Rear Drive Unit Failed

[MutleyCrew]

We have a Tesla Y, Dual Motor. Took delivery at the end of 2020. 1,800 miles on it and alerts pop up on the dash during a road trip. Lose power to accelerate and I coast it to the shoulder. Comes to a shuddering stop that felt like air brakes and then doesnt shift out of Park. Attempt multiple reboots, nothing works. Call Tesla roadside assistance and get a tow 2 hours later.

Towed to the Richmond, VA Telsa dealership. Service shop not open (Sunday), and only Sales are on site. Tell me they dont have a loaner because Service dept. isnt open?! $70k car with 1800 miles on it that broke down, stuck hours from home and told to "go get a rental". Was not happy about that experience, felt let down.

Rear drive unit is not communicating with the rest of the vehicle and needs to be replaced.

 

[outdoors]

We have a Tesla Y, Dual Motor. Took delivery at the end of 2020. 1,800 miles on it and alerts pop up on the dash during a road trip. Lose power to accelerate and I coast it to the shoulder. Comes to a shuddering stop that felt like air brakes and then doesnt shift out of Park. Attempt multiple reboots, nothing works. Call Tesla roadside assistance and get a tow 2 hours later.

Towed to the Richmond, VA Telsa dealership. Service shop not open (Sunday), and only Sales are on site. Tell me they dont have a loaner because Service dept. isnt open?! $70k car with 1800 miles on it that broke down, stuck hours from home and told to "go get a rental". Was not happy about that experience, felt let down.

Rear drive unit is not communicating with the rest of the vehicle and needs to be replaced.

That is a bummer of an experience to start off a new car ownership. Here where I live traditional dealerships aren't open at all on Sunday's even for sales. I sincerely doubt that any sales department at any traditional car dealership or Tesla SC would ever give you a loaner without a service employee present. At Tesla I have seen service work via text on Sunday, but not in the SC. I could see a service manager coming in on Monday and saying where are my loaners for my service appointments.

Sorry you felt let down, but any other car manufacturer in your specific case would also be letting you down. Maybe talk to the service manager and say hey is this the experience I should expect? I have found the managers and the regional managers are pretty nice if you politely state your case and rationale. Things do happen. They are rare. I had a check engine light on in a Suburban on and off for 250k in miles. I finally gave up. Bought a Tesla.

 

[GregD60]

We have a Tesla Y, Dual Motor. Took delivery at the end of 2020. 1,800 miles on it and alerts pop up on the dash during a road trip. Lose power to accelerate and I coast it to the shoulder. Comes to a shuddering stop that felt like air brakes and then doesnt shift out of Park. Attempt multiple reboots, nothing works. Call Tesla roadside assistance and get a tow 2 hours later.

Towed to the Richmond, VA Telsa dealership. Service shop not open (Sunday), and only Sales are on site. Tell me they dont have a loaner because Service dept. isnt open?! $70k car with 1800 miles on it that broke down, stuck hours from home and told to "go get a rental". Was not happy about that experience, felt let down.

Rear drive unit is not communicating with the rest of the vehicle and needs to be replaced.

There might be some exceptions somewhere, but I've never dealt with a dealer of any brand that would provide a loaner or rental when the service department is closed. I would expect that Tesla would be willing to reimburse you for your rental expense.

 

[MutleyCrew]

That is a bummer of an experience to start off a new car ownership. Here where I live traditional dealerships aren't open at all on Sunday's even for sales. I sincerely doubt that any sales department at any traditional car dealership or Tesla SC would ever give you a loaner without a service employee present. At Tesla I have seen service work via text on Sunday, but not in the SC. I could see a service manager coming in on Monday and saying where are my loaners for my service appointments.

Sorry you felt let down, but any other car manufacturer in your specific case would also be letting you down. Maybe talk to the service manager and say hey is this the experience I should expect? I have found the managers and the regional managers are pretty nice if you politely state your case and rationale. Things do happen. They are rare. I had a check engine light on in a Suburban on and off for 250k in miles. I finally gave up. Bought a Tesla.

Definitely wasnt end of the world, just not what I expected. Roadside assistance is picking up the bill for the rental and I was able to relay my experience over to the service tech that is in contact with me. Just glad I wasnt stuck in the middle of the road!

 

[Candleflame]

Maybe the first complete failure, but my P3D+ front drive unit failed last September with around 900 miles on the clock. Big difference though, is that mine was still driveable.

OP - It took Tesla around 2 weeks to fix mine, and that was out of sheer luck because there "happened" to be a front drive unit available in their system. This was during the Q3 rush, so it could have been much worse.

