2015 Tesla Model S: fire, smoke or burning smell

Filed Nov 13, 2023 · Electrical, Transmission · CA

Driving my car and it completely gives out in the middle of traffic without any warning or alter almost causing an accident. When asked about the absence of alert they said I may or may not get one and I should be lucky it just cut off (randomly in traffic mind you) because if it didn’t it would’ve burst into flames. Being the Rear Drive Unit is the second most important part of the vehicle an alert should be given 100% of the time as no alert could cause injury to myself or other drivers. This means there are other Tesla drivers out there with a probable chance of their randomly car stopping without any control of the vehicle endangering lives. This oddly happens 60 days outside my 8 year warranty when I haven’t any issues at all and receive alerts for everything down to my fob key being low on battery. In addition the whole time they were just trying to convince to get a new one because they just happen to be running a limited time promo that I can transfer my free supercharging to a new vehicle if I purchased. A lot of people have reported (down to the day) of their car dying suddenly after warranty but no avail Tesla says they won’t goodwill repair my vehicle although I could’ve died or been seriously injured.

Filed Jul 30, 2021 · CA

Hello, My driver's side door handle broke back in November/December of 2020. As a result, it prevented me from entering the car on the driver's side. I had it repaired in December 2020. Now, my passenger side door handle has broken as well. My concern here is that if there is an accident where the car is on fire, etc., and the passenger(s) inside my car are unconscious, that someone from outside the car would have a difficult time opening the door to pull them out. they wold need to break the glass and pull them out through the window. Although this is an option/workaround, I believe it puts all passengers in the car at risk of sever injury or death if this type of situation is experiences and time of essence it critical. I'm submitting this information b/c I believe that with the multiple door handle failures that this creates a significant risk to the safety of passengers in my Tesla. As a result, I think a more robust longer term solution is needed for the Tesla Model S. Thanks, Trevor

Filed Jun 2, 2021 · Electrical · NY

In May 2019 Tesla pushed an OTA update on the car (including mine) with caused the car to reduce charging speed a lot. I normally go at the Green Acres Mall supercharger, in Queens NY near JFK airport and my car used to charge at 74kW (about 40 min of time from 50 miles range to 200 miles range). After the update the time more than doubled (about 1 hour and 30 min of time to add the same miles range). The update was in response to a Model S bursting into flames in Hong Kong, although there have been multiple seemingly spontaneous fires over the past several years. Tesla allegedly knew the cars' batteries were defective and decided that it would rather push an update that reduced range, performance and charging speed than replace batteries under warranty. My problem with this is that I need to know if my car is safe to operate. If there were a battery chemistry which was not safe and Tesla rather than change it decided to reduce the charge rate, is this solution acceptable for the federal safety agency? Also this solution is impacting significantly my schedule. When I bought the car, I considered using it for certain road trips assuming the downtime was reasonable, but after this update it basically made my car usable only for local trips. If you have to charge the car a couple of times over a 500 miles trip, one thing is to add a couple of 30 mins pit stops which is fine considering that most people need to use the restrooms, get something to eat or drink, but another thing is now having to wait a total of 3 hours.

Filed Jan 25, 2021 · Body, Fuel system · 42,900 miles · TX · fire

On afternoon of november 23, 2020, 2015 tesla model s 85d was in motion with single occupant, turning right turn into residential area off city street. Driver heard loud and deep metallic sound and immediately slowed. Warning message similar to 'unsafe to drive, pull over safely' appeared on dash. Driver stopped car right away and heard 3-4 loud, identical sounds. Driver heard another sound followed by loud 'pop' and smelled something burning. Driver immediately exited and saw smoke billowing from below the vehicle. Driver moved away. There was another loud 'pop' sound and flames started visibly shooting outward and upward from the front passenger wheel well area, mid-cabin and rear passenger tire well, charring the curb and grass next to vehicle. Fire continued to burn through passenger door, front of car (frunk), and underside of the car. Fire department and police department arrived on scene within minutes and extinguished fire. Fire damage to exterior was visible to front tire well and front passenger door. Additional fire damage noted inside rear passenger door. Cause is currently unknown.

