Traction, stability, power steering, auto hold - ALL DEAD after frigid morning.

[yogi799]

Brand new car . 3 months old.

The aforementioned disabled on the first drive on a super cold morning (-20C).

Tried soft resets in many ways, NOPE. Tried hard reset with 12v battery and main pack disconnected for 5 minutes, NOPE.

Car is dangerous to drive in snow and ice without trac and stabi.

Scheduled service and they immediately said based on info provided that left rear wheel speed sensor has to be replaced.

QUESTION: everyhting was well until the VERY cold morning. Can sensor just break because of cold? Wire broke off?

QUESTION 2: if this was a sensor, i get that stabi and trac would not work, but power steering??? Methinks some onboard computer froze and/or died. But why would it?

Insights please. Service scheduled on Tuesday. Warmer temps coming Monday. Can it reverse itself with warm weather? Opinions pls...

Needless to say EXTREMELY disappointing. Car has 4k miles.

 

[cbigfoot]

1. Ice is evil if it gets in the right place at the wrong time at that temp can be very strong.

I know I had issues here in Nashville with my door handle being frozen under a car port (freezing rain, sleet,snow was failing that night) in ~28f weather (-2.2c) I didn’t try to break free too hard but it seemed solid I just pulled out phone and from app and popped door lol.

But still at -20c (-4f) is is ridiculously cold and yes ice in the right spot could damage the sensor. And as Tesla’s don’t use power steering fluid it’s direct drive and sensor malfunctioning could cause system issues.

They have access to the onboard computer and can see what the different sensors read and seems strange that the speed sensor could affect the power steering but could be that it doesn’t think the car is moving(or possibly thinks it’s moving faster/slower) so isn’t activating power steering pressures correctly.

Either way when they are servicing I would think they would check out the steering too but if there is something wrong with the power steering system, if it’s a mobile service not really sure if a mobile tech would be able to do anything depending on the issue.

There always is a possibility, warmer weather could return it back to normal, but kind of doubtful.

Note: I only have 1400 miles of M3 driving so still a newbie

 

[Dangerous Fish]

It's a car. Things can break, even on a brand new one. It sounds exactly like a wheel speed sensor fault but until it's looked at, nobody knows how/why it failed.
Power steering doesn't fail completely when this happens, but it is reduced greatly. You can still steer the car and the brakes still work but without ABS.
No, it's not ideal but it's a 15 minute job to fix and everything will be back to normal afterwards.

 

[buckets0fun]

Sounds like you broke an ABS sensor.

Turn your wheels lock to lock, looking in to see if the sensor wire is broken(front portion of knuckle).

Luckily, it’s a cheap and easy fix.

 

[yogi799]

Ok since they said immediately that left rear sensor needs to be replaced, does this mean they scanned my car remotely and simply pulled the code like that?

 

[Flybyglass]

Ok since they said immediately that left rear sensor needs to be replaced, does this mean they scanned my car remotely and simply pulled the code like that?

They have that ability. Preconditioning helps prevent some issues. Sometimes it needs to preheat for 30-45 minutes in severe cold. Either pre-program it for a time or turn in on from the app. With that said, it may just be a sensor failed.

 

[buckets0fun]

Ok since they said immediately that left rear sensor needs to be replaced, does this mean they scanned my car remotely and simply pulled the code like that?

Your car ALWAYS phones home.
Always. Forever.
You can verify their failed sensor diagnosis by going into service mode and looking at your alerts.

Or have them fix it for a few hundred (part+labor) if they don’t cover as ‘goodwill’

 

[yogi799]

Wow that's cool. If they already know what sensor reports a fault, then it seems I wasted time doing soft and hard resets (hard was really hard, my hands were freezing at minus 22 and it required no gloves to complete). That said they might have asked for the resets anyway before stating the diagnosis.

But to scan the computer remotely is beyond cool. In that case they should also be permitted to reboot the car remotely from their end.

 

[yogi799]

The car was preconditioned that morning (scheduled departure.... so it knew much time it needed) and their diagnosis includes cost of zero dollars... Again it didn't stop working beaucse I hit something. I never hit anything in the last couple decades.... It just woke up one morning and was dead so of course it's warranty

 

[buckets0fun]

That said they might have asked for the resets anyway before stating the diagnosis.

But to scan the computer remotely is beyond cool.

they wouldn’t have.

The car would not resolve itself from an unplugged or destroyed Abs sensor via resets of any kind. It’s like unplugging your phone then wondering why no charge is happening.

It is a pretty cool and also interesting when you understand it’s 24/7 surveillance.

Example: an accident that deploys the airbags logs the videos(and telemetry) of the crash. Every. Single. Input by the driver is logged in real time.

 

[yogi799]

Your car ALWAYS phones home.
Always. Forever.
You can verify their failed sensor diagnosis by going into service mode and looking at your alerts.