Gonna have a random guess here that the induction front motor can easily roll passively and decrease consumption ( i.e. the 2x induction gear method in the model s) but the permanent magnet motor can never truly run passively so will create a lot of drag while system is energized. It may then heat up but while its defective it cant use that friction to charge the battery so car just shuts off for safety. Front motor can just spin and do nothing even when broken (and hence model 3 never uses the front motor for anything unless it has to. Unlike the S)

 

[Pyre]

I thought the drive unit was under full powertrain warranty, apparently it enss at 4 yr or 50k miles?

 

[ViPaDawG]

Just wanted to add another data point for a 2018 P3D+ (VIN: 80xxx) delivered September 2018.

I had a warning pop up similar to others that said "vehicle may not restart. service required" as I had just grabbed some lunch. I wasn't able to take it to the service center right away as I had some meetings back at the office. After I parked it, I heard some abnormal sounds from the battery, and it sounded like the contactors maybe weren't opening/closing correctly. Another error popped up "Electrical system power reduced". At that point, I left it and came back to it 3-4 hours later as I didn't have time to deal with it then and there.

When I got back to it, everything seemed to be fine. Car drove normally, no errors were on the screen. Out of an abundance of caution, I started driving towards the service center and got on the phone to Tesla to see if they could remotely pull the logs. At that point, I was afraid it might be the 12V battery, and I didn't want to get stuck somewhere. Tesla support said they see the errors, but they didn't have additional information, so they also recommended I go to the service center as a drive up (earliest appointment was still 4 days out). As mentioned before, the car drove normally, I was on the highway, easily got up to speed, and nothing seemed out of the ordinary. I got to the service center 10 minutes before they closed and it was a Friday (and they're closed on weekends), so they told me that the earliest they could look at it would be Monday, but were able to get me into a Model 3 Loaner (LR AWD 3 in Chill mode). Below is the timeline of updates after the Friday afternoon drop-off.

Monday: No updates

Tuesday: Got a text saying they had determined there was an internal fault with the rear drive unit and a new one had been ordered, along with an inverter.

Wednesday: I asked about an ETA on parts, and was told while the motor would arrive later in the week, no ETA on the inverter.

Thursday: no updates....got a text saying still waiting for parts.

Friday: Get a text in the afternoon saying parts had arrived, but wouldn't be able to get it done by the time they closed.

Saturday: Get a text from Tesla saying my repair was complete and could pick up the car during business hours.

Monday: I go and pick up the car. Invoice showed drive unit was replaced. Car drove normally (might be a placebo or a week of driving in chill mode in the LR AWD, but my car feels faster?)

Overall, not a bad experience. Thankful to be able to get a loaner. The loaner was not very clean. Had a cigarette butt in the back on the floor (gross!) as pointed out by one of my passengers. Service was communicative, usually would get a text in the early afternoon with progress updates if any. Car is driving great. Unfortunate that the "bathtub curve" didn't really apply to my RDU, but happy to have it fixed.

 

[cwerdna]

I thought the drive unit was under full powertrain warranty, apparently it enss at 4 yr or 50k miles?

There is no "powertrain" warranty on Teslas.

See Vehicle Warranty for warranties on new Teslas sold today, including applicable drive unit coverage.

Wayback Machine has access to some older snapshots.

 

[Pyre]

There is no "powertrain" warranty on Teslas.

See Vehicle Warranty for warranties on new Teslas sold today, including applicable drive unit coverage.

Wayback Machine has access to some older snapshots.

I apologize the drive unit/battery warranty. Is it not covered?

 

[HostileHarry]

Similar to @ViPaDawG my 2018 Model 3 AWD rear drive unit had to be replaced last week. 43k miles. I had the car in for axle clicking and charge port door failure and while I was driving it out of the service center parking lot I got a BMS error, car may not restart. Put it in reverse and informed them of the error they said take a loaner and they will be in touch. 6 days later and notified they relaced the drive unit and resistor.

I was lucky as I was only at 43k miles… anyone know what this would have cost out of warranty??

 

[TLLMRRJ]

I was lucky as I was only at 43k miles… anyone know what this would have cost out of warranty??

You're not close to being out of warranty for that failure.

Vehicle Warranty | Tesla Support

Find and view warranties for Tesla vehicles including New Vehicle Limited Warranty, Used Vehicle Limited Warranty and more.

www.tesla.com

 

[jjrandorin]

You're not close to being out of warranty for that failure.

