2016 Tesla Model S fuel system problems

Filed Jun 29, 2026 · Acceleration, Electrical · CA

On 6/11/26, around 2:10 pm, when i was slowly pulling over to park on a road side, the car suddenly rushed forward unexpectedly. It was so powerful, at the time I could only hear the panic reactions from the two passengers and sense the imminent collision with the parked bmw in the front of several car length away. Right before the collision i steered the wheel to the right to avoid the bmw and my car came to violent halt less than a foot next to the bmw. I came out of my car to check the tire position before backing out to park a bit behind. This was on a country road, a Thursday afternoon with not much traffic. There was no distraction. If not were the enough spacing i would have no doubt crashed into the bmw in the front. When the dust settled, I did a "power off" reset to the model S and drove the rest of the day normally without any incidents. I went to Tesla service center near where i live the next morning, 6/12/26, to report it. They asked the precise time the incident occurred. But did not inspect the car. I was told an inner inquiry will be opened and it would take at least a few days. They said i could continue to drive the car normally which i have not because of not knowing what had caused it. I went to the service center today 6/29/26 after more than two weeks of no feedback. I was very disappointed in the answers given. The guy said basically based on the design of the car the incident could not have been caused by the car ,without providing any info as to what had been found from the promised inquiry. There was no written report on this. The person offered to check the brakes but also said he did not think its necessary. Just to made me feel better he said. At last, he provided the tesla web site to request "private data" during time window of the incident. I told him i will seek help from the federal safety agency now that tesla is not. I was told by AI, tesla has collected data on every car they sold to the details that can reveal how the paddles were pressed.

Filed Feb 24, 2026 · Fuel system, Transmission · AZ

While driving in traffic, the vehicle displayed warnings stating “Unable to drive — Pull over safely.” The vehicle progressively lost power and became unable to propel itself, requiring me to stop in traffic. Additional warnings indicated reduced acceleration and performance. The vehicle remained powered (screens and electronics active) but could no longer drive. Tesla later diagnosed a high-voltage battery failure and provided an estimate for full battery replacement. The sudden loss of propulsion in traffic created a safety hazard because the vehicle could not accelerate or continue moving with traffic.

Filed Jun 17, 2024 · Electrical, Fuel system · SC

Received and OTA notice on the dashboard that states "Battery Fuse replacement" is required. The fuse is due to a Li-ion battery that wears out for a safety system. Life expectancy of the battery is 10 years. It has not lasted 8 full years. This is stated as a safety issue and Tesla has since redesigned this item to not required the batteries. I have alerted Tesla about this issue, have not had a reply, as yet. The vehicle can be operated without this safety device, which seems inappropriate. I feel this should be replaced under warranty and/or recall - but it appears Tesla will want to charge an excessive amount of money.

Filed Dec 1, 2023 · Acceleration, Electrical · NY · crash · 1 injury

Sudden unintended acceleration appeared to cause the Tesla while parking the car on the street in front of home accelerate go out of control and crash into the home totaling the car and damaging the house. Two days prior the vehicle was brought into a Tesla service location where Tesla replaced the 12 volt battery that they believed was causing the car not to power on properly at that time. After the crash and googling to see if others suffered similar issues it appears the federal safety agency recently reopened a review of sudden unintended acceleration and this incident seems to align with concerns of the petitioner [XXX] . The police filed a report and it’s at the towing place where the insurer Allstate is going to evaluate the car for a total loss. INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6)

Filed May 14, 2023 · Acceleration, Fuel system · GA

While driving reduced power light came on. On Highway speed reduced to a crawl.

Filed May 9, 2022 · Engine, Fuel system · CA

On April 9th, 2022, the vehicle in traffic went from the drive gear to the park. vehicles were coming behind me at 55mph and I could not maneuver to safety. It took up to 4mins before I got moving. The incident occurred again on April 25th, while my kids and I were on the way to basketball practice. Finally, I got an appointment with Tesla service, and after two weeks of troubleshooting I was informed that the issue is an anomaly.

Filed Nov 3, 2020 · Fuel system · 44,000 miles · CA · crash

On two separate occasions the car accelerated on it's own. On august 5th 2020 it accelerated while it was being parked resulting in damage to the car. On october 30th, 2020 the car accelerated after I removed my foot from the accelerator for approximately 20-30 yards.

Filed Jul 3, 2020 · Electrical, Fuel system · 64,000 miles · FL

The main control screen has been intermittently inactive or black. Almost everything in the car is controlled by this screen. I have asked them to fix it for over two years on over six occasions with no resolution. The screen now at 64k miles is totally dead and will not restart. It disables the ability to charge the motor drive system battery, the AC heat and defroster system, control of the lights and wipers. According to thousands of web pages this issue is caused by software disabling the main file system memory chip prematurely. Telsa service wants me to pay $1146 to fix this out of warranty even though I complained about it multiple times during warranty. It makes the car useless and unsafe and there should be a factory recall issued.

Filed Jan 20, 2020 · Acceleration, Fuel system · 63,440 miles · CA

I was approaching a stop sign with my foot lifted above both pedals (brake and accelerator) when my car accelerated forward. I had always thought that most of these unintended accelerations were due to a driver hitting the accelerator pedal instead of the brake pedal so I noted that my foot was not resting or pressing on either pedal. I put it down on the brake pedal and the car stopped, but this should never have happened. I had no cruise control or steering aid activated. I also have 'creep mode' turned off.

Filed Aug 8, 2018 · Acceleration, Brakes · 25,000 miles · CA · crash

While in reverse backing up to a charge station in a covered parking lot, the car went into sudden acceleration and failed to stop and collided with the charge station and the wall next to it. None of the warning lights or sounds went off either. Although the car has, on several occasions demonstrated its ability to stop short of colliding with obstacles, it failed to react in this instance. Tesla has ignored our repeated requests for providing an explanation or any evaluation of the logs associated with the car, and has blamed the matter on driver error.