Dual Motor All Purpose not smooth now

[2kwik4u]

On a road trip this weekend, I noticed that mine has also gotten worse. What started as "blip" has turned in to a full on "thunk". Makes me worried I'm doing some lasting damage.
Did your service appointment turn up anything?

Nope. Truck still has the same behavior as before. They "recalibrated' the clutch assembly, but found nothing wrong with it, and said it's working as designed.

For me, it's mostly imperceptible UNLESS one of two things......I'm driving overly aggressive with LOTS of on/off throttle modulation. Think heavy downtown interstate travel where I'm in a hurry. Driving like a normal/sane person here would alleviate a lot of that though. Secondarily, the interestate, in general is bad. Passing in heavy traffic where I'm stuck behind a semi and have to pull out into the fast lane and accelerate up to speed to keep flow of traffic reasonable; THEN I get a heavy "thunk" during the engagement.

It sucks and make the otherwise smooth EV driveline feel like a "downshift and wait" scenario. It's certainly still a faster reaction than an actual transmission AND waiting for a turbo to spool, but it gives the same vibes in practice.

Also, the Quad motors don't fight this at all. Not 100% certain why, but my loaner was smooth as silk and equally as efficient as my dual when both were left in "all purpose" mode.

Finally......I still hold out hope that an "AWD Lock" button will appear at some point, and let me just lock the front and rear drive units in the "on" position. Right now I do that by driving around with "reduced stability" enabled, and dealing with the constant warning light from that decision.

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[Jonger1150]

My 12 Volt battery is low and being replaced.... it's even worse with that.

Now I'm getting the clunk when the rear motor engages on slow speed stopping.

When are we getting the fix for this damn thing?

 

[Mellowyellow]

I took mine in and they said this was normal. Mine only clunks when the rear motor engages. Sounds like if yours is even on stopping you should definitely bring it in to get it checked out.

 

[Jonger1150]

I took mine in and they said this was normal. Mine only clunks when the rear motor engages. Sounds like if yours is even on stopping you should definitely bring it in to get it checked out.

It's definitely behaving differently.... I'm putting it into reduced traction to lock it in AWD.

August 12th this thing goes in either way for the 12 volt.

 

[Oyabro]

It's definitely behaving differently.... I'm putting it into reduced traction to lock it in AWD.

August 12th this thing goes in either way for the 12 volt.

I had this same behavior and it increasingly became more severe to the point it was happening while turning through intersections. Two days later my 12v light came on to replace it, and I haven’t had any issues since the battery was replaced.

 

[Jonger1150]

I had this same behavior and it increasingly became more severe to the point it was happening while turning through intersections. Two days later my 12v light came on to replace it, and I haven’t had any issues since the battery was replaced.

So it does impact this. Thanks for confirming it.

I'm keeping it in reduced traction.

 

[MountainBikeDude]

Nope. Truck still has the same behavior as before. They "recalibrated' the clutch assembly, but found nothing wrong with it, and said it's working as designed.

For me, it's mostly imperceptible UNLESS one of two things......I'm driving overly aggressive with LOTS of on/off throttle modulation. Think heavy downtown interstate travel where I'm in a hurry. Driving like a normal/sane person here would alleviate a lot of that though. Secondarily, the interestate, in general is bad. Passing in heavy traffic where I'm stuck behind a semi and have to pull out into the fast lane and accelerate up to speed to keep flow of traffic reasonable; THEN I get a heavy "thunk" during the engagement.

It sucks and make the otherwise smooth EV driveline feel like a "downshift and wait" scenario. It's certainly still a faster reaction than an actual transmission AND waiting for a turbo to spool, but it gives the same vibes in practice.

Also, the Quad motors don't fight this at all. Not 100% certain why, but my loaner was smooth as silk and equally as efficient as my dual when both were left in "all purpose" mode.

Finally......I still hold out hope that an "AWD Lock" button will appear at some point, and let me just lock the front and rear drive units in the "on" position. Right now I do that by driving around with "reduced stability" enabled, and dealing with the constant warning light from that decision.

