"Car not Safe to Drive-- Pull over Safely"

[Vern Padgett]

The tow truck hauled away my new Model 3 today. Only 737 miles.

Error message said it would not drive.

I called Tesla Roadside Assistance, and talked with Spencer, and he put me on hold and came back and said he had no idea what was wrong and would send a tow truck to haul it to Buena Park Service Center.

Any of you experienced this? At 737 miles???

Sad to see a brand-new $54,000 car going up the driveway strapped down on a flat-bed tow truck. I should have asked for a receipt.

 

[Shock-On-T]

I've been reading this forum for years, and only a handful of times have I read of anyone getting this message.
Sorry for your bad luck!
Hopefully the service team get you back on the road quickly.

 

[Dana1]

The tow truck hauled away my new Model 3 today. Only 737 miles.

Error message said it would not drive.

I called Tesla Roadside Assistance, and talked with Spencer, and he put me on hold and came back and said he had no idea what was wrong and would send a tow truck to haul it to Buena Park Service Center.

Any of you experienced this? At 737 miles???

Sad to see a brand-new $54,000 car going up the driveway strapped down on a flat-bed tow truck. I should have asked for a receipt.

Let us know what the issue is. So sorry.

 

[jjrandorin]

Very unfortunate story, OP. I havent seen this with Tesla (only been on these boards since I decided to buy a model 3 in november 2018). I have seen this happen with BMW. By "this" I mean basically brand new cars with some problem that has to be taken to the dealer / service department for.

I even had a situation where I had a brand new 2016 X5 (leased in 2016) that had electrical issues that showed up with less than 300 miles on it, that they could never fix properly. BMW ended up taking it back from me and giving me another vehicle after 4 times of trying to fix it.

OP, I would suggest that when you get it back, give the car a good once over, and most importantly, if you have ANY issue with the car you are not sure about, take it in. From your Sig you have a model S so you are familiar with Teslas in general. If you have anything you think is strange with the car, take it in (and get it documented).

Dont sit on anything. I would also be "politely disappointed" when you go to the service center to pick it up. Dont be a jerk, just say stuff like "Man I love tesla, this is my second one... kinda took away the excitement to have to bring a new car in for service so soon. I hope we dont get to know each other on a first name basis" (lol).

What you want, is the service center in your corner if something else happens, with the individuals you are working with wanting to make it right, because they like you. This is general advice and works with any human interaction, really. My BMW buyback went very easy.... because I had the service manager from the dealership on my side trying to make it right.. and had sort of prepped them as I kept having to bring the car in for the electrical problems.

Anyway, good luck, let us know it comes out. Its a wonderful car, I love mine and cant wait to get into it to drive it, even to work. My wife has a brand new X3, and I have been trying to split driving both to work (she is not working) to split the miles, but even though its a fantastic car, with all the options BMW offers on it, with 360 HP, etc.. when I get to the garage and look at both of them I get in the Model 3. I have to force myself to drive her car... this from a person who has driven only BMWs for the past 14 years. I cant think of much more praise than that from me for a car, actually.

 

[Az_Rael]

The tow truck hauled away my new Model 3 today. Only 737 miles.

Error message said it would not drive.

I called Tesla Roadside Assistance, and talked with Spencer, and he put me on hold and came back and said he had no idea what was wrong and would send a tow truck to haul it to Buena Park Service Center.

Any of you experienced this? At 737 miles???

Sad to see a brand-new $54,000 car going up the driveway strapped down on a flat-bed tow truck. I should have asked for a receipt.

Might be a drive unit. My neighbor had that happen to his, and I have seen several reports here of 3’s having early drive unit failures.

 

[MasterC17]

Sorry to hear, unfortunately even when statistically issues like this are extremely low, it's frustrating when you are that statistic.

I am sure the Service Team will have you back up and running soon. Things happen, the good news is cars can be fixed relatively easily!

 

[gaswalla]

This isn't common, shagun sorry to hear about your experience.
It is reassuring that the car is intelligent enough to let us know before something catastrophic occurs. Please give an update when you know more

 

[Vern Padgett]

Today I have a text from the Service Manager. He reported that the rear drive unit needed to be replaced!

I texted back "OMG-- what is wrong with this car??"

So what do you all think-- is this not like changing out the engine on a gas car???

 

[thecloud]

Today I have a text from the Service Manager. He reported that the rear drive unit needed to be replaced!

I texted back "OMG-- what is wrong with this car??"

So what do you all think-- is this not like changing out the engine on a gas car???

Tesla has always seemed to have a "replace the entire part" approach to service. In a gas car, you might have a spark plug go bad and cause the CHECK ENGINE light to come on: the shop would replace the spark plug. But Tesla would swap out the engine.

