Power Train Problems of Tesla Model S - part 2

In 2014, I ordered this Model S p85d, received it on 12/20/2014, I also purchased a 4-year extended service plan. Starting from March 2017, it started to encounter random yet serious problems. The car would randomly produce critical errors, displaying several types of error messages, while losing most of its driving power; the driver would have to perform emergency pullovers onto the road shoulder, if available, before the power rapidly reduce to zero. Then the driver need to restart the main computer (sometimes several times), to reset the error messages. Only after that, the car became drive-able again. I wrote an email to servicehelpna@Tesla. Com on 03/23/2017 describing the problem, since then, this became a chronic issue; service centers in virginia, maryland, and san juan pr have performed numerous attempts on this problem, none of them was able to fix it. According to my records, for this issue, the car has been in the shop for more than 10 times, and more than a dozen components have been replaced. The total time it has been out of service is more than 380 days. I now consider it "unfixable" by Tesla. This kind of problem have created many dangerous situations when it occurred on the road, especially when the driver doesn't know how to handle it, doesn't pull over on the shoulder quickly, or there's no safe place to pull over.

See all problems of the 2014 Tesla Model S 🔎.

Car won’t shift gears just stuck on park. Battery reduced.

The drive unit has water damage from normal driving. The car never went through deep water or was flooded, but the tech at the service center is saying the units are sealed but still can get water in them and corrode. How can a vital sealed part of the vehicle be damaged by normal driving and claim water damage? the car operated just fine the day before. Please advise.

See all problems of the 2012 Tesla Model S 🔎.

When slightly pressing the accelerator while at speeds between approximately 35-70 mph, there appears to be a vibration felt in the front of the car. It can be felt in the yoke and the pedal. It could affect the driver's ability to break or turn the wheel in emergency. It appears more than 60% of the owner of the same model and year has detected a similar shaking in the yoke and pedal, yet the manufacture delays to resolve it. Https://teslamotorsclub. Com/tmc/threads/poll-vibration-felt-when-slightly-accelerating-refresh-mode-s-plaid-or-lr. 236933/.

See all problems of the 2022 Tesla Model S 🔎.

At random the steering assist reduce, traction control disabled, stability, control, disable, regenerative breaking reduced. Wipers are affected during these error messages. The car is trying to get me killed!! on different days, all those errors are gone and the car drives normal. Suspect this is a software defect and can be very dangerous. Seems like something got reset after the car is turned off. All software are up to date on the car and on the phone app. Once no more errors from the car, it would drive normal until it randomly disable traction control, stability control and wipers becomes very slow, get stuck at times.

See all problems of the 2013 Tesla Model S 🔎.

The gear shifter is unreliable without visually checking the gears on screen. It may or may not register the shift during selection. When merging from residential traffic to a main road turning right, the driver has to pull forward to check the incoming traffic. In ideal situation, if the other vehicles are approaching at speed, the driver would want shift in to reverse and backup from hanging over main road and back to the residential alley. However the inconsistencies of the gear selector make it dangerous during those occasions. The car could fail to register the shift, or cannot shift fast enough to reverse. It poses significant risks to the driver and other vehicles on the road. A front/rear cross traffic alert or a better mechanism to shift into reverse should be implemented. The mounted secondary gear selector in the center console does not light up during this cases, it it still require a visual check when defeat the purpose during emergency.

While reversing into a parking spot, like I have over 1000 times in this car, I heard a loud crack and scrape. When the tow driver got the car up we were able to see it was a lower a-arm failure in outward loaded bearing stress. This seems like a common problem with these cars as a simple google search found many other drivers with similar issues.

See all problems of the 2017 Tesla Model S 🔎.

The vehicle went into "reduced power" (turtle mode) error. Which reduced the power and the ability to accelerate out of an intersection and away from incoming traffic. I followed the recommendations of powering the vehicle off. It would correct itself then randomly does the same thing. This is safety issue and needs to be resolved before someone gets into a major accident which will result in great bodily injury or death.

