Brand New Single Motor R1S (big R1S fail)

[SASSquatch]

@OP I'm sorry to hear about this and kudos to you for having a good attitude about it. Everyone was safe. Your family made it to their flight. You got home.

The rest of it falls under the "sh*t happens" mantra. Now, on the flip side, if it were me and I just forked over $100K+ for this vehicle, raved about it to family and friends, and then have this happen to me on the way to the airport, I am not sure I would be as cool as you have been. You are a better man than I, but then again - I'm a Sassquatch so I'm a different breed.

Personally, my view is there is simply no excuse for this happening with the frequency it seems to be happening at this stage of Rivian's production. There are too many people experiencing significant failures (thus, dead last in reliability) and Rivian needs to do better or they simply aren't going to survive as a company.

Most consumers aren't willing to spend $100K+ for an electric supertruck that is going to leave them stranded in the first 5,000 miles or less and then have to deal with an overwhelmed and underdeveloped service network on top of it.

Rivian better figure this out before R2 gets into production because they need to sell those vehicles in high numbers to have any hope of surviving and if they continue on this trajectory of quality control they are dead in the water.

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[CANCERDOC]

Ultimately, these issues are minor. These cars aren't blowing up and killing people. Sure, it might break, but oh well. Then, it gets fixed. There are far worse things in life than a broken car, and I've had more problems with legacy autos than with Rivian so far, so it's a crapshoot no matter what you buy.

You must have owned very unreliable ICE vehicles. What the OP posted of a catastrophic and frightening rear motor failure is a legitimate concern. Same thing happened to me and it literally feels like being rear ended at highway speeds. I’d say I’ve never had a drivetrain failure of this caliber in any other vehicle I’ve ever owned in nearly 30+ years of driving.

 

[Donald Stanfield]

You must have owned very unreliable ICE vehicles. What the OP posted of a catastrophic and frightening rear motor failure is a legitimate concern. Same thing happened to me and it literally feels like being rear ended at highway speeds. I’d say I’ve never had a drivetrain failure of this caliber in any other vehicle I’ve ever owned in nearly 30+ years of driving.

You missed the point. I haven’t had any major issues with my Rivian, but issues are luck of the draw with any vehicle. Ask all the Ford bronco drivers who needed a new engine this year or the Chevy drivers that needed new transmissions. I’ve had an ICE vehicle that qualified for lemon law.

It happens sometimes to all vehicles.

 

[elliedawg]

You missed the point. I haven’t had any major issues with my Rivian, but issues are luck of the draw with any vehicle. Ask all the Ford bronco drivers who needed a new engine this year or the Chevy drivers that needed new transmissions. I’ve had an ICE vehicle that qualified for lemon law.

It happens sometimes to all vehicles.

But empirically it happens to Rivians more often, which is particularly notable given (a) it’s a very expensive vehicle and (b) the company’s long term survival is anything but assured. That’s the point. That’s the only point.

 

[Donald Stanfield]

But empirically it happens to Rivians more often, which is particularly notable given (a) it’s a very expensive vehicle and (b) the company’s long term survival is anything but assured. That’s the point. That’s the only point.

Please post the study that says Rivian’s have more catastrophic failures than other manufacturers. The only ones I’ve see group all events together even things like panel gaps or minor issues.

 

[DaveA]

From the get go, this automatic rear clutch in the dual motors scared the heck outta me. I wish it was more of a manual disconnect like the quad. Its destined to have issues, hence the shorter warranty. Imo.

 

[elliedawg]

Please post the study that says Rivian’s have more catastrophic failures than other manufacturers. The only ones I’ve see group all events together even things like panel gaps or minor issues.

CR study weights severity of issues, although I don’t really know why it matters- people who drive expensive vehicles don’t want to endure any issues at all and especially don’t want to wait two months to get an appointment to have them fixed. This has doomed car companies in the US before and I am merely stating as someone rooting for Rivian that they better take this seriously and figure it out.

This is not to say that I don’t like my Rivian experience overall (it’s very practical and fun to drive) but the reliability and service factor will certainly factor into my next purchase decision.

 

[Donald Stanfield]

CR study weights severity of issues, although I don’t really know why it matters- people who drive expensive vehicles don’t want to endure any issues at all and especially don’t want to wait two months to get an appointment to have them fixed. This has doomed car companies in the US before and I am merely stating as someone rooting for Rivian that they better take this seriously and figure it out.

This is not to say that I don’t like my Rivian experience overall (it’s very practical and fun to drive) but the reliability and service factor will certainly factor into my next purchase decision.

