2015 Model S no drive

[BrettS]

So I just had a really crazy experience with my 2015 Model S 60. My son and were taking a bit of a long drive this afternoon. He was driving and we were about 45 minutes into the trip when he said he was getting tired and he wanted to switch drivers. So we pulled off of the highway and into a parking lot. He put it in park, we got out and walked around the car to switch. I got in and put it in drive and when I started to pull out it was clear that something was not right. There was some noise from the back and it felt to me like one or more of the brakes was stuck on. As I pressed the pedal it felt like one of the wheels was binding for a second, then it would free up and then it would bind again. There were no errors or messages on the dash as this happened. There had been no problems at all for the whole 45 minutes that my son had been driving before this.

I tried putting it in park and turning it off and on again as well as trying drive and reverse, but the problem continued. We had just stopped in the middle of the parking lot, since we planned to switch drivers and leave, so I was able to get the car to slowly move about 20 feet to get into a parking spot, but it was clear that something was very wrong as I was driving it. It wasn’t smooth and didn’t have much power.

I tried rebooting the car again and now when I tried to move the car, nothing at all would happen. It would go into drive or reverse normally, but when I pressed the pedal it didn’t even attempt to move. If I would floor the pedal in drive or reverse I would get a message on the dash that said “Unable to drive. Pull over safely.”

I called Tesla roadside assistance and he said that he could see the error messages on the car and apparently could see where it went into what he called ‘limp mode’ a short time earlier, but he was unable to see exactly what was wrong. He walked me through resetting the MCU and then turning the car off for 2 minutes to no avail. At this point it wouldn’t move at all and even though it would appear to go into gear normally, nothing would happen when I pressed the pedal. The battery was at 68% at this point, so it definitely wasn’t a low charge issue. I was also able to put it in neutral and the car rolled freely, so despite what I thought it felt like, it wasn’t a brake that was stuck on.

So $325 later, it’s been towed to the service center and I’ll have to wait to see what they find tomorrow or later this week. The car has 130,000 miles, so it‘s long out of warranty, but it’s my understanding that the 2015 cars had an 8 year and unlimited mile powertrain warranty, so I’m hoping that this will be a covered powertrain issue.

But like I said, the really crazy thing was that there were no problems at all as my son was driving, but after it had been parked for 30 seconds to switch drivers it would suddenly not move at all. There were no warning signs or any indications of problems before it just failed.

I’ll post an update once I hear back from the service center.

 

[Tam]

...powertrain warranty...

The precise words are "Battery and Drive Unit Limited Warranty". It does not cover the entire "powertrain". It only covers 2 parts:

1) the high voltage battery itself, and
2) the drive unit itself, and

not other components attached to them to make them work: For example, it does not cover a leaky seal attached to the drive unit...

 

[BrettS]

The precise words are "Battery and Drive Unit Limited Warranty". It does not cover the entire "powertrain". It only covers 2 parts:

1) the high voltage battery itself, and
2) the drive unit itself, and

not other components attached to them to make them work: For example, it does not cover a leaky seal attached to the drive unit...

Yeah, I guess powertrain was the wrong word to use, but the battery and the drive unit are the high cost items.

Unfortunately in talking to tesla this morning I discovered that the “Battery and Drive Unit Limited Warranty“ on my car was not unlimited miles, but rather 125,000 miles. It was actually in their system as just over 127,000 miles, because apparently this was originally a demo car and the original owner bought it with a bit over 2000 miles on the odometer.

However, I’m currently at about 131,000 miles, so that warranty expired about 4000 miles ago for me I just spoke with the service advisor who told me that it looks like a drive unit failure, but they need to do some additional diagnostics before they make that the official diagnosis. If it is a drive unit failure then I’m certainly hoping that tesla will be able to make a goodwill exception and cover this under warranty, since the warranty expired less than 4000 miles ago.

 

[Thenar]

Yeah, I guess powertrain was the wrong word to use, but the battery and the drive unit are the high cost items.

Unfortunately in talking to tesla this morning I discovered that the “Battery and Drive Unit Limited Warranty“ on my car was not unlimited miles, but rather 125,000 miles. It was actually in their system as just over 127,000 miles, because apparently this was originally a demo car and the original owner bought it with a bit over 2000 miles on the odometer.

However, I’m currently at about 131,000 miles, so that warranty expired about 4000 miles ago for me I just spoke with the service advisor who told me that it looks like a drive unit failure, but they need to do some additional diagnostics before they make that the official diagnosis. If it is a drive unit failure then I’m certainly hoping that tesla will be able to make a goodwill exception and cover this under warranty, since the warranty expired less than 4000 miles ago.

I had a similar issue with less than 5000 miles on my Tesla Model S. But I was driving down the highway when alarms and red flashing lights went off warning me of imminent failure of the front propulsion unit, It also felt like the break had engaged and the front was shuddering. I was in auto-drive. The message "Pull off immediately to a safe location" I limped off the highway...got the message "Shutting Down" I put it into park, then realized I was too close to the flying by trucks. I tried to re-engage the drive, but all the symbols were red and it would not re-engage. We were stuck, stranded in the cold on a busy freeway, too close to the traffic to remain in the car. My wife had been stranded and stayed in the car several decades ago and a drugged-out truck driver hit the car and flipped end for end. She almost died. So she could not stay inside. We were stranded for hours until Tesla sent a flatbed to pick up my car. They've had it for 5 days and report that they have no clue what happened or if or if it won't happen again. This is kind of outrageous. I know that *sugar* happens, but this is not acceptable *sugar*.