Vehicle Warranty | Tesla Support

Find and view warranties for Tesla vehicles including New Vehicle Limited Warranty, Used Vehicle Limited Warranty and more.

www.tesla.com

Since sometimes people dont like to click the link, here is a screenshot of the relevant section (model 3 drive unit and battery warranty):

 

[silvermaxd]

I just had my M3 rear drive unit replaced with 22,692 miles on the car. I had this false impression that when I bought this car that it would be a pretty bullet proof drivetrain. As much as I baby this thing it should'nt have failed already. I'm concerned about the longevity of these cars now and the fear of being stranded on the side of the roadway is always on my mind now. I think we need to start a poll on who has had a drive unit failure. I may be glad I don't have dual motors now. Tesla needs to put a lifetime warranty on the driveunits!

 

[M109Rider]

I just had my M3 rear drive unit replaced with 22,692 miles on the car. I had this false impression that when I bought this car that it would be a pretty bullet proof drivetrain. As much as I baby this thing it should'nt have failed already. I'm concerned about the longevity of these cars now and the fear of being stranded on the side of the roadway is always on my mind now. I think we need to start a poll on who has had a drive unit failure. I may be glad I don't have dual motors now. Tesla needs to put a lifetime warranty on the driveunits!

Drive unit failures are not common place given the number of cars sold.
We don’t start polls and unnecessary FUD when ice cars have failures. I’m not sure why you would feel, Tesla should not have the luxury of failures like every other mfg does.
If you’re gun shy now, which is understandable, that doesn’t mean everyone else should be. …

 

[TLLMRRJ]

Drive unit failures are not common place given the number of cars sold.
We don’t start polls and unnecessary FUD when ice cars have failures. I’m not sure why you would feel, Tesla should not have the luxury of failures like every other mfg does.
If you’re gun shy now, which is understandable, that doesn’t mean everyone else should be. …

I've seen tons of polls on ICE car forums related to failures, so don't know where you're getting your info.

 

[MikeyC]

Once an issue has garnered enough interest and replies to form its own ongoing thread, I would think a poll is a reasonable thing to see how common or uncommon a problem is. I wouldn't consider that FUD.

Mike

 

[M109Rider]

Once an issue has garnered enough interest and replies to form its own ongoing thread, I would think a poll is a reasonable thing to see how common or uncommon a problem is. I wouldn't consider that FUD.

Mike

You’re missing my point. If you re read his original post, and don’t see the direction and tone he’s heading, your missing it.
It’s definitely the start of more FUD, not just a harmless poll.

 

[MikeyC]

You’re missing my point. If you re read his original post, and don’t see the direction and tone he’s heading, your missing it.
It’s definitely the start of more FUD, not just a harmless poll.

First thing I did was to reread the OP and I don't see a hint of FUD there. In fact, the only negative I could find was maybe some disappointment in Tesla roadside which I think is fair. He even mentioned later that he didn't think this was a common thing and he was happy with the car when he got it back and was looking forward to smooth sailing. Our cars have their weak points like any car and I think jumping on people for FUD whenever they express disappointment in something is counterproductive. But maybe that's just me.

If you are referring to the first poll post, I also don't think it's unreasonable for someone to see a thread about a problem and worry they may have that issue.

Mike

 

[john5520]

I just had my M3 rear drive unit replaced with 22,692 miles on the car. I had this false impression that when I bought this car that it would be a pretty bullet proof drivetrain. As much as I baby this thing it should'nt have failed already. I'm concerned about the longevity of these cars now and the fear of being stranded on the side of the roadway is always on my mind now. I think we need to start a poll on who has had a drive unit failure. I may be glad I don't have dual motors now. Tesla needs to put a lifetime warranty on the driveunits!

Looking at the your sig, I'll assume it was a 2018 year model. Unfortunately, the earlier drive units had teething issues that lead to failures. And more so the rear units. Since then, there have been many revisions and the number of failures have gotten rarer (judging from the number of forum posts and the fact that the volume of cars sold have gone up drastically over the years). So there's the very high likelihood the replacement unit was an updated revision which should bring you some peace of mind.

 

[M109Rider]

First thing I did was to reread the OP and I don't see a hint of FUD there. In fact, the only negative I could find was maybe some disappointment in Tesla roadside which I think is fair. He even mentioned later that he didn't think this was a common thing and he was happy with the car when he got it back and was looking forward to smooth sailing. Our cars have their weak points like any car and I think jumping on people for FUD whenever they express disappointment in something is counterproductive. But maybe that's just me.

If you are referring to the first poll post, I also don't think it's unreasonable for someone to see a thread about a problem and worry they may have that issue.

Mike

Interpretation often falls to personal beliefs. To each their own in the end. However, the oh so common counter argument from many stating, that supporters of Tesla simply disagree with any criticism, is inaccurate, a common default, and an easy out to the discussion.