2021 Tesla Model Y Engine Problems

I parked my Tesla vehicle in a friend’s driveway. When I returned and opened the driver’s door, I entered the vehicle and attempted to put it into Drive. At that point, the vehicle display went completely blank and the vehicle became inoperable. I then attempted to open the door from inside the vehicle, but the door would not open and I was unable to exit the car. I was effectively locked inside the vehicle. I contacted Tesla customer support and remained on the call for approximately 1.5 hours before receiving assistance. Tesla customer support confirmed that the issue was caused by failure of the 12-volt battery. At the time of the incident, the outside temperature was below 0 degrees centigrade. The incident occurred in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. There was no prior warning or notification from the vehicle or the Tesla mobile app indicating that the 12-volt battery was at risk of failure. The failure resulted in loss of vehicle function and inability to exit the vehicle, creating a serious safety concern.

NHTSA ID

11710416

Incident

Dec 1, 2025

I am filing this complaint regarding a high-voltage battery defect in my 2021 Tesla Model Y. The vehicle has been diagnosed by Tesla Service, and both the technician and service advisor confirmed that the high-voltage battery has an internal short. This is a critical failure involving the primary energy/storage system of the vehicle. Despite acknowledging the internal failure, Tesla is denying warranty coverage for the battery replacement. They have stated that failure is internal, and is not caused by anything external The failure was not caused by an accident, environmental exposure, or improper use. This appears to be a component-level defect within the 2021 Tesla Model Y battery packs Considering Tesla has issued prior service bulletins for Model Y high-voltage battery quality issues in adjacent model years, this may indicate a broader pattern of battery defects. They are trying to charge people over $12,000 for battery replacements that should be covered by tesla due to poor workmanship and materials used. Many have had to have multiple battery packs replaced.

NHTSA ID

11704000

Incident

Nov 10, 2025

The main vehicle computer (MCU) failed. The problem first appeared in May 2024 with intermittent rear camera malfunctions. It has since worsened. Most recently (08/28/25), the center display went completely black and the vehicle became inoperable — I could not start or move it. This left me stranded in a dangerous neighborhood late at night and required the car to be towed. When the display fails, I lose access to the rear camera, climate controls (including defrost), and turn signal indicators. These are safety-critical systems, and in this case the failure also disabled the ability to drive the vehicle entirely. The problem has been reported to Tesla. They inspected the vehicle but claimed the earlier camera malfunction was unrelated to the current computer failure. No independent mechanic has inspected it. The failures are ongoing and reproducible. No warning lights or alerts appeared before the system shut down. The vehicle is available for inspection upon request. Being that this issue originally arose back in May, 2024- it should fall under Tesla’s warranty which expired in December 2024.

NHTSA ID

11684568

Incident

Aug 28, 2025

Power was lost completely while car was on the road, breaks stop working and unable to stop. Driver had to go off road to prevent collision and road a accident. Towed to Tesla center. Diagnosis is “internal short” but did not elaborate. No explanation and answer why break did not work. External damage due to accident was not covered.

NHTSA ID

11595603

Incident

Jun 15, 2024

The contact owns a 2021 Tesla Model Y. The contact stated while driving 20–45 MPH on a six-lane highway, the contact attempted a hard acceleration, and there was an abnormal banging sound heard. The battery was disconnected. The pyrotechnic fuse went into failure mode. There were no warning lights illuminated. The vehicle slowed down, pulsated, and then shut down. The hazard lights, steering, and brake system became inoperable. The brake pedal was depressed to stop the vehicle from rolling. Additionally, while closing the driver's side door, the glass window fractured. The local dealer was contacted and retrieved a system failure with the 12-volt battery. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was not contacted. The failure mileage was approximately 58,044.

NHTSA ID

11589951

Incident

May 19, 2024

Mileage

58,044 mi

On, June 24th and July 15th my vehicle experienced multiple errors while driving. Indicator lights stated the following: stability control disabled, dash cam disabled, traction control disabled, regenerative braking disabled, emergency braking disabled. On July 15th the front motor was disabled, causing the vehicle to not have enough power to continue up the mountain. The vehicle stopped in the middle of the highway, and started rolling backwards. After I was able to turn the vehicle around, the brakes were grinding, and did not stop the vehicle. There as a smell of burnt rubber, and the brake pedal started “ popping” and moving back and forth on its’ own. The engine failure has occurred twice, and all of other errors have occurred 4 times since June 2023. I made an appointment with the Tesla service center and they cancelled my appointment, for no reason. After the July 15th incident, I took the vehicle into the service center myself. These issues are intermittent, which is very dangerous. The car will experience these errors, and then operate as normal. Tesla told me that they thought this entire thing was “ strange” and that they have never heard of this issue. All logs on the vehicle show these errors, and I have a witness. Tesla has not updated me with the status of my repair, or even a diagnosis. I am terrified to drive this vehicle.

NHTSA ID

11533151

Incident

Jul 15, 2023

FATAL TESLA BRAKE FAILURES. The brake of Tesla suddenly failed while I was driving, it has happened multiple times even after the service center claimed the issue was fixed. When the issue happened, the brake was not effective and made huge noise while I pressed it. Meanwhile the steering got pretty heavy, other components failed(front motor disabled, traction control disabled and stability control disabled) at the same time as well. Tesla Service Center has tried to fix this issue once, but the issue happened again after ONLY ONE WEEK since they fixed it. Luckily I was driving slowly on a local road both times, but it was apparently fatal if driving on a highway. I've uploaded the error message on Tesla screen and repair invoice as attachments.

