2013 TESLA MODEL S Complaints

About 6 mo. ago, a sticky substance started leaking under the center touch screen. I went to the dealer, and was told that the screen was leaking due to high temperatures inside the car while parked. They refused to do anything about it. I went online to a Tesla forum, and learned that this is a common problem with the Model S touch screen. Ultimately, the screen will "bubble" and the go completely blank. Without this screen I cannot access navigation, climate, or entertainment features. I believe this to be a major safety issue.

On August 23, 2023 I was driving my 2013 Tesla Model S on the Van Wyck Expressway when suddenly the steering wheel became very stiff making the car hard to steer. I experience a loss of electronic power in steering the car. I called Tesla Road Service they dispatched a tow truck one of their tow provider and I was charged $475.00 dollars. It was towed to: Tesla Service Center @ 160 Van Brunt Street Brooklyn, NY 11231. I mentioned to Tesla Service Center per information I reviewed online this is a recall SB-22-00-014 per the year of my vehicle 2013 Tesla Model S. Tesla Service Center charged me $500.84 cents for a diagnosis they said the Electric Power Steering Gear Rack & Pinion is the issue and refused to acknowledge the recall per the model of my 2013 Model S Tesla. They quote me an amount of $4, 500.00 dollars before tax to fix the issue. When I declined the repairs per this expensive price I was informed by Tesla Service Center @ 160 Van Brunt Street to come and pickup the car. I arrived on Friday, August 25, 2023 to pickup the car with a tow truck the service department could not locate my keys. It took them 3 hours to find my key and then they put the car on service mode not allowing the car to go on park or drive only staying on neutral. They claimed that happened because the car reset itself. When I insist by a manager for them to fix that problem since the car did not come in with that issue only a stiff steering problem they refused. After several discussion with different staff and managers they had one of their mechanic to fix the issue and the car was able to go on Drive & Park again so I can have it towed to my location which took 3 tow trucks since Tesla wasn't cooperative in the beginning. I had the car towed to my location with the stiff steering the failed Electric Power Steering Gear Rack & Pinion Tesla refused to repair the problem per the Recall safety issue on this car. They want to charge me $4,500.00 plus tax out of pocket.

The central display computer goes blank while driving or when the car heats up. Suddenly the car does not respond to any touch screen. AC cannot be managed, rear camera is not available and the car is undrivable. The screen comes back when the car cools down completely. This happens everytime the car heats up -whether it is parked outside for couple of hours or inside the garage on a hot day or when I am driving for over an hour. This incident has occurred multiple times and I have to take it in to be repaired

Car when parked over time fails to move when engaged citing parking brake fault. I don't even use parking brake. Car is completely jammed. I looked up online and found a recall notice for the same issue where calipers were at fault.

Lower rear driver side control arm broke. A pop was heard at the stop sign only yards away (40 approximately) from my destination. Vehicle was placed into reverse to back into a driveway. The vehicle got stuck in the middle of the road and required a tow to move it.

The contact owns a 2013 Tesla Model S. The contact stated that while attempting to start the vehicle, the message “unable to drive, voltage supply” and “vehicle may not restart” was displayed. The vehicle failed to start. The vehicle was towed to the local service center who diagnosed that the drive unit was faulty and needed to be replaced, due to water ingress coming from the rear of the vehicle. The vehicle was not yet repaired. In addition, while operating the vehicle, a warning alert was displayed regarding the battery system and that the battery would no longer recharge. The vehicle was towed to the dealer who diagnosed that the HV battery pack had failed due to corrosion caused by condensation from the HVAC system. The HV battery was replaced, and the vehicle was repaired. The manufacturer was not notified of the failure. The failure mileage was 95,000.

In November 2020, I had my Tesla MCU replaced under the NHTSA recall (Exhibit1). Attached is the invoice of the repair (Exhibit 2). On July 3, 2023, my MCU malfunctioned again. The dashboard is frozen showing the car is at 72 MPH in drive in a parking lot (exhibit 3). This is a safety issue since I cannot tell how fast I am driving when I am going with the flow of traffic. I nearly hit a person since I could not tell what gear I was in and ended up going in reverse rather than drive. I contacted Tesla requesting repair under the recall. Their response was that my car is old and they would not cover it even though it drives fine. I drove home in the slow lane since I could not tell my speed. They sent me an estimate of $1914.13 to replace the Nvidia Tegra MCU with an Intel Tegra MCU (exhibit 4). Since the car drives fine and the battery is good, I want to continue using my car but this is a safety issue. It seems that when Tesla pushes out updates on older cars, this crashes the MCU. It seems that they are trying to force owners of older cars to buy new ones. What are my options of solving this safety issue?

First the passenger door handle broke and Tesla fixed it, now the driver door handle broke. Seems like a safety issue and these things are just designed to break.

The driver's side rear door handle stuck open and you can't get door open. This is the 3rd driver's side rear handle for this vehicle. Tesla would not cover the repair.

My main center computer touch screen has been leaking a sticky toxic glue for over 5 years. This toxic sticky glue continues to leak all over the interior of my vehicle which regularly needs to be cleaned. This saftey issue has been reported to Tesla several times and Tesla refuses to take responsibility for this saftey issue. The sticky toxic glue leaks severly worse when exposed to higher temperatures and definitely is related to heat/thermal heat exposure. Tesla did not utilize an automotive grade computer screen on earlier production vehicles and has since changed the type of computer screens utilized in their current production vehicles. This is an ongoing problems with thousands of earlier production vehicles. Tesla is aware of this problem and refuses take responsibility to issue a recall which affects thousands of customers who are experiencing this same saftey issue. Tesla WILL NOT help or do anything to resolve this problem saying my vehicle is out of warranty. I had to take the interior of my vehicle apart to constantly clean this leaking toxic sticky glue. This glue has been leaking on other interior electrical components which is a serious saftey issue!