January 2024 Cold Snap 2021 Model 3 Completely Bricked

[PartyBoy]

During the recent cold snap, I had my car on a free ChargePoint charger. I headed back to the car when the battery was near 90% and kicked on the heat on the app, since the temps were below freezing. When I got back to my car, I was able to unlock it and unplug it. Everything seemed almost normal, except the HVAC wasn't blowing heat, but the seat heat was on. When I went to drive, the car wouldn't budge and threw a lot of codes. I have to paraphrase (should've taken a pic of the screen) here, but the coded were along the lines of "HV battery unable to connect," "Drive Unit failure, code xxxx," Inverter failure, code xxxx," and "BMS failure, code xxxx."

It was bricked. Called roadside assistance, we both agreed that there was no point in taking action that evening since the service center was already closed. The next morning, I reengaged and got the car towed to the SC. By this point, the 12v battery was dead and not even the 9 volt battery trick would open the frunk. My car was very unceremoniously dragged on to the tow truck. It's now been at the SC for about a week.

Just got some diagnostics information that indicated that an inverter failed causing the "pyrotechnic" or what I would call a cartridge-actuated device (CAD) to blow and cause an open circuit in the high voltage circuit. This CAD is in place to help avoid over voltage situations that could result in the car catching on fire. But in so doing, the car was disabled.

I know that I'm not the only one that experienced this failure in coincidence with the cold snap.

As of today, my car is still out for repair. But I'm fortunate for both the car being under warranty and having a loaner to keep me moving.

I'd like to solicit others that have experienced the same issue to give their account here to see if there's a greater problem.

 

[Lindenwood]

Bummer to hear about that.

Question: is this related to the cold weather, or is the title just clickbait?

 

[PartyBoy]

@Lindenwood. No. It is not clickbait. That wasn't my intent.

I'm truly curious to know how many others this affected. Teslas are proliferated nearly worldwide. They are in many cold climates, like Alaska, Canada, Sweden, Norway, et al.

My tow truck driver that took the car in last week said that there was a spike in EV tows during the cold snap. Not just Teslas, but also Rivians. The story has also been in the domestic news here in NA.

So, I thought the Tesla focused community here might be interested in finding out how many were affected. Because this could just as easily happen to you.

 

[Lindenwood]

@Lindenwood. No. It is not clickbait. That wasn't my intent.

I'm truly curious to know how many others this affected. Teslas are proliferated nearly worldwide. They are in many cold climates, like Alaska, Canada, Sweden, Norway, et al.

My tow truck driver that took the car in last week said that there was a spike in EV tows during the cold snap. Not just Teslas, but also Rivians. The story has also been in the domestic news here in NA.

So, I thought the Tesla focused community here might be interested in finding out how many were affected. Because this could just as easily happen to you.

My initial response might have been unnecessarily curt. To be explicit, I expect your drive unit failure is much more likely a random (and unfortunate) event, rather than in any way due to the cold.

The recent spate of Teslas breaking down in the cold is just people having their cold EV batteries run out of juice waiting for clogged-up chargers.

All that is to say, rest assured! Your car is not mechanically more fragile in cold weather than any other car .

 

[Ti317]

My initial response might have been unnecessarily curt. To be explicit, I expect your drive unit failure is much more likely a random (and unfortunate) event, rather than in any way due to the cold.

The recent spate of Teslas breaking down in the cold is just people having their cold EV batteries run out of juice waiting for clogged-up chargers.

All that is to say, rest assured! Your car is not mechanically more fragile in cold weather than any other car .

View attachment 1011722

I wonder if the problem originated with the charging station? Could it have been defective or affected by the cold?

 

[android04]

I wonder if the problem originated with the charging station? Could it have been defective or affected by the cold?

Not likely. Also, the failure was probably just a matter of chance, and not at all related to the cold temperatures. Teslas have been around for more than a decade and in cold climates and areas without issue.

 

[Ti317]

Not likely. Also, the failure was probably just a matter of chance, and not at all related to the cold temperatures. Teslas have been around for more than a decade and in cold climates and areas without issue.

Teslas have been around but how about the off brand charging stations?
This was not at a Tesla SC but a Chargepoint station.

 

[android04]

Teslas have been around but how about the off brand charging stations?
This was not at a Tesla SC but a Chargepoint station.

It is possible that the Chargepoint station, or any charging station can damage an EV while charging. However, I would put the chances of that happening as very low. Also, it would be difficult or impossible to prove unless it happened to other cars on the same station (in case you were thinking of filing a claim against the operator or manufacturer).

