2022 Tesla Model 3: grinding or squealing brakes

Filed Jan 8, 2025 · Acceleration, Brakes · OR

I'm not quite sure what component was affected, some module of some sort got water in or near it that wasn't supposed to. It is available for inspection. Yes my safety and others was out at risk. Yes the problem was fixed by service center supposedly. Yes the car has been inspected by the manufacturer. There were no warnings. What happened was on 12/29 I was driving the car and out of absolutely nowhere a bunch of warnings came up including loss of ABS, any and all safety features. And more importantly lost usage of brakes almost entirely when car came to a stop it was grinding and shakey. This problem all arises due to teslas negligence when it came to installing a new windshield on the vehicle. As stated in messages below, they made a mistake while installing my windshield that caused this major issue to arise. They have offered nothing as a solution but saying that their error is supposedly fixed.

Filed Oct 16, 2024 · Suspension · CO

The right front passenger side suspension started squeaking at 22586 miles. Service center replaced lower lateral links on 7/1/24. Repair did not fix the squeaking sound. Service center could not replicate the issue until a test drive with myself and a tech on 9/20/24 and made me make a third appointment for repair. On 10/16/24 the service center said the control arm was failing, but did not think it would be covered under warranty. A quick internet search turned up lawsuits, hundreds of complaints, and crashes resulting from failing control arms.

Filed Jul 17, 2023 · Acceleration, Driver assistance · AZ

I was driving my 2022 Tesla Model 3 Long Range. This car does NOT have Autopilot (because we do not trust that technology). We were traveling eastbound on I-8 just east of Exit 61 from San Diego to Arizona on Sunday July 16 at about 2:30pm. The weather conditions were not an issue; it was sunny and warm. I was in the left lane doing 77mph with the Cruise Control on. I had passed a vehicle in the right lane and it was now maybe 500 feet behind us, still in the right lane. Suddenly, the Tesla Model 3 braked hard for no reason. The car braked so hard that the tires were starting to squeal. We were well inside the lane (had not drifted to either side). There were no obstacles in front of us. There was no discoloration on the highway from any repair or car fire. The road was completely visible. The car's speed had dropped from 77mph to about 57mph before I could press on the gas to resume normal driving. Had there been a car behind us, it's possible we could've been hit from behind. The car in the right lane did wind up passing us and I'm pretty sure they thought our driving was dangerous -- borderline insane. There were no warning sounds, no alerts on the monitor. It was completely random, completely sudden and completely dangerous. The car did this 2 more times before I disengaged the cruise control for the rest of the trip. I do not have a dashcam recording of this incident, but I do have one of a similar behavior from the car a few days earlier on July 13. It's hard to tell from the video exactly where it happens.

Filed Mar 11, 2023 · Acceleration, Driver assistance · CA

I used Autopilot on my Model 3 for the first and only time a few weeks ago, and had a terrifying experience with "phantom braking" that could have killed my entire family while going ~75mph on the I-5 near Bakersfield, CA. The I-5 here is split with 2 lanes in each direction, and is straight with no bends. I was driving in the right northbound lane, with Autopilot engaged (adaptive speed control only, no automatic lane-steering). My right foot was off both pedals and two hands were on the wheel. There were no other cars in sight except for a single car driving northbound behind me in the left lane. This car began to pass me on the left, and when its front bumper was aligned with the mid-point of my car (I could just barely see the front bumper through the corner of my eye), my Tesla suddenly automatically slammed on the brakes with absolutely no warning! I immediately clenched the wheel as hard as I could, and had to quickly respond to prevent the wheel from automatically veering to the left. While fighting the wheel to try to keep the vehicle straight, and my family hanging on for their lives, we screeched to a grinding halt at a 45 degree angle facing the left lane. We were extremely lucky to not hit the passing car and fortunately there were no vehicles behind us. I disengaged Autopilot and quickly got out of there so we weren't vulnerable. I speculate that the camera on the left panel between the driver and rear door saw the passing car, and wrongly invoked automatic evasive braking and steering maneuvers in response to a falsely anticipated head-on collision. That's the only reasonable explanation I can come up with. I will not use Autopilot again until "phantom braking" is eliminated. This is a known issue that I've since found mentioned all over the Internet by other Tesla owners. This needs to be fixed hastily before people are killed! We're damn lucky I had both hands on the wheel, otherwise we'd likely be dead! Note: Same report has been sent to Tesla.

Filed Aug 26, 2022 · Driver assistance · CO

I wish to report numerous cases of the phantom braking or spurious deceleration that I have experienced. In driving over 2500 miles on highways I have experienced this issue at least 40 times. It would be more, but I have stopped using it. Almost all cases were on mostly open roads through Kansas, Colorado and Wyoming. The odds of it happening appear to be higher when the road is hilly and another vehicle, typically a semi, is far ahead. Timing the distance, it looks like the semi is 12-15 seconds ahead of me in a 70mph zone. This creates a situation where I may be cresting a slight hill upwards while the semi is cresting the next hill ahead of me. That situation (just one example, others are more flat roads with no vehicles ahead) creates a distance challenge where the point between the vehicles is shorter than the actual distance, due to the hills. One instance slowed so quickly the tires squealed briefly. This feature, Traffic Aware Cruise Control TACC or autopilot, should never be used if another vehicle is following closer than 5-8 seconds behind. I have tried things to help the situation, such as making sure the cameras are clean and recalibrating the cameras with clearly defined lines and no changes have resulted.

Filed Jul 21, 2022 · Driver assistance · NV

I have experienced multiple instances of what I see others seem to be referring to as Phantom Braking. The car will decelerate from 70 mph to 40 mph in seconds with absolutely no other vehicles, obstacles, etc. in sight. Typically the issue happens on 2 lane divided highways )2 lanes in each direction separated by a natural median) during the day time. Without any warning the car will rapidly decelerate using the brakes so aggressively the anti-lock brakes are being engaged as you can hear the tires skidding/squealing. The braking is so aggressive everything loose in the car flies forward including occupants. My typical reaction is to press down on the accelerator immediately to get back up to speed in case there is someone behind me. I picked up the car in March 2022 and experienced the issue in the first couple days. While a Tesla tech was at my house installing the Home Link system I inquired about the issue to which he responded its a known issue with no known resolution. I have continued to drive the car and at times need to turn off any speed control as I have dealt with multiple incidents in just a couple miles. The common item I have seen is when there is a glare/glimmer/mirage on the payment ahead. I took it in for service yesterday and they stated unless they can reproduce it, nothing can be done. I gave them the time and date of an event, they said they would pull the logs, yet nothing was done. They put a comment in the paperwork the system is only a BETA (see attached service document). This is a very serious issue which is likely going to cause a serious accident resulting in injury and/or death. I cannot even think what would happen if the roads are wet during a situation like this. The arrogance of the Tesla service team was unbelievable.

Filed Jun 5, 2022 · Driver assistance · AZ

Over the course of 2 days on a road trip, the vehicle automatically engaged braking on its own 4 times. The first time was while using autopilot and traveling around 70 miles per hour. The brakes engaged so hard that the tires started to slights squeal before I was able to disengage. There were no cars behind us or we would most likely have caused an accident. Nearly the same thing happened then next day except I was using adaptive cruise control. This time there was a truck about 100 yards behind me that had been only a few car lengths behind me a bit earlier. If they were closer again, they most likely would have hit us. I know I was using cruise control one more that that happened, but I am not sure if I was using Cruise control or adaptive braking on the other time.