Sounds like everyone one who’s had fancy cars has had this happened to them. I only owned Toyota’s and Honda’s before my 3 so it never happened to me lol
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Car and Driver suffers Model 3 failure on 12/25, but car told them about it remotely
- Thread starter e-FTW
- Start date
boriszima
Member
Yep, Japanese cars were and are on average more reliable according to consumer reports.
this sucks for Tesla. We have seen failures posted here as well. So far looks like a handful reports. Let’s how long it will take to fix it.
The lack of a loaner or any rental car replacement is a little disappointing.
This is one thing the Infiniti dealer we go to always does well. I can usually get a loaner for maintenance work, even with my old 07 G35. With my wife’s 17 QX60, it’s guaranteed to be put in a loaner or rental car for warranty work (a few items have come up, nothing major).
Overall this wouldn’t change the car I buy, and I love my model 3, but the additional level of service is great when something does go wrong.
This is one thing the Infiniti dealer we go to always does well. I can usually get a loaner for maintenance work, even with my old 07 G35. With my wife’s 17 QX60, it’s guaranteed to be put in a loaner or rental car for warranty work (a few items have come up, nothing major).
Overall this wouldn’t change the car I buy, and I love my model 3, but the additional level of service is great when something does go wrong.
Tesla quietly (?) reneged on Creating the World’s Best Service and Warranty Program years ago.
That said, (I think I've posted about this here before) on non-luxury brands, loaners in my experience are the exception not the norm. I've rarely ever been eligible for one. Dealer might have a two way shuttle or in some cases, just a one way shuttle.
I had an awful Mercedes lemon, a $70k loaded Nissan pickup truck lemon, and a BMW that wasn't a lemon but it sure drove me crazy with issues. The only cars that I have never had issues with are my Passat TDI(yup the emissions scandal one was a great car), and the love of my life, my Model 3.
Is Tesla hurting for business? Does negative press ever hurt them? They don't advertise, every media outlet hypes up every issue they can find with Tesla, and yet this forum is full of people impatiently waiting for cars.
Is Tesla hurting for business? Does negative press ever hurt them? They don't advertise, every media outlet hypes up every issue they can find with Tesla, and yet this forum is full of people impatiently waiting for cars.
Why do you keep telling people this?
As far as I know, as I pointed out at 2017 Model 3 Reliability you've had at least 3 door handles replaced, something done w/your contactor that someone at Proactive Contactor Replacement characterized as "extensive work" + some other issues, in addition to for awhile taking it in for service "once a month" (per Model s at 40,000 Miles). You got a new inverter and had a clunked fixed per NOOB, Can anyone give an earful on my Tesla S 60 purchase. And, per Is Tesla trying to become the absolute worst service organization?. you paid $2300 for an MCU. Wouldn't be surprised if the eMMC wore out due to excessive writing to flash.
For other maintenance, you've never had the tires rotated or changed?
Hopefully @toolman335 and @M109Rider see the above.
I do find it semi-amusing that people here on TMC will point to problems w/brands that don't have very good reliability (e.g. BMW, Mercedes and Audi) to begin with.
M109Rider
Active Member
Saw it.
All this illustrates is the Tesla haters, short sellers, and whiners, will hate, whine, and continue look for others to hate and whine with them at every opportunity they can.
You don't get a loaner because some soccer mom or mid life crisis dude rolls up in a maxed out S or X to get their tires rotated, everything checked for some rattle they cant reproduce at drop off and complains about some paint issue they recently had pointed out by their work friends and they HAVE to have a loaner so they can go to brunch.
Zcd1
Active Member
They said Tesla wouldn't give them a car despite repeated requests. Given the history between them, not that surprising.
Any guesses as to root cause? Sounds like the main traction battery might have failed.
Also it is interesting to see all the Tesla haters posts in the comments section, my word.
Our Tesla Model 3 Suffered a Catastrophic Failure While Parked
Comments on: Our Tesla Model 3 Suffered a Catastrophic Failure While Parked
Also it is interesting to see all the Tesla haters posts in the comments section, my word.
Our Tesla Model 3 Suffered a Catastrophic Failure While Parked
Comments on: Our Tesla Model 3 Suffered a Catastrophic Failure While Parked
I saw this article come up on my news feed. Definitely not a good look. If they still did loaners then this would be a non issue IMO but being stranded on christmas with no car sucks no matter how you look at it. If this happened to me I'd be out $500 or so paying for a rental to get to work until it could be fixed.
