Rear motor disabled

[napabill]

Was backing out of our driveway and when I shifted from R to D warnings came up telling me to pull over, and not to drive. I was on a steep hill pointed down, and the car just barely moved. It would not shift into N to allow me to freewheel it down to where I could be off to the side. The warnings then said that if I exited the vehicle, and locked it, then unlocked it and reentered it, that might clear it up. No such luck. It felt to me like it was locked into ReGen. TM Roadside was no help, though they did call for a flat-bed which arrived about an hour later. The non-TM driver fussed with it a bit, and was able to get it to free-wheel a bit. Off little Bluebird goes to our SC about 50 miles away. This sound familiar to anyone?

 

[ℬête Noire]

Do you know the approximate grade of the driveway there? Say you were to measure 3' horizontally, completely level to the world, how much vertical change would there be?

 

[napabill]

Do you know the approximate grade of the driveway there? Say you were to measure 3' horizontally, completely level to the world, how much vertical change would there be?

It's pretty steep. Not many residential roads around here that are steeper.

 

[jemdot]

Long time lurker here... just took delivery of my Model 3 on 3/24 (less than 2 weeks ago). I go to drive it this morning and I see a flashing message on my screen that alternates between "Rear motor disabled", "Car may not start", and "Car needs service". The car wouldn't start at all. It tells me that the problem may be fixed if I exit the vehicle and enter again, so I do that, but it does not fix the issue. I call Tesla and the lady on the phone has me reboot the car, but that also does not fix the issue. So they send a flatbed out and it's on its way to the SC to get diagnosed... anyone else encounter this problem?

Just as a side note, it's insanely annoying to have issues with your brand new car... but it doesn't make me love it any less!!

 

[dapiya]

Super legit. Did the car tell you to exit and enter again in a British accent? If not, then your car will surely blow up by the end of the week.

 

[nvx1977]

Let us know what the service center says. Welcome to the forums

 

[jemdot]

Let us know what the service center says. Welcome to the forums

Thank you, hopefully I’ll get some answers in the next few days. I’ll update!

 

[Unbeliever]

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.

 

[PoitNarf]

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.

This is very helpful, hopefully that same procedure can clear this up for anyone else that has experienced this. I haven’t had this happen to my Model 3 but I did briefly have the “AEB disabled” message on my screen for a short while the other day. Luckily that cleared itself and hasn’t popped up again since.

And +1 for the IT Crowd reference

“Hello Tesla Service. Have you tried turning it off and on again?”

 

[pxthree]

This just happened to me this morning. Did all the same steps as OP and then Tesla sent out a flatbed. Currently at Service Center. I'll update on what they tell me as well. I did read on another thread that it could be the 12v battery. I guess we'll see. Also, I'm on firmware 2018.10.5

 

[ohmman]

mod note: sorry if the thread is a little confusing; two threads reporting the same issue so I merged them to keep the conversation linear.

 

[adaptabl]

This is very helpful, hopefully that same procedure can clear this up for anyone else that has experienced this. I haven’t had this happen to my Model 3 but I did briefly have the “AEB disabled” message on my screen for a short while the other day. Luckily that cleared itself and hasn’t popped up again since.

And +1 for the IT Crowd reference

“Hello Tesla Service. Have you tried turning it off and on again?”

Next step is to remove and reinstall the battery. Maybe some BlackBerry DNA in there?

Really who would accept a new car needing to be towed away. It just seems too common with these EV's. I have driven many cars for more than 35 years and have never had to have my car towed.

 

[Moderatefan]

Really who would accept a new car needing to be towed away

Who would accept a computer that breaks next day? Only a total loser.

 

[voip-ninja]

Who would accept a computer that breaks next day? Only a total loser.

All new cars have problems and lemons, however considering the very small # of deliveries so far there do appear to be a lot of problems that are rendering cars completely undriveable.

 

[Moderatefan]

All new cars have problems and lemons, however considering the very small # of deliveries so far there do appear to be a lot of problems that are rendering cars completely undriveable.

I was just trying to make a point on the absurdity of the inverted logic. You accept first, then problems start. Not the other way around.

 

[jrichey]

Wow and I thought it was just me. This exact thing happened to me last week. Was driving on a local road going 25 mph and all of a sudden the car just stopped with the same messages, rear drive disabled and pull over. I tried the reboot, get out of the car and back in, etc. and nothing worked. Tesla came and towed it, gave me a loaner, and about a week later it was fixed. They replaced some fuse and the entire drive unit. Sure hope this isn't a sign of more than just a couple bad drive units...

 

[John Lamoureux]

Wow and I thought it was just me. This exact thing happened to me last week. Was driving on a local road going 25 mph and all of a sudden the car just stopped with the same messages, rear drive disabled and pull over. I tried the reboot, get out of the car and back in, etc. and nothing worked. Tesla came and towed it, gave me a loaner, and about a week later it was fixed. They replaced some fuse and the entire drive unit. Sure hope this isn't a sign of more than just a couple bad drive units...

"Stopped"? What was the process to get to the side of the road? Coast? Regen?

 

[voip-ninja]

Wow and I thought it was just me. This exact thing happened to me last week. Was driving on a local road going 25 mph and all of a sudden the car just stopped with the same messages, rear drive disabled and pull over. I tried the reboot, get out of the car and back in, etc. and nothing worked. Tesla came and towed it, gave me a loaner, and about a week later it was fixed. They replaced some fuse and the entire drive unit. Sure hope this isn't a sign of more than just a couple bad drive units...

And then there were three.

Considering only around 10K cars delivered and considering the small number of people who visit TMC seems like a lot.

I believe though there was another thread were someone had a critical recall on their M3. The car had not failed but it was in for other service items and the car was held so that the drive unit and a fuse could be proactively replaced.

So it sounds like Tesla is aware of the problem to the extent that they are doing some kind of preventative action on at least some of the affected vehicles.

 

[jrichey]

"Stopped"? What was the process to get to the side of the road? Coast? Regen?

Since I wasn't going fast at all by the time I realized what was happening I came to a stop, albeit right near the upcoming stop sign. So I put it in neutral and we pushed the car over to the side of the road. I'm thankful this didn't happen at highway speeds as that could have been pretty dangerous.

 

[PoitNarf]

Just curious, of those that have experienced this problem when did you take delivery of your Model 3? VIN range? What is the month in the build date on the sticker on the inside of the driver door jamb?