Dual engine shut down on freeway. Anyone else?

[puppet]

I have a question as I've had a scary and unexpected experience with my 70D. It twice shut down the front engine while driving on the freeway- it also turned off steering assist and a slew of other features. It was scary as it dramatically lost power at 65mph ( and I had my 6 year old in the backseat).

With a tech on the phone I did a hard reboot and it seemed fine for about 4 days- until it shut down at speed on the freeway again (and again with my kid in the back). Not wanting to go through that unsafe situation ever again- I had it towed to a service center.

It has now been in the service center for 3 weeks. After 2 weeks they've got it to re- fault but still haven't solved it.

My question is has anyone else had this issue? the service center assured me it was a first.

Also, I'm not sure how safe I feel driving this particular car- if the issue is so hard to diagnose and repair.

It's a tough position, my car is 2 months old- I loved it and was preaching the word- until it went into power/ steering control free mode...

 

[brianman]

Welcome!

Nitpick: Engine -> Motor.

There are examples on TMC of vehicle "shutting down" in the past but IIRC it was in the units of "handfuls" (not even "dozens"). Curious and unfortunate.

Best wishes that your car's curse gets resolved and please keep us posted.

 

[Tree95]

Nitpick: Engine -> Motor.

Don't be that guy.

 

[Silverpnt01]

Don't be that guy.

+1!

 

[puppet]

OK, I get it "Engine-> Motor". But when my car shut down with my family in it- at speed- on the freeway in traffic... I would have happily had an "engine".

Thanks, for the good wishes.

Welcome!

Nitpick: Engine -> Motor.

There are examples on TMC of vehicle "shutting down" in the past but IIRC it was in the units of "handfuls" (not even "dozens"). Curious and unfortunate.

Best wishes that your car's curse gets resolved and please keep us posted.

 

[redox]

Nitpick: Engine -> Motor.

What's the problem with "engine"? My dictionary says:

engine |ˈenjən| noun1 a machine with moving parts that converts power into motion.
Seems pretty fitting, doesn't it?

 

[travwill]

OK, I get it "Engine-> Motor". But when my car shut down with my family in it- at speed- on the freeway in traffic... I would have happily had an "engine".

Thanks, for the good wishes.

Besides the services unavailable, when the engine (just kidding) cut off, did it provide another unique warning (e.g. "Front Drive Unavailable" or "Error with... Service Immediately")? Curious how you knew it was the front motor so easily?

There must be some fault with a component or the motor itself and surely Tesla will replace components until they find it, may be a bit painful but you'll end up with a long-term fix in time.

I've always been curious to understand more about the range-mode feature that will enable torqe sleep usually at freeway speeds, maybe a culprit? I wish they would have an indicator that showed better when the car was in AWD or RWD (assuming it is the front motor that cuts off in torque sleep).

 

[David99]

What's the problem with "engine"? My dictionary says:

engine |ˈenjən| noun1 a machine with moving parts that converts power into motion.
Seems pretty fitting, doesn't it?

+1

Sorry to hear about the problem. A car that shuts off critical parts like motors and steering assist is a serious danger. Please keep us updated!

 

[puppet]

Yes multiple warnings started to pop up as the speed dropped dramatically. One warning stated something like "front motor shut down", one was a "steering warning", one was a "traction control shut down" and around 10 more warnings.

The Tesla service has been very friendly and accommodating- I have nothing but good things to say about that experience.

But when they had to drive it around continuously for 2 weeks- including a tech driving it home each day- to "repeat the errors" (because the logs weren't enough), and when the got it to repeat- spitting out 52 shut downs and warnings, but still haven't been able to fix it in the week since...

This is a very different experience than with any vehicle I've ever owned, and yes it leaves me with safety concerns re: this specific car.

Besides the services unavailable, when the engine (just kidding) cut off, did it provide another unique warning (e.g. "Front Drive Unavailable" or "Error with... Service Immediately")? Curious how you knew it was the front motor so easily?

There must be some fault with a component or the motor itself and surely Tesla will replace components until they find it, may be a bit painful but you'll end up with a long-term fix in time.

