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Model S had to be towed home

apacheguy

S Sig #255
Oct 21, 2012
5,075
1,238
So Cal
I got the car back on Tuesday and everything was fantastic. I'm very impressed with Tesla's proactive approach to upgrading/replacing items that may seem relatively minor. I honestly cannot imagine that this approach can continue indefinitely (ie. through the Model 3) as it surely isn't profitable.

So, everything was fantastic until last evening, when the car gave me a message "Car Needs Service, Power Reduced" and it seemed as if I only had about 25 kW of power available. I was just about a mile away from home, so I made it home and shut the car off for a few minutes. After restarting the car, the message was gone and everything was normal again. I contacted the SvC about this and they are now on their way up to come haul the car back down to Rockville. This is getting old, fast. I really love the car, have been one of the biggest Tesla fanboys for years, and understand some issues and growing pains will exist, but I feel like I'm losing faith.
View attachment 100156

Did they say why? I think it's just a cautionary measure. Since the error cleared after a reboot, it could have simply been that the DU they put in needed to reinitialize after the platform update they always do. I really wish they would inspect the logs first, let the owner know precisely what triggered the error and then work out a solution, if needed.
 

brantse

Supporting Member
May 18, 2015
501
1,310
Somerset, PA
The service manager reviewed the logs, after I informed him of the alert message. It was after his review that he said it should be taken in. I completely agree, I wish they would provide me with some information related to the faults, especially considering the distance and costs associated with hauling the car back in.
 

brantse

Supporting Member
May 18, 2015
501
1,310
Somerset, PA
How did the service manager review the logs? Over the air?
Yes, over the air.

They drove the car around most of the day, unsuccessfully attempting to get it to replicate the fault. After a thorough review from engineering, it was just determined to be a bug. Hopefully it won't return.
 

hipringles

Member
Aug 11, 2015
97
13
Florida, Florida
Yes, over the air.

They drove the car around most of the day, unsuccessfully attempting to get it to replicate the fault. After a thorough review from engineering, it was just determined to be a bug. Hopefully it won't return.

A few weeks ago my baby had the needs service call tesla icon. By the time they picked up the phone it had cleared with nothing shown in the logs...
I do have the lovely milling sound and will be taking it in for that, along with a laundry list of other things tomrrow..... (Also a CPO)
 

apacheguy

S Sig #255
Oct 21, 2012
5,075
1,238
So Cal
Yes, over the air.

They drove the car around most of the day, unsuccessfully attempting to get it to replicate the fault. After a thorough review from engineering, it was just determined to be a bug. Hopefully it won't return.

Lovely. So there really wasn't a point of towing it in. I kinda suspected that was the case since the fault cleared after a reboot. Again, if Tesla had been upfront and told you exactly what they saw in the logs then maybe this all could've been avoided.
 

Cebe

Member
Dec 13, 2014
249
80
Canada
Update - I got a call from the Eric at the service center who said that they found water had leaked into the drive unit. He asked if I had happened to drive through any significant standing water, which I had not. My car was parked at work from about 7 AM until 5 PM, during which we probably received about an inch of rain. Said they'll replace the DU, as they can't really determine how far and where the water may have gotten to.

Red PRND, no error messages, no milling sounds, no warning, the car just decided it won't move anymore. DU replaced (-Q version), failure stated as "coolant contamination", which sounds pretty much like the "water had leaked into the drive unit".
 

islandbayy

Active Member
Feb 25, 2013
2,647
1,015
Greendale, Wisconsin
Yes, over the air.

They drove the car around most of the day, unsuccessfully attempting to get it to replicate the fault. After a thorough review from engineering, it was just determined to be a bug. Hopefully it won't return.
The fault is a Pending Inverter Failure. My 3rd drive unit was replaced a month ago due to this.
 

apacheguy

S Sig #255
Oct 21, 2012
5,075
1,238
So Cal
There is speculation that Tesla is tending more and more towards error suppression in the newer firmwares. Not a welcome turn of events, IMO.
 

FlasherZ

Sig Model S + Sig Model X + Model 3 Resv
Jun 21, 2012
7,024
1,013
Red PRND, no error messages, no milling sounds, no warning, the car just decided it won't move anymore. DU replaced (-Q version), failure stated as "coolant contamination", which sounds pretty much like the "water had leaked into the drive unit".

Someone else I know recently experienced this as well. Apparently it's fairly rare, but does happen.
 

Cyclone

Cyclonic Member ((.oO))
Jan 12, 2015
5,056
1,141
Charlotte, NC
DU replaced (-Q version)

At this rate, Tesla will need to move to Greek letters or double-character version identifiers. I got "N" back in June and in December they are on "Q". Sure, only a few apart, but that many within 6 months means 2017 will need a different versioning identifier.
 

FlasherZ

Sig Model S + Sig Model X + Model 3 Resv
Jun 21, 2012
7,024
1,013
There is speculation that Tesla is tending more and more towards error suppression in the newer firmwares. Not a welcome turn of events, IMO.

For what it's worth, this has been the case since the very beginning; error messages have never been very verbose.

When my contactors failed in the battery pack, the drive indicator turned red and the message was "Contact Tesla Service", "Pull over safely - Car may not restart", and then the 12V battery messages.

When my touchscreen stopped responding in v3 due to a misbehaving USB device, all i saw was "Contact Tesla Service".

