How many miles did it have on the odometer? With such an early failure, you sometimes wonder why it couldn't happen when they drove it at the factory! Then again, better it fail right at the start, rather than 3 months later on the interstate somewhere in heavy traffic.
-
Want to remove ads? Register an account and login to see fewer ads, and become a Supporting Member to remove almost all ads.
Tesla 3: Second drive unit failure in under a year
- Thread starter ca_driving
- Start date
I have a Model Y that is only 3 months old and I was in rural northern CA last week when my car died. They towed it away and I've been told it is the rear drive unit the has been detected as having failure. They will replace when a new one comes in in a few weeks. Any advice on what to look for or expect when i get back my car? I'm hoping this will be the end of it and also hope they will deliver my car since I'm 400 miles from home and can't take more time off work to retrieve my new car. Any input is greatly appreciated
Unless they botched the installation in some way (unlikely), or the replacement itself had an issue, there's nothing to really worry about. It will drive like it did before, and you'll hopefully never have this issue again. They revise the drive units as faults are found, so later revisions should be more reliable. Your repair ticket will give you a hint of the version and part numbers, but you can also talk the service center to get more clarity on what happened exactly. Based on other members' posts, it's usually a fault in one of the inverters.
My brand new model Y drive unit fails with only 500 miles.. It’s in service and the estimate it would take 2 to 4 weeks to replace a new one!
To add to example of a recall affecting a tiny # of vehicles, here's another that affected a SINGLE vehicle:
Bugatti Recalls One Chiron Over Loose Screw
The official fix for the one affected car is to tighten the screw.
www.roadandtrack.com
They do NOT need to involve a large population of vehicles to meet the bar.
@jsmay311 Curious to know how your replaced rear drive unit has been a year later. We just got a MYLR a few weeks ago and on day 4 and 200 miles we got a message “Power reduction. Pull over immediately”. We ended up with a new rear drive unit as well. Very disheartening to say the least. Needless to say, we are concerned about this happening again. Would appreciate knowing your experience a year later.I feel your pain, having experienced a drive unit failure on my second day of ownership.
But talk of invoking lemon laws or involving lawyers at this point is misguided and premature at best. Lemon laws typically apply when a vehicle is “defective and cannot be repaired after a ‘reasonable’ number of attempts”. (I took this quote from a State of California website before realizing that your location of “Ca” probably meant Canada, but I suspect the laws are similar across North America.).
So far there’s only been one unsuccessful repair attempt, which seems far from “unreasonable”. But hopefully Tesla will do a thorough investigation to determine if there are any underlying issues at play in this repeat failure.
It’s actually nearly 4 years and 52,000 miles later. Regardless, I haven’t had any issues with my replacement drive unit.
Last edited:
Absolutely wrong in every sense. The DUs on these vehicles are a complete failure. It would be bad enough to see 1 fail before 60 to 70k miles, but multiple failures on the same vehicle? This is symbolic of blowing multiple engines on a car of the same mileage. My DU just failed a mere couple of months out of warranty and, Tesla wants $7000 to fix it!! It’s absolutely absurd. Car was running perfectly fine then, all of the sudden came the whining noise everyone complains of. Sure enough, $7000 estimate at 69,000 miles. It’s a complete fraud as this failure is well known on these cars and should be an automatic replacement prior to the 8 yr mark.
Let’s face the facts here. Matters not if you are an “engineer” or not, doesn’t change the facts on this issue.
Hi friend! The same exact thing happened to me. My Tesla is only 1200 miles, and I purchased it less than two months ago. The first time it failed I was luckily parked. They brought it in for service and replaced the drive unit. I picked up my car a week later, and it failed in the middle lane of the freeway. It’s in the shop right now and I don’t know what to do. I’m kind of scared to drive my Tesla on the highway from now on. Any advice?
From what I’m hearing, it’s an ongoing issue that has been known for quite some time. I’m honestly surprised to have not seen any class action suits on this given that it’s a known problem that Tesla continues to charge $7000 for.
Yours is in warranty so, they’ll replace it as many times as needed up until your warranty expires. It’s hard to imagine this happening multiple times on a newer vehicle as, I thought it was common more to older models. Since you have a newer vehicle, could be possible to see if Tesla will buy it back and issue you a replacement.
Hmm…that’s so interesting and unfortunate to hear. I was talking to a family member and they recommended that if it happens again, to go forward with a Lemon Law case. It’s so frustrating that they claim to have replaced the Drive unit when another incident happens after. I was told they’re going to have to replace it again. I’m a little confused on the fact that they replaced it and the same incident occurred? Does anyone know how this must have happened?
Honestly, that makes sense and hearing that makes me feel at least a little better. That was exactly what I was thinking...like the chances of two failures within 8 days is just terrible luck! :'(
ODWms
Member
But isn’t the drive train warranty at least 100,000 miles? The LR motor warranty is 120,000. I’m not understanding how customers are being charged for this.
There is no "drivetrain" warranty. Battery pack and drive unit warranties are currently at least 8 years or 100K miles (Vehicle Warranty), whichever comes fist.
I and others have had to mention this a bunch of times because when things like half-shafts need replacement they think it's covered as part of a "drivetrain" warranty that doesn't exist.
Judging by Dnelson's posts (e.g. 2014 Drive Unit - Inverter Whining Noise), he's out of warranty by time. And, Tesla's warranty has also evolved over time.
Yes, that's a post about an early Model S (in the Model 3 section) and they were known to have DU failures. So, none of this is surprising. If you own one that old, expect early adopter problems.
Same with the early Model 3s. The difference is, the DU should still be covered for those under 100 / 120K.
Same with the early Model 3s. The difference is, the DU should still be covered for those under 100 / 120K.
To reply to my own example, at 2022 TESLA MODEL S | NHTSA, Tesla recalled 9 '21 to '22 Model S:
"February 23, 2022 NHTSA Campaign Number: 22V104000
Side Curtain Air Bay May Improperly Deploy
An incorrectly assembled inflator can cause a delayed or improper deployment of the side curtain air bag, increasing the risk of injury during a crash.
NHTSA Campaign Number: 22V104000
Manufacturer Tesla, Inc.
Components AIR BAGS
Potential Number of Units Affected 9
Summary
Tesla, Inc. (Tesla) is recalling certain 2021-2022 Model S vehicles. The right or left side curtain air bag inflators may have been assembled incorrectly."
Here are two PDFs from the associated docs:
Similar threads