I've always been curious to understand more about the range-mode feature that will enable torqe sleep usually at freeway speeds, maybe a culprit? I wish they would have an indicator that showed better when the car was in AWD or RWD (assuming it is the front motor that cuts off in torque sleep).

 

[EarlyAdopter]

Not good. Incredibly rare, to the point of being the first time I've heard of it. No consolation for you, but I do hope they find the root cause and fix it quickly and decisively. If not, lemon the car. Tesla would no doubt offer a "trade assist" into a new car as other manufacturers do to avoid lemoning a car. We almost had to do that with a BMW years ago.

On the plus side, at least when it lost power your steering column didn't lock, your brake boost disappear, and your airbags disabled. No idea how anyone could ever drive a GM car again after that.

 

[GoTslaGo]

Keep us all posted!

Also on the plus side, at least you had a second motor to make it home (I assume). If this was an ICE, you would have been on the side of the road. Makes the P90D sound better and better.

 

[fancycar]

Terrible and scary. Especially with your 6 year old onboard.
I do hope you have a p90d for a loaner.
Hoping you have a full recovery soon.

 

[vgrinshpun]

I had a bunch of messages from various systems operating improperly: loss of power steering, ABS, etc last summer on my P85+. After driving for about ten miles on highway without power steering I stopped after getting off the highway, and restarting car eliminated the problem. Over the course of couple of days I had several similar incidents, with each of them fixed by restarting the car, until it did not...

long story short, the problem was a bad ground connection due to corrosion. The corrosion is irrelevant for your newer car, but I would ask Service Center to test ground connection(s). I see potential commonality in our incidents because problem messages that were popping up were from seemingly unrelated systems in a car. The commonality might be that improper ground can affect operation of a lot of different systems. So once again, I would ask SC to check the grounding circuits.

 

[ggr]

I had a bunch of messages from various systems operating improperly: loss of power steering, ABS, etc last summer on my P85+. After driving for about ten miles on highway without power steering I stopped after getting off the highway, and restarting car eliminated the problem. Over the course of couple of days I had several similar incidents, with each of them fixed by restarting the car, until it did not...

long story short, the problem was a bad ground connection due to corrosion. The corrosion is irrelevant for your newer car, but I would ask Service Center to test ground connection(s). I see potential commonality in our incidents because problem messages that were popping up were from seemingly unrelated systems in a car. The commonality might be that improper ground can affect operation of a lot of different systems. So once again, I would ask SC to check the grounding circuits.

Our roadster had an intermittent problem reminiscent of this (except of course it wouldn't move at all!). It turned out to be a bundle of wires that wasn't secured properly, and where the insulation rubbed off there was an intermittent short. Mention that they should also check all the wiring leading to the front of the car.

 

[whitex]

I almost lemon'ed a few weeks old Lexus about 9 years ago. It turned out to be a bent ground pin in one of the electric harness connectors. It took 3 visits totaling more than 2 weeks in the shop plus a bunch of new electronic parts they replaced before finding the actual issue.

Did you at least get a Tesla loaner to drive while your 70D is in the SC?

 

[Jim.MS]

I had the front motor disabled warning while on highway, the second day I took delivery of my P90D back in December 2015, along with 3 other warnings.

I ended up had Tesla towed the car and everything were fine except there's a hardware malfunctioned with the charge port door. They fixed it in few hours despite the fact that the needed parts were out of stock and I had to wait two weeks.

 

[whitex]

They fixed it in few hours despite the fact that the needed parts were out of stock and I had to wait two weeks.

Well, either the parts were either not needed for a fix, or they now have time machines at the service centers to travel to the future to get parts! Did you just spoil another Tesla reveal? :tongue:

 

[garygid]

Did the rear motor continue to function normally, keeping you at almost the same speed?

 

[shah007]

This is really scary! I am having doubts about buying Model S now based on this.

 

[Caligula]

When I bought my car, the dual motors were billed as a redundant safety feature. Specifically the rep told us that if one motor were to go out, we could always use the 2nd to continue driving until repairs can be made. Is this not the case here? If it is, I'd say this should make you feel a little better about the car as it's safety redundancy worked for you and your 6 year old. I'd take loss of some or most power over no power any day of the year