Volkswagen ID.3 Forum

Cold morning and snow this am. On starting the id3 i was presented with the following error message

error drive system please visit workshop

Drove about 30 miles error message still present.

Turned car off and back on error message no more.

Has anyone else experienced this?

Yes, just once, and switching off and on cleared it.
The danger is it makes you think EVERY error message is actually not a real real error message :-/

Coopear wrote: ↑Thu Dec 24, 2020 10:45 pm Yes, just once, and switching off and on cleared it.
The danger is it makes you think EVERY error message is actually not a real real error message :-/

Agreed, who knows what is real and what is false??

I face the same issue. It's more than just annoying. The car doesn't start when I need it the most.

I couldn't move my car with this message. I feel it had something to do with getting in the car quickly and things not being awake properly. It has been taken to VW and they have ordered a part. Been a week so far. Will update when I have something to report

This didn't happen pre 2.1 software

Cheers

James

Yup, that’s me right now. Sat waiting for roadside assistance. Car refusing to go forwards or backwards. 2.1 software. Picked up car 8 days ago. Not good.

Any update on your “adventure”?

Well, seen that video or similar many time with my ID2.5!
Wait till you get the warning message saying "do not drive vehicle" (if you could) and complete loss of breaking (Park Break) and have to use breeze block to stop the vehicle rolling away. Its all in the new 2.1 update too in fact worse!! Vehicle definitely not fit for purpose. Mine is now back at the dealer with a zone heating fault, passenger side very hot and drivers side very cold when temp sync set!! Proposed sensor fault, after changing side reversal occurred!! VDub has lost my confidence completely after 15 new golfs over the years. Vv disappointed.

Been getting the error for a few weeks now. It's with the dealer now for the last 3 weeks. They haven't a clue what the problem is. Last time it happened couldn't start the car for 50 minutes

Update on my adventure: AA arrived (via VW Roadside Assistance) and had no clue what could be wrong (this, I am guessing, is fairly common as EVs are far from mainstream yet in the UK). He disconnected and reconnected the 12V battery, only to set off 7 yellow alerts. Shifter still doing nothing. Which includes not being able to put it in neutral and roll.

So rescue vehicle was called, and managed – with great skill I must say – to pull the car onto his truck (rear wheels locked, front rolling for some reason). Deposited it near my house, and lo an behold – the "gears" work again! But all other warning lights going still. So I am not moving it, risking all kinds of things.

Rang dealership today, finally got a very helpful woman who now has organised for the car to be collected and for a hire car to be delivered. Fingers crossed they figure it out fairly soon, as I was really enjoying the ID.3 until it refused to move. I will try to keep this post going as things progress.

The problem I would say seem to be this. Parts in on Tuesday next to replace with keep you all updated. It will be four weeks in by then. Id3 1st

https://www.continental.com/en/press/pr ... rol-230156

Picking mine up tomorrow after a replacement gear shift switch. Will let you know if that's the end of the saga for me. One thing that slowed the job down is there is a special tool which de-energises the 12v side. Gone are the days where you just disconnect a battery!

lbevanger - saw your post - i had the same thing this morning - my car is now with the dealership - did you get your situation resolved? what happened?

After more than two weeks back at the dealership, we could finally pick up our ID.3 again last week. They had changed the 12V battery, the screen behind the steering wheel and the "gear shifter". It is also back in online mode (for the first time ever) and all seems to be working smoothly. Drove from Manchester to Edinburgh and back for a break, no problems and a pure joy to drive. A bumpy start, but *hopefully* all will now be well for years to come!

Hi..any update would be appreciated. The error message happens intermittently for me..goes for weeks without happening. When it happens it seems to be always after driving a couple of miles..there is a fleeting surge in speed and then warning appears and gears not lit. Tonight I noticed that you can't reverse when error warnings show. It always clears once I undo my seat belt. Its already been in the workshop and they couldn't find the problem. Its going in again for a week this time..but it may well not show up again. Any insight would be great.

