91–100 of 173 posts
What happens in the edge case of losing HV during heavy braking on the freeway? Does the brake booster still function independently of the HV system, or is the driver going to have to push the pedal a lot harder?
Steer by wire terrifies me. I guess they have thought through every failure mode?
What happens in the edge case of losing HV during heavy braking on the freeway? Does the brake booster still function independently of the HV system, or is the driver going to have to push the pedal a lot harder?
Tesla brakes are conventional. Yes, the driver has to push harder if the hydraulics fail, same as any car. There's nothing unique to the failure here, normal cars run their boosters off of the power train too (via belts or vacuum usually, also some have 12V pumps and would be subject to exactly this kind failure). As to whether the booster is run off of the 400V or 12V bus I don't actually know. My guess would be the…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
In a lot of EVs, when the car is "on" there is a DC/DC converter powering the 12V system from the HV battery. So if the car was "on" and experienced a loss of the 12V battery it could continue operating for some period of time.
I think the implication is that people could be driving with a dead 12V as if nothing is wrong. Then when they experience the HV failure in the recall, they would have no power whatsoever for safety systems.
Like another poster in this thread, my original model 3 battery went ~5 years (typical 12v failure age in a car), and I bought it for $89(!!) at Tesla. Autozone wanted $125 for the same group battery. I did a DIY replacement. For some reason, that one failed after a year and a half. Just bad luck I guess.
"The recall population includes certain Model Year (“MY”) 2025 Model 3 vehicles manufactured between March 8, 2025, and August 12, 2025, and MY 2026 Model Y vehicles manufactured between March 15, 2025, and August 15, 2025, that are equipped with a battery pack contactor manufactured with InTiCa solenoid." https://electrek.co/2025/10/22/tesla-recalls-recent-model-3-...
I don't know much about battery packs -- what's the significance of this particular quote?
Model Ys still have a separate, standard 12V battery that power many of the car's non-drivetrain related parts. So in this case, the battery pack contactor failing open would cause the car to lose the ability to drive, but the doors/windows/lights/screen would all still likely be working.
Other automakers have recalls all the time too. Why is it that every single Tesla recall becomes national news, but virtually no recalls by other automakers ever do? (I can only think of two exceptions in recent history: Takata airbags and Chevy Bolt batteries.)
Maybe you don't read enough legitimate/mainstream media? I see them all the time.
Just yesterday: Ford, Dodge, Nissan among over 1.1 million vehicles recalled - https://www.usatoday.com/story/cars/recalls/2025/10/20/check...
It doesn't get much more "national" than USA Today.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Tesla brakes are conventional. Yes, the driver has to push harder if the hydraulics fail, same as any car. There's nothing unique to the failure here, normal cars run their boosters off of the power train too (via belts or vacuum usually, also some have 12V pumps and would be subject to exactly this kind failure). As to whether the booster is run off of the 400V or 12V bus I don't actually know. My guess would be the…
Seems really odd to me to have 400V brake regeneration and run the brake booster off of 12V, but quick searches don't reveal the answer for a Tesla or even a Prius.
Other automakers have recalls all the time too. Why is it that every single Tesla recall becomes national news, but virtually no recalls by other automakers ever do? (I can only think of two exceptions in recent history: Takata airbags and Chevy Bolt batteries.)
Tesla deliberately pushes boundaries and breaks from tradition. That's admirable, but traditional manufacturers have decades of engineering knowledge behind their approaches for good reasons. Push the envelope enough and you'll have more misses and in Tesla's case more recalls
Other automakers have recalls all the time too. Why is it that every single Tesla recall becomes national news, but virtually no recalls by other automakers ever do? (I can only think of two exceptions in recent history: Takata airbags and Chevy Bolt batteries.)
The entire car dealership lobby hates Tesla, for example.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't know much about battery packs -- what's the significance of this particular quote?
The battery pack contactor is one of the only, if not actually the only, moving pieces in a battery pack. A solenoid connects or disconnects the battery pack from the rest of the car's electronics. In this case, it seems to fail in the open state, meaning the battery was not able to power the car. Either there was simply a bad production batch of these particular solenoids or a change in supplier for this part. Model…
Pet peeve: The phrase is "one of the few," not "one of the only." If something is "only," it can't be "one of" something.