Drive unit replacement experiences / timeline?

[Demonofelru]

Hey there,

got my Y about a month and a half ago. Had some issues, but was mostly good until I was going to drive it today. Heard a kind of grinding / whirring then a big thunk. It showed for about a second that rear drive motor was disabled, but still ok to drive. As soon as I finished reading it though it changed to a cycling of 3 or 4 different warnings. Don't remember word for word. They were something like electrical systems limited, power may be reduced, car may not restart service needed, and electrical systems starting. Weird that it didn't say anything about the motor after that, but have to assume something is wrong with the motor that maybe caused electrical problems?

Anyway from looking it's kind of hard to find experiences of Model Y's having these problems. Seem to find a ton about Model S's only. Seems I was just super unlucky and got a bathtub curve type failure. Not going to lie, it doesn't instill me with confidence that there was a catastrophic failure within 2 months of ownership though. The only other thing I had was the passenger wiper being broken from delivery that they kind of fixed, but later said I needed to make an appointment to get it replaced it was pressing against the frunk or whatever.

Has anybody here had similar problems? If so what was your experience like for timeline / hassle? Did they offer a loaner or any kind of accommodations like that or only Uber credits?

 

[jcanoe]

Have you tried shutting down, restarting the Model Y? Do you still get error messages?

Use the Tesla app to contact Roadside Assistance when you are at home. Roadside Assistance can determine if the vehicle can be driven, if not they will dispatch a flatbed to pick up your vehicle. This is actually the quickest way to have your vehicle looked at by Tesla. All vehicles that are determined to be inoperable, brought to a SC via a flatbed are supposed to be looked at within 24 hours. (So of course this means that if you call Roadside Assistance on a Friday and your vehicle is towed in to the SC on Friday then the Tesla SC probably won't look the car until Monday.) Tesla can send you Uber vouchers via email or text message. Call the SC on Monday, select the phone prompt for a vehicle that is currently being serviced, someone in the SC should call you back. At that point make your case for a loaner vehicle. The Tesla SC don't have many loaner vehicles but they may have a few, so it pays to be nice when you speak with the SC team. Ask to be put on a waiting list for a loaner vehicle as they may be able to get you a loaner as soon as one is returned to the SC.

 

[Demonofelru]

Have you tried shutting down, restarting the Model Y? Do you still get error messages?

Use the Tesla app to contact Roadside Assistance when you are at home. Roadside Assistance can determine if the vehicle can be driven, if not they will dispatch a flatbed to pick up your vehicle. This is actually the quickest way to have your vehicle looked at by Tesla. All vehicles that are inoperable, brought to a SC via a flatbed are supposed to be looked at within 24 hours. (So of course this means that if you call Roadside Assistance on a Friday and your vehicle is towed in to the SC on Friday then the Tesla SC probably won't look the car until Monday.) Tesla can send you Uber vouchers via email or text message. Call the SC on Monday, select the phone prompt for a vehicle that is currently being serviced, someone in the SC should call you back. At that point make your case for a loaner vehicle (the Tesla SC don't have many loaner vehicles but they may have a few, so it pays to be nice when you speak with the SC team, they may be able to get you a loaner as soon as one comes back to the SC.

Yeah, probably should have specified. When I called they had me do the brake and two buttons thing, and a power off in settings followed by waiting 5 minutes neither helped. Originally they said, “ok, seems it needs to be repaired. Looks like you already have an appointment for the 25th. You can edit this into that with the app to have it fixed at the same time”.

I then said, I can’t drive it there since it won’t even let me put it in drive. So yeah, he told me to do the roadside assistance and it was in fact towed to the SC. It got there just after close it looks like. Hopefully I’ll get an update tomorrow so I don’t have to wait until Monday. Thanks for the response!

 

[Hydrocarbon302]

Our MYP built on September 14th and delivered on September 28th, now with 3200 miles has been at the service center since November 12th awaiting a new rear drive unit and inverter. ETR is the 25th.

 

[Demonofelru]

Our MYP built on September 14th and delivered on September 28th, now with 3200 miles has been at the service center since November 12th awaiting a new rear drive unit and inverter. ETR is the 25th.

I guess 2 weeks isn’t too bad, that’s assuming the ETA was accurate. Did you have similar symptoms to mine it just randomly made a clunk and crapped out? I actually took delivery day after you the 29th. Perhaps a bad batch? If so hopefully that means we won’t have problems in the future and that we just got unlucky with a batch of defective ones.

Did they offer a loaner or anything?

 

[Hydrocarbon302]

I guess 2 weeks isn’t too bad, that’s assuming the ETA was accurate. Did you have similar symptoms to mine it just randomly made a clunk and crapped out? I actually took delivery day after you the 29th. Perhaps a bad batch? If so hopefully that means we won’t have problems in the future and that we just got unlucky with a batch of defective ones.

Did they offer a loaner or anything?

My wife was driving the car when the error message popped up saying vehicle requires service and may not restart. She called me while I was at work, and I told her to go home immediately and I called roadside. Luckily she made it home, but the car would not move after she put it in park. The first error code was BMS_A035, but after it sat for a couple hours the screen started to randomly reboot. They said the 12v battery was bad but they determined that the car required further diagnostics.

The closest service center is 4-1/2hrs away and they dispatched a tow truck. At first they want to pay for a rental but ended up putting a LR M3 on the back of the flatbed they sent out.

Not sure how the rear drive unit/inverter makes the 12v go bad but....‍

 

[Demonofelru]

Ok yeah, mine was after parking. Luckily that meant it broke down in a safe location at least. They have yet to say anything about what’s wrong or say anything about a loaner. A M3 would be great. Kinda want to try how the sedan drives. Not getting my hopes up though as most say they don’t really do loaners nearly as much anymore.

 

[JAlbury825]

Mine failed on December 14, 2021. The service center had the car for 21 days, and they replaced the 12v battery, drive unit (remanufactured, Large RWD, 2014 Model S 60kwh), and the heating/cooling system for the HV battery. Total cost $7,000+. Drive unit cost was $4800 (not including labor).