Tesla Model S battery drain problems

Filed Aug 15, 2026 · Acceleration, Electrical · CA

This complaint covers a 13-month continuous chain of severe electrical system failures stemming from a deficient federal safety recall remedy on my vehicle's Media Control Unit (MCU) architecture. Tesla's corporate policy has been to replace only the isolated center screen explicitly tracked by the recall while leaving connected legacy components intact on mismatched architecture. This creates an uneven electrical strain loop that has systematically destroyed my vehicle’s electronics over the last year.In July 2025, the initial recall failure required a VCM processor card swap. In September 2025, the resulting voltage strain forced a center navigation screen upgrade, during which the facility held my car for two full weeks. In December 2025, this continuous parasitic power drain burned out my 12V auxiliary system, forcing me to pay out of pocket for a replacement battery. Now, in August 2026, the 2016 dashboard instrument cluster has completely blacked out while traveling at highway speeds (70 MPH), leaving the vehicle completely illegal and unsafe to drive with zero speedometer visibility.The service facility is actively attempting to evade its 12-month workmanship and parts warranty obligations. Their official technician notes confirm the dashboard screen arrived completely black, yet their recorded remedy was to execute a temporary software reboot and officially instruct me in writing to 'perform scroll wheel resets as needed' while actively operating the vehicle on public highways. Following my official written rejection of the vehicle due to this safety hazard, the local facility even attempted an unauthorized forced delivery transport of the vehicle to my house to hide their failed repair before turning back. They are using temporary software patches to run down the remaining days on my parts warranty and dodge an incomplete federal recall remedy. I am requesting a formal federal investigation into this facility.

Filed Nov 8, 2024 · Acceleration · CA

While driving on the freeway at 70 MPH with 39 miles of range left, the vehicle abruptly slowed down to 20 MPH...cars behind us almost hit us due to the car slowing down despite me accelerating. We pulled to the right shoulder, rest the car and then was only able to go up to 20MPH...range still said 39 miles. Shortly after the car stopped, there was a warning displayed, and the car turned off and could no longer turn back on. I believe the battery failed. The car was towed to Tesla Irvine Barranca Service center and diagnostics confirmed the battery needed replacement. I traded in the car for a new vehicle. Safety of the driver, passengers, and the around us on the freeway were all at risk and we were lucky to avoid any issues. All Tesla told me was the battery died There was a warning that appeared when the car slowed down to 20mph...stating the car was no longer able to be driven

Filed Sep 10, 2022 · FL

On August 4th, 2022, I got in my car to continue north...and got a "can't drive not enough power" report on the dash. The car is still (as of today, 9/10/2022)in North Carolina ( at the Matthews-Charlotte Tesla service center, 9140 East Independence Blvd, Charlotte-Matthews, N.C.). Tow/hauler also took toll lanes to bring car to service. I received $20 in toll charges while I wasn't in the car for that day. This happened once before to this vehicle (in Charleston, S.C. serviced in Savannah, Ga 10/11/21 to 12/01/21), and twice before to a formerly owned Tesla. Battery died unexpectedly, suddenly (but while parked). I am still renting a gas car (being charged by Enterprise, weekly at over $500 a week) and I'm not happy with the car (engine light on twice RA # 766VYT) unit #7TBJHP ). Not comfortable driving with rental. Help, please?

Filed Jun 13, 2022 · Electrical, Lights · PA

While driving with a fully charged battery, the car dash warned “pull over to safe location. Battery cannot support all functions”. We were unable to fully pull over in the time before the car experienced a critical loss of functionality, as the car shut off in less than 1 minute from flashing the warning. The car lost all functionality, including loss of its flashers, putting us at significant risk since we were unable to alert other motorists to our presence on the side of the road as it was getting dark. The car is currently with the dealer and thus far they have been unable to identify the root cause of the issue but have acknowledged the existence of the problem. They’ve claimed the 12v battery died and the car does not have any safety redundancy built in to be able to access power from the main driving battery to power critical features such as the hazard lights. The biggest risk of safety is loss of indicators/flashers while on the side of the road. This feature in vehicles is meant to alert other drivers to the presence of a disabled vehicle. Consumer was told no physical problem was found with the car and a “firmware” problem is suspected. After repeated questioning, the Tesla dealer finally acknowledged that other 2021 Model S cars have experienced similar abrupt shut downs and the California engineers are aware of the problem. They cannot tell me when a firmware update will be available, but in the interim want to return the car to the consumer having done nothing to prevent the problem from recurring.

