I'm curious... Did they call to confirm before changing the drive unit or did they do so without consulting you?
-
Want to remove ads? Register an account and login to see fewer ads, and become a Supporting Member to remove almost all ads.
Drive Unit Replacement Poll
- Thread starter nleggatt
- Start date
-
- Tags
- Driving Dynamics Model S
Well..... 13 days since my post above.
Car was fixed. Drives great. Drive unit replaced less that 2 weeks ago.
But....then today....pulling out from work, I had the drive system stop. I was accelerating and them 'pop'... No power to accelerate anymore.
Got the message to "pull over and shut the car off"
Luckily I was not on a busy street or highway.
I pulled over. Shut the car down.
Pressed the brake, got power to drive again.
Called my local service center. They could remotely see the error message. Fault with the drive unit.
They told me to bring it straight there. Which I did. They have it now.
Luckily, they are only 6 min from my home. So, it's very convenient.
They offered to drive me home, drive me to work tomorrow, get a rental, etc.
But I declined. We have a spare ICE car.
My SC folks are great.
But I am bummed about the issue.
However, the car still handled great during the loss of acceleration. I had power to steer, brake, etc. So that was nice.
I will post more tomorrow once they check it all out.
Last edited:
I'll have to dig up my posts to confirm, but I believe my drive unit started the milling sound soon after 20k and the failure like keysh2oboy just described happened around 22-23k. I recall the timeline because I was near my (2nd) annual and we were going to wait for the annual to address the milling but the failure accelerated the timeline for drive unit replacement.
I had my annual on Tuesday (4/22) and it had 25.4k miles at that time.
That was on my mind when I was "only" getting it replaced for the milling. Once it had a more serious fault, "choice" was removed from the equation.
Unlike block stampings on ICE cars, Tesla uses stickers on the battery/drive unit/charger. The drive unit has something engraved on it, but I haven't looked at what it is.
Some drive unit failures, such as the one you describe, could be due to a failure in the inverter that is part of the same assembly. Even if it's just the inverter that has a problem, the entire drive unit gets changed out. I'm just saying this because this may not be indicative of a problem with the motor itself, but another related component.
Alysashley79
Active Member
Mine is in a SC bay right now waiting to be switched out right now. It makes a clunk a low speeds when going from acceleration to regen. 1st time at 13k miles.
This is funny because in another thread (either here or at TM), a bunch of people were talking about the "clunk" going from accel to regen. Almost everyone there said they have it and that it's normal. I believe I was in the minority when I said I didn't have it on either of my drive units.
Kraken
Member
They showed interest in it when I mentioned my car had a stutter at low speeds, but they looked at it and said it was normal.
Canuck
Well-Known Member
Since this seems pretty common, is the extended warranty considered a must? I'm still debating whether to buy it but this issue looks like it will tip the scales to "buy". Is that what others here think?
InTheShadows
Active Member
There is a difference between the soft clunk that we normally have and the metallic clank that warranted a replacement of our drive unit. If you have it you will know it. It sounded like a bad universal joint from an ice. It is not a soft sound but a hard sound of two metal parts banging together.
We drove our car for almost 1000 miles after it started until the replaced it and it was progressively getting worse. I first noticed it in parking lots at very low speeds. By time it went in for service it was noticeable in the 20-30 mph range.
The normal sound of our replacement drive unit is not anything like what we had experienced.
We drove our car for almost 1000 miles after it started until the replaced it and it was progressively getting worse. I first noticed it in parking lots at very low speeds. By time it went in for service it was noticeable in the 20-30 mph range.
The normal sound of our replacement drive unit is not anything like what we had experienced.
bbamrah
Member
Mine was replaced at about 25000 miles and 1 year of ownership. Heard a big clunk, afterwards the car would not accelerate when pushing on accelerator.
Alysashley79
Active Member
Just got got a call from SC with confirmation that there is a fault internally in the he drive unit. The clunk was loud and couldn't be missed at low speeds. I specifically asked the shop foreman in seattle when we were leaving if any sort of "clunk" is normal between accel and regen and he said NO it definitely is not normal. The good news is that they should have the unit replaced today and be able to test it this afternoon and tomorrow and if all is well I can get my girl back by lunchtime tomorrow. I seriously don't know of any ICE company that could swap out a motor in one day!!!
LuckyLuke
Model S P90DL
Had exactly the same symptoms on my 2nd motor, a clunk sound when going from accel to regen and vice versa. Sounded like a slack in a gear (sorry I'm not native English). My 3rd motor is fine so far.
Similar threads
