Tesla Model S brake failure problems

Filed Feb 22, 2025 · Steering · CA

While driving on the highway at maximum speed limit, I had a series of error messages that covered the complete screen. At the same time, my MPH dropped to zero although I was traveling probably 70 miles per hour. I had no control over the vehicle, no steering, I had no brakes. There was no way to control the car. Fortunately, I was traveling in a low populated area of the [XXX] between Los Angeles and Las Vegas in the far right lane, as I was preparing to exit less than a mile to a Super Charger Station. I was able to get off that exit but since the odometer had a 0 reading, I had no idea what speed I was still traveling at. When I reached the end of the freeway exit, I was unable to stop the vehicle at the stop sign, running it while attempting with all of my strength to veer to the right on to a desolate road. The only thing that saved the car from running the stop sign at what I can only guess would have been 60 mph was a slight incline in the off ramp which slowed the car to about half that when I managed to make the turn. From there, I coasted to a rolling stop about 200 ft from exit, half on shoulder, half stilI on road. I was not able to put the car in park nor see what gear the car was in due to the flashing warnings blocking the display screen. I could not use the hazard lights, the gear shift, power off, open glove box, turn off display, open trunk, as if it was in D. Once exited, no way to get back in the car. Tesla ER Service only able to tow next A.M. to nearest S C, 85 miles at my expense. Sat in car as getting dark, cold along desolate road with no services, until my ride could get me over 4 hrs or stay in car overnight with temps of 20°. After 2 days at Tesla, told steering rack failed, $4,900. Any other time, I would have plowed into the car in front of me at 70mph with no way to stop or steer away. Only prevented by the empty freeway I just happened to be traveling. Tesla claims to have no idea why this part failed at this low mileage. INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMAT

Filed Nov 14, 2024 · Suspension, Wheels · IL

In December of 2023, my RIGHT rear axle broke when I accidently hit a curb. The car was repaired at the Tesla collision center. On last Tuesday, November 12, 2024, I heard a noise while braking. I continued to drive, but next time I needed to use brakes, I had a sensation that the brakes were failing, and I wouldn't be able to stop. The brakes eventually engaged, and I was able to stop the vehicle. I went on an expressway and drove as slowly as possible, maintaining a long distance from the vehicles in front of me and using regenerative braking as much as possible, being aware of a possibility of brakes failure. I got home safely on that day, however, the next day, when I was backing out of the garage, I heard a screeching noise. When I inspected the vehicle, I discovered that the LEFT rear wheel was misaligned, looking exactly like the right rear wheel after the right rear axle broke. Although this defect hasn't been inspected by a technician yet, I am virtually certain that it's the same problem that I had before, now occurring on the opposite side. This means that I was likely driving with a broken axle, which could've resulted in a serious accident. As I mentioned, this is the second instance of the same defect affecting my vehicle, which, in my opinion, is indicative of a serious manufacturing defect that needs to be addressed. The vehicle hasn't been repaired yet and is available for inspection. There were no warning lamps, messages or other symptoms prior to the failure.

Filed Dec 27, 2022 · Brakes · 106,300 miles · CT

The contact owns a 2013 Tesla Model S. The contact stated he heard an abnormal noise and the parking brake failed to release. The contact stated that the parking brake fault warning light was illuminated. The contact stated that he reset the parking brake system but continued to experience the failure. The vehicle was not drivable. The contact towed the vehicle off the highway. The contact continued to reset the parking brake until the parking brake disengaged and he was able to drive to his residence. The contact took the vehicle to the local dealer, where it was diagnosed with needing the parking brake, the rotor, and the brakes to be replaced. The vehicle was not repaired. Upon investigation, the contact associated the failure with the federal safety agency Campaign Number: 17V260000 (Parking Brake) however, the VIN was not included. The manufacturer had not been informed of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 106,300.

Filed Aug 22, 2022 · Driver assistance · OH · crash

The tesla full self driving was on and it turned my car into the guardrail in the middle of the highway all by itself for no reason at 70mph. It looked like a truck was turning into my lane and instead of stopping the car swerved into the grass and I hit the guard rail. The car was totaled. I have a video of the incident. This is one of the videos: https://www.veed.io/view/8e44fe01-a7ab-457c-90ee-4f7089bfe33c Full self driving was on the whole time. When I tried to take over it was too late to stop it and the brakes did not work or stop. The airbag did not go off. There had to be an error with the full self driving that decided I should go into the guardrail.

Filed Mar 19, 2022 · Brakes · AZ · crash

It is still unknown, but I believe the brakes failed. My wife was driving and making a left turn into a residential neighborhood when she applied the brake and it didn't respond, even when pushing the pedal to the floor. All that resulted was a clicking noise. The brakes failing to respond, and the emergency braking not engaging did cause an impact with a curb and sidewalk. At the same time, the seatbelt did not lock on impact or when pushing the brake pedal to the floor. The safety of the my wife was put at risk as she could not stop the car. With the cars weight and the amount of power that it has, it creates a dangerous situation for anyone around, especially in a residential area. The vehicle is available for inspection and is currently at the Tesla Service Center. There was a warning light that said something regarding the "Hold" not working and another for "Regenerative Braking." I do have the four angle dash cam videos from the Tesla of both times that it did occur.

