Tesla Recalls 53,000 Vehicles over Parking Brakes

Bees

[H]ard|Gawd
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A safety update notice has been posted on Tesla’s company website today, acknowledging a manufacturing problem with the electronic parking breaks used in Model S and Model X vehicles. Even with an expected total recall of 53,000 vehicles globally, it should be noted the recall is precautionary.

We do not believe this issue could ever lead to a safety concern for our customers, and we have not seen a single accident or injury relating to it. However, in order to be overly cautious, we are going to be proactively replacing these parts to ensure that no issues arise.

Tesla is placing the blame on their third-party supplier, recognizing a potential gear fault in the brakes. Owners of the affected vehicles will be receiving service warnings in the future via email. The replacement procedure should entail a simple visit to the local Tesla Service Center, only creating a short errand during a vehicle owner’s day. More information can be found in the release.
 
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A safety update notice has been posted on Tesla’s company website today, acknowledging a manufacturing problem with the electronic parking breaks used in Model S and Model 3 vehicles. Even with an expected total recall of 53,000 vehicles globally, it should be noted the recall is precautionary.

Model 3? Model 3 isn't even shipping yet.
Still nice to see a company being proactive instead of denying after someone gets run over by their own car.
 
Parking brakes shouldn't be electronic in the first place.

I agree but it seems the future of cars is everything going electronic. Even my 2016 Mazda 6 uses an electronic parking break. I feel like it was the last manual part left on a car in case shit hits the fan but it seems like it'll be a relic of the past soon.
 
I agree but it seems the future of cars is everything going electronic. Even my 2016 Mazda 6 uses an electronic parking break. I feel like it was the last manual part left on a car in case shit hits the fan but it seems like it'll be a relic of the past soon.

I was surprised to see $67,000 F-150s that come with lane keeping assist and adaptive cruise control and massaging/heating/air conditioning seats still come with a manual pedal parking brake, but maybe it's a truck thing.
 
Its the autopilots fault. it should have detected the fault and avoided it.
 
Does the primary braking system on a Tesla require electricity to work? Just wondering if one has a TOTAL electrical failure if there is a way to stop it short of ramming something.
 
20170417_101455.jpg
 
Does the primary braking system on a Tesla require electricity to work? Just wondering if one has a TOTAL electrical failure if there is a way to stop it short of ramming something.

The wheels are controlled by electric motors. When they don't have power guess what they do.
 
The wheels are controlled by electric motors. When they don't have power guess what they do.


They turn into generators, and due to the load of the regen system that dumps voltage back to the batteries, they decelerate. aka regenerative/dynamic braking.
 
Does the primary braking system on a Tesla require electricity to work? Just wondering if one has a TOTAL electrical failure if there is a way to stop it short of ramming something.
Early Model S have typical Brembo hydraulic brakes. The newer cars have electronically actuated calipers, iirc.
 
Based on the delays caused by other parts shortages with Tesla, fixing the brakes on these cars shouldn't take more than six or seven decades.
 
i couldn't agree less.

hill start assist is way easier with e-parking brakes.
Well you shouldn't need hill start assist in the first place. Especially with automatic transmission. Or no transmission in this case.
 
Well you shouldn't need hill start assist in the first place. Especially with automatic transmission. Or no transmission in this case.

From an efficiency standpoint - a fancy e-parking break used for hill start assist saves energy if you are really doing that much hill starting in traffic. Sure you could rely on the electric motors to hold you in place without messing with any brakes, but why burn those electrons just sitting there.

My 2017 Volt has an electronic emergency brake, since I'm in super flat part of Texas there's basically no need for it. In my experience though since the volt is driven by electric motors as well, when you are parking there more of a noticeable "roll back" when you are exiting the car (not sure how this is on a Tesal) its juuuuust enough to make someone not familiar with the car think "crap your car is about to roll away" but yeah not the case at all.
 
From an efficiency standpoint - a fancy e-parking break used for hill start assist saves energy if you are really doing that much hill starting in traffic. Sure you could rely on the electric motors to hold you in place without messing with any brakes, but why burn those electrons just sitting there.

My 2017 Volt has an electronic emergency brake, since I'm in super flat part of Texas there's basically no need for it. In my experience though since the volt is driven by electric motors as well, when you are parking there more of a noticeable "roll back" when you are exiting the car (not sure how this is on a Tesal) its juuuuust enough to make someone not familiar with the car think "crap your car is about to roll away" but yeah not the case at all.
Prius does something similar when the gas engine kicks in. It's actually kind of terrifying.
 
Electronic parking brakes are showing up on more and more cars. They use less parts and can be applied independent of driver input. I would expect them to be on all cars in the not so distant future.
 
The wheels are controlled by electric motors. When they don't have power guess what they do.

With NO power, they should free wheel. Regen braking normally requires some initial power to energize the generator and control the amount of braking force. During a TOTAL electrical failure, there is no power or control ability to energize the regen function. And if there is a large piece of road debris rammed through the battery pack(it's happened), there is no functional battery to dump the regen power into.
 
