Class action for Model S drive unit failure?

[cwerdna]

BTW, the shudder upon hard acceleration on the X has had threads here since 2016:

Acceleration Shudder

For the last thousand miles or so I've noticed a significant shudder as I accelerate hard from 20-30 mph, as in freeway onramp. Has anyone else noticed this? The car is slated for a Service Center visit in a few weeks.

teslamotorsclub.com

Model X shaking with hard acceleration

Our MX was in the service center a week ago as I had noticed since taking delivery a shaking feeling between 30-36mph when accelerating. More dramatic shaking with hard acceleration. I first noticed it when we took the car home, but didn't think anything of it, but it had progressively gotten...

teslamotorsclub.com

News for Model X owners with the dreaded shudder

My X is in the shop right now for the shudder that needs no explanation. I just got a call from my SC that told me that they just got off the phone with a "senior" engineer from Cali that says there IS a newly designed part that is a permanent fix that will be shipping out to service centers...

teslamotorsclub.com

 

[David Tonnies]

Did someone else mention vibration in this thread? If you have the symptoms in the video at New Model X - Did they fix the shudder problem? starting at 1:40, that's an example of the infamous Model X shudder problem. The solution for them is to replace the half shafts, which aren't covered under the drive unit warranty.

I can't speak to whether the long running Model X shudder problem exists on the S and in what seems to be a widespread manner. I just found this Model S thread: Do you have shudder on hard acceleration? AKA death rattle?. Clunking sound is costing me a bundle to fix out of warranty has some half shaft replacement costs for the S from 2017.

Let us know what they say next week.

Yea. Model s was mentioned. It was way earlier on this thread. Regardless it's gotta be the same thing with s or x. Leads me to another question. My air suspension just totally crapped. Not under warranty I replaced valve block, compressor, air spring. That was easy. It was a nightmare to make the vehicle lift to where it was drivable. ? If I replace these half shafts/ cv joints (whatever) will it void the "drive unit" warranty?

 

[cwerdna]

David: No. I was asking if anyone in this thread besides yourself brought up vibration? If so, which post(s)? A quick search turned up nobody.

"If I replace these half shafts/ cv joints (whatever) will it void the "drive unit" warranty?" - doubt it would void a drive unit warranty.

 

[Guitarbare]

FWIW I put 175,000 miles on a LDU with zero issues so the whole "they fail every 33,000 miles" thing is pure hyperbole.

Yeah, they have design flaws. Most of them also had an 8 year unlimited mile warranty. That's what warranties are for.

Not uncommon to see a drive unit failure being posted in the Model 3 forums.

 

[Guitarbare]

After my third drive unit failure in less than 100,000 miles, I'm checking on a class-action against Tesla. This equates to a gas car blowing an entire engine every 33,000 miles. The Tesla shop will not provide the old DU even after a non-warranty repair, because they say "Tesla owns the old parts". I can never get a failed drive unit for an expert failure mode analysis, but having seen others who did this they report a consistent finding: Tesla mis-engineered the seals allowing coolant to leak into the DU over time, causing failure consistently, basically a guarantee. Failure in my case was sudden and catastrophic with no warning, while driving down a busy highway. This dangerous fault is also a major profit source for the repair centers which is something Elon Musk was absolutely adamant would not happen. He also touted his million-mile motor from the start. The DU failure is likely to happen beyond the warranty, bringing in $7000 to the repair center. If you had a gas vehicle that blew its engine every 33,000 miles, there would be a lawsuit. I'm wondering if a class action has already been filed or if there are enough people to start one?

I too have had 3 failures on my p85d in the first 100,000 miles. It’s extremely worrisome. Why hasn’t Tesla fixed this issue?. It’s obviously a design flaw. I read somewhere of a temporary fix to allow leaking seal to drain onto the floor so it prevents failure by drilling a tiny hole in a specific spot thru the housing.
I’m trying to locate that. I like you have wondered why there has not been a class lawsuit over this. It totally sucks. I love my car but it’s like a ticking time bomb since it’s not a matter of if it will fail, but when.

 

[EKoS]

11 years and 170k miles later, I’m on my fourth DU in my 2013 P85. The first 3 were covered under warranty, but the last one came out of pocket. As some of the other posters have said, the original large DUs seem to be life-limited by seals - this was certainly the cause of my most recent failure.

Part of me is annoyed by the thought of paying $7k every ~50k miles going forward, especially with how Tesla Service has deteriorated from the early days; but part of me really still likes the driving feel of the OG RWD performance S, and I chalk some of this up to the challenge of being an early adopter.

Tesla has evolved its designs since the early days, and the large DU has now been overtaken by the carbon-wrapped Plaid motors and M3 drivetrain with its theoretical “million mile” life. I may eventually upgrade to a new Plaid S (2x the performance and 70% more range than my car, for less than I paid new back in 2013), but for now I figure I’ve got another 1-2 years on the latest DU to make up my mind…

 

[airborne spoon]

I just hit 200k miles the other day. On my 2014 P85100D

My stock drive unit failed at 172k I paid out of pocket to replace with a refurbished one it was a model T. It worked for about 10k miles and then failed, so obviously under warranty. It was replaced with the model U refurbished one.

