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Drive unit replacement - getting better?
- Thread starter mspohr
- Start date
Electricfan
Active Member
Sadly my 85S was built in May 2015 and had the DU replaced. I think it was about 8k miles, and I have about 23k miles now with no more problems so far. So I don't know if its rare these days or not. But as long as Tesla continues to replace at no cost, at least its only a minor inconvenience. I guess if it happens 5 times it starts to be a major problem though. Tesla makes these in-house don't they? Surely if that's true then they can find the problem and solve it. I hope so, anyway.
doctorwho
Active Member
I had my drive unit replaced last week. 35,000km in a car built in March 15. At this rate I'll be on motor number 9 by the time the warranty runs out. Under Australian consumer law Tesla will continue to be responsible for the motor replacement even after that so the sky is the limit unless they can fix the problem
I've had a lot of experience now with more than 20 cars, and my conclusion is that the early cars, (2013's with VIN's before around 30000) pretty much all experienced drive unit problems. Very few failed in the sense that the car was not drivable, but they all seemed to end up making the "milling" or clunking noises. During 2014 they definitely started getting better, and I've seen the problem even less on 2015 models. (around VIN 70000 and up) It would be nice to hear from owners which VIN range their car is on to add more data to my conclusions. I've got 4 cars, (well one just got sold); two late P85D 2014's and two non-P D 2015's with VINs between 60000-120000 and none of them have failures yet. (knock on Aluminum! ;-) Of course these cars all have less than 15k miles, so not very statistically relevant yet.
Jbailey
Member
S85D 10 months old and have put 31,000 miles on it. I have had zero issues. It still drives like the day I got it. I still floor it many times a day. My 90% has decreased from 243 to 235.
Around the same time I got the car, I also got an Apple Watch, i phone, and Lenovo Yoga 3. I am on my 3rd Apple watch replacement, 2nd i-phone replacement and I just sent my Lenovo back for the second time for repair.
So far, I am very pleased with Tesla reliability. I have a feeling Tesla has resolved the issues and CR just needs to catch up.
Around the same time I got the car, I also got an Apple Watch, i phone, and Lenovo Yoga 3. I am on my 3rd Apple watch replacement, 2nd i-phone replacement and I just sent my Lenovo back for the second time for repair.
So far, I am very pleased with Tesla reliability. I have a feeling Tesla has resolved the issues and CR just needs to catch up.
same here... S85D with 31,000 miles, VIN 76xxx. No problems with drive train, no noise.
OTOH, my Land Rover was in for repair again... Some sensor which prevented it from starting... Only cost about $500 this time.
ChadS
Last tank of gas: March 2009
ChadS
Last tank of gas: March 2009
Wow, you got a good one! Pretty rare. Does anyone else here have a low VIN with no DU replacement yet?
ChadS
Last tank of gas: March 2009
Well, I would expect that most people without DU problems would not be reading this thread. But there was a thread (perhaps this one, even) where this questions was asked and several early cars with over 50k reported no issues.
~64K on my car, vin 9XXX, no noises the car is very quiet. The DU was never replaced.
Electricfan
Active Member
My Vin is 085xxx, for your records. DU replaced at about 8k miles.
maybe our miles are just low, but 26K on vin 2970 P85 and 25K on vin 10610 40kw both with original drive units. No milling noises or clunk. *knock on wood*. My luck, tomorrow my wife willl say the car is making this weird noise.
ZBB
Emperor
My VIN is just over 11k higher than yours… May 2013 production. Car will turn 50k miles tomorrow.
I had the DU replaced at my 1 year / 12k mile service in Feb 2014. The service manager drove the car to check out another issue a couple months before then, and he said that the DU needed replacing -- I hadn't noticed the whine until then (and then I heard it all the time…). He suggested waiting a month or two since it wasn't critical, and that another revision was about to be released that was supposed to solve the issues.
Over 2 years and nearly 38k miles later, the current DU has been great...
Jbailey
Member
doctorwho
Active Member
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