Dead in the driveway - “power reduced”

[Sacramento]

I was leaving a friend’s house in Palm Springs in my 2021 Y today and got a “reduced power” warning with a turtle icon. I had nearly 200 miles of range. All systems seemed to be working but the car rolled about 20 feet and then just stopped.

Tesla roadside assistance had me power down and reboot but the problem remained.

Fortunately there’s a Tesla service center nearby in Cathedral City. I suppose there are worst places to be stranded than Palm Springs in April.

 

[jcanoe]

You should be aware that when a Tesla vehicle has to be towed to a Tesla Service Center that the vehicle is supposed to be evaluated by a service technician within 24 hours, so Monday COB or possibly Tuesday AM. I would open a service request via the Tesla app on your phone if one has not already been opened. Provide a brief description of what happened in the service ticket. Politely request a loaner vehicle (loaner vehicles are sometimes available) or a rental (Uber credits won't cut it if you have to drive back home.) Make sure that your mobile phone number and email are up to date in your Tesla account. Tesla prefers to use text messaging in their customer communications. The Tesla Service Center will use email to communicate if the Tesla secure message server is unavailable.

 

[Sacramento]

Update on the dead Tesla, Tuesday Apr. 27: I was hoping for a simple software fix but the morning after my three-month-old Tesla Y was taken to the local service center (yesterday) the service advisor called me to say the cause of the failure was a faulty wiring harness. They did not have a replacement in stock and couldn't say when one would arrive. Damn. 500 miles from home and my car was going nowhere. Joe, the service guy, set me up with a Tesla S loaner with free supercharging for as long as it takes to complete the repair. I'm back home in Sacramento now facing a one-thousand-mile round trip to pick up my car in the coming days/weeks. Am I thrilled? No. But I feel like Tesla handled my situation appropriately.

 

[Jjrss]

I would ask them to deliver the car to your home and take back their loaner. You shouldn't be inconvenienced because of their faulty parts.

 

[Sacramento]

I would ask them to deliver the car to your home and take back their loaner. You shouldn't be inconvenienced because of their faulty parts.

Good point. I'll wait and see where this goes. Thanks!

 

[Pianewman]

Tough call on returning your car. I could see it both ways. HUGE inconvenience to you.

More important, though, is do you WANT to pick up your car and then drive it 500 miles after repair? How much disassembly is required to replace the defective harness? I'm always on alert for several hundred miles after any significant repair on ANY car. Even the best techs can make a mistake.

Keep us updated. Sorry for your ordeal.

 

[Sacramento]

Good point! The truth is, the drive from Sacramento to Palm Springs across the high desert of the eastern Sierra is spectacularly beautiful and it's always a joy in good weather. It's also extremely remote between the small towns along the way. I did wonder what would have happened if my Y had choked in the middle of nowhere. I also discovered an older Model S doesn't have the range of my Y and apparently can't take full advantage of the 250 kW chargers along the way. I needed to stop FIVE times at superchargers between Cathedral City (Palm Springs) and Sacramento. A normal nine-hour drive took 12 hours.

 

[alexcue]

I'm wondering if a mouse got into the wiring? Heard of others having issues with the little critters. Just a thought...

Let us know how this finally resolves its self.

 

[Sacramento]

I think the service advisor mentioned a crack in one of the connectors. He said they could have hot-wired it to make the car go, but it would be against Tesla policy. I totally support that. He also said his crew hadn't seen many of these (if any).

 

[Silicon Desert]

He also said his crew hadn't seen many of these (if any).

Hmmm, that statement implies to me that they may have seen others. Wondering if it was a manufacturing fault since the car is so new.

 

[2101Guy]

Good point! The truth is, the drive from Sacramento to Palm Springs across the high desert of the eastern Sierra is spectacularly beautiful and it's always a joy in good weather. It's also extremely remote between the small towns along the way. I did wonder what would have happened if my Y had choked in the middle of nowhere. I also discovered an older Model S doesn't have the range of my Y and apparently can't take full advantage of the 250 kW chargers along the way. I needed to stop FIVE times at superchargers between Cathedral City (Palm Springs) and Sacramento. A normal nine-hour drive took 12 hours.

possibly one of the model S's with the much older battery pack where via software, Tesla reduced range and increased charge times. Or a S with a 60 or 60 battery pack (less range)

 

[Sacramento]

I ran the VIN and the Model S was produced in 2018. But it only has 26,000 miles on it. Curious.

 

[Jjrss]

I ran the VIN and the Model S was produced in 2018. But it only has 26,000 miles on it. Curious.