Coincidentally, my 12V battery failed yesterday. I drove into work yesterday morning with no issues, no warnings, nothing out of the ordinary, etc... As I was leaving to go home, when I opened the driver door, I noticed the window "scraped" as it opened, and I realized it didn't partially roll down like it normally does when entering the car. I thought it was strange but figured it was a fluke.
When I got into the car, I noticed the screen wouldn't turn on, and because the driver door window was ALL the way up, it was literally impossible to close the door. I tried to roll the window down with no luck and no power seemingly going through the button. I then noticed the headlights were flickering on and off, in an uneven pattern.
As I investigated further, I found that I WAS able to mostly roll down all other windows in the car, using their window buttons - but the windows SLUGGISHLY rolled down with obvious electrical/power issues. What I found strange is every window button worked except the driver's side.
Opening my app, I saw that Xena Warrior Princess would not wake up from sleep mode. I also tried holding the brake and scroll buttons, numerous times, to try to force a reboot - no luck.
At this point, I called Tesla Roadside Assistance. They had me try everything I had already tried and then conceded that they needed to have a tow truck pick me up. At that point, I started to notice the smell of rotten eggs/sulfur, and I knew it was battery related (I was just hoping it wasn't my MAIN battery). The sulfur smell continued to get so bad that you could smell it from outside the car, 5+ feet away.
The tow truck arrived in about an hour, got me loaded up onto a flat bed, and took me to the nearest Tesla service center, thankfully 3 miles away. From all the research I had done on my phone while waiting for the tow truck, I had self-diagnosed the issue as my 12v battery going bad.
When I got to the service center, I explained the issues and explained I thought it was the 12v battery. I got to the service center about 1 hour before they were closing. I was certain I would need a loaner and would not get my car back that same night. The service tech told me to go chill in the waiting area as they would see if they could get me my car back the same night.
30 minutes later, he came back with the news that I was good to go! I was honestly shocked. Sure enough, my 12v battery had failed, and they had to swap it out. He also said the battery coolant was low, so they refilled that as well. He noted the low coolant didn't have anything to do with the 12v failing. The tech also noted that more and more Model 3 Teslas have been coming in with the failed 12v battery issue, usually between the 12 and 18 month period. I got my car on September 11, 2018 - right in his timeline.
He noted that some people see warnings to get service before the 12v fails, but I had no such warnings. The tech said Tesla is aware that warnings are sporadic and Tesla is working on an update across all models to try to have better early detection of the 12v battery failing so that an owner can get it serviced in time before failure.
I was definitely shocked to learn that a car that runs solely on battery power still relied on a 12v battery that was a single point of failure - but at least I know it now.
I figure sharing this might help any of you that might unfortunately - and it sounds like inevitably - will run into this issue at some point.
Quirks I noticed when the 12v went bad:
-Headlights flickering on and off, sporadically
-Windows rolled down very sluggishly, with the driver-side initially not having any power to roll windows down or up
-After 10+ minutes, the driver side window DID finally roll down, as if remembering I had tried to roll it down 10 minutes before
-Yay, I could close the door!
-The stench of sulfur/rotten eggs grew steadily worse (this indicates a battery issue)
-When I would hold the brake down, it would pump back and forth, almost clicking against my foot, but no response
-The car, Xena Warrior Princess, wouldn't wake up in the Tesla app
-The screen would flash the Tesla T for 1 second, as if trying to turn on, but then immediately shut off before repeating about every 10 minutes
-Opening the driver-side door, the window didn't automatically lower, scraping against the top of the car. All other doors/windows behaved normally, albeit sluggishly and clearly not operating at 100%
-The driver-side power randomly decided to start working again, sluggishly, 10+ minutes in to me sitting in the car and fiddling around with stuff
-I unplugged all USB-related items, which did not help
-I still had 212 miles left on my main battery before it was empty
-Tesla roadside could see the last time my car was awake was 2 hours prior, confirming the 212 range, but could not get it out of sleep mode either
My car: Model 3 AWD | Long Range | EAP | September, 2018 | 66K VIN | 17,700 miles
When I got into the car, I noticed the screen wouldn't turn on, and because the driver door window was ALL the way up, it was literally impossible to close the door. I tried to roll the window down with no luck and no power seemingly going through the button. I then noticed the headlights were flickering on and off, in an uneven pattern.
