Power failure/no acceleration on freeway

[EvFamily]

Last week, I was driving on the freeway with my kids about an hour from our house when the car lost power. When I say lost power, I mean all acceleration, the screens and ac were going strong. I freaked out and started screaming for my kids to text their dad that something bad was happening to the car. The freeway has no shoulders so I put on my hazards and coasted over to the exit. The exit was down hill and we came to a shoulder to stop. I did have brakes. No red errors were flashing but a saw a turtle that was coming on and off. My husband texted back to look at the battery temp. It was 98F. Which doesn’t seem too hot since it was 90F+ outside. I stopped; turned off the car. Waited 2 mins. The shoulder wasn’t a safe place to wait with the kids to get a tow, so I decided that if I could make it to a parking lot, I would try. The car turned on and acceleration was in and out as I slammed the gas pedal down fully. Unfortunately we were an hour south of our home and my local dealership that is 50 mins north of my house was not an option for the tow. So it was towed to the closest dealer where it has been sitting for a week. I called them when this happened to ask about a loaner. They told me someone would call me back by the next day. So my kids and I decided to Lyft home as the temps were reaching close to 100f. I’ve never been so scared driving and losing the ability to accelerate. Has anyone else experienced this? Porsche is zero help and I have called Porsche N.A. twice to try to get some answers but my car is just sitting at this dealer that seems too busy to deal with it. Any insight into what is happening? It’s a 22 taycan CT and it’s what I drive my kids around in, feeling scared and unsafe.

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[Fletch]

were you able to drive it at all? i just had it where it would sorta jerk and lurch, and no matter how hard you hit the pedal wouldn’t go faster. but if i left off and hit the pedal again it would go.

at any rate, all they did to fix it was bleed the coolant line. took 3 tries but then it worked fine again.

 

[Tooney]

It doesn't help this time but there is a general procedure to try to "reset/reboot" the Taycan.

Turn the power button off. All people exit the car and take the key fob. Lock the car. Move away from the car at least 30 or 40 feet so the key fob is out of range of the car. Wait 15 minutes. Then return to the car and see if the problem has resolved.

Sometimes this exit the car and move away from it for 15 minutes procedure resets things.

 

[Tooney]

Two other forum threads about flashing turtle symbol and loss of acceleration:
https://www.taycanforum.com/forum/threads/turtle-icon.11881/

https://www.taycanforum.com/forum/threads/turtle-mode.6683/

 

[Scandinavian]

Last week, I was driving on the freeway with my kids about an hour from our house when the car lost power. When I say lost power, I mean all acceleration, the screens and ac were going strong. I freaked out and started screaming for my kids to text their dad that something bad was happening to the car. The freeway has no shoulders so I put on my hazards and coasted over to the exit. The exit was down hill and we came to a shoulder to stop. I did have brakes. No red errors were flashing but a saw a turtle that was coming on and off. My husband texted back to look at the battery temp. It was 98F. Which doesn’t seem too hot since it was 90F+ outside. I stopped; turned off the car. Waited 2 mins. The shoulder wasn’t a safe place to wait with the kids to get a tow, so I decided that if I could make it to a parking lot, I would try. The car turned on and acceleration was in and out as I slammed the gas pedal down fully. Unfortunately we were an hour south of our home and my local dealership that is 50 mins north of my house was not an option for the tow. So it was towed to the closest dealer where it has been sitting for a week. I called them when this happened to ask about a loaner. They told me someone would call me back by the next day. So my kids and I decided to Lyft home as the temps were reaching close to 100f. I’ve never been so scared driving and losing the ability to accelerate. Has anyone else experienced this? Porsche is zero help and I have called Porsche N.A. twice to try to get some answers but my car is just sitting at this dealer that seems too busy to deal with it. Any insight into what is happening? It’s a 22 taycan CT and it’s what I drive my kids around in, feeling scared and unsafe.

When this happened, what drive mode were you in? If in Range mode there may have been a lack of cooling.

Did you feel any loss of cooling in the cabin or did that work ok?

I have had turtle mode come on in very warm weather but solved this by setting the car in Sports plus mode. The cooling fans did spin up quite a lot then and all was fine.

 

[EvFamily]

When this happened, what drive mode were you in? If in Range mode there may have been a lack of cooling.