Probably a quality reject that no one would take ownership of. I had a similar loaner, with only 12k miles and 2017~2018 manufacture year.

 

[CapsEngineer]

Hmmm, that statement implies to me that they may have seen others. Wondering if it was a manufacturing fault since the car is so new.

Could be a manufacturing fault, but not necessarily Tesla's. If they contract out to someone to manufacture wiring harnesses, that's where the problem could be. I know that at work we have had this problem multiple times. Sometimes we have to do 100% acceptance testing at the subcontractors site while we work with them to fix the problem.

 

[Silicon Desert]

Could be a manufacturing fault, but not necessarily Tesla's. If they contract out to someone to manufacture wiring harnesses, that's where the problem could be. I know that at work we have had this problem multiple times. Sometimes we have to do 100% acceptance testing at the subcontractors site while we work with them to fix the problem.

yes, agree. I didn't say it was Tesla's possible manufacturing fault, yet good to clarify for folks.

 

[Sacramento]

Dead on the driveway update: I returned to Cathedral City (Palm Springs) yesterday, May 3, to pick up my Tesla Y. The service center rep says similar failures in other Teslas have been caused by rodents chewing wires, but there was no evidence of such damage in my case.

The following parts were required to get it running again:

Parts Ordered

1. ASY,HARN,RR SUBFRAME,COIL,NA
   Part #: 1989059-01-A
   Order Date: April 26, 2021
2. BOLT,HF,M14-2.0x120,[109],ZNFL,CMAT
   Part #: 1461657-00-A
   Order Date: April 26, 2021

 

[Pianewman]

Sacramento: Let us know how your return trip goes...hopefully w/o incident!

 

[Positive P]

Hello Sacramento, you are not alone. I just got the dreaded Turtle icon, followed immediately by a slew of errors stating that the "Electrical system is unable to support all features" and "Vehicle may not restart". Battery showing 54%. Just drove 5 miles to Home Depot and back to my house when I started seeing the warnings. I also saw a red text error on the bottom of my screen that stated "LOW VOLTAGE ENERGY REMAINING = 37%". I assume this is the voltage for the 12v? Anyway, as i was on the phone with Tesla, they encouraged me to drive it to the nearest service dealership. I didn't feel comfortable with that decision as I started to notice that the warning voltage percentage was decreasing pretty rapidly. Turns out it was decreasing a % point every minute while just sitting in my garage. At about 17%, I was not longer able to turn on the car or move to Neutral. I exited the car with about 5% left, while on the phone with roadside, and I am assuming that when it reached 0%, I heard the car click and screen blanked out and even though the car was unlocked on the app, the door handles would not work, leaving me locked out of the car. The car is dead in the water (or garage in my case). So if I had followed their instructions on driving the car to the service center, I am pretty sure that when that low voltage meter got to 0, my car would have locked up (on whatever highway or street I was on at the time). Tesla sent a flat bed out and they wanted to drag the car of out of the garage LOL. I'll pass on that. The tow truck driver said that he could possibly get the car powered up, but not sure if it would get it powered enough to get the car into a place where it could be driven onto the flat bed. Not comfortable. I have had major issues with a towing company hauling and damaging a previous car behind a tow truck and didn't want to go through that again. I called roadside service again and we decided to have a Tesla Service person come out to my house tomorrow (this is Sunday) and take a look at this issue. I'll post some screenshots of the errors and keep you guys posted on the outcome. I hope this helps anyone else that may have this issue. I love my Tesla, but major issues at 1300 miles is a big concern. And luckily, I was home, as I was planning on driving a 4 hour round trip to the desert tomorrow (yikes!). Thanks everyone.

 

[Positive P]

Here are some of the error messages: HVP_w028, BMS_a059, VCFRONT_a191, VCFRONT_A192, VCFRONT_a447 and of course the "LOW VOLTAGE ENERGY REMAINING = X% (in red text). I didn't capture the actual turtle message and my Tesla is dead so I can't retrieve it at the moment. Upon searching through these forums, looks like issues with the rear driver inverter or high voltage fuse, but will let you guys know what the Tesla folks say.

 

[Pianewman]

No apologies for a failure at 1300 miles, but, the reality is we're driving computers on wheels, extremely complex, and...*sugar* happens...to all makes.

The system is (probably) designed to shut down rather than damage the complex electronics. That's my opinion. Hopefully there's a simple solution to this very early problem in your car's life.

Also, the car doesn't need power to be pulled onto a flatbed. The tech "should" have been able to power the car sufficient to release the drivetrain to allow it to be winched onto the flatbed w/o any damage whatsoever. Not sure why the Tesla authorized tow driver didn't do this for you.