Tesla Model S Fuel System Problems

Fuel System complaints by model year

Mileage when the problem started

• Under 25k
  1925%
• 25k–50k
  1621%
• 50k–75k
  2027%
• 75k–100k
  912%
• 100k–150k
  1013%
• 150k+
  11%

What owners report

Driving the vehicle and all of a sudden all these warning lights came on. The dash flashed warning signs stating: "Power reduced - exiting and entering the vehicle may restore operation" "High voltage battery requires service - Acceleration and charging performance reduced" and a turtle sign appeared. The vehicle was almost inoperable moving at 1-2 mph. Pulled into a parking lot, parked the car, and exited the vehicle. After reentering the vehicle the error continued. Had the vehicle towed to the Tesla service center. It is currently being diagnosed. An online search showed many Tesla forums with similar issues and there were suggestions to report the incident because there no consistent resolution that has been provided by Tesla thus far - issues range from 2020 - 2023.

On October 15, 2026, at about 9:09 AM, I was driving my 2018 Tesla Model S to work. I had the car up to the 65 mph speed limit and let off the accelerator. Instead of slowing down from regenerative braking like it normally does, the car kept speeding up slowly to about 70 mph without me touching the pedal. Regen had stopped working completely. Then an audible alarm went off, the PRND lights on the dash lit up, the screen told me to pull over immediately, and the car lost drive power completely. My work was only about a mile away, so I kept going. After about 30 seconds the alert cleared, power and regen came back, and the car drove normally the rest of the way. …

coolant leaking, before tesla can even look at my car they say i need new valves. Only way they could know this is if there is a faulty part. This should be a recall! Believe this is the Battery coolant.

This is a complaint about the issue of fires in the Tesla cars. There was an investigation into the fires in 2013. Tesla claimed that the fires were started by an object puncturing the battery pack and that the problem had been solved by the addition of a battery shield. Since that time there have been dozens more Tesla fires. It is obvious from looking at videos of fires that in most cases it is not the batteries burning (they burn with a white flame and with cells exploding like fire-crackers) in almost every case it is the coolant fluid that is burning. Propylene glycol is flammable. Even when diluted with water 50:50 it is still flammable when there is sufficient heat to boil off the water content. When the battery cells are hot from recent charging or from hard driving then there is sufficient thermal mass to boil off the fluid especially if the radiator pressure is lost. …

Sudden unintended acceleration appeared to cause the Tesla while parking the car on the street in front of home accelerate go out of control and crash into the home totaling the car and damaging the house. Two days prior the vehicle was brought into a Tesla service location where Tesla replaced the 12 volt battery that they believed was causing the car not to power on properly at that time. After the crash and googling to see if others suffered similar issues it appears the NHTSA recently reopened a review of sudden unintended acceleration and this incident seems to align with concerns of the petitioner [redacted] . The police filed a report and it's at the towing place where the insurer Allstate is going to evaluate the car for a total loss.

Received and OTA notice on the dashboard that states "Battery Fuse replacement" is required. The fuse is due to a Li-ion battery that wears out for a safety system. Life expectancy of the battery is 10 years. It has not lasted 8 full years. This is stated as a safety issue and Tesla has since redesigned this item to not required the batteries. I have alerted Tesla about this issue, have not had a reply, as yet. The vehicle can be operated without this safety device, which seems inappropriate. I feel this should be replaced under warranty and/or recall - but it appears Tesla will want to charge an excessive amount of money.

The Model S, which was bought in 2015, had a sudden acceleration while I was trying to park near the entrance gate of the parking lot. The accident happened on May 25, 2023. Fortunately, nobody got hurt and the car was totaled. I feel strongly that this should be investigated, as this can be a very serious public safety issue. It was inspected by the insurance company. There were no warning messages prior to the failure.

Following a coolant rapid mate replacement performed by an authorized Tesla service center, the vehicle experienced a complete shutdown on a public road the same evening it was returned. The high-voltage cooling system was not properly purged of air following the service. This caused low coolant flow to the rear drive unit during a 63-mile drive in record heat. The fault cascade included a HIGH VOLTAGE ISOLATION FAULT (BMS_f123), drive inverter warning (DI_w126), and multiple battery management warnings. The instrument cluster displayed a red emergency warning: "Vehicle shutting down - PULL OVER SAFELY." The vehicle required towing. The failure was confirmed by the service center's own follow-up invoice, which documented "trapped air pockets in the coolant system following the most recent service" as the cause. …