 

[Maki22]

No issues here in Norway after 2 weeks of -18 F with the Highland, my car is parked outside 24/7.

Also no issues with a 2020 Model 3 after 4 winters with long periods of -10 to -15 F while being parked outside 24/7, sometimes without using the car for weeks due to vacation or business traveling by airplane.

I don't have the ability to charge at home so I only use the super chargers.

 

[Lindenwood]

This incident has nothing to do with the cold.

People show up to Superchargers with unheated batteries, meaning a typical 15-minute charge takes 30-40 mins each, cutting charging station throughput by 50-70%. That, coupled with frozen charging cables, etc, results in drivers having to sit for extended periods BOTH heating the cabin AND the battery. Those waiting drivers’ batteries die before they can charge, resulting in a profitable media frenzy.

Not to mention, cold weather will basically chop a not-insignificant portion of the available battery off the “bottom.” Therefore, lots of folks might have stopped at the hotel at 20% thinking they would grab breakfast and charge in the morning, only to wake and realize—especially after heating a 5-degree cabin and battery—they only had a few percent available to get to the charger.

Just an unfortunate side effect of wider adoption of EVs. People got over keyboardless smart phones, non-smoking restaurants, and self checkout frustrations. We’ll figure this out, too.

 

[Tronguy]

FWIW, we over here bought a 2018 M3 RWD LR back in 9/2018. Was buzzing about the landscape, no problems.

In May or so of the following year, the SO went into the garage and attempted to back the car out. Immediate pile of error messages and no movement.

After a short bit of discussion, dinged Tesla. Same day a tow truck showed up with a jumper battery; made no difference. Car went into the shop. Eventually the SO got a MS loaner. (This was somewhat back in the day, so loaners weren't as common as they had been previously.)

After some diagnosis, it was determined that the Pyro Fuse had blown. They also replaced the pagoda wiring harness and, since the 12V battery had been completely drained, put in a new one.

No problems after that; traded in the car in 9/2023 for a new one, transferring FSD as it went.

My thought is that some manufacturing defect caused a short; the short blew the pyro; and that was that. All paid for as part of the warranty.

So, yeah, high voltage thingies going shorty isn't exactly common, but it has happened to people.

Speaking with my sometimes-used Reliability Engineer hat, I can truthfully tell you, given FIT and MBTF numbers for real parts, it's a gimmie that everything in a car is going to fail on some car, somewhere, eventually. ICE cars occasionally throw a rod or break a crankshaft, or a transmission goes blooey, and none of these necessarily indicate abuse.

FWIW, my daily driver until 2021 was a 2010 Gen III Prius; I sold it to my daughter around that time and she and her husband are still buzzing all over with it with well over 150,000 miles on the car. Very reliable. However, about a year and a half after the SO and I bought the car in late 2009, it was parked in central Connecticut while we had lunch on a warmish day. Got into the car, hit the Start Button, and every alarm light on the car lit up at once. Main electric motor inverter failure. Repaired under warranty and it's still working just fine now.

So, stuff happens. Sorry the dice came up snake eyes for you.

 

[Ti317]

This incident has nothing to do with the cold.

People show up to Superchargers with unheated batteries, meaning a typical 15-minute charge takes 30-40 mins each, cutting charging station throughput by 50-70%. That, coupled with frozen charging cables, etc, results in drivers having to sit for extended periods BOTH heating the cabin AND the battery. Those waiting drivers’ batteries die before they can charge, resulting in a profitable media frenzy.

Except if you read OP’s post, that was not what happened in his case. I have no idea what happened but I dare say neither do you or anyone else in this thread.
Not having the car, the forensics, and the final report in our possession all we can do is speculate.

 

[Ti317]

FWIW, we over here bought a 2018 M3 RWD LR back in 9/2018. Was buzzing about the landscape, no problems.

In May or so of the following year, the SO went into the garage and attempted to back the car out. Immediate pile of error messages and no movement.

After a short bit of discussion, dinged Tesla. Same day a tow truck showed up with a jumper battery; made no difference. Car went into the shop. Eventually the SO got a MS loaner. (This was somewhat back in the day, so loaners weren't as common as they had been previously.)

After some diagnosis, it was determined that the Pyro Fuse had blown. They also replaced the pagoda wiring harness and, since the 12V battery had been completely drained, put in a new one.

No problems after that; traded in the car in 9/2023 for a new one, transferring FSD as it went.

My thought is that some manufacturing defect caused a short; the short blew the pyro; and that was that. All paid for as part of the warranty.

So, yeah, high voltage thingies going shorty isn't exactly common, but it has happened to people.