Loud whining noise coming from the rear of the vehicle. Tesla says it needs a new rear drive unit. The noise has been going on for some time and gradually gotten worse.

My 2013 Tesla Model S 60 kw didn’t drive on July 2022 and I got a warning on the screen that all electrical systems are shutting down . The car had to be towed to Tesla service . Tesla service told me the battery pack has to be replaced for 13k. I went down to Tesla service and told them I want to see the battery pack but I was told that I couldn’t see it and was shown a piece of the corroded fuse box cover. I was told I couldn’t take a picture of it even though this was my car and own the battery pack . I was told only then that there was corrosion on the fuse box cover to the battery pack and the battery pack has to be replaced for 13k. I paid 13k and Tesla replaced the battery pack 6 weeks later. I have learned since then that many Teslas Model S year 2012-15 have this problem. The problem is that the air conditioner hose leaks on to the fuse box cover and corrodes it. Tesla knows about this problem and refuses to do anything and just says that the entire battery pack has to be replaced. This is a defect in the battery pack that fuse box is located under the air conditioner hose. I asked Tesla before paying for the replacement battery pack if this would occur with the replacement battery and was told that the replacement battery has the fuse box at the other side of the battery pack . Not like the old battery. Apparently Tesla knows about this problem and redesigned the battery pack. This a defective battery pack and the car could stop driving suddenly and crash into other cars. This very dangerous and Tesla knew about this for years and didn’t do anything. I was under warranty from 2013 till 2021 for the battery pack and Tesla should have repaired the battery pack or replaced it. I want to reimbursed for my 13k that I spent on the replaced battery pack. Tesla knowingly knows this problem and deceived me and said just the fuse box got corroded. This happened in July 2022 in the heat when I had the air conditioner on and water leaked on to the battery pack.

The contact owns a 2020 Tesla Model S. The contact stated while driving at various speeds, the vehicle started to vibrate in the shutter shaft unit. There were no warning lights illuminated. The vehicle was taken to the dealer and was diagnosed with front cv axle failure. The vehicle was repaired; however, the failure persisted. On a separate occasion, the vehicle started to shudder, and the vehicle was taken back to the dealer. The vehicle was repaired for the most recent failure however, the contact stated the vehicle had been repaired three times, for the cv axle failure. The manufacturer was made aware of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 32,807.

See all problems of the 2020 Tesla Model S 🔎.

My 2014 Tesla Model S is an unsafe vehicle as my dash goes black constantly and I lose control of the car safety items included in the dash panel such as speed, back up camera, visibility and power train. I have complained many times but Tesla does not respond with results that will make the car safe again.

I have loved my 2013 Model S since I got it. However, recently I have not been thrilled that I have needed a new powertrain according to my car. I was notified of this, set up service appointments, and it got delayed weeks later due to parts not arriving. I spoke with kevin from santa ana Tesla, and he assured me the car was safe to drive. 3 days later, which was yesterday, my car died suddenly without warning when I was on santa monica blvd in los angeles. I was there until 3 am, and didn't get home in irvine until 4 am. It was really unsafe in the area late at night, and I was really frustrated the car wasn't safe to drive at all. My family and friends were with me and it could have been a total disaster. Now, I wake up and see the estimate to fix my car is almost $10,000.

The car suddenly has a powertrain issue, but it is a widely known problem with some estimates of 66% of all early Teslas having a powertrain issue by 60k miles. Mine happened at 56k. There is clearly a defect with early Tesla powertrains, as they increased the warranty to 8 years or 50k miles. My car is now at 9 years, and because of the low mileage due to covid, they will not cover the powertrain issue of the car. The following are links proving significant issues of my car. . Read more...

Front drive shafts (half shafts) have been replaced 2x within 6 months and 2-3k miles. They won’t explain why this keeps happening. I believe this is a wide spread issue after some research.

See all problems of the 2019 Tesla Model S 🔎.

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.

See all problems of the 2015 Tesla Model S 🔎.