You don’t know why it matters that you should differentiate between a rattle in a door panel and an undriveable vehicle with a broken motor? If you don’t see those as majorly different things we aren’t going to see eye to eye on this.

I paid 112k for my trimax and I’m not unrealistic with thinking it’s going to be flawless, I rarely buy ANYTHING that doesn’t have some sort of issue if I look hard enough. Expecting flawless is an unrealistic expectation in my book, out of anything.

 

[R1Tom]

From the get go, this automatic rear clutch in the dual motors scared the heck outta me. I wish it was more of a manual disconnect like the quad. Its destined to have issues, hence the shorter warranty. Imo.

I am with you on this one....anything that cycles as often as that thing does(Trimax too)is destined to have problems. Can it be engineered to handle the cycles....sure...has it been....time will tell.

I only cycle my G1 Quad LRG rear disconnect as much as necessary for maximum range when needed, which is a handful of times a year. Not everytime I dip into the power and then out again....and back and forth.

Edit....maybe just keeping them in some drive mode can keep all that cycling from happening....but then owners won't get the EPA range that counted on that forced decoupling either.

 

[Engineer]

But empirically it happens to Rivians more often, which is particularly notable given (a) it’s a very expensive vehicle and (b) the company’s long term survival is anything but assured. That’s the point. That’s the only point.

my empirical experience is it happens more often to whatever vehicle you are in a forum for.

Head over to the chevy/GMC/Cadillac forums and search for "lifter failure". Happens to both their 5.3 and 6.2 and GM just ignores it and hopes you make it out of warranty before it happens.

 

[DrBad]

Looks like you're in NY which has similar Lemon Law as Colorado. You're entitled to a refund or replace if "the problem cannot be repaired, the car does not work for a total of 30 or more days."

 

[Rividiculous]

So, by way of update, Rivian thinks they may have my R1S back to me by Monday. (It was towed away on the 29th.) I'm a bit skeptical about that, though, as they've also said they are still diagnosing the issue. Hmmm..... Personally, I much prefer that they take all the time needed to get the repair right than that they rush it.

I appreciate the kind words here. I don't know that I'm especially cool headed or anything, though. I just don't know what good it would do to rant and rave. The experience has somewhat shaken my confidence in the vehicle. It was rather scary when it happened given the loud noise and shaking. That said, the car did not slow down noticeably (other than that I eased off the accelerator) and it didn't swerve or become difficult to control or anything. Regardless, understanding what happened will help restore my confidence in it.

I'm a big fan of Rivian--I ordered in 2021--and I'm cheering for the company. It's pretty obvious they should be putting quality control and reliability at the top of their list for improvements. Second, as I know many people agree, they need to beef up service. I've been waiting for months for a January service appointment to deal with wind noise from loose window trim. (I guess a silver lining may be that my larger issue will get my smaller issue taken care of sooner.) Hopefully they can invest heavily in both reliability and service now so that R2 buyers will benefit. Also, all of us.

 

[Rividiculous]

Looks like you're in NY which has similar Lemon Law as Colorado. You're entitled to a refund or replace if "the problem cannot be repaired, the car does not work for a total of 30 or more days."

Man, I hope it doesn't come to that. But then I sort of wonder, if it did, would my wife be game to move up to the Tri?

 

[DKM_R1S]

Too bad Rivian didn't program system to open the rear disconnects and default to FWD and allow vehicle to continue to operate in cases like this. Hopefully a future improvement.

it will do this, depending on specifically what has failed on the drive unit, I guess. The right rear drive unit failed on our Quad R1S in the middle of nowhere. It was the disconnect. Same symptoms others reported. Sounded like driving over rumble strips each time I would drive from being parked. Oil leaking everywhere. I was still able to drive it 150 miles on the front motors only. By the time we reached our destination (the Enterprise Rental) the entire back end of the vehicle was coated in oil.

 

[riv-e-in]

So, by way of update, Rivian thinks they may have my R1S back to me by Monday. (It was towed away on the 29th.) I'm a bit skeptical about that, though, as they've also said they are still diagnosing the issue. Hmmm..... Personally, I much prefer that they take all the time needed to get the repair right than that they rush it.

I've been waiting for months for a January service appointment to deal with wind noise from loose window trim. (I guess a silver lining may be that my larger issue will get my smaller issue taken care of sooner.) Hopefully they can invest heavily in both reliability and service now so that R2 buyers will benefit. Also, all of us.

Did Rivian fix the vehicle?? Update/Outcome?

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