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Model S had to be towed home

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True, but with proper maintenance this is very rare. Things break and parts fail, but I've never been stranded in a vehicle like this before.

less than 6 weeks after getting our Jeep Grand Cherokee, it shut down and rolled to a stop. It would not start, nor were there any error messages or "idiot lights" aglow. I had to get it towed to the nearest dealership. We had paid extra for a warranty that included a rental car if they had to keep the car overnight. The dealership refused to give me the rental. they calmed that the problem might not be covered by warranty. It took a heated conversation, and my wife making a phone call to Chrysler corporate to get it resolved. I can still hear Chrysler corporate yelling into the phone at the general manager "give him the damn car".

In the end it was total computer failure -- definitely warranty and it took nearly a week to fix.

I'll take Tesla's approach any day.
 
I had a Ford Taurus about 20 years ago that suddenly stopped running at 70MPH and I had to coast off the side of the interstate. It was the computer, and after waiting a week it was $2000+ to replace.

I had a Pontiac Fiero that died while traveling down the interstate. The engine had seized. Cost to fix was more than it was worth, so the car was history.

My brother had a 3 year old Chevy Tahoe that had the transmission die at 55k miles, just out of warranty. $4000 fix.

My wife had a Saturn that had the transmission die at 60k miles, just out of warranty. $2000 fix (with a rebuilt transmission).

I've had plenty of more minor incidents in gas cars over the years. That said, it would really suck to have your new $100k car die in the middle of the road, but I'd still take that experience over the myriad of terrible experiences I've had with gas cars in my 20 years of driving.
 
In my case, it was the contactors. You felt a "slam", got all the warnings, and drive indicators turned red with "CAR IS SHUTTING DOWN, PLEASE PULL OVER SAFELY".

Just in this case, he's not seeing the errors that should be displayed.

Ill be very surprised if this had anything to do with HV pack. As you note, HV failures result in alerts being generated and eventually the main screens die bc of lack of 12 V power. The OP did not report this symptom. Also, if the contactors break under load there will be an audible bang or snap. Neither of these were reported.

On the other hand, others have reported DU failure abruptly without any warning. This is consistent.
 
Ill be very surprised if this had anything to do with HV pack. As you note, HV failures result in alerts being generated and eventually the main screens die bc of lack of 12 V power. The OP did not report this symptom. Also, if the contactors break under load there will be an audible bang or snap. Neither of these were reported.

On the other hand, others have reported DU failure abruptly without any warning. This is consistent.


Ya, but why don't we wait and see WHAT actually went wrong before we start running around wringing ours hands screaming, " drive unit failure"!! Oh the humanity!
 
They brought me a beautiful P85, which I actually just discovered has rear facing seats. My 3 year old son is really excited to try those out.

Yes, still no confirmation whatsoever as to the cause. Hopefully we'll find out tomorrow.
 
True, but with proper maintenance this is very rare. Things break and parts fail, but I've never been stranded in a vehicle like this before.

My 2012 Audi A3 with 15,000 miles stranded me earlier this year when the air conditioner compressor seized which caused the accessory belt to shred which caused bits of rubber to break through wires going to a coolant temperature sensor. No alternator.

Five years ago, my F-150 with under 10,000 miles broke its accessory belt leaving it with no power steering ( a problem!) and no alternator. It had to be towed.

My 1984 Toyota Celica with 20,000 miles on it at the time blew out the oil pressure sensor along with all of the engine oil at the top of a bridge across the San Francisco Bay. Ok, I'll concede this may not be relevant these days given it was 30 years ago.

I have no idea where you come up with "very rare".
 
Another interesting thing to note... When the Tesla folks were trying to load my S60 onto the trailer, they quickly found their winch battery to be nearly dead. As I was thinking about trying to locate a nearby 12v battery, they tried several attempts to just feather the accelerator ever so slightly. Turned out the car was indeed able to pull itself onto the trailer. I just have to wonder if this "self preservation" mode that the car has put itself into will still allow a few kW worth of traction motor energy, just in case you need to pull yourself off to the side of the road.
 
Another interesting thing to note... When the Tesla folks were trying to load my S60 onto the trailer, they quickly found their winch battery to be nearly dead. As I was thinking about trying to locate a nearby 12v battery, they tried several attempts to just feather the accelerator ever so slightly. Turned out the car was indeed able to pull itself onto the trailer. I just have to wonder if this "self preservation" mode that the car has put itself into will still allow a few kW worth of traction motor energy, just in case you need to pull yourself off to the side of the road.

Well that probably rules out the contractors being blown open permanently.
 
I have no idea where you come up with "very rare".

As a mech engineer, I may be a little more attuned to vehicle/engine maintenance than most, but the only time that I was ever "stranded" and had to tow a vehicle was after a self-inflicted timing belt replacement screw up. I was 19 years old and with limited tools and knowledge, probably shouldn't have been doing that job myself. I would estimate that I've put about 400k miles on ICE cars, and again this was the ONLY time that I ever had to tow a stranded vehicle. As mentioned, I've had issues involving numerous coolant leaks, turbocharger related fault codes, emissions faults, battery/alternator failures, etc.; but these could be addressed relatively easily and never required transporting the vehicle.

I stand corrected...it was my fiance's vehicle (at the time) but I had a timing belt break once, which also required towing. Just like clockwork, that vehicle was about to hit 100k miles and it was extremely cold out. For anyone who doesn't think that timing belts need to be replaced on schedule, heed the warning.
 
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