That very loud and painful "clunk"

[Doug_G]

:cursing:

My drive train just blew. It didn't make much noise; instead it was like the rear brakes engaged twice, really hard, then a message popped up saying to pull over. I only made it half-way off onto the shoulder.

I rebooted the car. The warnings went away but I couldn't drive. When I tried it did a series of little jerks. Took about five minutes to creep it onto the shoulder, in little fits, starts, and jerks, then called Roadside Assistance.

Car is now on the way to Montreal Service, and I've got an Enterprise rental.

I really hate to say it, but this car has been a problem. I've had a litany of issues. This is just the most serious so far. Maybe buying a Signature wasn't a good idea.

On the bright side, it decided to do it AFTER I got back from my road trip. We could have been stranded in a backwater in upstate New York.

 

[apacheguy]

@Doug - please clarify. Is it the DU or HV pack that blew? Too bad yours has had a "litany of issues." Can't say I'd describe my Sig in the same manner.

 

[Jeeps17]

That really sucks Doug.

In retrospect, were there any symptoms you may have noted prior to this ?

 

[brianman]

:cursing:
...
I really hate to say it, but this car has been a problem. I've had a litany of issues. This is just the most serious so far. Maybe buying a Signature wasn't a good idea.

Hold on to your "Don't Panic" button and drive the Roadster a few days. Hopefully that'll help with the stress. Good luck, sir.

 

[mnx]

Doug: Sorry to hear about your car stranding you. I'd use this as an opportunity to convince your significant other that its time to replace the Sig P85 with a "very reliable" p85D.

All kidding aside its awesome it died after your roadtrip!

 

[JRP3]

@Doug - please clarify. Is it the DU or HV pack that blew?

The symptoms point to a driveline issue, not pack.

All kidding aside its awesome it died after your roadtrip!

Not sure I'd call a car dying at any point "awesome". A lower level of suck, maybe.

 

[Todd Burch]

Doug, sorry to hear this.

You said two things that concerned me:

First, you said it was like the rear brakes engaged hard, twice. Second, you said the car didn't make it to the shoulder.

How fast were you going? It sounds like it was a good thing there weren't any cars behind you.

 

[Doug_G]

@Doug - please clarify. Is it the DU or HV pack that blew? Too bad yours has had a "litany of issues." Can't say I'd describe my Sig in the same manner.

Definitely the drive inverter. Had full power at all times. Car is still showing 388 rated km.

And yes, I hate to say it but my car has required a LOT of service. I thought we'd worked our way through it, but then this happens. Oh and I've got water in my reversing lights again. The only fortunate thing is that the service has been fantastic.

In retrospect, were there any symptoms you may have noted prior to this ?

None whatsoever. It was working perfectly until suddenly BAM it failed.

Doug: Sorry to hear about your car stranding you. I'd use this as an opportunity to convince your significant other that its time to replace the Sig P85 with a "very reliable" p85D.

All kidding aside its awesome it died after your roadtrip!

No kidding - that would have been serious suckage if it had failed in a remote part of upstate New York and on the wrong side of the border. Fortunately it was about 10 minutes from the office. The flatbed driver very nicely dropped me off at the office. It was on his way to Montreal anyway.

The symptoms point to a driveline issue, not pack.

Definitely. Tesla said the same thing.

First, you said it was like the rear brakes engaged hard, twice. Second, you said the car didn't make it to the shoulder.

How fast were you going? It sounds like it was a good thing there weren't any cars behind you.

No I said it was "like" they engaged. There weren't any cars behind me when it happened, fortunately.

I was going maybe 70 kph when suddenly someone dropped an anchor at the back of the car. Two large jerks knocked my speed way down. By then I was midway through a minor intersection. I aimed for the shoulder but the car stopped short, blocking half the intersection (luckily no traffic).

If I engaged the throttle the car would shudder and jerk but move slightly. I was able to gradually creep out of the intersection. I had to back up a little to reposition, then forward again onto the shoulder. I really had to squeeze in because there were construction signs blocking the shoulder.

Fortunately there was an empty turn lane beside me, so passing cars were able to give me a wide birth.

Roadside assistance was helpful, even though they were busy when I first called. I got through and then my phone crashed - go figure. Eventually we got back in touch. We checked that tow mode worked, and I confirmed that yes I could push the car by hand in tow mode... I just couldn't move it with the drive train operating.

They sent a flatbed. He'd previously towed out-of-juice Teslas so he loaded it up with no drama. He dropped me at my office, and headed on to Montreal.

 

[JRP3]

Sounds to me like a locked rotor condition caused by a failure of one of the phases in the inverter. Maybe.

