Code TAS_a162 was reported by the “Air suspension” controller in the car. The letter “a” in the middle places it among entries of the alert type.
Tesla Air Suspension — the air chassis: compressor, valves, ride height sensors. These codes show up as the car being unable to raise or level the body, or reporting a loss of pressure. On Model S and X this is a common age-related fault.
The most common type. The car logged the event and may have shown it on the screen. The range is wide — from something trivial that clears itself to something that needs attention.
This is how the fault is named inside the car's firmware. For codes without a description it is the most precise clue there is — the name itself says what the event is about.
The text below comes from Tesla's technical documentation. We leave it in the original English so that translation cannot shift its meaning.
Ground return wire from exhaust/boost valve block detected disconnected.
One or more CAN messages from UI are not being received by the ECU.
One or more CAN messages from UI are not being received by the ECU (missing, bad RX rate, or invalid checksum/counter).
Successful reception of all RXd CAN messages from UI.
Air suspension functionality may be reduced.
Pressure sensor signal voltage too high.
Pressure sensor signal received is too high.
ECU has requested suspension yellow warning lamp to be displayed.
ECU has requested suspension yellow warning lamp to not be displayed.
Yellow suspension warning lamp will be displayed.
Exhaust air valve detected open circuit.
Exhaust air valve commanded on but no electrical current measured.
Signal to UI to show suspension geofence notification.
Suspension height target change due to suspension geofence.
Abnormal PWM signal received from rear left PWM height sensor.
Internal air spring or air reservoir valve leak detected.
Air pressure increase while idle measured over time.
No air pressure increase while idle measured over time.
Possible decrease in vehicle ride height while vehicle sleeps.
Copy it exactly, letter and number included. Photographing the screen is safest — codes often differ by a single digit, and mixing them up leads somewhere else entirely.
Some codes clear after a screen restart or after the car sits locked for a few hours. If the code does not come back, it was usually a one-off glitch.
A one-off entry and a code that appears after every drive are two different things. It helps a service centre enormously if you know exactly when it shows up.
With airbags, brakes, steering and high voltage there is no point waiting it out. With the other groups you can watch and see whether the code returns at all.
Error codes are only part of the picture. For cars on TesList you also see battery health pulled straight from the vehicle, plus a price calculator that works out from current listings what a given car is actually worth today.