Total braking system failure?

[FarmerDave]

The physical braking system in my Model 3 completely failed this morning.
I didn't realize it until I got on the freeway ramp and almost hit the car in front of me.
Luckily, the regen braking was enough to slow the car down.

The brake pedal felt like it was in a locked position at the top of its range. Could not depress the pedal at all.

This was an absolute critical safety failure.

The car was acting strange from the first moment this morning.
1. erratic window roll down behavior when I opened the front door
2. dark/blank screen upon entry
3. warning message: vehicle hold feature unavailable
4. warning message: 12 v battery must be replace soon

After I rebooted the car, I drove off to working thinking it was nothing.
After realizing the brake failure, I got off the next freeway and exit and drove it back home safely.
With the road side assistance tech on the phone, I tried rebooting the car with no luck.
Then, tried powering the car off via the lcd screen and waiting a couple of minutes seems to solve the issue this time.

The car is now with the Tesla service center.

How could this happen? This was extremely dangerous and I feel very fortunate.
I could have easily found out the hard way at 70+ mph.

Hope this never happens again to me or anybody else, ever.

Please post again when you have the diagnosis from the service center so we can end this irritating guessing game.

 

[RCardona68]

The physical braking system in my Model 3 completely failed this morning.
I didn't realize it until I got on the freeway ramp and almost hit the car in front of me.
Luckily, the regen braking was enough to slow the car down.

The brake pedal felt like it was in a locked position at the top of its range. Could not depress the pedal at all.

This was an absolute critical safety failure.

The car was acting strange from the first moment this morning.
1. erratic window roll down behavior when I opened the front door
2. dark/blank screen upon entry
3. warning message: vehicle hold feature unavailable
4. warning message: 12 v battery must be replace soon

After I rebooted the car, I drove off to working thinking it was nothing.
After realizing the brake failure, I got off the next freeway and exit and drove it back home safely.
With the road side assistance tech on the phone, I tried rebooting the car with no luck.
Then, tried powering the car off via the lcd screen and waiting a couple of minutes seems to solve the issue this time.

The car is now with the Tesla service center.

How could this happen? This was extremely dangerous and I feel very fortunate.
I could have easily found out the hard way at 70+ mph.

Hope this never happens again to me or anybody else, ever.

 

[Valentin]

How long did the warning message regarding “hold feature not available” stay on? I had the same message pop up last week in my Tesla Y. The message just flashed once and disappeared . How scary this episode must have been for you!

 

[colinn]

I'm glad they're learning now, but what kind of an idiot operates any machine without learning how to use the safety features first?

Rhetorical question... They're the reason warning stickers are on lawnmowers that say "don't put your hand under the mower if it is running"

I'd guess 99% of Model 3 owners wouldn't have known that?

See, this is why the internet is tiresome. People like you.

 

[RCardona68]

Well, very sorry you opted to ignore the warnings provided by the car’s technology. You could indeed have crashed the car. The most important data bit you mentioned was about the 12 Volt battery. The battery is a key component of the Tesla and without it, with a faulty/failing unit, or any electrical issues with the unit, it’s not safe to drive. That goes for all battery only electric vehicles. Please read the owner’s manual as to the items operated by the 12 Volt battery and please heed to the warnings provided by the car. Do not drive a Tesla not working 100%. 12 Volt batteries, to be safe, should be replaced by months reference. Probably, a good range is every 36 to 42 months. Glad you and the car are OK. Thanks

 

[Daniel in SD]

With Dual Brake Master Cylinders it is literally impossible to loose both front and rear brakes

This is false. There could be some sort failure in the ABS/VSC system preventing brake application. Unlikely but certainly not literally impossible.

 

[Sam1]

I'd guess 99% of Model 3 owners wouldn't have known that?

See, this is why the internet is tiresome. People like you.

Which shows a complete lack of responsibility by the owners. This isn't learning how to access netflix on the screen... IT'S THE FSCKING EMERGENCY BRAKE

 

[ram1901]

You said:
"The car was acting strange from the first moment this morning.
1. erratic window roll down behavior when I opened the front door
2. dark/blank screen upon entry
3. warning message: vehicle hold feature unavailable
4. warning message: 12 v battery must be replaced "
Reply:
So after receiving multiple warning messages you got in the car and drove off to work anyway.
This would be like an airline pilot ignoring warning messages and taking off anyway.

 

[nukequazar]

The physical braking system in my Model 3 completely failed this morning.
I didn't realize it until I got on the freeway ramp and almost hit the car in front of me.
Luckily, the regen braking was enough to slow the car down.

The brake pedal felt like it was in a locked position at the top of its range. Could not depress the pedal at all.

This was an absolute critical safety failure.

The car was acting strange from the first moment this morning.
1. erratic window roll down behavior when I opened the front door
2. dark/blank screen upon entry
3. warning message: vehicle hold feature unavailable
4. warning message: 12 v battery must be replace soon

After I rebooted the car, I drove off to working thinking it was nothing.
After realizing the brake failure, I got off the next freeway and exit and drove it back home safely.
With the road side assistance tech on the phone, I tried rebooting the car with no luck.
Then, tried powering the car off via the lcd screen and waiting a couple of minutes seems to solve the issue this time.

The car is now with the Tesla service center.

How could this happen? This was extremely dangerous and I feel very fortunate.
I could have easily found out the hard way at 70+ mph.

Hope this never happens again to me or anybody else, ever.

