There are 6 stored owner reports matching the powertrain & transmission leading-label group for the 2016 Tesla Model X in our NHTSA-sourced dataset. These are unverified consumer reports and may not reflect confirmed defects.
This group counts stored reports whose component label starts with one of this site's matching prefixes, ignoring case. Each matching report counts once within the group. Components mentioned later in the label or only in the narrative are not searched. How component counts work
Loaded 6 of 6 matching reports.
Open the full vehicle complaint log (all categories)While driving on city streets at very low speeds, error messages starting popping up on the screen "Vehicle may not restart/Service is required". We somehow made it home by restarting the computer and driving home at low speeds. At freeway speeds, this would have been catastrophic. We were able to make an appointment with the Tesla service center and found this to be due to the battery coolant heater to be internally shorted which in turn was because the large rear drive unit had an internal coolant leak. This required a very expensive $8k replacement of the large rear drive unit and the heater. A search in the blogs has yielded this to be a design and manufacturing issue. Specifically the blogs say: "the rear motor used in the early Teslas has a design flaw and will need a very expensive repair/replacement but what does that actually mean? Many Model S and Model X produced between 2012-2020 have the Large Drive Unit (LDU) with the fatal coolant seal flaw where the seal around the rotor shaft will leak coolant into the motor (Reference 1). They will ALL leak eventually. Tesla tried many things over the years to keep this seal from leaking but finally gave up and developed ‘Revision U’ in the fall of 2022 which deletes the coolant from the rotor but maintains the coolant to the inverter, stator and the ‘flyover’ tube cooling the gearbox". This means that the same problem even after the replacement, will happen again soon. I am writing to request you to send out a recall to all owners of these cars, and to have Tesla refund us for the cost of replacement of the drive unit and for Tesla to install the bypass as some aftermarket vendors (Reference 2) have started doing. Reference: 1) [XXX] 2) [XXX] INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6)
Under acceleration the Model X has significant front-end vibration. Had the half-shafts replaced 3 years ago but the problem persists.
The car started giving error messages of systems failing one after another on the highway. It slowed down instantly as if someone pressed the brakes and I could not accelerate. Obviously I did not press the brakes. There were a lot of vehicles behind me and this could have easily caused an accident putting a lot of people at risk. I had to get off the highway asap and get the car towed. The error messages included charge port disabled, automatic emergency braking is disabled, power reduced, traction control disabled, stability control disabled, cruise control disabled, power reduced. Tesla diagnosed and confirmed this being an issue with the onboard charger being faulty and replaced that with charge port itself for a total of $3727.60. They refused to cover any part of this which I think should have been taken care of by the company.
MCU computer has failed multiple times, including one time, middle of a very hot summer day, turning on high heat and rolling up windows, until computer rebooted (seemed like forever), while on the freeway. Tesla later notified us of a recall of the MCU, but repeatedly denied our claim, even though they admitted the MCU was the culprit, "just 'cause". The steering is greatly affected by front motor and its half-shafts. Had repaired right before warranty expired, but the problem remained. Tesla techs all warned us that it would happen again, which it did shortly after, and Tesla refused to repair it again, except to replace the failed components with identical components, all at our cost (thousands of dollars). Tesla techs said that the problem was a notoriously bad design of the half-shafts. They said it was fixed in newer front drive units, but that our only option was to keep replacing the defectively designed parts. When it has this problem, the car wants to steer left or right, but never straight ahead, and can pull suddenly to one side, making driver appear to be drunk from the sudden left-right-left-right motions. Tesla experts have told us that the only fix is to buy a new Tesla.
WHILE COMING TO A STOP IN A PARKING GARAGE GOING 3 MPH THE AUTO SUDDENLY PROJECTED FORWARD AT FULL SPEED INTO A CONCRETE WALL DESTROYING THE ENTIRE FRONT END OF THE CAR AND INJURING THE PASSENGERS BY DEPLOYMENT OF THE AIR BAGS08102016
TESLA MODEL X. CONSUMER WRITES IN REGARDS TO NO WARNING BEEPS FROM VEHICLE AUTOPILOT BEFORE ACCELERATION ACCIDENT. *SMD THE CONSUMER STATED THAT WHILE DRIVING ON AUTOPILOT 55-60 MPH, THE VEHICLE SUDDENLY BEGAN TO VEER TO THE RIGHT AFTER ABOUT A MILE. IT CRASHED INTO 12 SAFETY POST BEFORE COMING TO A STOP. THE VEHICLE MADE AN ABNORMALLY LOUD SOUND. THE ENGINE WAS STILL RUNNING AT HIGH SPEED. THE LOUD SOUND STOPPED AFTER BEING PUT INTO PARK. THE VEHICLE DID NOT ISSUE ANY WARNINGS BEFORE THE AUTOPILOT SYSTEM MALFUNCTIONED. UPDATED 03/29/2017 *JS
Complaints are unverified consumer reports submitted to NHTSA. A high complaint count may reflect vehicle popularity, not defect severity. Data sourced from NHTSA public records.
NHTSA source checks for this vehicle year
Checks are recorded separately for each dataset, not for the whole page. Dates use UTC. A missing check date does not mean no records exist.
Vehicle import recorded: Apr 28, 2026. This is the stored import date, not confirmation that every source was successfully refreshed.