2014 Tesla Model S Transmission Problems

Mileage when the problem started

• Under 25k
  323%
• 25k–50k
  431%
• 50k–75k
  18%
• 75k–100k
  323%
• 100k–150k
  18%
• 150k+
  18%

Owner reports

Selected complaints filed with NHTSA by 2014 Tesla Model S owners, lightly cleaned up (personal details are redacted by NHTSA).

In 2014, I ordered this Model S P85D, received it on 12/20/2014, I also purchased a 4-year extended service plan. Starting from March 2017, it started to encounter random yet serious problems. The car would randomly produce critical errors, displaying several types of error messages, while losing most of its driving power; the driver would have to perform emergency pullovers onto the road shoulder, if available, before the power rapidly reduce to zero. Then the driver need to restart the main computer (sometimes several times), to reset the error messages. Only after that, the car became drive-able again. I wrote an email to [email] on 03/23/2017 describing the problem, since then, this became a chronic issue; Service centers in Virginia, Maryland, and San Juan PR have performed numerous attempts on this problem, none of them was able to fix it. …

Recently my drive unit has begin to fail. This is the second drive unit in the vehicle, approaching the 3rd. Then there is The issues with the doorhandles. The doorhandles when the sensor breaks or motor breaks can cause safety concerns related to doorhandles freely opening or inability to open. When the doorhandles motor defects the door handle cannot extend preventing access to any door in the car. When the door handles sensor fails, the doors will freely extend out words assuming someone is grabbing onto the handle. Recently my dog escaped the vehicle due to just me unlocking the car upon entry. I have had 2 door handle replacements and I am sensing a fault in another one. This is a common issue on the generation 1 Tesla model s door handles.

My 2014 P85D model S electric rear motor failed. I heard a loud noise coming from it so I took it in to Tesla and they agreed the motor was failing and needed to be replaced, Cost $6,582.04. If I had driven the car and the motor seized up it while on the highway it would have been catastrophic. I would have lost control as the motor froze the rear wheel. Tesla knows of this problem, has replaced many of them, unfortunately post warranty. They know the seals leak and coolant leaks into the motor and causes the motor to fail. They have made a number of design changes including the latest where they eliminate a cooling branch going through the motor. Prior to this change none of the fixes have eliminated the problem.

The vehicle went into "REDUCED POWER" (Turtle Mode) error. Which reduced the power and the ability to accelerate out of an intersection and away from incoming traffic. I followed the recommendations of powering the vehicle off. It would correct itself then randomly does the same thing. This is SAFETY ISSUE and needs to be resolved before someone gets into a major accident which will result in great bodily injury or death.

The rotor seal on the Large Drive Units on Tesla Model S and X fail, causing coolant to leak into the drive unit, flooding it and damaging the inverter. This leads to a replacement cost from Tesla for approximately $7 - $8,000. As this is a design failure this should be a recall and Tesla should at least repair all units prior to their failure or replace them with an updated motor.

My 2014 Tesla Model S is an unsafe vehicle as my dash goes black constantly and I lose control of the car safety items included in the dash panel such as speed, back up camera, visibility and power train. I have complained many times but Tesla does not respond with results that will make the car safe again.

Motor suddenly failed after a required update while driving, nearly causing a crash with multiple commercial vehicles and pedestrians, leaving brake lights dangerously always on and alarm sounding, killed 12v as well.

Coolant ingress found on second Model S large drive unit in rear. After this leak destroyed my first vehicle, second was checked as a precaution and was found to have coolant leaking into drive unit as well.

**Incident / Defect Description for NHTSA Safety Complaint** **Vehicle Information** - Make: Tesla - Model: Model S - Year: 2014 - VIN: [redacted] - Approximate Mileage: 148,129 miles - Date of Discovery / Failure: 04/23/2026 **Description of the Defect** This vehicle is equipped with Tesla's Large Drive Unit (LDU / rear drive unit), which was used in the majority of 2012-early 2020 Model S vehicles (RWD and Performance models). The LDU design routes coolant through the hollow rotor shaft. Over time, the rotor seal fails and allows ethylene glycol coolant to leak internally into the motor and inverter. Evidence of this failure is easily visible by removing the rear speed sensor, where blue coolant, corrosion, and debris are present. This is a well-documented design flaw affecting thousands of vehicles. …

I was driving on the freeway going approximately 60mph when I suddenly lost control on a slight turn to transfer freeways. I swiped into the right freeway wall and spun out doing a complete 180 and ended up on the left freeway wall. I didn't understand how I lost control when I was not going that fast, and the turn was not at all abrupt nor severe in angle. The side airbags were deployed, and when I exited the vehicle, the rear right tire and axle was completely dislodged. I never seen anything like it, and I couldn't understand how that would happen.

Transmission complaints in other Model S years