Am I missing something or was it incredibly risky/irresponsible/stupid to drive the car at all after four signs of electronic problems in a highly automated car? And then kind of insane to drive it back home after those four signs plus a brake failure? I don't get it.

 

[Cleo-n-Company]

Am I missing something or was it incredibly risky/irresponsible/stupid to drive the car at all after four signs of electronic problems in a highly automated car? And then kind of insane to drive it back home after those four signs plus a brake failure? I don't get it.

Yet again... another apologist. I've had a couple of instances where I was told by the service center to perform a reset / reboot to address the glitches. I didn't have 4 at once... but still... the company is doing a lousy job of communicating suggested ways to address these issues. Stop blaming the individual who had a really scary moment with this failure. And when I have had my glitches crop up, the service center has NEVER suggested to just leave the car in the driveway and they would have the tow truck show up. Pure dreamland.

 

[Daniel in SD]

Am I missing something or was it incredibly risky/irresponsible/stupid to drive the car at all after four signs of electronic problems in a highly automated car? And then kind of insane to drive it back home after those four signs plus a brake failure? I don't get it.

The car has a different message when you're not supposed to drive it. I agree that driving a car after the brakes have already failed is a bad idea.

 

[nukequazar]

Yet again... another apologist. I've had a couple of instances where I was told by the service center to perform a reset / reboot to address the glitches. I didn't have 4 at once... but still... the company is doing a lousy job of communicating suggested ways to address these issues. Stop blaming the individual who had a really scary moment with this failure. And when I have had my glitches crop up, the service center has NEVER suggested to just leave the car in the driveway and they would have the tow truck show up. Pure dreamland.

You don't know me. I am FAR from a Tesla apologist. However in this case, it is nuts to drive that car with those warnings without at least calling Tesla Roadside which is why I asked if I was missing something. If he called Tesla and they told him to reboot and drive to work then it's on Tesla, 100%, otherwise it was a bad driver decision.

 

[nukequazar]

The car has a different message when you're not supposed to drive it. I agree that driving a car after the brakes have already failed is a bad idea.
View attachment 596278

When four electronic systems seem to be failing, I'm not waiting for HAL to suggest I pull over.

 

[Raro]

What mystifies me about many of the responses on this forum is why so many individuals are Tesla apologists. Total brake failure... the driver didn't know what they were doing... and another array of excuses. I ask this as a Model S owner who has watched my P85+ start to immolate in a series of electrical failures. Why don't more of you folks push the company to accept its faults and address them? Not trying to start a fight - but I sometimes struggle... sometimes laugh with the Tesla "aura." Many folks leave their common sense in the frunk... seriously...

I agree with you, so many people on here just assume the person doesn't know what they are talking about or try to find the smallest reason to sow some doubt in the story, I understand Tesla gets alot of extra attention from haters and trolls but it gets ridiculous on here sometimes and the knee jerk reaction is always victim blaming instead of a discussion about what could be other causes.

 

[smatthew]

This is false. There could be some sort failure in the ABS/VSC system preventing brake application. Unlikely but certainly not literally impossible.

ABS systems experiencing issues are more likely to lock-up the brakes rather than lock-out the brakes.
Remember, all four wheels are independently controlled by ABS. So for ABS to lock-out all four brakes would require a simultaneous erroneous closure of all four inlet valves. And those valves generally fail open.... which just disables ABS

 

[UncertainTimes]

Please post again when you have the diagnosis from the service center so we can end this irritating guessing game.

“Within spec”

 

[CertLive]

Hey do you even get a warning message for this?

loss of cabin pressure?

 

[Daniel in SD]

ABS systems experiencing issues are more likely to lock-up the brakes rather than lock-out the brakes.
Remember, all four wheels are independently controlled by ABS. So for ABS to lock-out all four brakes would require a simultaneous erroneous closure of all four inlet valves. And those valves generally fail open.... which just disables ABS

Yeah, I'm sure ABS tech is very mature and I've never heard of it failing in such a fashion. Just saying that's not literally impossible.
I did find it a little disturbing when Tesla did an OTA update on the ABS system to fix a bug that cause long stopping distances after a couple hard stops. Again I don't think the brake failsafes failed in this case but who knows.

 

[SVMike]

...
If I was sitting in my model 3 and driving away with the above warning I too would probably just keep driving. Because "there should be a bigger warning light" if the brakes were to just, you know, not work. I still think it ridiculous that there would be 400ish volts of mega battery and the lead acid 12volt battery has to take all this abuse and be the Achilles to the car.

There have been several threads discussing the font size of various things including the warnings/error messages.
I really like my M3, but this is one area where Tesla is severely lacking. If one wants to argue that the ~10 point font errors are OK, then why is the font of the speedometer so big? You can guesstimate how fast you are going (look out the window) but you can't guess at how safe the brakes are or any of a dozen other possible IMPORTANT errors/warnings.

Here is an obvious one that is nonsensical:

The car has a different message when you're not supposed to drive it. I agree that driving a car after the brakes have already failed is a bad idea.
View attachment 596278

Dear Tesla,
The User interface isn't for a computer sitting on your lap or desk. It is for a big, heavy, potentially dangerous machine. Please update the UI and give some proportionality to the viewability of the warnings/errors and their seriousness. Someone might need to read these during a panic when things like the brakes don't seem to be working.

 

[UncertainTimes]

Hey do you even get a warning message for this?

View attachment 596289

loss of cabin pressure?

Full Sun Bathing