Alert** loss of steering and braking while driving
Submitted by rodney1
on April 16, 2017
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Alert** loss of steering and braking while driving
Submitted by rodney1 on April 16, 2017
Hello my fellow Tesla Owners. I just want to get this information out there on what happened to me a
week ago while driving my Model S. I was turning left into a parking lot in Lowes and I suddenly loss
power steering and brakes in the middle of the turn which almost made me hit a parked car on the
left. I struggled to straighten the wheel to pull forward and avoid hitting the parked car. I had several
alerts come up all at once including Regenerative braking disabled, ABS needs service, car needs
service, Vehicle coolant is low. I reboot the computer using the two steering buttons and I was able
to get the steering and brake back. I tried driving home which was less than a mile and it happened
again. This time the car went into neutral and I again lost power steering and braking while going
down hill. I was able to brake but it was really hard and I stopped about 10 car lengths from the
nearest car. The hazard light would not go on fully only the right blinker was on and I had more
alerts. I safely pulled over when I could and called Tesla but the car would not go into park and I had
to keep my foot on the brake. While on the phone with Tesla roadside service the car suddenly went
into park and everything reset. I drove less than a mile home with Tesla roadside service on the
phone with no problems but when I got home they had me power down the car for two minutes then
step on the brake to reboot. The car reboot with no problem but once I put my foot on the brake to
put in gear the alerts came back up. I had traction control disabled, stability control disabled,
regenerative braking disabled. I had to tow my vehicle to the nearest Tesla service center which is
40 miles away. While unloading the car off the flatbed the brake and steering went out which was
working when I drove the car unto the flatbed. The Tesla tech took a quick look at the vehicle and
stated it might be a ground in the car that was causing that. I got a call from Tesla telling me that a
ground stud in the front of the car rotted away and they had to send to car to a body shop to re-weld
the ground stud back. I got my car back a few days later but they could not tell me which ground
came loose and how could this be prevented in the future. I was fortunate to have this happen when
I pulled into a parking lot and not when I was on the highway which I had just got off. I requested that
all vehicle have this ground inspected during maintenance so this does not happen to anyone else. I
also took apart my trunk and did could not find which ground was repaired. This could be a recall
issue that Tesla should be notifying their owners. I work in the utility industry and we use redundant
grounds to prevent things like equipment failure from happening and I believe Tesla should do the
same. I remember Tesla did a voluntary recall because of a loose seatbelt bolt somewhere in Europe
and I believe this issue warrants more attention than that. This incident could have caused me to
crash into someone or possibly get killed if it happened while getting off the highway not being able to
stop with immediate traffic in front of me. Please ask your Tesla technicians to check your grounding
system.