On April 9th, 2022, the vehicle in traffic went from the drive gear to the park. Vehicles were coming behind me at 55mph and I could not maneuver to safety. It took up to 4mins before I got moving. The incident occurred again on April 25th, while my kids and I were on the way to basketball practice. Finally, I got an appointment with Tesla service, and after two weeks of troubleshooting I was informed that the issue is an anomaly.

See all problems of the 2016 Tesla Model S 🔎.

I was just getting off the freeway, into a business area, and all of a sudden car stopped without any warning, with a quick "power reduced flash on the screen, unable to move at all. I was in the middle of busy area, blocking the street and cars parked on each side. The rear wheel drive locked, even in neutral position, and also tow mode. 4 people tried to push the car into a safe area without success. Had to wait for a tow truck to take the car to Tesla facility. Was told there was an internal failure of the inverter and the unit its self, which would coast over 6k. Very scary and a stressful situation I suffered and it needs to be addressed of the danger.

Drive unit failed while driving. Car was not able to accellerate while coming off freeway. Driver heard thump then buzzing sound then couldn't accelerate. Driver drifted car to side of the road and it would not drive further.

Some versions of Model S and x front drive unit halfshafts might cause excessive vibrations during hard acceleration at higher ride height settings. If the drive shaft fails while driving on the freeway then it will not be safe especially with kids in the car. Tesla needs to add this on their recall list. Please see service bulletin https://cdn. Motor1. Com/pdf-files/sb-21-39-001-replace-front-drive-unit-halfshafts. Pdf.

I backed my Tesla out of my driveway on 12/17. I could see as I backed into the street another car at the stop sign waiting to turn left. I was blocking part of the road so as the car was in reverse moving back, I put my Tesla in "d". I clearly saw the d. I stepped on accelerator seeing they were patiently waiting and I wanted to get out of their way. As I touched gas I was in shock-I kept going in reverse! the car dash said "d" and in my shock I pressed down on the gas more. I ended up accelerating more in reverse and smashed right into a parked car on the street! I knew I was swerving back and steered into the middle of the street I thought. I never heard the warning sign on my car because it was in d. I didnt see the car in my rearview mirror and in the shock of the speed and my correct into the middle of the road, I dented my neighbors front left bumper only. Thankfully I didn't damage their lights. It only did a small scrape in the front right rear side of my Model S. I did replicate the problem one more time on camera about 15 minutes later. But I was in such shock the camera drops below the road so it has my voice on it and I didn't want to hit someone else again. This is very dangerous to accelerate backwards when the dash says "d". I've taken the Tesla in many times for the screens freezing. They say its memory issues and want me to pay 2500 to upgrade the internal parts. This puts my kids and anyone at risk if they're behind me when im shifting to drive and drive off. There again were no warnings before the crash because the car was in d.

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 Sunday, October 10th. I arrived at a friends home in charleston s. C. With about 35 miles left on the odometer. In the am I awoke to find only 5 miles left. As I knew that I was 21 miles away from a Tesla supercharger I called for a tow truck, and paid $265 to get taken to the charge site. I hooked up and the car began to charge. When I was close to capacity I disconnected - and the charge dropped to zero. I called Tesla. They sent a tow truck and took me to savannah GA. Tesla (80 miles south. . . . No charge). 7 weeks later - on Dec 1st. . . I got my Tesla back from savannah GA. Tesla. Immediately I got a warning "power reduced - service required". I called and arranged for service (set up for Dec 14. . . Two weeks away). This morning I got a similar message; 'coolant for battery low - service required" (see image, below).

See all problems of the 2018 Tesla Model S 🔎.

The contact owns a Tesla Model S. The contact stated while parking into a parking space, the vehicle started shuddering inadvertently. The contact stated the braking panel button was depressed but failed to respond, causing the vehicle to continue to move forward, hit the sidewall, and inadvertently accelerate on its own crashing into a wall. There were no warning lights illuminated. The air bags failed to deploy. The contact did not sustain any injuries. A police report was filed. The vehicle was towed to the dealer. The contact stated the vehicle was diagnosed however, Tesla had not informed her of the diagnosis. The vehicle was repaired. The approximate failure mileage was 20,000.