NHTSA ID

11516203

Incident

Mar 1, 2023

The contact owns a 2021 Tesla Model Y. The contact stated that her husband was attempting to drive from a stationary position and depressing the accelerator pedal, the vehicle stalled. The contact stated that no warning light was illuminated. The contact experienced the failure three times. The contact took the vehicle to the local dealer; however, the mechanic was unable to duplicate the failure. The manufacturer had been informed of the failure. The failure mileage was unknown.

NHTSA ID

11510338

Incident

May 1, 2022

The car stopped suddenly in the middle of the street. By the grace of G-d, this happened on a quiet street because we decided to take a detour and could have instead been on the freeway! We were with our 3 young children (all in carseats). We could not restart the car after it stopped, and there was no warning it was going to stop. We were not using autopilot.

NHTSA ID

11497320

Incident

Dec 13, 2022

On June 28th 11:50pm with 174 mile range, my Tesla Model Y LR died while driving on fwy 5 with my 10 year old. I barely had time to exit, it gave me warning “PULL OVER SAFELY” “VEHICLE SHUTTING DOWN”. I barely made it to off-ramp, my car completely shutdown at the end of off ramp. Could not put it to neutral, me and my 10 years old had to exit the car immediately, called tow truck via tesla app. Tow truck showed up in 20 mins, can was not drivable. This could have been much worst, if I was not able to exit and my car stuck on middle of the freeway at night. This is a huge safety concern.

NHTSA ID

11469962

Incident

Jun 18, 2022

My son was driving my Model Y Performance Trim Tesla Model Y on May 23,, 2022 and thank god he was in a relatively safe parking lot; the vehicle had a loud thud noise coming from the rear and then it spontaneously died due to allegedly a rear motor failure (it's a dual motor Model Y). The Tesla then turned off essentially and locked itself in "Park" -- the vehicle could not be taken out of Park. Had to get it on a flatbed -- it now sits at the San Antonio, Texas Service Center off interstate 10 where allegedly it will be undergoing a diagnosis. But this rear motor failure (according to some of the indicator lights) is unbelievably dangerous inasmuch as the failure occurred without warning and without an opportunity to apply reasonable contingency protocols -- had this happened on a highway or street lane -- the complete unexpected stopping of the vehicle would assuredly be cause for grave damage and serious bodily injury or death.

NHTSA ID

11465832

Incident

May 23, 2022

My wife and I were driving south on Interstate-93 in NH on Superbowl Sunday. Traffic was heavy and we were traveling about 65 mph when our 2021 Model Y Tesla started beeping and the following message came on the screen - “PULL OVER SAFELY, Vehicle shutting down”. My wife was driving and had just enough time to cross over three lanes to get into the breakdown lane before the car came to a sudden stop. The car did not want to restart. We called the Tesla service center and they were about to order a tow truck but we asked if there was a ‘ctrl/alt/del’ type option. She had us select Safety>Power Off. When our Tesla came back on everything was seemingly normal so the service center said ‘this is very rare’ and that it should be okay to drive. We drove another few miles down 93 and luckily took an early exit ramp because the car shut down again at the bottom of the ramp. My wife and I restarted the car again and managed to limp home in some sort of “Power reduced” mode (i.e. painfully little acceleration). This was potentially a very dangerous situation! Luckily we were able to safely get into the breakdown lane but there wasn’t much time to spare.

NHTSA ID

11453141

Incident

Feb 13, 2022

THESE ARE ADDITIONAL COMMENTS REGARDING COMPLAINTS NUMBERS 11406321, 11406325, AND 11406632. ACCORDING TO TESLA DOCUMENTATION, LOSS OF PHONE KEY COMMUNICATION SHOULD GIVE 2 TO 3 MINUTES DRIVABILITY TO GET TO A SAFE STOP. THERE WAS NO STATEMENT THAT I FOUND IN THAT DOCUMENTATION TO DESCRIBE HOW THE DRIVER IS NOTIFIED OF THE FAILURE. REGARDING THE STATEMENT BY TESLA PERSONNEL THAT I TRIED TO SHIFT INTO PARK WHILE MOVING, THE CAR DOES, INDEED, PREVENT THAT FROM HAPPENING, AND GIVES THE DRIVER A LOUD AUDIBLE WARNING. THE DATE OF OCCURRENCE LISTED WITH THIS SUBMISSION IS APPROXIMATE.

NHTSA ID

11406984

Incident

Mar 10, 2021

Mileage

900 mi

THESE ARE ADDITIONAL COMMENTS REGARDING COMPLAINTS NUMBERS 11406321 AND 11406325. SINCE THAT TIME WE HAVE HAD INCREASINGLY FREQUENT PROBLEMS WITH THE PHONE KEYS ON MULTIPLE PHONES. MY SUSPICION IS THAT THE PROBLEM I INITIALLY REPORTED IN CASE NUMBER 11406321 WAS CAUSED BY LOSS OF COMMUNICATION OF THAT PHONE. I HAVE NEVER BEEN ABLE TO RE-ESTABLISH THAT PHONE AS A PHONE KEY, AND WE ARE NOW EXPERIENCING PROBLEMS WITH MULTIPLE PHONES. I MOST STRONGLY BELIEVE THAT THERE IS A HUGE SAFETY ISSUE WITH THE PHONE KEYS. FAILURE OF THAT BLUETOOTH CONNECTION WOULD RESULT IN THE IMMEDIATE STOPPING OF THE VEHICLE.

NHTSA ID

11406632

Incident

Apr 2, 2021

Mileage

880 mi