Speaking with my sometimes-used Reliability Engineer hat, I can truthfully tell you, given FIT and MBTF numbers for real parts, it's a gimmie that everything in a car is going to fail on some car, somewhere, eventually. ICE cars occasionally throw a rod or break a crankshaft, or a transmission goes blooey, and none of these necessarily indicate abuse.

FWIW, my daily driver until 2021 was a 2010 Gen III Prius; I sold it to my daughter around that time and she and her husband are still buzzing all over with it with well over 150,000 miles on the car. Very reliable. However, about a year and a half after the SO and I bought the car in late 2009, it was parked in central Connecticut while we had lunch on a warmish day. Got into the car, hit the Start Button, and every alarm light on the car lit up at once. Main electric motor inverter failure. Repaired under warranty and it's still working just fine now.

So, stuff happens. Sorry the dice came up snake eyes for you.

Exactly! Some years ago I bought a CPO BMW 335d from a local dealership. It had fewer than 40k miles and if you know diesels that is not near high mileage. Drove it home, never exceeding 45 mph. After only 9 miles the motor seized as I was turning into my neighborhood at around 20 mph.
BMW NA flew in a new motor and a team from Germany to dismantle the engine and diagnose it.
Turns out that a thrust washer on the main bearing journal somehow failed, and there went the motor.
Yes, things do break for no apparent reason at times.

 

[Tronguy]

And, just to put one more oar in the water:

Overall reliability of vehicles of a particular make, type, and year is kept a Deep, Dark, Secret by automotive manufacturers. The responsible manufacturers of vehicles use failure rates to figure out what's going wrong and attempt to improve the reliability as they go. For one thing, it costs less to not have to do warranty repair work on cars, and that gets the attention of even the pointiest-haired bosses, left, right, and center. Even having a warranty is untenable for the profitability of a manufacturer if the reliability of a vehicle is too blamed low.

Interestingly, what parts are kept in what repair centers, and how many of them, is predicated on how often said parts fail; and, if a car is new, the predicted failure rate drives that part distribution. In the above case of the failed pagoda wiring harness, it had to be shipped all the way from California; apparently, they hadn't had many failures like that before, so it wasn't a commonly stocked item.

But this reliability data.. I don't give a flying hoot about J.D. Powers and their suspect, "World's most reliable car!" stuff. It's suspect because J.D. Power's customers aren't consumers - it's car manufacturers. The manufacturers get unvarnished raw data; consumers are a source of income, in the sense that manufacturers pay J.D. to advertise.

If there's one bunch of commonly available reliability data from anywhere, it's Consumers Reports. Subscribers get yearly surveys, often return said surveys, and put down What Broke in statistically significant numbers. One can complain about CU's take on electric vehicles, but the reliability numbers on used cars every year is pretty much pure gold.

 

[Leafdriver333]

diehard battery for 12v would have helped, imo

 

[Lindenwood]

Except if you read OP’s post, that was not what happened in his case. I have no idea what happened but I dare say neither do you or anyone else in this thread.
Not having the car, the forensics, and the final report in our possession all we can do is speculate.

I was only helping him understand that all the stories about “Icy Tesla Graveyards” are from cold weather battery challenges, not his random motor failure. Paying attention to the context of the rest of the thread could have clued you in.

 

[PartyBoy]

Follow up. 2/8/24.

First off, take it easy folks. The amount of jumping to conclusions is remarkable and unproductive for problem solving here.

I stated facts and presented a coincidence, not a conclusion of cause.

So the update is that the pyrotechnic in the aft drive blew. Tesla also replaced an inverter. I suspect that the inverter caused the over voltage condition that blew the pyrotechnic in the drive unit. Of note, the SC used to have to R&R the drive unit when the pyrotechnic blew. They are now able to merely replace the pyrotechnic a the SC level of maintenance. Good news if you are out of warranty and this happens. The SC had the car for a week. I suspect they only worked on it for the last 48 hours and there was a backlog of cars requiring repair ahead of mine. So really, it's a 2 day fix if there's no wait.

Still don't know the exact why it all happened. But the corrective action is stated above at the level of detail that was provided to me. Have a happy day.

 

[yttrios]

Follow up. 2/8/24.

First off, take it easy folks. The amount of jumping to conclusions is remarkable and unproductive for problem solving here.

I stated facts and presented a coincidence, not a conclusion of cause.

