2012 Tesla Model S Recalls & Complaints

Incident: February 11, 2021 · Filed: March 17, 2023

Motor is starting to make sounds and according to teslamotorsclub.com the motor will fail eventually. Many have to had to have the motor switched out multiple times. It is quite evident that there was a design flaw which Tesla corrected in later years.

Incident: January 19, 2023 · Filed: March 7, 2023

The drive unit has water damage from normal driving. The car never went through deep water or was flooded, but the tech at the service center is saying the units are sealed but still can get water in them and corrode. How can a vital sealed part of the vehicle be damaged by normal driving and claim water damage? The car operated just fine the day before. Please advise.

Incident: November 29, 2022 · Filed: November 29, 2022

I tried to start the car and got the “Center Display unavailable” message. Reset the computer doesn’t help. I have to wait for more than 5 minutes for the system to be on.

Incident: September 12, 2022 · Filed: October 8, 2022

I charge my Model S on a 30 amp circuit with the car location amperage set to 20 amps to avoid overheating the circuit. Around Sept 12 while plugged in to the 30 amp, the car pulled in 50 amps off the line causing a melting of the wires and a near fire based on the damages later found. The car is supposed to send charging error alerts or problems via the Tesla app. Instead it continued to try to pull power out of the burnt line for 11 days all the while further depleting the battery. I discovered my car a 0% battery range with a dead 12 volt as well just as it had depleted and discovered the burnt up wires. I charged the 12 volt and got the car to take a charge. The 20 amp charge setting upon starting the car had changed itself to 50 amps. I lowered the setting and began charging the car. I was then able to move my car to a faster 50 amp circuit because the 120 v 10 amp circuit was going to take 3-4 days to charge the car or longer. I plugged the car into the 50 amp circuit set at 40 amps and let the car charge. An update was then pushed to the car. After the update completed. I got a charging error message via the app. I went to the screen and checked my charger. My Gen 2 wall charger indicated an overvoltage error and my car screen showed it tried to pull 80 amps off my 50 amp circuit. I lowered the amps back down and reset my wall charger. It appears after updates or at random, the car is changing the charge amps and sometimes exceeding the amperage the outlets and wires can provide. If the in house breaker or circuit in the wall charger doesn't trip, the car will pull in more amps than the circuit can handle and may cause a fire. This is a dangerous potential problem that I luckily narrowly avoided. I contacted Tesla about this issue. The car is set for evaluation at my expense since it is out of warranty. I have burnt wires, almost lost my high voltage battery to zero'ing its charge, and could have lost my shop or life.

Incident: March 8, 2022 · Filed: June 12, 2022

Both the 12 volt system and High voltage battery system or a component communicating between the two failed. I received a warning message that my vehicle may not restart and within 30 seconds it completely shutdown while driving in the middle of the road. The vehicle was essentially dead weight at this point. None of its features worked, the ability to unlock it, the ability to use electronic doors and windows functions could not be performed. it could not even be jumped to start the computer enabling it to be towed or put in neutral to even remove the vehicle from the roadway. The manufacturer has confirmed an inner fault within the High Voltage battery pack. I have since purchased and replaced this entire battery pack as it was said to be unserviceable.

Incident: November 18, 2021 · Filed: December 16, 2021

I appears that Tesla had capped my battery. I have lost significant range for no reason and they have no explanation.

Incident: December 1, 2021 · Filed: December 3, 2021

The vehicle was not experiencing display or review view camera display issues but was out of caution serviced nuder Manufacturer Recall Number SB2121001 (NHTSA Recall Number 21V035) for no charge. The vehicle is not under warranty. There was no charge for the initial "repair". When the vehicle was returned, the rear view camera did not function (black screen and/or serious flicker when video was partially displayed). Also bubbles were introduced into the front display panel. On questioning the repair, I was strongly encouraged by technician and then by manager to get an updated "infotainment with an upgraded MCU" (which is unclear but perhaps a superset of the VCM and display components that are under recall), for a cost of $2000 and $500 for it to include FM radio (that I already have and always worked fine). The manager offered a deal for $1000 + $500 to include FM radio. An appointment was set up and the estimate for approval was $1500 for "infotainment upgrade" and $500 for "Radio upgrade", and $120 taxes for a total of $2120.00 I will cancel the upgrade and inquire again if the recall work is able to return the vehicle in working order without it needing a $2000 upgrade to resolve an issue related to loss of viability and backup camera (cited under the recall) and to charge me $500 for an FM radio I already have that works fine.

Incident: November 19, 2021 · Filed: November 21, 2021

MCU failure after 12 months replacement that I paid for at time of replacement. Service center cannot schedule a service for 2 weeks.

Incident: October 5, 2021 · Filed: October 6, 2021

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.

Incident: September 22, 2021 · Filed: September 23, 2021

The contact owns a 2012 Tesla Model S. The contact received notification of NHTSA Campaign Number: 21V035000 (Back Over Prevention, Visibility, Exterior Lighting). The contact stated that the center display screen failed to operate as needed. The dealer had been notified about the recall; however, the contact was informed that he did not qualify for the recall despite having received a letter for the recall. The manufacturer had not been notified of the issue. The contact stated that recently the center display screen started to operate as needed. The failure mileage was approximately 51,000. Parts distribution disconnect.