Only when driving on HWY speeds 65 mph and above the steering pulls, while correcting to drive safely the car jerks and is very unsafe during hwy speeds as if i'm fighting to keep straight on the road. Tesla confirmed it was the lower lateral links which was replaced but did not fix the issue. the vehicle continues to have the same issue and now Telsa is saying the steering rack may need to be replaced. seems this is a common issue with this car!
2018 Tesla Model 3 wheels complaints
Page 2 of 2: complaints 11 to 26 of 26, newest first, as owners wrote them.
I hit a medium sized pothole on a freeway in 2019 and cracked 2 rims. After replacing the rims and tires, I still had vibration. Now, over about 100-1000 miles, my alignment goes out and my suspension and steering begins to loosen (or feel that way), leading to steering instability, bounciness and vibration through the steering wheel. There are no warnings to identify this, but the car's own "applied offset diagnosis" will show this problem. I've been to Tesla over 10 times to attempt to repair this and they say the car is working as designed after redoing the alignment and torqueing suspension. On about 3-4 of these visits, Tesla has reproduced the problem on a test drive. In 8 of 10 of the visits, the alignment printout afterward shows the front left toe is out. Because they say this is how it is designed, I believe this is a design issue that could put myself and others at risk. I've replaced so many parts, I can only assume through process of elimination that it's the steering rack or something in the subframe being loose that's causing this. Maybe all the bolts in Teslas just get loose too easily. Overall my issue is that Tesla is unwilling to correctly diagnose or repair the problem, not necessarily that this happened in the first place. There could be thousands of other customers driving vehicles and Tesla deems as safe, but really are not.
Hit a rock and the wheel cracked open circumferentially between the rims. The tire did not pop nor did the edge of the wheel rim get damaged. The rock did not damage the front valance so the rock was less than 6”.
Car is 4 years old with 22k miles only and never was involved in an accident or high impact situation. When backing out of driveway and then turning wheels going forward at low speed, a loud noise occurred in the front passenger wheel area and car came to a complete stop. After going out to investigate, the car body was resting on the wheel and two bolts were on the road and the lower control arm was detached from the underbody and dragging to the floor. Had this happened at high speed I can’t imagine what would have been the outcome. No early warning signs occurred prior to this incident.
My vehicle, was parked and pulled out of the parking lot on a doing a complete left steering turn, couple of nuts&bolts carrying the vehicle control arm fell to the ground and the entire control arm disengaged out of the shafts. This could have been very fatal, if my family or me were riding the car. Tesla was trying to tell me that saying that, this is caused due to a high impact etc, not doing wheel alignment etc. And they want to charge me $3561+ to fix this shaft to put back the nuts and bolts that fell off from the car.
Vehicle developed a loud squeak coming from driver’s side front wheel well that sounded like a something vibrating or rubbing a spring at ~54300 miles. Reported issue to Tesla via the Tesla app. Tesla’s recommended solution is to replace both the right and left Upper Control Arm. Further research found that this is a widespread problem reported by Tesla owners on the web. Indeed when I was at the Tesla Service Center the women in line in front of me was bring in her vehicle for the same problem. The upper control arms include a ball joint that needs to be lubricated. This vehicle’s upper control arms DO NOT have a built in means to lubricate that joint like a Zerk fitting. The vehicle is available for inspection. The safety issue here is a defective and/or poorly designed part which if left un-lubricated would likely experience water intrusion, corrosion and possible catastrophic failure – maybe breaking at speed. Our vehicle has lost lubricant at the ball joint given the noise and is likely susceptible to/experiencing water intrusion. Also found “SB-20-31-006 Service Bulletin Reseal Front Upper Control Arm Ball Joints”, but this curiously does not include our vehicles VIN. My suspicion is our Upper Control Arm has a different part number than the Upper Control Arm in SB-20-31-006 but is likely a very similar part. My concern is part number whack-a-mole is taking place. Tesla did not even have to inspect the car to know what the problem was. No other parties have inspected the part and no warnings, alerts, messages or other symptoms have occurred except for the horrible noise.
