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Car not turning off when exiting the vehicle

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Hello All,

I've been experiencing a sporadic issue with my pre-autopilot car for several months now and service is unable to replicate and fix it. When exiting the vehicle and closing the door, the car does not shut off. The headlights remain on, the LCD screens remain on, and the radio remains on. The door handles will retract the but mirrors will not auto fold. If I open and close the driver door again then the car will finally shut off. The has happened numerous times (at least 50, sometimes up to 3 times a day but not everyday) so i am 100% positive that the door is completely closed. I have brought my car in for service several times for this issue and they were unable to replicate it either time. I even provided them with exact time stamps of when the issue occurs. They told me they can only look at logs for the past week so I gave them numerous time stamps within that time frame and they were still unable to find anything.

At this point service is saying that it is a software issue and that it will be fixed in a future release but I don't necessarily buy that. If it was a software issue I am assuming it would be more wide spread and that I would have seen other posts on the forum regarding this. Apologies if i am wrong but i don't recall seeing any posts like this and a quick search did not turn up anything either. Another issue is that this problem has been occuring for several months and through the last 3-4 software updates and before 7.0.

Has anyone else seen this problem? I thought that it could be the seat sensor malfunctioning but service says that is not the case. Any suggestions on how to get this fixed faster? It's pretty annoying to walk away from my car only to realize that it isn't turned off and then having to walk back to open and close the door again. Could also be very dangerous if i don't realize that the car is still on when walking away.
 
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It does sound like a seat sensor failure. Keep on Tesla about it. If there's something you can do to make it happen that'd help. Otherwise, I think you need to bypass your SC and go directly to the regional manager or corporate. The lockout that turns the car off when you get out of the seat is a safety feature. A running car that thinks it has a driver in the seat is not a good situation. If a passenger bumps the shifter while you're gone, off the car goes without a driver. Maybe the SC doesn't see it as an issue, but I'd bet you can find someone who does.
 
The problem is most likely the seat sensor - I know because my car has had the same problem, manifesting exactly as you've described. At first the SC could not replicate the problem (even though it would sometimes malfunction for me several times a day) but they did suspect the sensor. When I brought the car in for its first drive unit replacement, they again took a look at the seat and were then able to see the defect in action.

A new driver's seat was ordered - the prescribed repair is to replace the entire assembly as the sensor itself doesn't ship as a separate part. I was told that it would take 3 weeks to have the seat delivered; however, it took 5 weeks as the factory had to "reach out to a third party" to have the seat made. A new appointment was made for the replacement last week; however, sometime in the afternoon that day my service advisor called me and said that the part they received was the "wrong configuration" for my car, and a new part order would have to be placed. In the meantime, they removed a driver's seat cushion from one of their loaner vehicles and put it into my car, as a temporary fix. The good: the loaner seat cushion does not have the defect, the car now turns off reliably whenever the door is closed, on the first try (before I would sometimes have to open and close the door 2 or 3 times to get the car to shut down.) The bad: the used loaner seat is grotty, worn and grungy looking, whereas my original was in great shape. It also has the optional footwell lighting underneath it that is at odds with the rest of the car, as I didn't order that on the car (I just noticed that last night for the first time.)

The folks at my SC have been great and have done an overall excellent job at handling my service needs for the car. This episode is a bit disappointing, however. I don't know how long it will take to get the replacement part, and I wonder if sourcing a replacement first-generation seat is problematic since they are no longer available to be ordered for new cars. They have ordered the part now for the second time and I hope they can get it soon as I'm growing tired of dealing with this problem.
 
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After update to 8.0, I've had this condition. I can get in and out of the car from the driver seat several times and the display will not turn off even though the car says it is off and the mirrors fold in. I found that the only way I can get it to turn off is to get in on the front passenger side, sit down and then exit the car. As soon as I close the door after doing that, the display turns off.

I just did the double scroll wheel reset but it did not fix the problem.
 
I've been having the same issue for quite awhile. Got an appointment to take it in tomorrow. Will ask about seat sensor.

I've found it will happen in clusters. So it will happen almost every time I get out of the car for a day or two, then nothing for a few weeks. It happened before V8 and after V8. My vin is 36XXX. Last time it was in for service, I got another loaner with vin 36XXX and the same problem happened to it.

It's really frustrating because they car won't lock either. So if I don't notice it, the climate will stay on draining the battery and the car will stay unlocked!
 
This has been happening to me as well. At home I will leave the car, the mirrors will fold and I'll come back 5 minutes later and the instrument panel is on. I don't think the Climate Control is on, but the weather has been pleasant so it is turned very low.

Sometimes the car can be unlocked without the key in this condition. It is random but I am wondering if it has to do with the seat sensor. I'll be taking it in for the 2nd annual checkup this month and will mention this thread to the SC because I do not sense anyone has found a resolution yet, except maybe replacing the entire seat.
 
I have experienced the exact same problem. Recent SC appointment couldn't reproduce the issue. A complete reinstall of firmware was done. As soon as the car was returned and I drove home, the same problem surfaced. Did replacement of the seat (confirming that the seat sensor has failed) resolve the problem for any who have had this done?
 