I don't believe that Tesla is trending toward that, it's just where they have been. In fact, they even hide some of this stuff from their own service people - when my battery contactors failed, the roadside assistance people told me they were "pulling my logs" and then told me the car hadn't reported any issues. The service center told me they pulled the logs and didn't see anything either, so they escalated to engineering. Engineering was able to see what happened deep, deep in the depths of the car and determine it was the HV battery that had an issue.
 

apacheguy

S Sig #255
Oct 21, 2012
5,075
1,238
So Cal
I don't believe that Tesla is trending toward that, it's just where they have been. In fact, they even hide some of this stuff from their own service people - when my battery contactors failed, the roadside assistance people told me they were "pulling my logs" and then told me the car hadn't reported any issues. The service center told me they pulled the logs and didn't see anything either, so they escalated to engineering. Engineering was able to see what happened deep, deep in the depths of the car and determine it was the HV battery that had an issue.

Wow. How on Earth is that a good engineering decision? "Yeah, let's make it more difficult for the folks who troubleshoot and repair these cars to figure out what went wrong. Good idea, right?"
 

mknox

Well-Known Member
Aug 7, 2012
10,103
1,866
Toronto, ON
When my contactors failed in the battery pack, the drive indicator turned red and the message was "Contact Tesla Service", "Pull over safely - Car may not restart", and then the 12V battery messages.

Ditto. same thing here.

In fact, they even hide some of this stuff from their own service people - when my battery contactors failed, the roadside assistance people told me they were "pulling my logs" and then told me the car hadn't reported any issues. The service center told me they pulled the logs and didn't see anything either, so they escalated to engineering. Engineering was able to see what happened deep, deep in the depths of the car and determine it was the HV battery that had an issue.

Exactly the same with my failed contactors! I thought it was very odd after having a flurry of error messages on the screen that they told me there was nothing showing up in the logs. When I had an intermittent TPMS sensor failure, they were able to see that in the logs!
 

FlasherZ

Sig Model S + Sig Model X + Model 3 Resv
Jun 21, 2012
7,024
1,013
Wow. How on Earth is that a good engineering decision? "Yeah, let's make it more difficult for the folks who troubleshoot and repair these cars to figure out what went wrong. Good idea, right?"

I can't comment on their motives. It could be intended, or it could be that in an effort to get Model S out the door, they figured that they didn't need to write all the extra code to push engineering text file logs into a format that service folks could digest in their systems. Given what I've seen, I'd probably presume the latter on the information necessary to diagnose the critical problem (not intentional and they just didn't think it was necessary).

That said, I was floored that the car hadn't reported a critical stop failure into Tesla's support systems when the contactors went. That's a significant problem IMO.

At the same time, I received a proactive call one Sunday night that my 12V battery was nearing failure and they wanted to replace it the next day at my home. So they have that going for them...
 

rpo

Member
Jun 12, 2014
408
233
Seattle, Washington
Geez guys, you do realize that ICE cars break down all the time too, right? Yes, even new ones.

Yeppppppp! I lemoned two cars in a row at one point. A Lexus and a Chrysler.

The Chrysler had a complete inability to stay in first gear when cold (sub-40 degrees). It would violently launch the stick out of first and often into 2nd or 4th. I had bruises on the palm of my hand from this. They replaced the transmission. Same issue. Then they replaced the transmission again and the engine, and when I tried to pick up the car, I found there was no longer a reverse gear, so I literally could not even leave the parking space at the dealership. They never managed to fix it after that so I lemoned it. The one good thing is I was never stranded anywhere but at the dealership one time. Chrysler volunteered to buy the car back.

The Lexus had constant electrical issues which caused the navigation to go haywire, audio to crank to full volume and mute/unmute repeatedly, and worst of all, it would power off while driving causing the steering wheel to lock and everything to turn off. That happened three times. The last time was while turning onto my street at night. Suddenly everything was off including the headlights, the steering was locked at an angle that wouldn't allow me to complete the turn, and I couldn't stop quickly enough to keep from hitting the curb. I never drove that car again. Prior to that incident, Lexus had the car in their service department for 3 of the 5 months I had owned it. One time when I picked it up (when everything was supposedly repaired, yet again) and while literally pulling out of the dealership, the mirror fell off the windshield and cracked open on the dash. I stopped, whipped the quickest u-turn in history, and flew back into the service bay in a rage. As I slid to a stop (one minute after leaving) on the plasticky floor of the service drop off area, the vent slats on one vent fell out of the dash. I just sat there looking at the dangling wires from where the mirror used to be, the vent slats all over the passenger seat and floor, and suddenly then the navigation began spinning in circles and went off into the pacific ocean. It was hilarious. I couldn't stop laughing. It was honestly like I was on a hidden camera TV show. I'm laughing and the service manager is screaming at me. Once he saw the missing mirror, he began apologizing. Too late.
 

brantse

Supporting Member
May 18, 2015
501
1,310
Somerset, PA
That's pretty funny. Besides the agony of having to live through it, at least you got a good story out of it. Guess I was lucky, but I've never really had any issues with vehicles in the past.
 

evp

Nerd
Nov 28, 2014
709
890
Arvada, CO
quote_icon.png
Originally Posted by apacheguy viewpost-right.png
Interesting. I thought -M preceded the drive unit embargo and they were only deploying the newer revs.



Possibly. Perhaps they are holding off on replacements, solely due to noise related issues (understanding that noise is most likely a predication for eventual failure). In this case, my car was completely immobile, so replacement was necessary.

Agreed, that's strange. I got mine swapped out in October, replacement was a new -Q. I notice yours is remanufactured (RMN code), maybe these are being brought up to the equivalent of -Q before shipping back out.
 

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