It probably saves them time, since the service centers don't need to diagnose and repair sub-component failures, and that hopefully reduces the time your car spends in service. They can just replace the DU to get you going again. Later on, Tesla can diagnose the actual failure and then fix (or recycle) the broken component.

Very sorry that your car got a bad DU right out of the gate, but since it's under warranty, they will make it right for you. (One word of advice: when you get the car back after the rear DU replacement, pay attention to whether your car holds a straight line under acceleration; if you feel like you have to make constant course corrections as the car tries to pull left or right, take it back and get a wheel alignment.)

 

[MasterC17]

Today I have a text from the Service Manager. He reported that the rear drive unit needed to be replaced!

I texted back "OMG-- what is wrong with this car??"

So what do you all think-- is this not like changing out the engine on a gas car???

This is actually a very quick and easy repair. Nothing at all to be concerned with.

Tesla has always taken the approach of replacing the entire unit, it is not worth the labor time for the Service Center to break down a drive unit and replace one part.

 

[juliusa]

Today I have a text from the Service Manager. He reported that the rear drive unit needed to be replaced!

I texted back "OMG-- what is wrong with this car??"

The rear drive unit is wrong. They are replacing it.

 

[Saghost]

Today I have a text from the Service Manager. He reported that the rear drive unit needed to be replaced!

I texted back "OMG-- what is wrong with this car??"

So what do you all think-- is this not like changing out the engine on a gas car???

It is and it isn't. Yes, from a functional standpoint it's the same as changing an engine.

However, it's a much simpler and safer procedure. Instead of disconnecting hundreds of connectors and draining a bunch of fluids and having to squeeze the engine or from between things, it's a simple procedure involving half a dozen connectors and a bunch of bolts, then the unit drops easily from under the car.

As noted above, Tesla has generally taken that approach for anything in the drive unit. They'll send yours back to the factory and fix it later (assuming the actual problem is easily fixed once the whole thing is disassembled as they usually are,) and keep it at a service center for the next car with a problem.

This is how aviation service generally works - a few line replaceable units, get the planes back up, then fix the issue in a specialty back shop.

 

[GreenT]

Today I have a text from the Service Manager. He reported that the rear drive unit needed to be replaced!

I texted back "OMG-- what is wrong with this car??"

So what do you all think-- is this not like changing out the engine on a gas car???

Do a search for milling. The Model S has suffered from the dreaded "milling" noise for ever.
My car has had 3 motors replaced. As have so many other S's.
Have not heard of this with the 3 though.
Not like gas at all. Gas has thousands of parts. This car "1".
.

 

[Vern Padgett]

Had a text today that my car is ready for pickup. Tomorrow I'll find out if they fixed it, and fixed that annoying rattle from the right rear seat area.

Thanks to all for comments.

Nice that I had a spare S90D to drive during these 18 days without my new car (I turned down their offer of a loaner).

 

[Kant.Ing]

Did MCAS happen to activate at 737 miles? Engaging Autopilot should solve the issue.

 

[Orwell]

Happened to me as well within 4 days of ownership of my P3D+. Mine showed different error messages. Ended up being rear drive unit failure. Which took over a week to replace since it had to be shipped to FL. So much for having dual motors to back you up in case 1 fails.

 

[Vern Padgett]

Thanks to all for comments.

Car was ready yesterday. New drive unit in. Service manager Kevin said it happens sometimes.

 

[byeLT4]

Happens sometimes? Wow... I'm surprised with the honestly. Back when my torque converter was having issues on my Vette I was recommended by the Corvette Forum to go to a certain large dealer that knew of the problem and had success fixing it. Service guy there swore he'd never seen the issue before

 

[Vern Padgett]

Thanks byeLT4.

Kevin, the Service Manager, said that he had 20 years in automotive service, and sometimes these things happen!

What could I say? That I was rebuilding water pumps before he was born? (Thinking of helping Dad rebuild the water pump on the 1941 Cadillac-- every 10,000 miles it needed a new one. I can still feel and smell that yellowish water pump heavy grease -- No such issue with our Teslas!)

Anyway I have a new and now newer Model 3 back home. Looks good. Good service from Tesla Buena Park.

He asked me how I liked the car, other than the current problem. I said it was the best car in the world.

And it is.

 

[cwerdna]

Do a search for milling. The Model S has suffered from the dreaded "milling" noise for ever.
My car has had 3 motors replaced. As have so many other S's.
Have not heard of this with the 3 though.

i posted links to the Model 3 DU failures I had in my bookmarks at Shoddy quality and poor QC and missing parts... And, I've been on hiatus on and off from this site, sometimes for months at at a time.

I'm sure there are more reports of this on TMC besides the above + ones mentioned in this thread.