Car seems froze to the ground

[Unpilot]

I had left my car at the airport for a few days and when I got back in it is seemed like it was froze to the ground!
I put it in drive and it would not budge till I gave it some more pedal and then it broke free.

This has now happened several more times when it sits for more than a few hours.

Anyone else see this behavior?

After I get going it rides just fine.

 

[brkaus]

It is typically the brake pads rusting to the rotors. Common when it is wet out.

If you use the brakes a bit to heat up the pads/rotors before parking the problem is greatly reduced.

Dont see it in other cars because they have no alternatives to using the brakes.

 

[SSedan]

Better way to phrase that would be other cars use the the transmission to hold the car in "park" where Tesla uses the brakes.

Slight over generalization since you can still get manual transmission cars but on those the parking brake is often a drum inside a rotor and drums release more cleanly.

 

[mongo]

I had left my car at the airport for a few days and when I got back in it is seemed like it was froze to the ground!
I put it in drive and it would not budge till I gave it some more pedal and then it broke free.

This has now happened several more times when it sits for more than a few hours.

Anyone else see this behavior?

After I get going it rides just fine.

RWD or AWD?, Guessing RWD since you didn't mention front wheel spin. Like @brkaus mentioned: likely parking brake pads sticking/ freezing to rotors.

 

[Unpilot]

It's a AWD...I thought about the disk's grabbing but it has happened after it was only sitting a few hours...seems to me the brakes would not stick then?

 

[Casavant]

I had left my car at the airport for a few days and when I got back in it is seemed like it was froze to the ground!
I put it in drive and it would not budge till I gave it some more pedal and then it broke free.

This has now happened several more times when it sits for more than a few hours.

Anyone else see this behavior?

After I get going it rides just fine.

Yep happens to me all the time when it's wet. Have a 75 d and even a few hours everything will freeze up and you have to break free. My understanding is it's a result of using brakes rather than transmission to park the car.

 

[Unpilot]

Hmm...maybe I will turn off the creep function and use the park mode to stop it next time and see.

 

[AWDtsla]

Dont see it in other cars because they have no alternatives to using the brakes.

You do see this on other cars. Just a matter of how wet and how long.

Although frankly for a car that uses so little brakes, a rotor alloy that had some amount of corrosion resistance would be nice.

 

[Shateam]

This happens to me too. In fact, it happened yesterday after I washed my car.

I should also point out that the same exact thing use to happen on my Mercedes so I don't think it's specific to Teslas.

Nor do I think its anything that you need to be concerned with.

 

[TLej]

Same thing used to happen on my Subaru Outback too. Think it will happen to any car with the new electronic parking brakes, I think they all use the rear caliper(s) or a dedicated caliper unlike old-style manual parking brakes.

 

[D.E.]

Hmm...maybe I will turn off the creep function and use the park mode to stop it next time and see.

Won't make a difference.
I don't enable creep. Mine did the same thing. The rotors were probably wet from washing then putting it in the garage. I don't generally drive it when the weather is bad so it was parked for a couple of weeks.

The brake “cling” was quite strong then it lets go suddenly, not a pleasant sensation. I'd read about it here so it wasn't worrisome. I washed it again today so I imagine it'll do it again when I next drive it once things dry out around here.

 

[David29]

This happens to me too. In fact, it happened yesterday after I washed my car.

I should also point out that the same exact thing use to happen on my Mercedes so I don't think it's specific to Teslas.

Nor do I think its anything that you need to be concerned with.

Absolutely agree! I also had Mercedes for many years, and it happened to them. I would agree that it is likely more frequent or a bit "stickier" with the Tesla, because the brakes are used less, but it is not unique to Tesla.
And by the way, in a northern area with frequent instances of restricted regenerative braking, it might be less common than it is in warmer areas with equivalent moisture.

 

[brkaus]

Hmm...maybe I will turn off the creep function and use the park mode to stop it next time and see.

Regen to low. Or 2-3 quick stops from a reasonable speed.

 

[Ande]

Normal... This can happen to any case using hand brake in wet conditions. And it's normal to use handbrake when parking on sloping places.