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Model S Technical / Mechanical Issues
- Thread starter DrComputer
- Start date
Zapped
Model S - PURE EV
rolson1011
2016 P90DL, Model 3 on reservation
The MS is my 7th EV and 2nd Tesla. Sound is VERY normal. Some cars more than others. You'll know when it isn't normal. It will have a horrid grind noise, or your motor will be running with that whine but you'll not be going anywhere.
f-stop
Active Member
today a couple blocks from home, I got a "Rear motor disabled - power reduced" warning on the dash 
my 70D is about 11months old, 13000km. no troubles or warning signs/sounds prior.
was able to drive home the rest of the way without issue. called Tesla service, they checked the car's logs, sounds like drive unit failure, I assume replacement required. - they are coming to pick up the car tomorrow and leave me a loaner.
lucky this didn't happen a week or two ago! - just got back from a 2wk 3500km road trip
my 70D is about 11months old, 13000km. no troubles or warning signs/sounds prior.
was able to drive home the rest of the way without issue. called Tesla service, they checked the car's logs, sounds like drive unit failure, I assume replacement required. - they are coming to pick up the car tomorrow and leave me a loaner.
lucky this didn't happen a week or two ago! - just got back from a 2wk 3500km road trip
pdxgibby
Software Engineer
today a couple blocks from home, I got a "Rear motor disabled - power reduced" warning on the dash
my 70D is about 11months old, 13000km. no troubles or warning signs/sounds prior.
was able to drive home the rest of the way without issue. called Tesla service, they checked the car's logs, sounds like drive unit failure, I assume replacement required. - they are coming to pick up the car tomorrow and leave me a loaner.
lucky this didn't happen a week or two ago! - just got back from a 2wk 3500km road trip
Bummer, man. I took delivery of my 70D about a month before you. I thought these drive unit failures were much less common now...at least I hope so. Out of curiosity, how many miles do you have on yours?
I think this is the second rear motor failure that I have seen... (Not counting the DUs that were replace because of bearing noise.)
f-stop
Active Member
From reading these forums I too was under the impression drive unit failures were less common recently. I guess I'll know more tomorrow, if the motor needs replacement or if it's something else (I guess I'll have to find that old "drive unit replacement poll" thread if it indeed needs replacement...)
I have only about 13,000km on my 70D, so low mileage, only about 8100miles. As mentioned I just came back from a 3500km road trip, all interstate hwy travel to CA and back, wasn't pushing the car hard, no issues or strange noises along the way. The motor failure today happened accelerating slightly in city traffic to pass a car, slight uphill
I'm glad the car was still driveable with front motor only. I thought I had read somewhere that wasn't possible?
I guess service is coming to pick up the car to avoid having the car completely fail on me en route to service. I hope I get a decent loaner, and the repair doesn't take too long...
f-stop
Active Member
I just completed a road trip from Seattle to Missoula Montana...Sitting in a Starbucks I tried to monitor the Charge state from the super charger at Grant Creek from my Tesla App on my iPhone7 and got a notice the the car would not wake up...The issue was my phone Verizon LTE had 3 bars and my friends T-Mobile had only one bar. When I got to my Model S, I saw there was no service... I suspect some of the App delay might be the cars LTE service...I believe Tesla is using AT&T for the Internet provider...(Received my 90D Model S August 2016, Tesla FW Ver 8.0)
I have a 4 month old MS 90D. Thursday night I went to drive home from a school function, half block out of the school parking lot went to stop at stoplight, heard a "clunk" from the front, immediately had an alert that car unable to drive. Pulled up alerts on main screen and had both a front drive unit disable, reduced performance and a car unable to drive alerts. Like @f-stop, PRND indicator all red and car would not respond. Called Roadside Assist from inside the car, they sent wrecker to pick it up, and delivered to service center Friday am.
Had call from service on Friday, asked me to explain what happened, they said car was now operational, but they had opened and investigation case with Engineering. Advised likely Monday before I would hear back.
Heard from them today, and diagnosis is that issue is a firmware error. Here is the exact text from my service repair invoice: "... Engineering found a rare bug in vehicle. States this should not duplicate again". Vehicle is being returned to me in the morning (about 70 miles from service location).
I asked if they had loaded a firmware update from engineering to fix the bug. They had not as I already had what is latest firmware available, Ver 8.0 (2.36.108). What I was told by service advisor is that if you get out of the vehicle, lock it, and then unlock, the diagnostic will reset and car will be operational.
I have no idea if this is possibly something new in Ver8.0 related to enhanced regen braking (although I was at relative low speed when had the original fault), but if you happen to have this and get a disabled vehicle, you might want to get out, walk away so vehicle locks/powers down, and unlock to see if it clears so you an at least drive until you contact service.
