Dreaded drive system failure

[Luci]

Took our girl Luci for her first distance road trip and sadly it was a disaster! 270 miles from home, traveling at 75 mph in the center lane of the highway and we get the dreaded “Drive system error” on the screen and the car shuts down. Luckily we were able to change lanes to get to the shoulder. After more than a few failed attempts (each 15 miles apart) to reboot and get on our merry way, it was clear we were doomed to wait for a tow truck. After a 4 hour wait, the car was picked up and we Ubered to the closest airport (45 miles from our stranded location). Car is now in San Antonio destined for Houston on Tuesday , we are back in the Dallas area.

Now the wait begins to find out what went wrong!

 

[HC_79]

That sucks and sorry to hear that. Yet another Lucid in this forum needing to be towed…… not good

 

[Sandvinsd]

Ouch. That is a real bummer. Can I ask how many miles were on the car when it happened? It seems like they happen early if they are going to.

 

[CraZ8]

Did you have any warning? Did the car seem to limit power or act strangely before hand? I’ve had a couple of instances where the drivetrain hiccuped just for a split second. I was not sure if it was the Nannie’s coming out if traction got limited or not but I wasn’t doing anything extreme

 

[Luci]

Ouch. That is a real bummer. Can I ask how many miles were on the car when it happened? It seems like they happen early if they are going to.

7,645 miles. (one of the reasons we felt confident enough to go the distance) We are convinced it has something to do with the pre-conditioning. I have always charged at home from the wall charger, however we preconditioned to use the commercial fast charge system and failure occurred 10 minutes after starting the pre-conditioner. May be a coincidence, we'll have to wait on the report from the service center.

 

[Luci]

Did you have any warning? Did the car seem to limit power or act strangely before hand? I’ve had a couple of instances where the drivetrain hiccuped just for a split second. I was not sure if it was the Nannie’s coming out if traction got limited or not but I wasn’t doing anything extreme

we got a "System Failure Warning" just before we stopped to charge. Charged without incident, and then 40 miles down the road, "System Failure Warning" and no power. no acceleration, no regenerative braking. we rebooted and were able to then exit the expressway. Stopped for about 15 mintues and tried to resume our journey. About 20 miles later, same thing happened. We again tried the reboot effort, waited about 45 minutes and the third time we only made it 10 miles before it happened again.

 

[TakeDuo]

7,645 miles. (one of the reasons we felt confident enough to go the distance) We are convinced it has something to do with the pre-conditioning. I have always charged at home from the wall charger, however we preconditioned to use the commercial fast charge system and failure occurred 10 minutes after starting the pre-conditioner. May be a coincidence, we'll have to wait on the report from the service center.

I precondition quite often and have not (knock knock) experienced this.

 

[Luci]

Ouch. That is a real bummer. Can I ask how many miles were on the car when it happened? It seems like they happen early if they are going to.

7,645.

 

[Luci]

I precondition quite often and have not (knock knock) experienced this.

Likley just a coincidence.

 

[hydbob]

we got a "System Failure Warning" just before we stopped to charge. Charged without incident, and then 40 miles down the road, "System Failure Warning" and no power. no acceleration, no regenerative braking. we rebooted and were able to then exit the expressway. Stopped for about 15 mintues and tried to resume our journey. About 20 miles later, same thing happened. We again tried the reboot effort, waited about 45 minutes and the third time we only made it 10 miles before it happened again.

Isn't this the exact problem @HC_79 had?

 

[Luci]

Did you have any warning? Did the car seem to limit power or act strangely before hand? I’ve had a couple of instances where the drivetrain hiccuped just for a split second. I was not sure if it was the Nannie’s coming out if traction got limited or not but I wasn’t doing anything extreme

nothing strange beforehand.

 

[HC_79]

Isn't this the exact problem @HC_79 had?

I’m still not ruling out EA triggered my event. Not blaming the charger but maybe the part in the car was shoddy and the high power tipped it over the edge and killed the car. Similar story though, no issues whatsoever, charged for about 20 mins, drove about 2 miles home with not issues or warnings and car was dead about 3 hours later.

Service Center blamed faulty connectors on the battery but now it’s got a vehicle control unit being installed. Just got told it arrived about an hour ago and they resumed the service. Should have an update at 11am tomorrow apparently.

 

[Bunnylebowski]

I’m wondering if the vibration from the car’s VERY aggressive fans for the BMS are causing some electrical contacts to lose contact and then causing the fault. I can feel it in the steering wheel so it seems like those oscillations are gonna cause problems long term?

 

[HC_79]

I’m wondering if the vibration from the car’s VERY aggressive fans for the BMS are causing some electrical contacts to lose contact and then causing the fault. I can feel it in the steering wheel so it seems like those oscillations are gonna cause problems long term?

I told the Service Center that I thought it was strange this occurred recently after a fast charging sessions when there has been no issues whatsoever with the car up until then. Yes, software bugs but no warnings or false warnings with the car itself. Didn't seem overly interested and just said it was a faulty part. I'm guessing if it was a common or pattern starting to emerge a recall would be coming or had been issued so could be just bad quality parts and luck of the draw on who gets them.

 

[Luci]

Update, system failure was associated with a coolant leak. Parts ordered, should have car returned by end of next week. (Fingers crossed)

 

[hydbob]

Update, system failure was associated with a coolant leak. Parts ordered, should have car returned by end of next week. (Fingers crossed)

4th person with a coolant leak issue...

 

[Sandvinsd]

Update, system failure was associated with a coolant leak. Parts ordered, should have car returned by end of next week. (Fingers crossed)

My coolant leak also happened during the preconditioning / start of DC charging. My thought is that the hose rubbing against the axle created a weak spot which finally burst when the preconditioning was happening.

 

[Sam6062]

How much does the pre-conditioning help? First time I charged without it at the EA and it charged just fine. Maybe it was a tad slower and I only needed 150 miles total.

 

[borski]

How much does the pre-conditioning help? First time I charged without it at the EA and it charged just fine. Maybe it was a tad slower and I only needed 150 miles total.

It helps immensely if you do it about 20 min before you charge. And yeah, it just makes the charge faster.