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.
2015 Tesla Model S transmission complaints
Page 2 of 2: complaints 11 to 29 of 29, newest first, as owners wrote them.
The main control unit central screen froze and I could not get the car to function for about 7-8 mins. During this time, all major functions of climate control, rear view camera, and the car itself was non-functional. Even when the car functions, there are many times when the computer starts to go slow. Sometimes causing the touch screen to get unresponsive during driving the car. And a few times, the touch screen has even gone dark and non-functional while driving the car. History before this latest incident: note that this has happened many times in the past 1.5 years. I took the car several times to the tesla service shop and they used to just tell me to reboot the computer and they managed to reset the computer a couple of times while in warranty. Finally at one point after the warranty expired, the computer completely died earlier this year and tesla service advised that I need to get the computer mcu replaced at my own expense of about $1200. I did that. Now after about 6 months of the new replaced mcu, the problem has started happening again, just like it happened about 1.5 years ago. Computer slowing down and now two times, freezing up. I am frustrated at how easily this computer keeps getting into problems and causes potentially safety issues when the computer may go dark while driving or trying to back out of the garage or parking lot without visibility from the rear view camera when it happens. And I'm afraid that this new computer mcu may be on its way again for completely dying a second time in the same year. I am attaching the photo of the state of the car from today's incident (1:15pm 11/16/2020 pacific time). I hope you would investigate this closely since in the past tesla has been telling me that this is normal wear and tear and I can't accept that this kind of thing is anywhere close to normal behavior for a critical part of the car.
At 30,500 miles a series of failures occurred while I was driving to san diego on the freeway. The center entertainment screen flicker and then turn off entirely. I was on autopilot mode at the time and it turned off without warning. Fortunately, I had my hands on the wheel and was prepared to take over driving when the system failed. At the same time, when the center display turned off, I lost functionality of all controls of the car that required access to this display (ventilation, suspension, sound system, rear view camera, suspension settings, autopilot...). At the same time, multiple failure messages appeared on my main instrument cluster regarding inability to charge, and system failures. This was all preceded by longer and longer times for the car to boot up and be able to be driven. At the end, the car wouldn't boot up and was disabled. I was forced to have it towed to a my mechanic where it was diagnosed as a faulty mcu computer, which I paid to have it replaced.
Tl* the contact owns a 2015 tesla model s. The contact stated that stated that while driving at an unknown speed, the vehicle decelerated independnetly. The media control unit (mcu) became inoperable. The vehicle was towed to tesla located at 8500 tyco rd, vienna, va 2218, (703) 761-4679, where it was diagnosed that the mcu failed and needed to be replaced. The contact was provided an estimate for the mcu replacement. The manufacturer was not made aware of the failure. The vehicle was not repaired. The failure mileage was approximately 65,132.
Middle screen went out putting the car in 'limp mode' happened in the middle of the night and we didn't have headlights or turn signals! Happened while driving about two hours from home when we tried putting a route in the touch screen after setting the automatic update for 2 am the following morning. The car has 101k miles the warranty expired at 100k miles. We notified tesla of the problems we've been having with our screen freezing and rear view camera randomly not working while it was under warranty but the techs said 'everything is fine and it must have been a fluke' now that the car is out of warranty the now suddenly know the problem and a solution! This defect is scary and left us stranded and unable to navigate to a safe area off the highway in the middle of the night without headlights!!! Why would they jeopardize safety over money!
The main vehicle screen stopped working. Complete loss of rear camera image display when reverse gear is selected, resulting in reduced rear visibility when backing. No control over battery charging commands. Many times when I place the vehicle in reverse the camera would not display a rear image. Now my screen is completely black and nonreponsive
With the recent news on the federal safety agency investigating tesla model s touchscreen unit problems, I like to add my experience for the record: on 01/31/20, my computer screen died which limited the car's functionality (e.g. No HVAC, radio, bluetooth, etc). On 02/06/20, tesla came out to inspect my car, and verified I needed to replace the computer. The technician admitted how bad the problem was for productions with mcu v1 computers. But before the technician left, he performed a battery disconnect which made it worse. Now the car was not able to charge which forced me to take the car immediately to tesla to replace the computer. On 02/19/20, the replacement computer was installed at the cost of $2,122.50. To add, tesla would not let me keep the original computer without an additional core charge of $500. 12 days later on 03/02/20, tesla announced an infotainment upgrade on the backs of these ongoing issues: https://electrek.co/2020/03/02/tesla-mcu-infotainment-upgrade/ https://www.tesla.com/support/infotainment
Tl* the contact owns a 2015 tesla model s. The contact stated that the media control unit touch screen was inoperable. The contact stated that while attempting to recharge the battery, the system flickered and failed to charge. The contact stated that the back-up camera was also inoperable. The vehicle was undrivable. An independent mechanic went to the residence to inspect the vehicle and the contact was informed that the media control unit needed to be replaced. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was notified of the failure. The failure mileage was 89,586.
Center console display and computer failed as described in the federal safety agency pe20010, was replaced under warranty approximately january 2018. Replacement unit is now showing initial signs of same failure (extremely slow start-up now including blank instrument cluster when entering/starting car; cellular connectivity and navigation failures; unusual sounds or lack of auditory feedback for vehicle controls, blank black screen for backup camera, etc.)
Mcu failed. When it failed car would not shift into drive. Before failure mcu was constantly rebooting while driving. During reboot would lose headlights, turn signals, radio, and air conditioning. Complete failure occurred while stationary. Rebooting occurred while driving.
