Red Jack Mode icon comes on while driving

[reddy]

Anyone seen this ?

I have a 2013 Model S 85. While driving, particularly on colder days, the red 'Jack Mode' icon comes on, with a warning that active suspension has been disabled, and the car can potentially be unstable.

So far, the active suspension is working fine. No issues driving.

I called Tesla support a month ago. They claimed they had never seen this. They suggested I take a picture of the icon (this one here) and book a service appointment. Since I live 350 miles from the closest service center, they told me to expect to get a Ranger visit.

Instead, they booked me a Service Center appt , in Dallas, for Dec 27, but 2 weeks ago I got a message in my app that they were canceling that appt 'because the equipment necessary was not available Dec. 27'. We are now looking at Jan 24.

Anyone see this issue, and what causes it? How involved is the repair?

Thanks!

Tesla_red_icon

• reddy
• Dec 27, 2019

Jack Mode icon comes on, when driving.

 

[boaterva]

Have to ask since you don’t mention it, have you tried rebooting and then powering off? You’d think Tesla would have you try this first as this is definitely a weird indication and probably a software glitch.

Never seen this before as it’s supposed to clear over what 5 MPH.

 

[reddy]

Yes, I've done power off, reboot, etc. I initially thought it was due to a bad update, but I've had 3 more updates since this started.

It is MUCH more likely when it is cold outside. It goes away after the car goes to sleep, then returns about 1 minute after I start driving, about 25% of the time.

I'm concerned there is an issue with the active air suspension.

 

[Ostrichsak]

How old is your 12v battery? I ask because we had a situation where the HV battery left us stranded 7 miles from the next Supercharger with 13 miles of range still showing as it shut down and we coasted to a stop. During this we were told that 12v battery was bad and what caused the problem. Not sure I bought that but they wanted to give us a new 12v battery for free on a car that was 5 years old so I let them. This way, should more HV battery issues occur I can say we tried that already even though I thought it wasn't the problem then either. The interesting part is that this warning came on after we got towed to a Supercharger, topped off and then drove the car another day or two. We were in the middle of a trip so we had several supercharger visits and lots of time passing. Everything seemed mostly fine once we got it to Supercharge again (it took several minutes the first plug in after dying to charge) and we continued our trip. A couple of days later, on the return leg of the journey, I noticed the little warning you posted a picture of. After some research I determined it was the icon for Jack Mode and it wasn't to be accessible above 5mph. Mine triggered at 80mph while I was on Autopilot ripping through the Rocky Mountains. No other changes and no other issues so I kept going. It eventually went away on it's own but as I recall it took several more Supercharger stops and power cycles before it went away. Hasn't come back since and that's been several months ago. The fact that you mentioned colder temps affecting the frequency leads me to believe it could be a lower voltage situation with the 12v battery causing it.

 

[reddy]

The fact that you mentioned colder temps affecting the frequency leads me to believe it could be a lower voltage situation with the 12v battery causing it.

Funny you should mention that. The 12v battery warning came up TODAY, for the first time in the 2 months this icon has been showing.

I've had the 12v battery replaced at least 3 or 4 times in my almost 7 years of ownership. It is about due for another one.

I'll call Tesla service to discuss. Thanks for the idea.

My thought is that there may be a leak in the active air suspension , and when the 12v battery is cold it can't recharge the air pressure fast enough. So it may be a combination of BOTH issues.

 

[Ostrichsak]

Funny you should mention that. The 12v battery warning came up TODAY, for the first time in the 2 months this icon has been showing.

I've had the 12v battery replaced at least 3 or 4 times in my almost 7 years of ownership. It is about due for another one.

I'll call Tesla service to discuss. Thanks for the idea.

My thought is that there may be a leak in the active air suspension , and when the 12v battery is cold it can't recharge the air pressure fast enough. So it may be a combination of BOTH issues.

That's possible and since I don't know the exact cause I really can't say for sure one way or the other I just had a feeling these two things might have been connected based on my experience and thing I've seen/read previously. Not sure the exact mechanism but the two seem to go hand-in-hand often times.

Best of luck and be sure to update us all on the outcome.

 

[hikerockies]

Anyone seen this ?

I have a 2013 Model S 85. While driving, particularly on colder days, the red 'Jack Mode' icon comes on, with a warning that active suspension has been disabled, and the car can potentially be unstable.

So far, the active suspension is working fine. No issues driving.

I called Tesla support a month ago. They claimed they had never seen this. They suggested I take a picture of the icon (this one here) and book a service appointment. Since I live 350 miles from the closest service center, they told me to expect to get a Ranger visit.