As we all know when it comes to refurbished parts they either last the same as new parts or fail quickly. This applies to starters alternators and obviously Tesla motors and other refurbished items.

 

[ucmndd]

Why hasn’t Tesla fixed this issue?

The latest revision of the drive unit (-U) eliminates the coolant loop entirely and effectively neutralizes the problem.

 

[airborne spoon]

The latest revision of the drive unit (-U) eliminates the coolant loop entirely and effectively neutralizes the problem.

thats my understanding as well which is why i was happy to get that one put in on mine.

 

[tallypwner]

I've had one drive unit failure and I think they replaced another one as a preventative measure at one point as well. Tesla techs have told be they're common fail points and 2-3 years or 20-30k miles per replacement is not unusual. It does seem strange how unreliable the batteries and drive units are. I'm sure it's a lot more complicated than it seems. But they should probably figure that out..soon.

To replace ICE you need to be better than ICE. Figure average motor lasts about 200k between replacements or rebuilds. That should be the standard to meet or exceed.

 

[FatFalcon]

I've had one drive unit failure and I think they replaced another one as a preventative measure at one point as well. Tesla techs have told be they're common fail points and 2-3 years or 20-30k miles per replacement is not unusual. It does seem strange how unreliable the batteries and drive units are. I'm sure it's a lot more complicated than it seems. But they should probably figure that out..soon.

To replace ICE you need to be better than ICE. Figure average motor lasts about 200k between replacements or rebuilds. That should be the standard to meet or exceed.

To be fair, we're talking about a motor that was in the first desirable, high-performance EV ever, in history. Early, early days, when Tesla was figuring things out by trial, error and data collection. Current generations of motors and batteries easily meet or exceed the average '200k between replacements or rebuilds'.

 

[TLLMRRJ]

Current generations of motors and batteries easily meet or exceed the average '200k between replacements or rebuilds'.

I don’t think we have the data to make that call yet. I read about a lot of failures before 200k. I had a drive unit failure in 5k for a 2023. For all the reports you see on forums, there’s tons of people that never ever in their life would dream of posting on a car forum. Time will tell, but it’s too soon.

 

[Fgpalmer71]

thats my understanding as well which is why i was happy to get that one put in on mine.

I had the U variant installed 2 months ago. I picked it up on 12/27......and I just dropped it off this morning for ANOTHER failed drive unit. It began making a terrible noise last week that sounded like a fender liner rubbing on the tire. I didn't make it out of the service center parking lot before the Technician told me to stop....it's the drive unit.

I don't think Tesla has any kind of handle on the issue at all.

 

[Renown]

I had the U variant installed 2 months ago. I picked it up on 12/27......and I just dropped it off this morning for ANOTHER failed drive unit. It began making a terrible noise last week that sounded like a fender liner rubbing on the tire. I didn't make it out of the service center parking lot before the Technician told me to stop....it's the drive unit.

I don't think Tesla has any kind of handle on the issue at all.

Did that rubbing type noise sound anything like this?

Hopefully that's the issue now as it's still under warranty. I found it went very quiet if you put your foot down

 

[jmmcalpin]

I just had my 2014 P85D rear unit fail, they want $6,800 to replace it, 87,000 miles, any new news on Tesla helping with the replacement cost?
Any improvement on the units they install , don't know if they still use reman and if they are any better now.
John

 

[BBuxr]

I just had my 2014 P85D rear unit fail, they want $6,800 to replace it, 87,000 miles, any new news on Tesla helping with the replacement cost?
Any improvement on the units they install , don't know if they still use reman and if they are any better now.
John

My 2015 P85D rear unit failed last week- one week past warranty expiration. They gave me $1k discount.

 

[dmurphy]

More luck than planning, but this thread makes me thrilled I went for the “cheap” version of our X & S both. LR+ (Raven) and LR (Palladium) respectively. Means no LDUs for us which appears to be a winning strategy. I hope.

 

[P90DUser]

I had the U variant installed 2 months ago. I picked it up on 12/27......and I just dropped it off this morning for ANOTHER failed drive unit. It began making a terrible noise last week that sounded like a fender liner rubbing on the tire. I didn't make it out of the service center parking lot before the Technician told me to stop....it's the drive unit.

I don't think Tesla has any kind of handle on the issue at all.

Was that a new or refurbished one?

 

[FF1379]

Anyone find out if this was a new or reman bypass drive unit that failed?

 

[Renown]

Did that rubbing type noise sound anything like this?

Hopefully that's the issue now as it's still under warranty. I found it went very quiet if you put your foot down

Further to this, it's been confirmed by Tesla Service that it's LDU failure, so it's being replaced under warranty. Just under 140k now, unsure of the exact issue but I'm going to press for further details tomorrow