I can’t really add much other than say I had it frequently

The annoying thing was that the car never seemed to log the fault. The VW master tech actually saw the fault himself, checked the logs and nothing showed. He escalated everything to VW, but I’m not aware of any real explanation.

Had our car a month. The beginning of the week the system wouldn’t go online, then this morning error drive system take car to your workshop. The car would selected D and B and was driving fine. We took it to the dealer anyway and they have diagnosed a coolant pump fault so have new parts coming tomorrow. They reset the car and online mode is working again. Has anyone else had these errors and if so does replacement of the coolant pump solve it?

I've just had this drive system error message soon after setting off from home. It switched itself to D and I continued, but then realised that no drive selector light was illuminated on the pod. Stopping in a public car park I discovered that I could not change the drive setting, and once I engaged the electronic brake, I could not select an drive mode at all, so car stuck across 4 parking bays! Garage advised calling VW assist, no other suggestions. AA man called me while en route, and suggested I get out of the car & lock it, then walk some distance away (beyond key range) and leave it for 15 mins. This I did, and when he arrived I unlocked car and everything was re-set. Shame the garage didn't appear to know that recovery technique.
Still no idea why this error occurred, or whether there is an underlying fault. Garage agreed to take car in to run diagnostics, though comments on here suggest they will find nothing; we'll see! At least I now know how to deal with this problem should it recur!!

Update:- Garage had vehicle for 3 days. Diagnostics had no record of drive system error. There were two errors (nothing to do with drive fault) that were fixed by unit s/w updates. Car fine until today, when exactly the same error occurred when passing the same place on our High Street?1. As adult seemed to relate to infotainment System becoming disconnected from the drive selector unit, I beginning to wonder if there is some signal or mains current nearby which interferes with the signals from the infotainment system.. At least I now know how to get car to reset itself, however its still unnerving when the car suddenly switches to a ghost version of Drive; even more so after you stop and put the handbrake on, as it seems impossible to select any drive setting at all, so you cannot drive the car at all until you invoke the complete vehicle shut=down after waiting some minutes well away from the car. So ... another call to the dealership on Tues I guess!

Nick Jan wrote: ↑Mon Apr 11, 2022 5:16 pm I've just had this drive system error message soon after setting off from home. It switched itself to D and I continued, but then realised that no drive selector light was illuminated on the pod. Stopping in a public car park I discovered that I could not change the drive setting, and once I engaged the electronic brake, I could not select an drive mode at all, so car stuck across 4 parking bays! Garage advised calling VW assist, no other suggestions. AA man called me while en route, and suggested I get out of the car & lock it, then walk some distance away (beyond key range) and leave it for 15 mins. This I did, and when he arrived I unlocked car and everything was re-set. Shame the garage didn't appear to know that recovery technique.
Still no idea why this error occurred, or whether there is an underlying fault. Garage agreed to take car in to run diagnostics, though comments on here suggest they will find nothing; we'll see! At least I now know how to deal with this problem should it recur!!

Unfortunately, when I had this there came a point when it didn't reset. I then had to have the Gear selector replaced. It also took an age for the AA to work out how to recover the car. Hopefully the diagnostics will have something recorded.

My AA man seemed to think they now have no problem recovering most EVs including ID3s, though obviously I haven't tried that yet.

I have now had another drive system failure since garage did diagnostics etc. This time car drove and parked normally. However when I returned to the vehicle and started it, no symbols lit up on small screen, so no gears selected or selectable. No error messages displayed. I tried restart routine that AA man advised; lock car walk away out of key range, wait, then return and retry. On this occasion nothing! Had to leave car and walk home for a meeting, then return later when car worked fine, Still no error messages.

So car booked in at dealers again, as fault not yet found and the car is now not reliable. Not feeling to confident the garage will know how to fix this!?