Errors - power reduced, vehicle is free rolling, unable to apply parking brake

[sjkjs]

2019 Model 3 Performance

I was driving this morning and everything was fine. I then got an error saying power reduced, and that power may return after parking and starting a new drive. I was unable to stop on that road so I kept going.

A few minutes later, it lit up like a christmas tree. I got about 10 different errors all at once. "Vehicle is free rolling", "service required", "vehicle may not restart", "unable to apply parking brake". The PRND indicators were all grey which suggests that it was not in gear. Pressing the parking brake button did nothing and it kept rolling. The indicators also would not work - pushing the stalk did nothing.

By sheer luck I was in a carpark and managed to roll into an empty spot. I rebooted using the two steering wheel buttons. After rebooting, I got it to go back into gear again. It seemed okay at first, but after about 30 seconds of driving the errors came back again. At least this time I was able to park it properly and put it in P.

I've logged a service job but am still waiting for a response. Has anyone had experience with this before? What could be the possible causes?

 

[jjrandorin]

That sounds quite scary. If it were me, especially since you bought it from Tesla per your other posts here, I would not only make a service appointment (which it sounds like you did) but also call roadside assistance and have them tow it to that location of your service appointment.

Everyone has their own risk tolerance but from that list of symptoms, I wouldnt want to drive it myself.

 

[sjkjs]

That sounds quite scary. If it were me, especially since you bought it from Tesla per your other posts here, I would not only make a service appointment (which it sounds like you did) but also call roadside assistance and have them tow it to that location of your service appointment.

Everyone has their own risk tolerance but from that list of symptoms, I wouldnt want to drive it myself.

Yep, it's a Tesla CPO vehicle which is still in warranty.

I agree. I'm currently at work and I drive on a 110km/h road to get home. This problem occuring at that speed could be fatal.

I just found a fairly large puddle under the car. I rubbed some on my fingers and smelt it but it appears to just be water. It's not hot here today so I would not expect a large amount of A/C condensation. Could a coolant puddle appear relatively clear and odorless?

 

[jjrandorin]

I havent witnessed Tesla coolant myself, but in other vehicles it I have had, it always appears with some color and feel to it, not colorless and odorless. The AC on these cars runs almost all the time unless specifically disabled, so it could be condensation. I see condensation under my own car sometimes (a 2018 model 3P).

I have never had that set of symptoms though.

 

[sjkjs]

I logged a job with roadside assist. He rang me and asked a few questions. He seemed concerned when I said that it fell out of gear and was free rolling. Tow truck is on the way and will be here in 90 minutes...

 

[AZAV8R]

Just a shot in the dark: 12v battery? From other posts here, that failure seems to cause bizarre behavior when they die. Whatever it ends up being, please share!

 

[sjkjs]

They gave me a loan car and put an estimate of 48 hours on the repair job, so I think Tesla is assuming that it's something more serious.

Also, the puddle was water afterall. It fully evaporated.

 

[jjrandorin]

They gave me a loan car and put an estimate of 48 hours on the repair job, so I think Tesla is assuming that it's something more serious.

Also, the puddle was water afterall. It fully evaporated.

Please circle back and let us know what the end result is.

 

[brkaus]

free rolling is concerning. Too late to test now, but wonder if holding the P button would trigger the emergency brake.

Assuming the regular pedal brake worked?

 

[sjkjs]

Yes, regular brake pedal still worked luckily. Power steering was also okay. Parking brake not working seems like a bizzare fault. It's not a very complex component.

 

[brkaus]

I’m not clear on parking brake function. Some of it might be the drive units?

I don’t always here the secondary one activate I don’t think.

 

[sjkjs]

I’m not clear on parking brake function. Some of it might be the drive units?

I don’t always here the secondary one activate I don’t think.

Interesting you say that. I've never really paid any attention to the parking brake, but I just went out to play in the loan car they gave me. There are two very different sounds, a mechanical whirring when pressing the button, and a short click when holding the button.

I wonder if the whirring sound is something to do with the motor/gearbox, like you said. That, along with the other symptoms I had (reduced power, etc) would strongly point to a motor issue...

 

[sjkjs]

The car sat at the service centre for 5 days (which to be fair included a weekend) before it was looked at. After it was looked at I was sent a $300 estimate for diagnostics which was listed as customer pays. I spoke to the service manager on the phone who confirmed that yes, it actually is customer pays. The reason is because I "have a number of aftermarket accessories". He gave two examples which were a screen swivel mount and an OBD harness which was sitting in the glovebox not actually plugged in.

Not happy about them already declaring that it's not a warranty job when they still don't even know what the problem is yet.

 

[jjrandorin]

The car sat at the service centre for 5 days (which to be fair included a weekend) before it was looked at. After it was looked at I was sent a $300 estimate for diagnostics which was listed as customer pays. I spoke to the service manager on the phone who confirmed that yes, it actually is customer pays. The reason is because I "have a number of aftermarket accessories". He gave two examples which were a screen swivel mount and an OBD harness which was sitting in the glovebox not actually plugged in.

Not happy about them already declaring that it's not a warranty job when they still don't even know what the problem is yet.

I did suggest to you in your other thread that you should "remove anything connected to the car you installed", because its fairly common for Tesla to say stuff like this.

 

[MikeRTX]

I did suggest to you in your other thread that you should "remove anything connected to the car you installed", because its fairly common for Tesla to say stuff like this.

To be fair, lots of carmakers are like that. I've even been questioned about having a radar detector installed to the accessory slot in the fuseblock of an ICE car, when the issue had nothing to do with wiring or electronics. (That's when a dealer relationship is valuable.)

But given that Teslas are all-electronic, anything that could affect those sensitive electronics has to be considered suspect until proven innocent.

 

[Unclepaul]

Tesla will want you to agree to pay for your diagnosis when they see aftermarket parts. If their diagnosis shows it to be an issue covered by warranty, then there will be no charge for the diagnosis or repair.
When ever you plug something non-standard into the electrical system, they have no way of knowing how it will effect the car.

 

[sjkjs]

I've had the car back for a while now. Tesla was unable to reproduce the problem and said to let them know if anything further happens. They blamed it on the OBD harness and said that it was messing up the CANBUS. I couldn't really find much information about that online but the Tesla technician said he's personally seen it multiple times.

On the plus side they changed my front upper control arms under warranty (I didn't even realise they were bad) and also waived the diagnostic fee which I had agreed to.

 

[bluestreak55]

I've had the car back for a while now. Tesla was unable to reproduce the problem and said to let them know if anything further happens. They blamed it on the OBD harness and said that it was messing up the CANBUS. I couldn't really find much information about that online but the Tesla technician said he's personally seen it multiple times.

On the plus side they changed my front upper control arms under warranty (I didn't even realise they were bad) and also waived the diagnostic fee which I had agreed to.

On the Prius I used to have, a certain communication protocol with the OBDLink LX would cause braking system faults. If for whatever reason I installed Torque (the OBD reader app I would use) on a new phone, if I forgot to change the protocol, back to christmas tree dash it would go.

Also, Allysa from Out of Spec Reviews had a strange parking brake issue as well, worth a look: