I was driving to work that all of sudden heard warning sound and the monitor displayed the "Shutdown" sign as well. The car lost its power and came to complete stop in the middle of the street. Luckily there was no car near me. I was not able to drive the car and had to tow it to the dealership. According to mechanic "the rear drive unit has failed internally". This was extremely scary and dangerous and may have caused a fatal accident. The problem has been fixed.
Engine & cooling
2021 Tesla Model 3 Engine problems
Owners have filed 6 complaints about the 2021 Tesla Model 3's engine & cooling with NHTSA - 1% of all its complaints, most recently on October 11, 2023. They describe 2 crashes, 0 fires and 2 injuries. Stalling, loss of power, oil consumption, overheating, head gaskets, timing chains and engine failure.
- Complaints
- 6
- Recalls
- 0
- Crashes
- 2
- Fires
- 0
- Injuries
- 2
- Deaths
- 0
Engine complaints
Driving south on the 5 freeway right northing on Oceanside the vehicle shut down at freeway speed. I had to coast of the to the first Oceanside. Fortunately it was late at night and there were no cars in the immediate vicinity. In addition to this the vehicle has had multiple episode of phantom breaking. I do not feel safe driving the car.
When I was driving on highway the suddenly I lost power and if I press gas pedal it would not go. I applied brake to slow down and pull over but as soon as I applied the brake it corrected on its own and continued to go since I did had similar issue like this previously I called Tesla and asked them to tow it to the shop. This is the 3nd time that I'm having an issues with drivetrain that my car was towed to shop.
There was engine power loss while I was driving on the highway. So due to power loss I parked the car on the side and then put it back in to drive and it would go for approximately 10min then I lost power again, it started to do like these few times. Since it was unsafe I stopped the car and had the factory tow it to the shop.
see description on file report Nb:11423241
After parking and leaving the car, I realize later the dashboard did not shut down. The dashboard was still illuminated, and I was also able to hear the sound from a tuned FM radio. I re-open and closed both the driver and the passenger doors in an attempt to shutoff the dashboard. Since I did not get the expected result, I decided to get back into the car. I sat down in the driver chair to investigate the problem when the car was instantly activated and switched to a sudden and uncontrolled acceleration. It crashed into a facing wall after a run of about 30 feet.
Tesla Model 3 engine complaints by year
Model 3 engine problems, every yearSource: U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) complaints and recalls, checked . Complaints are owners' own reports and are not verified. How we use the data