Further to this, there is an AWD lock coming, probably in the next or next next software update for DM owners.
See video below

 

[riv-e-in]

My 12 Volt battery is low and being replaced.... it's even worse with that.

Now I'm getting the clunk when the rear motor engages on slow speed stopping.

When are we getting the fix for this damn thing?

Most likely never because it's meeting "design expectations."
We were told the same thing after a service visit... quality customer service.
Keep setting service appointments for the same issue until they resolve it.
Hopefully changing the battery cures it... our battery was replaced May 2025, and we still have a drive engagement issue.

 

[Jonger1150]

Most likely never because it's meeting "design expectations."
We were told the same thing after a service visit... quality customer service.
Keep setting service appointments for the same issue until they resolve it.
Hopefully changing the battery cures it... our battery was replaced May 2025, and we still have a drive engagement issue.

The engagement issue is being resolved within months. Watch that video a couple posts up. The first thing I'll do when I hop in will be to hit all-purpose. The current model we have will be renamed "Conserve" mode. Won't be using that unless I'm towing or struggling to get to a charger.

 

[CANCERDOC]

I had the rear clunk addressed when I had the vehicle in for a different issue - they recalibrated the rear motor and it smoothed it out for a month but its back to the old clunky shove when it engages again. So unrefined. So taking it in to recalibrate doesn't fix it permanently. Rivian must have made the decision to go from smooth to clunky to protect the hardware somehow (seems to jolt the vehicle more, but I'm not a Rivian engineer).

 

[Oyabro]

I had the rear clunk addressed when I had the vehicle in for a different issue - they recalibrated the rear motor and it smoothed it out for a month but its back to the old clunky shove when it engages again. So unrefined. So taking it in to recalibrate doesn't fix it permanently. Rivian must have made the decision to go from smooth to clunky to protect the hardware somehow (seems to jolt the vehicle more, but I'm not a Rivian engineer).

Have you had your 12v battery replaced? If not, I had the same symptoms and even completed the rear motor recalibration. Symptoms got worse after a few days and then my 12v battery light appeared. After it was replaced, the clunk went back to how it was after I picked up the vehicle on delivery day.

 

[CANCERDOC]

Have you had your 12v battery replaced? If not, I had the same symptoms and even completed the rear motor recalibration. Symptoms got worse after a few days and then my 12v battery light appeared. After it was replaced, the clunk went back to how it was after I picked up the vehicle on delivery day.

Yes replaced 12V a month ago. No difference.

 

[Oyabro]

Yes replaced 12V a month ago. No difference.

darn!

 

[2kwik4u]

Further to this, there is an AWD lock coming, probably in the next or next next software update for DM owners.
See video below

I struggle with Kyles REALLY long videos like that. Thanks for watching all the way into it to find that nugget of information.

I really like that approach to solving the "AWD all the time". It keeps the EPA happy with a "key up" condition that matches testing, it gives the dual motor owners a way to have full time AWD without compromising stability control or throttle response, and it's "on brand" with other models in functionality. I'll be really happy to see that come through.

 

[2kwik4u]

I had the rear clunk addressed when I had the vehicle in for a different issue - they recalibrated the rear motor and it smoothed it out for a month but its back to the old clunky shove when it engages again. So unrefined. So taking it in to recalibrate doesn't fix it permanently. Rivian must have made the decision to go from smooth to clunky to protect the hardware somehow (seems to jolt the vehicle more, but I'm not a Rivian engineer).

Mine is the same way. The "recalibration" helped for awhile, but mine is back to worse than before. I have both a large noticeable engagement "kick" feeling, and now in certain situations I get an audible "clunk" when it engages.

My bet is they changed it to help with efficiency by pushing the engagement further away from "normal" driving conditions. This would make it so that it doesn't engage until later in the requested torque demand curve. That makes timing more critical and more torque needing to be applied at the same time.

While not quite as bad, it feels like driving an ICE vehicle with an automatic transmission. Hit the gas and there is a perceptible "wait for the engagement", then power delivery. It sucks the awesomeness out of an otherwise silky smooth and powerful driveline.

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