 

[Doug_G]

Sounds reasonable.

 

[tomas]

Wonder what's going to happen when one of these blows on TACC?

 

[JRP3]

I don't think TACC can behave any differently with a locked rotor.

 

[tomas]

I don't think TACC can behave any differently with a locked rotor.

Point is reaction of driver fully engaged vs not. Maybe no different but I don't want to be the one to test.

 

[Duckjybe]

Doug, has your drive unit ever been replaced previously?

 

[mknox]

Definitely the drive inverter. Had full power at all times. Car is still showing 388 rated km.

I was going maybe 70 kph when suddenly someone dropped an anchor at the back of the car. Two large jerks knocked my speed way down. By then I was midway through a minor intersection. I aimed for the shoulder but the car stopped short, blocking half the intersection (luckily no traffic).

If I engaged the throttle the car would shudder and jerk but move slightly.

Very sorry to hear of this, Doug.

At first blush, it sounds like a mechanical (gear) problem, but an inverter problem messing up the fields in the motor could explain it too, I suppose.

You mentioned no prior symptoms. Not even the buzz or whine some (like me) are hearing? My first drive unit was replaced due to a loud transformer-like hum and I'm waiting back on a call to replace the current one because of the very high pitched and increasingly loud buzz. Both of these, it seems to me, are coming from the inverter. I would hate to think of what an inverter failure like this would be like on the freeway in 100+ km/h traffic as that is where I spend 80% of my time. Not ideal tossing an anchor out on the 401 and not being able to make it to the shoulder :scared:

 

[Doug_G]

Doug, has your drive unit ever been replaced previously?

Yes. I had the "milling sound" last year and the drive unit was replaced.

At first blush, it sounds like a mechanical (gear) problem, but an inverter problem messing up the fields in the motor could explain it too, I suppose.

I would think if the gears had broken there would be some nasty sounds.

You mentioned no prior symptoms. Not even the buzz or whine some (like me) are hearing? My first drive unit was replaced due to a loud transformer-like hum and I'm waiting back on a call to replace the current one because of the very high pitched and increasingly loud buzz. Both of these, it seems to me, are coming from the inverter. I would hate to think of what an inverter failure like this would be like on the freeway in 100+ km/h traffic as that is where I spend 80% of my time. Not ideal tossing an anchor out on the 401 and not being able to make it to the shoulder :scared:

I had absolutely no symptoms whatsoever. If I wasn't confident about the car I wouldn't have taken it on a road trip. This was a bolt out of the blue.

I'm sure my jaw dropped when I looked down and saw this:

As soon as I saw that I figured it was flatbed time. The little "Restart car to Drive" notice at the bottom gave me a little hope... but it was a false hope.

Curiously restarting the car cleared the message, but it still didn't drive. Well okay maybe that's a sign it was mechanical, since it was no longer seeing a problem...?

Anyway, I was able to very gradually limp it onto the shoulder. I'm sure it wasn't ideal doing that, but I wasn't about to leave the car sitting in a dangerous location. With me in it.

 

[mknox]

I'm sure my jaw dropped when I looked down and saw this:

Thanks for the observations, Doug. When my contactors failed, I got a slew of error messages (slew = 4 or 5) none of which gave me any hope. One of them that came up right away was something about a 12 volt failure or low message, but my 12 volt actually hung in until the car re-set after an hour or so. The other thing that was weird is that the Service Center told me that the car had stored no error messages at all.

Looking forward to your report from Service on this.

 

[apacheguy]

Yes. I had the "milling sound" last year and the drive unit was replaced.

Yikes. I was thinking this happened on your Sig DU. Makes it seem kinda worse when it's a 2014 Tesla refurbished part. Thought the kinks would've been worked out. Makes me a little uneasy about my 2015 refurbed DU, which otherwise has been performing very well.

 

[brianman]

I forgot to say earlier. Glad there was no human physical drama when this happened. Best wishes to #2006.

 

[FlasherZ]

Thanks for the observations, Doug. When my contactors failed, I got a slew of error messages (slew = 4 or 5) none of which gave me any hope. One of them that came up right away was something about a 12 volt failure or low message, but my 12 volt actually hung in until the car re-set after an hour or so. The other thing that was weird is that the Service Center told me that the car had stored no error messages at all.

Looking forward to your report from Service on this.

When my battery failed last year, I was told by roadside assistance that nothing had been logged with Tesla and the car looked fine, but the service center later said that engineering found everything they needed when they looked further. I got the same 12V message, presumably because the DC-DC converter was now offline and I only had the 12V battery to power everything.