Had call from service on Friday, asked me to explain what happened, they said car was now operational, but they had opened and investigation case with Engineering. Advised likely Monday before I would hear back.
Heard from them today, and diagnosis is that issue is a firmware error. Here is the exact text from my service repair invoice: "... Engineering found a rare bug in vehicle. States this should not duplicate again". Vehicle is being returned to me in the morning (about 70 miles from service location).
I asked if they had loaded a firmware update from engineering to fix the bug. They had not as I already had what is latest firmware available, Ver 8.0 (2.36.108). What I was told by service advisor is that if you get out of the vehicle, lock it, and then unlock, the diagnostic will reset and car will be operational.
I have no idea if this is possibly something new in Ver8.0 related to enhanced regen braking (although I was at relative low speed when had the original fault), but if you happen to have this and get a disabled vehicle, you might want to get out, walk away so vehicle locks/powers down, and unlock to see if it clears so you an at least drive until you contact service.
I also noticed the Auto Pilot does not like it when I start to pass a large Semi truck...I seems to turn into the truck and as I am holding the wheel to prevent this from happening the car pops out of autonomous driving mode...I also found that driving through fast tuns on mountain roads at 70 mph (Posted speed limit on I-90), the Autonomous steering is not happy and I have had to disengage...Another issue is when the freeway has an Exit on the left side passing lane that I am in...The car wants to take the exit and I have to pull it back to stay in the passing lane...
f-stop
Active Member
further update on my report of "Rear motor disabled - power reduced" warning
Service Centre confirmed rear drive unit faults "due to an internal issue with the drive inverter"
Rear drive unit was replaced under warranty.
Service was great, they dropped off a loaner MS when they came to pick mine up on the flatbed, and after repair was complete they dropped my car off at my house and took back the loaner.
Service Centre confirmed rear drive unit faults "due to an internal issue with the drive inverter"
Rear drive unit was replaced under warranty.
Service was great, they dropped off a loaner MS when they came to pick mine up on the flatbed, and after repair was complete they dropped my car off at my house and took back the loaner.
Dborn
Confirmed
My 85 signature October2014, with 27.500 km on the clock, developed a metallic clicking from the left rear, audible with air con off and windows roof open. When closed a slight clunk, but could not hear the clicking. all at very slow speed and when changing from light acceleration to deceleration. Turns out this has happened to at least one other car in Sydney as well. Required lubrication and retorqueing of drive shaft bolts and new washer at the hub. Apparently this is a known issue and the subject of a service bulletin. I only became aware of it with the warmer weather and consequent turning off of alternate noise sources.
mknox
Well-Known Member
So normal drive to work (16mi) nothing exciting happened. Seattle 15mph slow going - parked. Came out after an 8 hour day and saw a pool of greenish liquid under the car. Tesla had a coolant low error on it - asked for immediate service.
Luckily the service center is just down the street so brought it in, got a decent loaner which is good because we are going out of town this weekend.
Got the call this morning that a small rock had gotten in between the tinnnny little grill at the bottom of the new front and had punctured the radiator. It's going to cost us about 400$ and they don't have the radiator in stock.
We've had our car for 2 months. Day of delivery - the frunk wouldn't close, the pano roof was cracked, there was glue all over side windows. A few weeks ago our charge port literally just stopped working. That was replaced for free. 2 weeks ago a piece fell off our door and had to be put back on at the service center. Now the coolant thing.
Oh and also our sunroof just randomly won't respond to commands. Sometimes it works sometimes it doesn't. One service tech saw it happen and said he would look at the logs but we've never heard anything.
I love this car but man. We were leaf owners for 5 years with no drama and no additional costs. Six years of hybrid lexus ownership and we've had one single issue. This car is the definition of drama.
Luckily the service center is just down the street so brought it in, got a decent loaner which is good because we are going out of town this weekend.
Got the call this morning that a small rock had gotten in between the tinnnny little grill at the bottom of the new front and had punctured the radiator. It's going to cost us about 400$ and they don't have the radiator in stock.
We've had our car for 2 months. Day of delivery - the frunk wouldn't close, the pano roof was cracked, there was glue all over side windows. A few weeks ago our charge port literally just stopped working. That was replaced for free. 2 weeks ago a piece fell off our door and had to be put back on at the service center. Now the coolant thing.
Oh and also our sunroof just randomly won't respond to commands. Sometimes it works sometimes it doesn't. One service tech saw it happen and said he would look at the logs but we've never heard anything.
I love this car but man. We were leaf owners for 5 years with no drama and no additional costs. Six years of hybrid lexus ownership and we've had one single issue. This car is the definition of drama.
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