Did you feel any loss of cooling in the cabin or did that work ok?

I have had turtle mode come on in very warm weather but solved this by setting the car in Sports plus mode. The cooling fans did spin up quite a lot then and all was fine.

I was driving in my individual mode which is just a higher suspension and regen braking mode. I don’t ever use range mode bc it kicks the ac off and limits mph to less than the freeway speed. The weather is very warm where I’m located but I’ve had the car through two summers and never had this issue. I did try changing my mode from individual to normal once I had pulled off but the same thing was still happening. AC was still working the whole time and blowing cold. I have had ac issues where the car stops blowing cold air after I’m parked for a time and drive again. Porsche isn’t able to replicate that issue so I just turn the car off and on again, which seems to correct the ac temp. But I did try that with turtle mode and it didn’t help. I keep the battery temp on my display. That didn’t seem overly hot. Hopefully I can get some answers soon. Not having a loaner this whole time and the dealer being backed up with over 40 cars ahead of me is just not fun.

 

[jld1]

I've had this too - and sadly, it was about 1-2 weeks prior to the battery failure. But I can't say they are related for sure. It was after charging it overnight too, so my working theory was the battery was overheated. After I parked the car at my job, it drove fine.

 

[EvFamily]

I've had this too - and sadly, it was about 1-2 weeks prior to the battery failure. But I can't say they are related for sure. It was after charging it overnight too, so my working theory was the battery was overheated. After I parked the car at my job, it drove fine.

Interesting. The dealer is saying they can’t repeat the fault so they are just giving the car back to me.
what happened when your battery faulted? Was it while driving? I’m scared of the car now.

 

[jld1]

No, when the battery went down, I drove to work but was unable to drive home. It turned on but did not go into gear. I had to call Porsche who sent a flatbed. Let's hope for you this was just a one off thing.

 

[MrJones02]

Id also think it was something related to something getting too hot ... those cooling fans that sit in front of your front tyres do tend to get blocked/clogged from time to time either with dried up dirt or small stones, depending on the drive mode they may not been providing enough cooling. Turn your wheels so you can access the vents and use a stick/screwdriver to see if they move freely/without much effort. (with engine off)

 

[mod72346]

I had 4+ episodes of power failure. Each time, Porsche dealer took the car, and did something - they replaced some control unit once, and each time they blamed bubbles in coolant lines, which they flushed. But the same problem keeps happening. Happened again today.

 

[EvFamily]

I had 4+ episodes of power failure. Each time, Porsche dealer took the car, and did something - they replaced some control unit once, and each time they blamed bubbles in coolant lines, which they flushed. But the same problem keeps happening. Happened again today.

This is completely unacceptable that Porsche is not getting to the bottom of this. I’m terrified to drive my car bc they did nothing to even try and fix it.

please if you are in the USA, report to NHTSA.gov
You can report each time it has happened to you. With enough reports, Porsche may have to finally figure out what is happening and actually fix it.

 

[mod72346]

This is completely unacceptable that Porsche is not getting to the bottom of this. I’m terrified to drive my car bc they did nothing to even try and fix it.

please if you are in the USA, report to NHTSA.gov
You can report each time it has happened to you. With enough reports, Porsche may have to finally figure out what is happening and actually fix it.

I reported to NHTSA a couple years ago, and they tried to call me, left a voicemail, and I just not been able to reach them. Left a fresh report days ago.

 

[EvFamily]

Well just to update this post. The car is broke again! Driving home and the car started jerking and the acceleration was a lose of power. I was able to take two videos of the issue. Turtle was flashing again. Glad I wasn’t on the freeway and was close to home. Just terrifying to be driving with my kids and the car is losing power. Car wasn’t hot and battery was just over 50%. Will be towing into Porsche and reporting NHS.

 

[Fish Fingers]

Well just to update this post. The car is broke again! Driving home and the car started jerking and the acceleration was a lose of power. I was able to take two videos of the issue. Turtle was flashing again. Glad I wasn’t on the freeway and was close to home. Just terrifying to be driving with my kids and the car is losing power. Car wasn’t hot and battery was just over 50%. Will be towing into Porsche and reporting NHS.

I'm glad for you it's happened again.
Hopefully they will now be able to find and fix the issue and you will get the confidence back to use the car with your family again.

Good luck. Keep us informed how things progress.

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