As I investigated further, I found that I WAS able to mostly roll down all other windows in the car, using their window buttons - but the windows SLUGGISHLY rolled down with obvious electrical/power issues. What I found strange is every window button worked except the driver's side.
Opening my app, I saw that Xena Warrior Princess would not wake up from sleep mode. I also tried holding the brake and scroll buttons, numerous times, to try to force a reboot - no luck.
At this point, I called Tesla Roadside Assistance. They had me try everything I had already tried and then conceded that they needed to have a tow truck pick me up. At that point, I started to notice the smell of rotten eggs/sulfur, and I knew it was battery related (I was just hoping it wasn't my MAIN battery). The sulfur smell continued to get so bad that you could smell it from outside the car, 5+ feet away.
The tow truck arrived in about an hour, got me loaded up onto a flat bed, and took me to the nearest Tesla service center, thankfully 3 miles away. From all the research I had done on my phone while waiting for the tow truck, I had self-diagnosed the issue as my 12v battery going bad.
When I got to the service center, I explained the issues and explained I thought it was the 12v battery. I got to the service center about 1 hour before they were closing. I was certain I would need a loaner and would not get my car back that same night. The service tech told me to go chill in the waiting area as they would see if they could get me my car back the same night.
30 minutes later, he came back with the news that I was good to go! I was honestly shocked. Sure enough, my 12v battery had failed, and they had to swap it out. He also said the battery coolant was low, so they refilled that as well. He noted the low coolant didn't have anything to do with the 12v failing. The tech also noted that more and more Model 3 Teslas have been coming in with the failed 12v battery issue, usually between the 12 and 18 month period. I got my car on September 11, 2018 - right in his timeline.
He noted that some people see warnings to get service before the 12v fails, but I had no such warnings. The tech said Tesla is aware that warnings are sporadic and Tesla is working on an update across all models to try to have better early detection of the 12v battery failing so that an owner can get it serviced in time before failure.
I was definitely shocked to learn that a car that runs solely on battery power still relied on a 12v battery that was a single point of failure - but at least I know it now.
I figure sharing this might help any of you that might unfortunately - and it sounds like inevitably - will run into this issue at some point.
Quirks I noticed when the 12v went bad:
-Headlights flickering on and off, sporadically
-Windows rolled down very sluggishly, with the driver-side initially not having any power to roll windows down or up
-After 10+ minutes, the driver side window DID finally roll down, as if remembering I had tried to roll it down 10 minutes before
-Yay, I could close the door!
-The stench of sulfur/rotten eggs grew steadily worse (this indicates a battery issue)
-When I would hold the brake down, it would pump back and forth, almost clicking against my foot, but no response
-The car, Xena Warrior Princess, wouldn't wake up in the Tesla app
-The screen would flash the Tesla T for 1 second, as if trying to turn on, but then immediately shut off before repeating about every 10 minutes
-Opening the driver-side door, the window didn't automatically lower, scraping against the top of the car. All other doors/windows behaved normally, albeit sluggishly and clearly not operating at 100%
-The driver-side power randomly decided to start working again, sluggishly, 10+ minutes in to me sitting in the car and fiddling around with stuff
-I unplugged all USB-related items, which did not help
-I still had 212 miles left on my main battery before it was empty
-Tesla roadside could see the last time my car was awake was 2 hours prior, confirming the 212 range, but could not get it out of sleep mode either
My car: Model 3 AWD | Long Range | EAP | September, 2018 | 66K VIN | 17,700 miles
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Following this issue on here and multiple other forums. Mostly because this just happened to my new dual motor model 3 as well. My experience with the SC in Dallas since the incident has been very different and I couldn’t be happier with their handling of this unfortunate issue. If anyone on here has experienced this issue I would appreciate it if you could comment on whether it happened again or any other issues experienced after.
Thanks for providing the warning signs.
Apparently Tesla is looking into removing the 12V from the car. It is small and drives a number of systems and needs to be recharged from the main battery and is a failure point.
Interesting about removing the 12v. Would the car just use the big batter or would they add something else?
This would require the use of a small DC/DC in the pack which I thought they didi in later S models but not sure. This avoids the need to have the main contactor on and power mission critical devices. Some EVs in the old days did this with the issue of a pack that could drain. I could several ways around this with the elimination of the 12V and its weight and poor performance and issues. I put a tender on my S which made a huge impact on parasitic waste from 12V cycling and related systems.
