When will there be Zero drive-unit issues/replacements?

[Sunlight]

With Elon's goal of a 'million-mile' car/DU but evidence still of frequent (and repeated) DU replacement, when do you believe the issue will finally be permanently cured? No more faults at all (except for the odd - and therefore interesting - freak)....

 

[kort677]

* never
From what I been told by electrical people the problems are not mechanical and are far from being cured, and there might not be a fix. someone more versed in electrical engineering would be able to provide more info.

 

[davidc18]

We have 9,000 miles on ours and the front DU is scheduled to be replaced. Keeping the car out of warranty is looking like may not be a good idea. I think the lack of ability to get the extended warranty on CPO cars is very telling and should not be ignored. I hope they do figure it out and get it fixed because outside of this issue, we really like the car.

 

[Zythryn]

We have 26,000 miles on our replacement drive unit with no issues.
In my case, it is already solved. Perhaps the people that are getting replacements ARE the odd freak occurances.

While I don't believe that is really true, I believe that the rate of issues has been going down.

As for the "Elon promised..." remark, please stop that.
Elon did no such thing. He stated what Tesla's goal was.
I can't stand it when people use the word "promise" as a synonym for "stated goal". They don't mean the same thing.

 

[JRP3]

* never
From what I been told by electrical people the problems are not mechanical and are far from being cured, and there might not be a fix. someone more versed in electrical engineering would be able to provide more info.

Industrial electric motors have run for literally years non stop, so there is indeed a fix to be had. I still think it's a mechanical issue not electric. Tesla uses ceramic bearings so it should not be electrically induced bearing failures.

 

[Sunlight]

OK point taken and comment re-phrased.................. Sunlight

 

[efusco]

Zero...never. At a frequency that is rare, probably in the next year or so.

 

[S4WRXTTCS]

As an electrical engineer I say the problem is mechanical.

But, I'm not an electrical engineer well versed in AC induction motors of the size that's on the Tesla, or the drive inverter for such a motor. Heck half of the stuff Nikola Tesla did I don't understand. I'm more comfortable with topics regarding FPGA's, Vision Computing, etc.

Has there been anything attributed to electronics as being the root cause in the majority of Drive unit failures? Everything I've heard so far has been mechanical in nature like grease, and milling sounds.

A multitude of problems are being grouped into Drive unit problems which is confusing the issue.

As to the poll you have to have a passing criteria. What it means for the problem to the cured.

Is it 99.9% to 200,000 miles? without issues? 200,000 miles was the original design goal for the drive unit. The goal now is 1 million miles.

 

[jerry33]

So far no problems on mine at over 61K miles.

 

[Discoducky]

We have 9,000 miles on ours and the front DU is scheduled to be replaced. Keeping the car out of warranty is looking like may not be a good idea. I think the lack of ability to get the extended warranty on CPO cars is very telling and should not be ignored. I hope they do figure it out and get it fixed because outside of this issue, we really like the car.

Anyone had to actually pay for a DU replacement? I have not heard of anyone yet...

 

[S4WRXTTCS]

Anyone had to actually pay for a DU replacement? I have not heard of anyone yet...

With an Model S 85 with an eight year warranty that wouldn't be until 2021 or so.

With the 60 I don't remember what the warranty is on the drive unit, and whether it was extended back when Tesla added the DU to the battery warranty.

 

[islandbayy]

With an Model S 85 with an eight year warranty that wouldn't be until 2021 or so.

With the 60 I don't remember what the warranty is on the drive unit, and whether it was extended back when Tesla added the DU to the battery warranty.

125k on the 60's

 

[CHG-ON]

Never. There will always be a failure. My hope is that they are rare. I've had no problems at all after 16K.

 

[ecarfan]

Has there been anything attributed to electronics as being the root cause in the majority of Drive unit failures? Everything I've heard so far has been mechanical in nature like grease, and milling sounds.
A multitude of problems are being grouped into Drive unit problems which is confusing the issue.

I had a Tesla service center person tell me recently that the whirring/milling noise was a bearing issue. Not electrical. I got the impression that, if he could hear the noise in a Model S then the drive unit would be replaced, no questions asked. The noise did not have to be loud, just perceptible.

 

[AmpedRealtor]

I had a Tesla service center person tell me recently that the whirring/milling noise was a bearing issue. Not electrical. I got the impression that, if he could hear the noise in a Model S then the drive unit would be replaced, no questions asked. The noise did not have to be loud, just perceptible.

And during the earnings call Elon said it was a grease on the spline issue. Someone isn't telling the truth...

 

[jerry33]

And during the earnings call Elon said it was a grease on the spline issue. Someone isn't telling the truth...

Or there are multiple causes. It was a big deal when Rolls-Royce made a car that could go 3,000 miles without breaking down. (I'm not quite old enough to remember it first hand.)

 

[Electroman]

.. or maybe they are both right.

 

[Jsvette56]

I live in the Bay Area and an employee told me that early Teslas had a spline issue relating to it being too small for the load and that they engineered a larger spline. Ive had one DU replaced (at about 5000 miles) and am having issues again and going in to discuss another replacement (now at 36000 miles).

 

[Ingineer]

There are multiple issues, none electrical except for the "balloon squeal" in earlier cars, which is not a failure, just an annoyance.

I think the milling noise is caused by bearing failure, and the "clunk" when switching from regen to drive is the spline issue. I'm an Electrical Engineer, not a Mechanical Engineer, but it occurs to me that the slop caused by the worn spline issue could lead to another failure from hammering action. Maybe this is the cause of the bearing failure? You don't want mechanical shock in any kind of gearbox or transmission. This is why all ICE cars have some sort of torque damper; a hydrostatically-coupled torque converter in the case of an automatic, or a spring based damper in the case of a manual.

 

[JRP3]

And during the earnings call Elon said it was a grease on the spline issue. Someone isn't telling the truth...

After listening to it a few times I get the impression that was an example of one of the issues with the drive unit, not the only one.