# Jumping from drive to neutral while driving.



## Gard (11 mo ago)

Hi! A friend has a Model S P85. His last drive was about 100 miles, and the car jumped out of gear about 25 times during that drive. After having it parked for a while he can not get the car started. He had it towed to a local Tesla Service Center and they say it is the drive unit and that it needs to be replaced, but I find it just as likely it has something to do with a control unit, a bad ground connection or something like that. Any thoughts out there?
Thanks!


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## garsh (Apr 4, 2016)

Gard said:


> Hi! A friend has a Model S P85. His last drive was about 100 miles, and the car jumped out of gear about 25 times during that drive.


Can you be more specific? Teslas don't have clutches, and the reduction gears are always engaged, so it's really not possible to "jump out of gear" in the traditional sense.


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## Gard (11 mo ago)

garsh said:


> Can you be more specific? Teslas don't have clutches, and the reduction gears are always engaged, so it's really not possible to "jump out of gear" in the traditional sense.


Hi, this is just how he described what happened. It went from D to N repeatedly during the trip and he had to push the lever down to get it into D again each time. After parking the car he can no longer start his car. There are a lot of "alarms", or error messages on the screen as well. I don´t know what they say at the moment. Hopefully there is a way of fixing this without having to replace the whole DU...


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## Bigriver (Jan 26, 2018)

I have nothing to offer regarding the technical aspects. But as I read the question, my first thought was how easy it is to inadvertently switch into Neutral while driving the model S/X. On the model 3/Y, the right stalk is redefined as the autopilot controls while driving. On the legacy model S/X the right stalk always remains a gear shift. My very first time driving the model X after dark, in the rain, and I instinctively hit the right stalk, where my last car had the windshield wipers. Instead, I’m in neutral and for a moment terribly confused about why I’m suddenly slowing down. I don’t make this mistake often now, but neither can I say that it only ever happened that once. 

I’m not suggesting that your friend was inadvertently hitting the right stalk and putting it into neutral. But maybe something is faulty with the right stalk and that was the source of it “slipping” out of gear?


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## iChris93 (Feb 3, 2017)

Bigriver said:


> have nothing to offer regarding the technical aspects. But as I read the question, my first thought was how easy it is to inadvertently switch into Neutral while driving the model S/X. On the model 3/Y, the right stalk is redefined as the autopilot controls while driving. On the legacy model S/X the right stalk always remains a gear shift. My very first time driving the model X after dark, in the rain, and I instinctively hit the right stalk, where my last car had the windshield wipers. Instead, I'm in neutral and for a moment terribly confused about why I'm suddenly slowing down. I don't make this mistake often now, but neither can I say that it only ever happened that once.


This is so true! I had a loaner model S and engaged autopilot. I instinctively used the stalk to turn off AP and freaked out that the car wasn't slowing down until I realized what I did was put it in neutral instead of turn off AP.


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## Gard (11 mo ago)

Bigriver said:


> I have nothing to offer regarding the technical aspects. But as I read the question, my first thought was how easy it is to inadvertently switch into Neutral while driving the model S/X. On the model 3/Y, the right stalk is redefined as the autopilot controls while driving. On the legacy model S/X the right stalk always remains a gear shift. My very first time driving the model X after dark, in the rain, and I instinctively hit the right stalk, where my last car had the windshield wipers. Instead, I'm in neutral and for a moment terribly confused about why I'm suddenly slowing down. I don't make this mistake often now, but neither can I say that it only ever happened that once.
> 
> I'm not suggesting that your friend was inadvertently hitting the right stalk and putting it into neutral. But maybe something is faulty with the right stalk and that was the source of it "slipping" out of gear?


Hi, 
Thank you, but he has owned the car since 2018 and it is a 2013 Model S.  Also there are a lot of error codes on the screen.
I know one little thing can cause a LOT of errors though… Especially an issue with ground connection somewhere on the car.


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## garsh (Apr 4, 2016)

Gard said:


> There are a lot of "alarms", or error messages on the screen as well.


It probably does have a bad drive unit then.

Though this is the first I've heard of the result being that the car switches to neutral. Usually the car simply refuses to move again once you stop.


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## JasonF (Oct 26, 2018)

garsh said:


> Though this is the first I've heard of the result being that the car switches to neutral. Usually the car simply refuses to move again once you stop.


I thought about that for a few minutes - maybe everyone with a failed drive unit while moving gets dropped into neutral, but no one really looked before because the error messages are scary and take all of the attention?


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## ticobird (Feb 11, 2017)

Gard said:


> Also there are a lot of error codes on the screen.


Way to bury the lead.



Gard said:


> He had it towed to a local Tesla Service Center and they say it is the drive unit and that it needs to be replaced


First of all, it is worth noting this Tesla diagnosis was most likely not free. The root of the issue is answering the question; Do you want to pay the amount Tesla will charge to perform the repair in the manner they see fit?

I get the feeling there is more to this story.

For what it's worth the *D*rive to *N*eutral problem might be as simple a problem like a single resistor going bad.


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