P R N D display turned red and lost power but no error messages

[jackie]

This problem first happened a few years ago and then went away on its own.

This time I was travelling back from the UK to the Netherlands and I was about 3 minutes from a Tesla Supercharger when I lost all power and P N R D display turned red. I was able to coast off the motorway onto the slip road but the motor would no longer respond.

I used road side assistance who looked at the logs but could only suggest I power off and wait atleast 5 minutes and then power back on. I tried that with them waiting for a couple of times with no success.
While waiting for the AA to agree that they couldn't fix it and therefore the car and I could be brought to a Tesla Service Centre I powered off the car. After a futher 5 minutes I tried again and this time it didn't trip to red when I pressed the gas pedal and we could proceed on our journey.

It was atleast an hour an half before the car would finally drive on without the P N R D going straight from white to red.

I am posting this experience to see if anyone has any ideas as to why this happened.
I am out of warranty and as the problem has gone away I can't see Tesla being able to find anything as I have travelled many kilometers since the problem occurred without any more issues.

I tried many Google searches for the problem but found nothing. Any ideas ?

 

[Tam]

....lost all power and P R N D display turned red...

I remember there were a handful reports of this type of problem of red P R N D and required Service Center to fix it but I can't find the postings.

I vaguely remembered that may be it has to do with a component dealing with the high voltage.

 

[jackie]

Thanks for the suggestion. And Oops just checked and this should read "P R N D"

 

[Tam]

Thanks for the suggestion. And Oops just checked and this should read "P R N D"

No wonder why the search didn't work!

Search also without spaces "PRND"

A simple fix could be a 12V battery but if that doesn't do, it could be drive unit replacement:

Model S becomes unresponsive while driving!

 

[apacheguy]

My guess is the drive unit. When you powered off the vehicle it’s possible that the vehicle entered sleep and this somehow reset the DU controller. Pulling the 12 V power should have done the same.

 

[jackie]

Thanks for all the input.

And last night on the way home the problem reproduced itself and this time power off didn't solve anything. After 2 hours with help from Road Side Assistance the tow truck appeared and took the car to the Tesla Service Centre. They are now diagnosing the problem but initial suggestion is Drive Unit related based on the log they have. Once I know what they fix I will post more.

 

[Tozz]

This probably wont help much, but I'm pretty familiar with this symptom. I had it in my Audi:

It turned out the E-Clutch inside the Tiptronic gearbox was broken and this was a very costly repair. This was the last push I needed to order my Model S.

 

[jackie]

Just for record it was the drive unit and it was fixed under warranty so thankfully nothing to pay. The service centre explained that as I only have one drive unit (2013 P85 signature edition) it will shut down if it detects a problem to protect the batteries etc. They also said that they had run diagnostics before replacing the drive unit and not found any other problems. Just glad this happened once we were back in the Netherlands and not while we were away in the UK.

 

[kaidou]

Scary experience that I just had. 2015 85 here. My PRND turns red but no error message. It happened while I was driving on the road with AC on.
service appt is 4 days from now, and i need long distance business travel back home with this car. I will drive without AC and phone charging to reduce the possibility of shut down again. Very annoying.

 

[Jcook]

Scary experience that I just had. 2015 85 here. My PRND turns red but no error message. It happened while I was driving on the road with AC on.
service appt is 4 days from now, and i need long distance business travel back home with this car. I will drive without AC and phone charging to reduce the possibility of shut down again. Very annoying.
View attachment 695811

Any results from service?

 

[Mirk]

Just for record it was the drive unit and it was fixed under warranty so thankfully nothing to pay. The service centre explained that as I only have one drive unit (2013 P85 signature edition) it will shut down if it detects a problem to protect the batteries etc. They also said that they had run diagnostics before replacing the drive unit and not found any other problems. Just glad this happened once we were back in the Netherlands and not while we were away in the UK.

Thank you for your post and update. I was presenting this issue to the Tesla service and telephone call center and they said no codes no issues. But I took a picture today, when it happened again today, multiple times.

 

[Mirk]

 

[Menno3]

I have the same problem with my mode s base 85 Red P N R D. It once happened when I wanted to drive away but switching between reverse and drive fixed the problem.
Later I had it in a road once it started regenerative breaking. Finally I had it on a slope trying to drive away. It didn’t start and is now towed to a depot.
Biting my finger nails now hoping the fix won’t be too expensive since it is just 2.5 month out of warranty

 

[P100DL-X]

My Tesla Model X 2017 P100D with 79,000 miles. The car died in me with red P R N D as well. Restarted the screen and the car, wouldn’t shift to D for drive nor R for reverse. Used Tesla app, received robotic texts and 25 minutes later finally someone asked for my location and tow truck arrived 2.5 hours later at 9:24 pm. Tesla app recent update showed “rear drive unit inoperable and need replacement”. Wow, how can a motor with only 79,000 miles dies. Luckily drive units on Model X has 12 years or 150,000 miles warranty. Boy, I cannot imagine if I was stranded in the middle of a freeway with cars passing by at 70-75 mph. No real person to talk to via the Tesla app until they had someone available to call you back. I suggest anyone strand on a freeway, call 911 first. And, I hope I can get my Model X back soon. The loaner car is very dirty inside. Tesla don’t treat me nice after I paid $130,000 for my car plus the extra $20,000 for ludicrous mode.

 

[P100DL-X]

My Tesla Model X 2017 P100D with 79,000 miles. The car died in me with red P R N D as well. Restarted the screen and the car, wouldn’t shift to D for drive nor R for reverse. Used Tesla app, received robotic texts and 25 minutes later finally someone asked for my location and tow truck arrived 2.5 hours later at 9:24 pm. Tesla app recent update showed “rear drive unit inoperable and need replacement”. Wow, how can a motor with only 79,000 miles dies. Luckily drive units on Model X has 12 years or 150,000 miles warranty. Boy, I cannot imagine if I was stranded in the middle of a freeway with cars passing by at 70-75 mph. No real person to talk to via the Tesla app until they had someone available to call you back. I suggest anyone strand on a freeway, call 911 first. And, I hope I can get my Model X back soon. The loaner car is very dirty inside. Tesla don’t treat me nice after I paid $130,000 for my car plus the extra $20,000 for ludicrous mode.

Correction: the car died “on” me. Typo