Recently my drive unit has begin to fail. This is the second drive unit in the vehicle, approaching the 3rd. Then there is the issues with the doorhandles. The doorhandles when the sensor breaks or motor breaks can cause safety concerns related to doorhandles freely opening or inability to open. When the doorhandles motor defects the door handle cannot extend preventing access to any door in the car. When the door handles sensor fails, the doors will freely extend out words assuming someone is grabbing onto the handle. Recently my dog escaped the vehicle due to just me unlocking the car upon entry. I have had 2 door handle replacements and I am sensing a fault in another one. This is a common issue on the generation 1 Tesla Model S door handles.

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.

The contact owns a 2012 Tesla Model S. The contact stated while driving 20 mph, the vehicle independently shifted to neutral. An unknown warning light was illuminated. The vehicle was taken to the dealer who informed the contact that they could not duplicate the failure. The contact stated that the failure recurred daily while driving whenever he depressed the brake pedal. The vehicle was taken back to the same dealer. The dealer informed the contact that the failure could not be duplicated. The manufacturer was notified of the failure but provided no assistance. The vehicle was not repaired. The approximate failure mileage was 125,000.

2012/2013 Model S. Had winding noise prior to warranty expiration. Tesla van nuys service center stated all normal. After warranty expiration rear drive unit fails on freeway, shutting vehicle down, nearly causing catastrophic accident. Tesla refused to replace until we paid over $7000 to fix. Rear drive unit failed previously under warranty. This is typical problem with Teslas. Now 8 year warranty expires from original purchasers and NHTSA should start to see (already seeing) numerous complaints in this regard. Obviously NHTSA Tesla has a defective design with rear drive unit. Transportation safety act protects consumer from manufacturer design defects. Tesla relying on warranty expiration and consumer ignorance to now charge for this never ending fix. Nhtsa must start investigation of Tesla rear drive unit failures. No thousands of reports until now because covered by warranty but Teslas now over 8 years old and warranty's are expiring. Please investigate.

A loud whining noise from the rear drive unit of my Tesla. The car is a 2013 and has 98,000 miles. The rear drive unit was previously replaced in 2015 at 45,000 miles, and has now been replaced again in 2021. The latest replacement was at cost to me of over $5000. I believe this price may prevent many owners from having this component replaced until it fails completely, leading to unsafe conditions. The car is no longer under warranty. The Tesla dealer accompanied me on a test drive to observe the whining noise, and recommended replacing the drive unit without delay to avoid the possibility of it letting me down and leaving me at the side of the road. I would hate to be in a car on the highway when a drive unit fails. It would be a danger to me, and other road users. These drive units should last more than 50,000 miles, and I believe the units now being installed have better longevity, but the units still installed in cars should be recalled and replaced with the ungraded units.

Stability control disabled, steering assist disabled, airbags disabled, brake system altered for weeks before service request. In addition, steering wheel moved uncontrollably while parked, with car off, and no one in it for over eight hours. Finally, entire system locked after a factory reset. Locking the doors, preventing entry, and showing the transmission in neutral. Tesla’s service model is inhuman, meaning they don’t allow conversation with a human, but instead require scheduling service through their phone app. The app recorded these issues and were attached to the service request. Tesla’s service center claims they resolved the issue by adding wiper fluid and checking the tire pressure. After two weeks, they cannot find anything in the car logs, after previously stating the car logs every aspect of operation.

Sudden unintended acceleration: when pressing the brake on uneven paved roads the vehicle will suddenly accelerate while my foot is on the brakes. This has been an ongoing issue since I received the car and I was told this has to do with regenerative braking but it is definitely a safety issue. There are two commonly visited places on the freeway where this happens to me so I can definitely demonstrate the problem if needed.

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.

Repeated emmc failure, reoccurring failures and reboots of the mcu , see investigation:ea 20-003. Since there are over 100k miles, Tesla suggests $2700 mcu replacement, not free emmc replacement as they are doing for models with under 100k miles.

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.