I've only had this happen when using summon, from my key fob. It has happened twice in the past two months or so -- move the car with summon (usually further into my parking space since there's a pole in the way), stop it/cancel summon when it's where i want it to be, and notice that the headlights stay on, screen is on, and the dash says the car is in park (instead of Car Off). Usually a quick open/close of the door takes care of it.

Not sure if this is related at all to the problems others are reporting in the thread, but the symptom is the same anyway.
 
My model 3 won't turn off sometime.
Checked seat sensor.
When it thinks someone is in it, seatbelt light comes on. I verified that seat sensor is working when the car won't turn off. (lifting up my butt technique).
Its 100% NOT seat sensor.

What I usually do is to hit brake pedal few time with my feet, then lift my behind and see it decides to turn off.

Tesla will have to fix this.
I can use my key card to go in to the car when my phone doesn't work... but to turn off... key card doesn't work in this case.
Something is broken, and its broken bad.
 
I had been experiencing this problem for awhile...bought 2014 MS CPO last year about this time. Problem started maybe around July. Took me a bit to figure out what was going on (car not going to "car off" status). When I finally took it in (December), they weren't able to reproduce because they didn't drive it around long enough, so they thought I was hitting the brake pedal on my way out.

So I started noting the time/date every time it happened for about a week and emailed them that data so they could go through the logs. I was pretty sure it was a mechanical issue since if I rode in the car for a longer period of time, the car took longer to switch to "car off".

They finally agreed it was mechanical, and replaced the bottom drivers seat. Just got it back today...and works great.
 
For those that had the sensor/seat replaced...if out of warranty was it replaced at no cost? Seems like something that shouldn’t go wrong so early...~55k miles.

Yeah I am have the same problem now at 75K miles 2014 P85D. The car keeps everything on as if I am still in the car. My music still playing in the car. I don't see how they could be a sensor, as if you unbuckle your seat belt and let the car roll 1 or 2 mph and lift your butt, the car will stop and put the e-brake on thinking you are out of the car and the car is rolling away.

I noticed after 30 mins if I look at my Tesla app. It seems like everything turns off, but the mirror stay out. Very simlar if you park and sit in your car for a bit. Everything will turn off. Car just thinks I am sitting in there with it.

I did every reset possible and spoke to Tesla over the phone and they said take it into service, which in my experience is a huge nightmare. I am out of warranty now, so every visit is $155 to look at it.

Man I love my Model S, but for how much these cars are. They are built very poorly and I will have a hard time talking myself into buying another one. Hopefully things change and I wonder how much this is going to cost me.
 
Another poster did say that he can get it to happen repeatedly if he gets out "too fast", I've been unable to move myself out of the seat fast enough to cause it, but maybe someone a little more spry could have this problem on a frequent basis?

Resurrecting this as it just started happening to me.

2019 Model 3, 311XXX vid, May 2019 build date.

I started getting the "front left restraint failure" [sic] error right as the Covid thing started. Finally got around to taking it in Friday to have it fixed, and then this started happening to me right after I got it back. Coincidence? They replace the driver seat harness with a "redesigned" harness.

I too have found that if I exit too quickly, it will happen, but if I wait for the "easy entry" seat movement to finish, then it shuts down fine. I'm going to run a bunch of tests today to see if there is a pattern in which combo of actions causes it. Fortunately, we have my wife's 2018 Model 3 (VIN 32XXX) as a control group. That car also had it's driver seat sensor replace last year.
 
Hello All,

I've been experiencing a sporadic issue with my pre-autopilot car for several months now and service is unable to replicate and fix it. When exiting the vehicle and closing the door, the car does not shut off. The headlights remain on, the LCD screens remain on, and the radio remains on. The door handles will retract the but mirrors will not auto fold. If I open and close the driver door again then the car will finally shut off. The has happened numerous times (at least 50, sometimes up to 3 times a day but not everyday) so i am 100% positive that the door is completely closed. I have brought my car in for service several times for this issue and they were unable to replicate it either time. I even provided them with exact time stamps of when the issue occurs. They told me they can only look at logs for the past week so I gave them numerous time stamps within that time frame and they were still unable to find anything.

At this point service is saying that it is a software issue and that it will be fixed in a future release but I don't necessarily buy that. If it was a software issue I am assuming it would be more wide spread and that I would have seen other posts on the forum regarding this. Apologies if i am wrong but i don't recall seeing any posts like this and a quick search did not turn up anything either. Another issue is that this problem has been occuring for several months and through the last 3-4 software updates and before 7.0.

Has anyone else seen this problem? I thought that it could be the seat sensor malfunctioning but service says that is not the case. Any suggestions on how to get this fixed faster? It's pretty annoying to walk away from my car only to realize that it isn't turned off and then having to walk back to open and close the door again. Could also be very dangerous if i don't realize that the car is still on when walking away.
I have Experience the same exact thing with exiting the vehicle. It’s very annoying and like you said very sporadic and then sometimes it happens all day long. I even tried leaving the vent open didn’t seem to make a difference.
 
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