Well you shouldn't need hill start assist in the first place. Especially with automatic transmission. Or no transmission in this case.


Not entirely true. My work truck (2015 F-150, 5.0l, Torqueshift 6) has hill start assist. When I'm stopped at the top of the backside of a hill, and with a heavy trailer, it is very nice. People like to stop within inches of marked vehicles with a chance to roll back into them, for insurance claims. Obviously you don't want to just gun it when loaded like that, and gravity does have a say here. There is a period of time between accelerator pedal input and when the truck moves forward. During this time, the torque converter isn't anywhere close to being locked, so there is plenty opportunity for the truck to roll backwards. The feature gives me 5 seconds, IIRC, of braking to allow torque to be built up. It only does this on hills. After the five seconds regardless of throttle position, the brakes let go and I'll roll backwards.
 
With NO power, they should free wheel. Regen braking normally requires some initial power to energize the generator and control the amount of braking force. During a TOTAL electrical failure, there is no power or control ability to energize the regen function. And if there is a large piece of road debris rammed through the battery pack(it's happened), there is no functional battery to dump the regen power into.

Yep. Has made me wonder why they don't have a small resistor bank mounted under the car somewhere that allow the voltage to be dumped to. Should default to that in case of a failure. Think of running it through a set of NC contacts. This way, you at least still get dynamic braking in case of the regen system failing.
 
Not entirely true. My work truck (2015 F-150, 5.0l, Torqueshift 6) has hill start assist. When I'm stopped at the top of the backside of a hill, and with a heavy trailer, it is very nice. People like to stop within inches of marked vehicles with a chance to roll back into them, for insurance claims. Obviously you don't want to just gun it when loaded like that, and gravity does have a say here. There is a period of time between accelerator pedal input and when the truck moves forward. During this time, the torque converter isn't anywhere close to being locked, so there is plenty opportunity for the truck to roll backwards. The feature gives me 5 seconds, IIRC, of braking to allow torque to be built up. It only does this on hills. After the five seconds regardless of throttle position, the brakes let go and I'll roll backwards.

Can confirm, hill start assist is a extremely nice feature. My 2013 Honda Accord Coupe with manual trans had this feature. If I'm on a slight incline at a stop light and have my foot on the break. As soon as I shift into gear and let go of the brake, it does not coast backwards even a cm for approximately 3 seconds because of the hill assist which allows me to just focus on shifting normally instead of trying to shift fast and burn out my clutch because of trying to avoid coasting backwards.
 
14 legacy has it and I have a CVT and it takes the load off of the trans when starting the car off from a hill.
 
Can confirm, hill start assist is a extremely nice feature. My 2013 Honda Accord Coupe with manual trans had this feature. If I'm on a slight incline at a stop light and have my foot on the break. As soon as I shift into gear and let go of the brake, it does not coast backwards even a cm for approximately 3 seconds because of the hill assist which allows me to just focus on shifting normally instead of trying to shift fast and burn out my clutch because of trying to avoid coasting backwards.
Yes hill start is a nice convenience, but it's not a necessity. You can still use the parking brake for hill starts if the hill is that steep, that you can't manage it otherwise. Except if your parking brake is already an electric which would be a terrible combo.
But it's not even necessary. You can have hill start assist with regular mechanical parking brake.


Not entirely true. My work truck (2015 F-150, 5.0l, Torqueshift 6) has hill start assist. When I'm stopped at the top of the backside of a hill, and with a heavy trailer, it is very nice. People like to stop within inches of marked vehicles with a chance to roll back into them, for insurance claims. Obviously you don't want to just gun it when loaded like that, and gravity does have a say here. There is a period of time between accelerator pedal input and when the truck moves forward. During this time, the torque converter isn't anywhere close to being locked, so there is plenty opportunity for the truck to roll backwards. The feature gives me 5 seconds, IIRC, of braking to allow torque to be built up. It only does this on hills. After the five seconds regardless of throttle position, the brakes let go and I'll roll backwards.
And let's not mix in heavy trucks here, I was talking about cars. Which the topic was clearly about.
 
Not to preach how you should drive a manual car, but you guys that drive manuals might enjoy learning heal-toe breaking. It makes starting up a hills trivial once you really get used to it.

edit: this might also depend on how your car's brake and gas are positioned.
 
Not to preach how you should drive a manual car, but you guys that drive manuals might enjoy learning heal-toe breaking. It makes starting up a hills trivial once you really get used to it.

edit: this might also depend on how your car's brake and gas are positioned.

or get a car with some balls that doesnt stall if you feather the clutch on the friction point as you switch from brake to gas.
 
or get a car with some balls that doesnt stall if you feather the clutch on the friction point as you switch from brake to gas.
Why be such a pansy? Get out of the car and push it like a real man! Engine stall? what's that?
Careful though, at this point your balls will probably be so big they'll snag on pot holes.
If you must get an engine I really don't understand why you settle for engines that are so weak they can't even rip any known clutch apart.
I only settle for solid fuel rocket engines. Clutch? never heard of it. Gas pedal? what?

AM I RIGHT MANLY BROTHERS? POWER! STRENGTH!
 
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