Filed Jan 20, 2022 · Electrical · LA

Mobile charger will not charge. Green light but will not charge. Failure may leave driver stranded in a remote location without ability to charge and parasitic drain will permanently damage the battery pack and vehicle

Filed Dec 13, 2021 · Electrical · NC · crash · 1 injury

The rear view camera did not deploy when I was backing out of a driveway and I was struck by another vehicle. The police determined it was a no-fault accident. My insurance company deemed me primarily responsible. I was unable to see any oncoming traffic because the camera was not working and there were obstacles to seeing oncoming traffic. The car was deemed totaled by the mechanic and my insurance company. The car battery died soon after the accident and the vehicle remains in my garage and is immovable. I sustained minor head, neck and back injuries.

Filed Oct 6, 2021 · Electrical, Lights · CA

As the car drains the battery pretty quickly, I have turned on energy saving mode. In this mode the car enters a deeper sleep, consuming less power. Sometimes in this mode when starting the vehicle, the turn signals will not work (this appears to happen when the car sits for a while and the miles left on the battery is under 120 or so). After a quick stop (2 minutes out of the car), the turn signals will start working, and the driver display will show the blinking turn signal when they work, but it will not display when they do not work. Another issue is that after entering the car and "turning it on", by pressing the break, sometimes the driver display (which shows speed and current drive mode, PRND indicator) will be blank, not showing any information, despite the ability to operate the car, etc.

Filed Aug 16, 2021 · Transmission · IL

RE: the federal safety agency Action Number: DP19005 - INVESTIGATION Subject : Battery Management Software Updates Dear sirs, my 2013 Tesla Model S p85 is a victim of this battery management software update that has reduced my driving range and time to takes to recharge the battery. this is a safety concern because I cannot drive as far (the range) as the manufacturer promised and I cannot recharge as fast as the manfuacuterer promised. I was forced to program this software update in my car, it was claimed as a must have safety update and the affect was reduced range and usability of this car. For example, if I had a medical emercengy while driving the car and needed to get to the hospital, and the car had this range reduction software, I might have a dead battery before I can get to the hospital. this is crazy! and when I try to recharge it take twice as long to recharge as the manufacturer claims, this is crazy too. Please help.

Filed Oct 6, 2020 · Lights, Suspension · 90,000 miles · NC

Was supercharging about 7 hours away from home, my screen turned off and would not reboot.. The dreaded mcu failure every tesla owner fears, and every service center pretends does not exist. My car would not power off, as we were at the beach my A/C was on full blast. My car was now driveable with no key, and the doors would not lock whatsoever. Anyone with or without a key could just walk up touch the handle and get into my car. I had to stay close to superchargers as my A/C drained the battery heavily. Tesla essentially told me they would have to have me take it to a service center which were closed for the next 2 days because a mobile tech would not be able to replace it on spot. So now I get to drive 7 hours home in the most stressful situation of my life. As we got away from the coast and the temperature rapidly dropped I had water pouring off my windshield and down the sides of my car and out of my air vents! It was almost impossible to see and incredibly dangerous. My fiancee had to keep a towel in her lap to wipe the windshield every few seconds. Putting the lack of visibility aside and safety of a vehicle thats unable to lock. I had to manually find all tesla superchargers along the route I also had to guesstimate how much charge I would need to make it to the next station which was quite the task due to the high A/C drain. After our last charging stop we had maybe 120 miles to go and I charged to 170ish.. At least 50 more than necessary. There was one point on our trip where we had 16 miles remaining and 17 to go. Somehow through a little help from the man above we made it home with a couple miles to spare. It completely astounds me that tesla could just brush off such a horrendous failure of a very well known and documented issue. It's not a chance of if it fails as to a matter of when. Stock prices matter more than a customers safety.

Filed Aug 8, 2020 · Driver assistance, Suspension · 52,889 miles · CA

I put the car in reverse and the screen was black. All the controls were stuck...fan/AC...back up camera did not work. My turning signals did not work. Tesla service center was closed so all the AC did not turn off and drained the battery all the way to 0 range. Took a lot of trouble to get to the service center the next day. They concluded the mcu was dead and had to be replaced claiming that it was wear and tear. Without any warning, the mcu crashed and comprised safety of the car with the turning signals, suspension and rear back up camera not working amongst others since the mcu controls everything. We believed tesla knew of the problem and put it on owners to replace at their own expense if out of warranty even though it seems to happen around when the warranty ends. We have 2 teslas and both the mcus died a little over 50k. It should have been a safety recall and the mcus replaced at no cost. Terrible business practice and service for such expensive cars. We are very disappointed in tesla.