So the update is that the pyrotechnic in the aft drive blew. Tesla also replaced an inverter. I suspect that the inverter caused the over voltage condition that blew the pyrotechnic in the drive unit. Of note, the SC used to have to R&R the drive unit when the pyrotechnic blew. They are now able to merely replace the pyrotechnic a the SC level of maintenance. Good news if you are out of warranty and this happens. The SC had the car for a week. I suspect they only worked on it for the last 48 hours and there was a backlog of cars requiring repair ahead of mine. So really, it's a 2 day fix if there's no wait.

Still don't know the exact why it all happened. But the corrective action is stated above at the level of detail that was provided to me. Have a happy day.

Hey, do you have an invoice that shows what they did or repaired? Mine is in currently for similar symptoms and they’re saying in addition to the pyro fuse, and battery that the high voltage harness and drive unit need to be replaced which they’re quoting at $9400 for all the work.

 

[Tronguy]

Hey, do you have an invoice that shows what they did or repaired? Mine is in currently for similar symptoms and they’re saying in addition to the pyro fuse, and battery that the high voltage harness and drive unit need to be replaced which they’re quoting at $9400 for all the work.

Um. The 2018 M3 LR RWD had a problem like what you describe in mid 2019, where the Pyro Fuse, Pagoda Wiring Harness, and 12V battery all got replaced. That was under warranty. The 12V battery is in there, likely not because it was directly damaged, but rather because it was discharged all the way to flat, flat, flat. Which, assuming that it did recover (which maybe it didn't), would likely have died early.

Didn't cost us anything, though, because the car was still under warranty when it happened. And the Service Center was mightily surprised by it all and had to order things like the wiring harness from the mothership; got the distinct impression at the time that they hadn't seen something like this before.

My guess at the time was that some wire shorted to some other wire down there and melted stuff, pyro fuse or not.

I can still dig out the service order and such from back then, but that was nigh onto five years ago. Do you still want it? Just listed parts and labor, but the costs were Zero. It being a warranty repair.

 

[PartyBoy]

There's too much PII to just upload the invoice. But I've copied the important stuff below.

Repair Notes: Diagnosed and Replaced Pyrotechnic Battery Disconnect. Replaced 12V Battery.Replaced Rear Drive Unit Inverter.We confirmed the customers concern. We then removed and replaced the rear inverter as well asthe other parts listed above in accordance with the Tesla service manual. We took the vehicle on atest drive to observe and verify normal operation.Correction: Diagnosis: High Voltage Circuit Integrity CheckCorrection: Pyrotechnic Battery Disconnect (Remove & Replace) - Remove and Replace Parts Replaced or AddedPartQuantityHIGH VOLTAGEBATTERY -PYROTECHNICDISCONNECT -ASSEMBLY(1064689-00-J)1.00Correction: Battery - 12V (Lead Acid) (Remove & Replace) - Remove and Replace Parts Replaced or AddedPartQuantityASSEMBLY - 12VBATTERY AND VENTPLUG(1129182-00-B)1.00Correction: Inverter - Rear Drive Unit (3DU) (Remove & Replace) - Remove and Replace Parts Replaced or AddedPartQuantityBOLT AND WASHERM6X22(1112246-00-A)3.00BOLT, TE,M10X1.5X75.2,STL[109],ZNNI+WAX.(1111864-00-B)3.00BOLT M6-1.0X23(1100020-00-A)12.00LABEL-COVER-ACCESS-LUG-PHASE(1096344-00-C)1.00DRIVE INVERTER ASSEMBLY-REAR 3DU- HIGHCURRENT- TWOPHASE OPEN(1079924-17-L)1.00BOLT,PF,M6x12,2.00

0.00

Job Number	Description Of Work	Amount (USD)
1	Concern: Check tire pressure and condition Repair Notes: We inspected the tread depths and found all four of the tires were within manufacturespecifications. The tire pressures were a little low and needed adjustments to be within Teslaspecifications.Tread Depth Measure Type32ndsTread depth - Record the lowest measurement across all grovesFront Driver: 8Front Passenger: 8Back Driver: 8Back Passenger: 8Tire replacement recommendedNoTire rotation recommendedNoCorrection: Automated Tire Pressure CheckCorrection: Check Tire Tread DepthCorrection: Check and Adjust Tire Pressure Pay Type: Goodwill - Service	0.00
2	Concern: Customer States: Vehicle will not start, 12v battery alerts Originating Phone Number :XXXXXXXXXX IVR Context - Repair Notes: Diagnosed and Replaced Pyrotechnic Battery Disconnect. Replaced 12V Battery.Replaced Rear Drive Unit Inverter.We confirmed the customers concern. We then removed and replaced the rear inverter as well asthe other parts listed above in accordance with the Tesla service manual. We took the vehicle on a	0.00