Filed Feb 18, 2020 · 47,000 miles · CA

My car suddenly lost approximately 25 miles of battery range overnight after an over the air update by tesla. The car also began charging slower after the update. I believe the update has decreased the battery life of my car and capped it to prevent the chance of the car catching on fire since that has already happened to several tesla model s vehicles. It seems to me that a faulty battery is still in the cars

Filed Oct 9, 2019 · Driver assistance, Electrical · 28,000 miles · FL

When I purchased my car less than a year ago, it came with a 50,000 mile, 4 year "new car" warranty although it was a used car with approx 25k miles. Within 6 months, an update came out over the air and changed my software, and ultimately lead to a range loss of approx 40 miles and an increase in charging time by approx 3x because tesla, admittedly through their service texts, has limited the charging on my car to "preserve battery life." this is akin to selling me a 8 cylinder car, and limiting it to 6 to not have to change engine. The car has become almost unusable as it takes 3 hours to charge when it used to take 45 minutes. The car was able to get a full 116 kw for an extended period of time when the battery was below 15%-30% and the charging would gradually (over 45 minutes) drop to about 40kw. Now it starts at around 110 kw and quickly (within 5 minutes) drops to below 80kw. It tapers off and charges around an average of 35-40 kw. Tesla should be changing the batteries as they knowingly are doing this to stop the battery from over heating and starting on fire. This is a hazard and tesla, instead of replacing the part with a warranty, limits the performance of the vehicle without telling the owner.

Filed Nov 15, 2017 · Fuel system · 23,000 miles · CA · fire

Here is a tesla in the junkyard: https://www.copart.com/lot/46203307/photos it has been involved in a fire. The aluminium bodywork has been melted and burned away. The battery pack appears to have been the source of the fire. The air-bags have not been deployed and there is no sign of collision damage. The investigation into tesla fires was cancelled after tesla fitted a lightweight titanium battery shield and released some very poor quality videos demonstrating the invincibility of the battery shield. The ride height was also raised (for a few weeks) but soon went back to ultra-low. A google image search for "tesla fire" shows that many of these cars are still bursting into flames. Please investigate this problem before more tesla occupants are incinerated. Thank you. Concerned citizen.

Filed Apr 24, 2017 · Suspension · 5,000 miles · CA · fire

Here is a burned out tesla in the junkyard https://www.iaai.com/vehicle?itemid=24822571&rownumber=3&loadrecent=true the front lh wheel is jammed back into the battery. The tread on the tire is worn away which indicates that the wheel was jammed back against the battery while the car was still rolling forward. It is highly probable that suspension failure was the cause of the fire. Despite assurances to the contrary fires are still happening all too frequently in the tesla. A recent crash in china resulted in the tesla exploding in flames and the back seat passengers only narrowly escaped incineration.: https://electrek.co/2017/04/23/tesla-model-x-fire-crash-falcon-wing-doors-stuck/ I am filing these reports in the public interest. Owners believe the tesla is the safest car in the world. Judging by the hundreds of teslas that have been involved in serious accidents this appears to be a myth. Please investigate.

Filed Oct 31, 2015 · Suspension · 1,000 miles · CA · crash

This car is up for sale as a salvage wreck. Https://m.iaai.com/vehicledetenc.aspx?auctionid=0&itemid=20015788&rowid=2&pagesource=vehicleresults the front suspension has collapsed and the front wheel hs been sliced in half by a suspension component whilst the car was still in motion. The other wheels on the car are skewed or missing. Same, wheel sliced in half effect can be seen on this other car which subsequently caught fire. Https://m.iaai.com/vehicledetenc.aspx?auctionid=0&itemid=19224036&rowid=1&pagesource=vehicleresults there are many other cases of model s wheels becoming skewed or detached. Example http://www.inautonews.com/crashed-tesla-model-s-spotted-in-california this forum post may perhaps explain the problem http://my.teslamotors.com/forum/forums/air-suspension-failure-very-unpleasant-results "the right front air strut failed due to a leak which caused the whole front of the car to drop so much that the wheels were rubbing against the inside of the wheel well, and the front of the car was rubbing on the ground." please note that I have supplied a dummy USA address in order to be able to file this complaint. I am not a us resident but teslas are sold in my country and I am very concerned about the danger posed by this vehicle.

Filed Oct 1, 2015 · Electrical · 500 miles · CA · fire

Tl* the contact owned a 2015 tesla model s. While driving 55 MPH, the vehicle caught fire. The vehicle was destroyed. There were no injuries sustained. The manufacturer was made aware of the issue. The VIN was unknown. The failure mileage was 500.