Media control unit went completely out after a few months of trouble. Car took longer to start up and controls of safety features were not working. This happened while starting car and also was not available while vehicle was in motion which caused a dangerous condition.
The main computer display and memory card fails - freezing all safety monitoring of the car, lose control of charging (I.e. Refueling) . Suspension control lost, basically everything frozen without this - it is known common failure emmc chip
Re: the federal safety agency action number: dp19005 - investigation subject : battery management software updates our tesla model s software "update" greatly reduced the amount of total charge, and speed that we can charge our battery. We called tesla, and initially they said that our battery had "degraded" and that was causing the problem. We responded that our battery is not even 4 years old (the car was purchased december 22, 2015), and batteries don't suddenly "degrade" 15 - 20% in one week. Tesla maintenance then admitted that the problem is due to a software update that reduced the speed and total charging of the battery "out of an abundance of caution". The service rep assured us that he was looking at our battery stats on line and there is nothing wrong with our battery. Fine, we said, if there is nothing wrong, take the crippling software update off. Sorry, can't do that, was the response. Your car is one of a number of cars that have had battery fires. It has a gen 1 battery (built before april 2016). We are researching the problem, and do not understand why this is happening. Ok, if you are aware of defective batteries, just replace our battery. The response was "sorry, we cannot due replacements at this time." my wife needed to drive 500 miles up to oregon to be present for her mom's cancer surgery last week. She could not take her tesla, as it now takes an hour and a half to "supercharge" the amount it used to receive in 35 to 40 minutes. She is afraid to drive the car. We read that in at least one of the tesla battery fires, the electric door handles would not operate and the passengers could not get out of the car. The tesla carries our family and loved ones. Tesla appears to be putting economics above safely in this matter. We need the federal safety agency to investigate to determine if it is safe to continue driving this car. Thank you.
My car's charging speed was significantly reduced following a software update. I used to charge at 116kw until about 25% state of charge but now I barely get 90kw at that state of charge.
Re: the federal safety agency action number: dp19005 - investigation subject : battery management software updates starting with a software update in may 2019, tesla capped the max voltage the high voltage battery would charge to. They claim they did this "out of an abundance of caution" after several non-crash fires happened to these models. Tesla took action to downgrade horsepower and range along with all other aspects of performance through a total voltage cap after claiming to be releasing a fire-safety update, but officially no safety update was released. This change happened while the car was parked in my garage and stationary. Is this car at risk of non-crash fire? Is it safe to park in my garage? Since tesla has refused to answer any of the above questions and only made vague statements implying a safety risk - to the press, not to me - I seek definitive answers from an the federal safety agency investigation.
Since may software updates, I don't know the real reason why tesla limit my car's battery: maybe to shut off a single battery module like the one that caused a car to catch fire in shanghai (same year model as my car)... Or decrease the battery voltage to reduce potential fire...but is it right and legal that I paid for a top of the line performance model s p85d and now tesla limited it to only 68-69 kwh? I would not mind if I paid for 70 kwh and be limited by tesla to 68 kwh, but my battery is 85 kwh and limited to only 68kwh! The power also seemed to be reduced and charging is taking much longer. What made me really mad is that tesla went behind my back and cheated like that using ota updates.
Starting with a software update in may 2019, tesla capped the max voltage the high voltage battery would charge to. They claim they did this "out of an abundance of caution" after several non-crash fires happened to these models. Tesla took action to downgrade horsepower and range along with all other aspects of performance through a total voltage cap after claiming to be releasing a fire-safety update, but officially no safety update was released. This change happened while the car was parked in my garage and stationary. Https://www.theverge.com/2019/5/16/18627746/tesla-fire-battery-software-update-model-s-x https://jalopnik.com/tesla-is-updating-battery-software-after-a-model-s-catc-1834794877
On may 20, 2019, this car was issued a forced, ota-update from tesla, versions 2019.16.1 and 2019.16.2 as a result of what is believed to be a response to the series of multiple battery fires worldwide involving tesla's electric vehicles. Without disclosing what the software updates would do or what negative affects they would have, tesla forced these updates without telling my client and other affected owners that their batteries would be limited and charging speeds would be throttled, effectively and significantly decreasing the range and speed of charging for their cars. Tesla advertised my client's specific year, make and model (2015 model s 70d) as having an approximate epa estimated 240 miles of range. This case has been filed as a class action which is already pending in the u.s. District court, northern district of ca, case number 5:19-cv-04596-vkd, by the named class plaintiff and representative david rasmussen. This office represents mr. Rasmussen, as well as mr. Lin and various additional owners of these affected vehicles, including residents in different states across the county. To date, tesla has proffered the explanation that the updates were done in order to promote the health and battery longevity for the vehicles, however, there is a correlation between the age of these cars, the recent fires, and any corresponding warranties with these cars by which tesla appears to try and avoid. Thus, customers are left completely without any remedy to the issues caused by tesla, as ncds arbitrators across the u.s. Are unable to come to terms with the fact that tesla has committed these illegal, unfair, deceptive, and fraudulent acts, or are unable to due to the limited scope and requirements by which ncds arbitrators are bound to.
Tl* the contact owns a 2015 tesla model s. The contact stated that the vehicle experienced unintended acceleration after making contact with a curb. It was discovered that the automatic transmission feature was turned off. The contact stated that the failure occurred without warning. No dealer the car is purchased directly from california. The manufacturer was contacted, but no further communication was initiated. The failure mileage was approximately 6,000. *tt
VIN decoder
See the problems and recalls for an exact car
Buying a used 2015 Tesla Model S?
Check the exact car before you pay: accidents, salvage or flood titles, odometer readings and previous owners.
Check its history