Or have them fix it for a few hundred (part+labor) if they don’t cover as ‘goodwill’

So, no, the car just tells me in that screen that all these systems have failed (which i can tell and feel myself) but NO, it does NOT tell me what component has failed and caused the issues.

The dealer told me 5 minutes after submititng service request that it was a wheel speed sensor.

Took them 1.5 days and they replaced it. Car drives like new again.

So... there you have it. I only wonder what caused it. Crap sensor went dead at extremely low temps, which accelerated its death (or unrelated to weather)? Maybe good thing it did as had it failed 4 years later it would have cost me a lot to replace it...

 

[Flybyglass]

So, no, the car just tells me in that screen that all these systems have failed (which i can tell and feel myself) but NO, it does NOT tell me what component has failed and caused the issues.

The dealer told me 5 minutes after submititng service request that it was a wheel speed sensor.

Took them 1.5 days and they replaced it. Car drives like new again.

So... there you have it. I only wonder what caused it. Crap sensor went dead at extremely low temps, which accelerated its death (or unrelated to weather)? Maybe good thing it did as had it failed 4 years later it would have cost me a lot to replace it...

This article describes the replacement. Probably could be done by mobile.

Tesla ABS Wheel Speed Sensor Problems & Replacement

Is your Telsa ABS light on due to a fault ABS wheel speed sensor? Learn how to fix the problem by replacing your Tesla's ABS wheel speed sensor. This guide

www.youcanic.com

 

[Dangerous Fish]

So, no, the car just tells me in that screen that all these systems have failed (which i can tell and feel myself) but NO, it does NOT tell me what component has failed and caused the issues.

The dealer told me 5 minutes after submititng service request that it was a wheel speed sensor.

Took them 1.5 days and they replaced it. Car drives like new again.

So... there you have it. I only wonder what caused it. Crap sensor went dead at extremely low temps, which accelerated its death (or unrelated to weather)? Maybe good thing it did as had it failed 4 years later it would have cost me a lot to replace it...

You could have gone into the hidden service menu where all faults are logged. That's what Tesla sees remotely but you can access it in the car. Could have been the sensor itself or the connector, but usually more common that the cable breaks because something's hit it or rubbed through the insulation.

 

[Randy-12]

Wow that's cool. If they already know what sensor reports a fault, then it seems I wasted time doing soft and hard resets (hard was really hard, my hands were freezing at minus 22 and it required no gloves to complete). That said they might have asked for the resets anyway before stating the diagnosis.

But to scan the computer remotely is beyond cool. In that case they should also be permitted to reboot the car remotely from their end.

Rebooting the car remotely can be dangerous. You need to be on site to reboot.

 

[nate704]

Rebooting the car remotely can be dangerous. You need to be on site to reboot.

I don't understand what danger you are referring to?

 

[brkaus]

Ok since they said immediately that left rear sensor needs to be replaced, does this mean they scanned my car remotely and simply pulled the code like that?

Yes. Heck, I once put in a service request to find tire costs. They replied with the tire cost and said they could order a patch kit for my front right tire (which I had been topping off every few days for a while but didn’t mention).

 

[Randy-12]

I don't understand what danger you are referring to?

Your driving around somewhere or someone else is driving the car and off the computer goes as they work on it.
Some people would not react too well to this scenario.
Even Tesla says that you should be stationary when rebooting the infotainment screen in the car.

And you can't shutdown the car remotely either.

 

[android04]

So, no, the car just tells me in that screen that all these systems have failed (which i can tell and feel myself) but NO, it does NOT tell me what component has failed and caused the issues.

The dealer told me 5 minutes after submititng service request that it was a wheel speed sensor.

Took them 1.5 days and they replaced it. Car drives like new again.

So... there you have it. I only wonder what caused it. Crap sensor went dead at extremely low temps, which accelerated its death (or unrelated to weather)? Maybe good thing it did as had it failed 4 years later it would have cost me a lot to replace it...

The cold probably had nothing to do with the failure, unless there was something defective in the way the sensor or its cable harness were made. There are and have been plenty of Teslas that experience much colder temperatures than yours did with no issues. Pretty much every component has a non-zero failure rate, and it could be higher early and late in it's lifespan (look up the Bathtub Curve for failure rates).

Glad Tesla fixed the issue for you under warranty.

 

[GtiMart]

Agreed, we've had a few days at -30C here and there has not been a flurry of failed sensors. Temperature has nothing to do with it. Correlation doesn't imply Causation.

 

[nate704]

Your driving around somewhere or someone else is driving the car and off the computer goes as they work on it.
Some people would not react too well to this scenario.
Even Tesla says that you should be stationary when rebooting the infotainment screen in the car.

And you can't shutdown the car remotely either.

I don't think car will allow to reboot the system while in drive anyway, just like you can't put it in park while moving/driving. Please correct me if I am wrong.