset as the reset buttons did not work. Also trunk would not open and had to climb through the inside to get to the manual release for the trunk to get diapers for my disabled son while we waited 4 hours for a tow. Once doors were shut, no way to get back in. Head lights also would not turn off. Had it towed to Tesla service of highland park, illinois from milwaukee county, wisconsin. They said the headlights stayed on all night, and that the car "fixed" itself the overnight some how. No additional information would be provided. That was the worst failure, however, it still locks up and reboots at random times as it's in use. Either while driving (when that happens I loose turn signals and other safety features as well as ability to control vehicle settings) or while parked preventing it from being driven.