Rear motor disabled

[Carotene]

The Service Center indicated that the issue revolves around the sensor firmware. In my case, I was backing the car from one driveway to one across the street and I hadn't buckled up. When I shifted from R to D the car's seat weight sensor was ignored and therefore assumed the unbuckled driver wasn't there resulting in an emergency brake being applied. Firmware is going to be adjusted. That's their story and they're sticking to it.

Oh man. This explains a lot. When I had the rental last month I was doing this exact thing. I was backing out of the garage into the driveway w/o seatbelt when all of the sudden the car slammed on the brakes and the seat/steering wheel memory reverted to easy exit mode. I was so confused. Tapped the card on the console, put it back into reverse and then it did the same thing again.

Fortunately it didn't damage anything that i'm aware. That needs to be fixed ASAP though.

 

[mongo]

Oh man. This explains a lot. When I had the rental last month I was doing this exact thing. I was backing out of the garage into the driveway w/o seatbelt when all of the sudden the car slammed on the brakes and the seat/steering wheel memory reverted to easy exit mode. I was so confused. Tapped the card on the console, put it back into reverse and then it did the same thing again.

Fortunately it didn't damage anything that i'm aware. That needs to be fixed ASAP though.

That may have been due to lifting your posterior from the seat (if you looked over your shoulder) and triggering the parking brake.

 

[pxthree]

I haven't really received any updates on the car. I have called a couple times to see if they can give me an update and they told me that they are replacing the drive unit but nothing to indicate why they need to replace it. It's been in the shop for a few days so I'm hoping they can finish up with it soon. I did get a software update notification on my phone yesterday and see that it now has been updated to 2018.12.1.

 

[drifttek]

Woke up to this, in the morning. Tesla towed to a service center.

So they are replacing the rear drive unit. ETA 3 days. They gave me an Infiniti qx70 loaner

 

[C141medic]

Woke up to this, in the morning. Tesla towed to a service center.

So they are replacing the rear drive unit. ETA 3 days. They gave me an Infiniti qx70 loaner

Oh no. Sorry to hear. So, this happened as it was just parked? Was it after a software update? Also, what is vin # if you don’t mind sharing.

 

[jordanthompson]

It's happened to me, too.

It happened to me first night with the car as i was pulling into the garage and repositioning. Switched from reverse to drive and as soon as I pressed the accelerator the car put the motor in protection mode and behaved as the OP.

Doing the suggested steps as the OP and nothing. Two button, and two-button-brake reboots did not help, either Since the car was halfway in the garage and it was midnight, I figured I should put it in tow mode and push it in and deal with it in the morning. After I put it in tow mode, and on a "IT Crowd" "have you turned it off and on again?" whim, I decided to take it out of tow mode by stepping on the brake. The fault cleared and I was able to drive it around with no issues.

Later that night, the car firmware updated to 4.9 and the next few days I tried to duplicate the fault and have not been able to. So until evidence suggests otherwise, I'm chalking it up to a bug in the as-delivered firmware.

Oh, and there was not just the "rear motor disabled" fault. There was also an AEB disabled fault. The AEB fault self-cleared, but the motor fault took the tow mode toggle to clear.

I just had this happen to me in my Model X. The Tow Mode seems to have fixed it!!

 

[jordanthompson]

I just had this happen to me in my Model X. The Tow Mode seems to have fixed it!!

Nevermind ... I just put it in gear and it came back

 

[madcal]

Sorry for the thread resurrection!

I have a 7 month old Raven Model S Performance here in the UK.

I got into it a couple of mornings ago and got the dreaded Rear Motor Disabled message. It would let me drive in FWD only at slow speeds. No reboots cured it and it was towed away. Tesla got it Friday lunchtime. Got a text tonight (Monday) saying that they have not looked at it yet.

Supposed to be driving to Switzerland for a family holiday on Wednesday which now looks doubtful.

This will be the 5th visit to the service centre in 8 months and 8,000 miles. This is officially the least reliable car I have ever owned by a long shot (I am 48 and have bought maybe 15 new cars in the last 30 years).

I had 3 new Audi RS6s for the last 8 years and had zero service visits except for oil / brake changes.

I had thought that buying a Model S that they have been making for 8 years or so would be a safe thing to do for reliability.

I am very disappointed.