Bolt that held holds the control and subframe came loosened over time. Tesla is saying it is my fault but there are multiple people with the same issue on the internet. Consumer stated back in August 2021, front lateral link separated and caused damage to sub frame. It was determined by Tesla’s service center at the time that this was due to driving conditions but driving on California roads should not cause an issue this damaging. Vehicle was not part of a recall but was repaired. https://insideevs.com/news/509767/tesla-model3-control-arm-fix/ https://insideevs.com/news/438005/upper-control-arm-chronic-defect-model-3/ https://teslamotorsclub.com/tmc/threads/suspension-rattling-sound-turned-out-to-be-a-loose-bolt.185958/ https://teslaownersonline.com/threads/suspension-bolt-not-torqued-tesla-roadside-a-joke.15115/ https://www.insideevsforum.com/community/index.php?threads/another-extremely-poor-tesla-model-3-quality-and-experience.8247/
We have a 2018 tesla model 3, purchased new in late july 2018, which currently has about 32,000 miles. We have now had 8 flat tires in the span of 26 months or on average one every 4,000 miles, all by puncture. We live and drive in the san francisco bay area. Our other vehicles have gone 10+ years without a flat tire so the tesla flat tires are not due to the area we live in.. On our tesla we have had to replace 7 tires, 5 with assistance from michelin at a total out of pocket cost of about $2,000. Plus much time, pain and suffering. The flat tire issue is an obvious design flaw as tesla specs and delivers the car with michelin 235/45r18xl 98w mic primacy tires that are prone to puncture due to the weight of the vehicle, the low profile soft rubber tire and the car does not come with a spare tire. We have talked at length with tesla service and they admit that the car is a 'flat tire magnet' as it is one of the heaviest vehicles on the road, the low profile performance tires are puncture prone and flat tires are the most common repair. We have been stranded several times due to getting a flat in an area with poor cell phone coverage, which means you are basically hitch hiking. On 2 occasions we were on a freeway in the fast or second lane when the puncture occurred and the vehicle automatically slowed down with alarms screeching forcing drivers behind us to pass on the right precluding us from pulling over for a long period of time, which destroyed the flat tire, requiring replacement. This was an extremely dangerous situation and left my wife and I terrified. We no longer trust the vehicle for trips outside of our immediate area.
Third party product called an alloy gator (https://alloygator.com/us/) which is sold by alloy gator north america (us office 9035 dearborn ave, blaine, wa 90238) tel 1=855=534-2867 partially detached from my wheel while I was on the highway, began flying around, and smacked into my passenger side rear door, rear quarter panel and rear bumper. It then snapped off and shot away from the vehicle like a high speed projectile. The product contains no warnings about the risk of this happening, seems to be defectively designed, and it could very well have hurt a person or property when it snapped off at high speed. The product is unsafe and should not be permitted to be sold in the u.s. Attaching pictures of the damage caused as well as a photo of the remaining part of the alloy gator as it appeared on my wheel after the damage was done.
Parking car with foot on brake,when the car lunged foreword into parked cars, damaging my car and two other cars parked in front of me.
Driving on highway 10 lake city to jacksonville fl, suddenly heavy rain caused car to skid driving in autopilot mode at 70mph , the road changed from asphalt to concrete and car could not handle that change , car went into hydroplan/skid mode with 15 snake lapses before I could bring it to rest on shoulder , we were lucky to have survived as a semi truck was just 20 seconds behind us. The car even after halting accerelated on its own causing another small burst of skidding..to add to the woes - the auomated wipers on this car are too slow , sudden rain pour on windshield cause lack of visibility and to turn the wipers to full mode , it takes 3-4 swipes on cars computer , which during crucial moments is a very bad design and can cause unitended accidents
Here is a model 3 in the junkyard. Https://www.copart.com/lot/25836110/photos the cast metal hub assembly on the front rh side has shattered causing the wheel to fall off. This was not the result of a crash, no air-bags have deployed and there is almost no damage to the bodywork. This cracked hub is indicative of bad quality casting and quality control. It is unlikely to be the only such case. The culture of intimidation at tesla in which it is reported that daring to make eye contact with lord elon will result in immediate dismissal means that these failures are never reported. Please investigate. Keef wivaneff
Hello- I was trying to park my vehicle in a parking spot in santa clara, california when the car automatically accelerated and hit another car. It then immediately had a flat tire. I did not hit the wrong pedal nor was I accelerating it. It was quite dangerous. It came to a halt after hitting another car. Both the cars were damaged.prior to that we had difficulty trying to connect to the car using the app on the phone but thought it could have been due to an app error. Not sure if it was correlated. This event happened on sep 24. Tesla advised me to tow the car to the service center. Since then my car has been with tesla service. They have not given us any updates about the diagnostics and keep telling us to take the car back. They have cleared to drive the car for 20 miles. My car was extensively damaged. I request you to help. This is quite serious for the safety of everyone. While I am willing to accept if tesla proves beyond a doubt that it was my error, I am quite confident that it did it automatically. I am also concerned that tesla has not given us any update for the last 3 weeks and have not provided us with any details of what the course of action is beyond asking us to take the car back and clearing it to drive for 20 miles. I have 2 kids and want a thorough investigation for the safety of everyone involved. Please help.
Tl* the contact owns a 2018 tesla model 3. While driving 25 MPH in the rain, the contact heard an abnormal noise. The contact pulled over and noticed that the rear bumper and rear wheel hubcap on the passenger side had fallen off. The contact called the manufacturer who stated that the failure was due to an act of god and they would charge for towing the vehicle to a certified collision center. The contact called her insurance company and the vehicle had been at the certified collision center for over a week. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer reiterated that an outside influence caused the parts to fall off and they would not pay for the repairs. The contact wanted the manufacturer to cover the costs with the initial warranty since the vehicle was just purchased in july of 2018. The contact suspected that the parts being used were of inferior quality. The dealer was not contacted. The failure mileage was unknown.
Brand new vehicle with 2 tires having side wall bubbles. No rough driving . Seems to be an inner tire problem. Maybe a defect .continental brand tires.
The bottom front under piece composite material which is part of the under carriage spontaneously broke while driving on the freeway in the rain. There are numerous reports in the internet of the composite under pieces breaking from water or missing/loose bolts.
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