Filed Nov 3, 2021 · Brakes · CA

Brake and accelerator pedals are configured such that both are easily pressed together. Other unintended acceleration or loss of brakes complaints here may be the same issue. I was cornering and needed to slow. Pressing the brake pedal did not slow the vehicle. An error that both pedals are pressed was seen in the first occurrence. This time I only heard the chime. I couldn’t look to see the message. No crash, just a scary incident.

Filed Aug 12, 2020 · Acceleration · 71,111 miles · CA · crash · 1 injury

On 8/6/2020 at approximately 3:50 pm [xxx], I [xxx] was parking my 2013 model s 85 tesla in my carport. I have lived at this address for 7 months and had parked my car there without incident numerous times. I was not distracted nor intoxicated in any way; I was simply parking my car. As I was about to push the park button on the tesla, suddenly the car unintentionally accelerated, out of control, the brake didn't work, and continued to leap forward at full speed, causing me to crash through the gate, and back of my carport, bouncing one trashcan off my shed door and pushing another one, as I veered around the shed corner knocking the carport supports out as I went. Crashing through my neighbors back fence, I plowed over my neighbor's garden and back yard with my garbage can and car acting as a battering ram. The tesla eventually careened into neighbors back carport plowed over a gas main, power main panel, water main, and sewer drain line. Basically, all the utilities which fed her house, and finally stopped after hitting the side of space# 46 house. I saw and smelled gas entering the car from the broken gas pipe. Fortunately, the power to my house along with 40 of the surrounding houses had been shut off the previous day due to a totally unrelated incident. A power transformer which fed the community had been mis-wired and destroyed all the electrical appliances and electronics in the 40 houses the transformer fed. If the power had been on, there would have been sparks and an explosion under my tesla battery pack; which would have caused a secondary explosion. I would have been killed instantly according to the firemen and pge gas repair man who showed up after the incident. Anyone present within the vicinity around my car would most likely have been killed too or injured. Information redacted pursuant to the freedom of information act (foia), 5 u.s.c. 552(b)(6).

Filed Jan 19, 2020 · Acceleration, Brakes · 20,000 miles · NY · crash · 2 injuries

On 1/18/20, I was travelling in my 2016 tesla model s p100d eastward on anderson hill road toward the intersection with purchase street. The stop light was red. I was driving 1mi under the speed limit of 35mph. The outside temperature was around freezing, and a wet snow had begun 5-10min earlier, with minimal accumulation. I know exactly how fast I was going because I had cruise control on. I was not on autopilot. Just cruise control. When the intersection and stop light came into view, I tapped the break to disengage the cruise control, and then depressed the break to slow the car. Nothing happened. The breaks would not engage. And neither did the regenerative breaking. I do not feel that I was skidding or sliding. It simply felt as if the car had no idea I wanted to brake. It was very very strange. In those few seconds it became clear to me there was a good chance I would be dead shortly. As it happens, I was struck broadside by a large suburban travelling northbound on purchase street perhaps 25 miles an hour. Both he and I seem to have emerged relatively unscathed (physically, anyway) thank god. But I want to know what happened to my car. Can you please contact tesla and demand all the information from the cars computers - and their computers at hq - so we can find out??? What happened was extremely dangerous, and could have killed both me nd others. To summarize: brake failure, both manual and degenerative, in 2016 tesla model s caused massive collision with both cars totalled.

Filed Jan 8, 2020 · Acceleration, Body · 26,360 miles · NC · crash

On january 2, 2019 between 1:45 and 2 pm I drove from my house into a clinic parking lot. As I drove my 2015 tesla model s forward and steered to the right into a parking spot, I consciously eased my right foot off from the accelerator pedal, thus lowering my speed from 10-9 MPH to about 5-6 MPH. The brake pedal was not pressed, allowing regenerative breaking to slow down the vehicle. About a second into the parking turn, the vehicle suddenly jolted forward, accelerating unexpectedly. I felt as if the brakes failed to work when I reflexively removed my right foot from the accelerator, and stomped the brake pedal as hard as I could. My vehicle came to a stop only after colliding with a chevrolet sports utility vehicle parked in the spot across. As I regained my bearings, I caught myself still flooring the brake pedal with my right foot, and continued to floor it until I after I had shifted it into parking gear, and made sure there was nobody walking in the vicinity. The impact from the tesla model s bumped the chevrolet SUV parked in front about 5 feet back. The model s itself stopped between 2-3 feet into the next parking space, slightly into the opposing parking space on the right side, as seen in the included photos. This would indicate the brakes **eventually** worked. Had they not, the tesla would have been expected to roll forward and into the SUV's bumper after the collision. This is called tesla creep mode, which I have enabled (slowly roll forward while no pedal is pressed). I asked the police officer to position his patrol car behind my vehicle before I moved it and advised the police officer I did not trust the car. I used an app to call for a tow through my insurance, but the tow's number was disconnected. I was able to drive off with the patrol car in escort.

Filed Jul 8, 2017 · Brakes · 26,000 miles · NV

A brake failure was experienced at roughly 4 pm pdt on july 3, 2017. I had to swerve into the median to prevent rear ending the vehicle in front of me while traveling at roughly 30mph. On the screen in the vehicle a warning was displayed "automatic emergency braking disabled.." I pulled into a business park parking lot and in order to stop there was a tremendous amount of brake pressure required to bring the vehicle to a stop. The car was parked and subsequently towed to my home. About 5 days later the tesla service center in reno towed the car for service. We are awaiting the results.