Instead, they booked me a Service Center appt , in Dallas, for Dec 27, but 2 weeks ago I got a message in my app that they were canceling that appt 'because the equipment necessary was not available Dec. 27'. We are now looking at Jan 24.

Anyone see this issue, and what causes it? How involved is the repair?

Thanks!

Tesla_red_icon

• reddy
• Dec 27, 2019

Jack Mode icon comes on, when driving.

I have seen this twice, once on each model S. One of them was a leak where pump connects to air suspension which required replacing the pump. The other was a leak in the air suspension on one of the wheels and the air suspension was replaced.

 

[reddy]

I have seen this twice, once on each model S. One of them was a leak where pump connects to air suspension which required replacing the pump. The other was a leak in the air suspension on one of the wheels and the air suspension was replaced.

I'll bet you're right.

Was there any problem driving with this ?

I can hear some air hissing, but honestly it has ALWAYS done that.

 

[hikerockies]

I'll bet you're right.

Was there any problem driving with this ?

I can hear some air hissing, but honestly it has ALWAYS done that.

I was able to drive for a few days (4 days one time and a week the other time) with this problem. The warning light stayed on the whole time and it seems pump was working extra hard since I could hear it pumping air very often.

 

[reddy]

In case anyone in the future encounters this, the Tesla service people here in Texas tell me this is extremely rare and they had not encountered it before. This final word was this was a leaking air hose, but it was intermittent. They felt that running the air compressor a lot more than usual warranted replacing that.

This was an early 2013 Model S, and apparently there were several revisions of the air hose specs going on at that time. It took 3 visits to the service center to get the correct revision of the hose. The final visit I left the car there and was given a loaner S and a 5 hour visit turned into 2 weeks! The part for my particular revision seems to be a rare type.

Here is the final repair, and it DID fix the problem.

 

[Ostrichsak]

In case anyone in the future encounters this, the Tesla service people here in Texas tell me this is extremely rare and they had not encountered it before. This final word was this was a leaking air hose, but it was intermittent. They felt that running the air compressor a lot more than usual warranted replacing that.

This was an early 2013 Model S, and apparently there were several revisions of the air hose specs going on at that time. It took 3 visits to the service center to get the correct revision of the hose. The final visit I left the car there and was given a loaner S and a 5 hour visit turned into 2 weeks! The part for my particular revision seems to be a rare type.

Here is the final repair, and it DID fix the problem.

View attachment 548769

I hope for your sake this solved it but doubt their explanation for my instance of this symptom. I had this happen as well it was in my 12/2014 P85D so this is nearly two full years after your was made which leads me to believe that if they were updating things regularly mine wouldn't have been affected. That said, it's entirely possible that this was the fix for yours but the problem on mine is something different entirely. I basically ran out of charge on a HV pack just before it happened so I believe this to be related but also not convinced since it was quite a bit after in terms of miles/hours w/o any indication of anything else being wrong. I hope yours stays "fixed" and you don't have to come back to tell us that the problem persists and they're chasing other ghosts down.

 

[reddy]

I hope for your sake this solved it but doubt their explanation for my instance of this symptom. I had this happen as well it was in my 12/2014 P85D so this is nearly two full years after your was made which leads me to believe that if they were updating things regularly mine wouldn't have been affected. That said, it's entirely possible that this was the fix for yours but the problem on mine is something different entirely. I basically ran out of charge on a HV pack just before it happened so I believe this to be related but also not convinced since it was quite a bit after in terms of miles/hours w/o any indication of anything else being wrong. I hope yours stays "fixed" and you don't have to come back to tell us that the problem persists and they're chasing other ghosts down.

Ostrichsak, I tend to believe that my particular instance was due to the leaky air hose. I could hear a persistent hissing sound some days when I got back from work, and the compressor was cycling on much more often. I think that the problem was there for a long , long time before I started getting the Jack Mode alert too. My theory is that once it reached a more critical level, was when I started getting alerts. I also tended to see it on colder days when the compressor / battery had more trouble catching up.

Time will tell if this is correct. If something more develops, I'll update this. Thanks for sharing your experience, it may help others who get this warning in the future.

 

[Electric One]

Have to ask since you don’t mention it, have you tried rebooting and then powering off? You’d think Tesla would have you try this first as this is definitely a weird indication and probably a software glitch.

Never seen this before as it’s supposed to clear over what 5 MPH.

I've seen it in my Model S. I did the same, took a picture of the light. When I did the infotainment upgrade it said that fixed it but the light has come on twice afterwards. So here I am scheduling another appointment. Frustrating