Model s in junkyard. Https://erepairables.com/salvage-cars-auction/tesla/model+s/vid-42872637 back wheel gone whompy. But I don't suppose you'd be interested. Regards [xxx] information redacted pursuant to the freedom of information act (foia), 5 u.s.c. 552(b)(6).
2014 Tesla Model S suspension complaints
Page 3 of 4: complaints 41 to 70 of 90, newest first, as owners wrote them.
Tl* the contact owns a 2014 tesla model s. The contact stated that while driving over a dip in his driveway at 5 MPH, the driver's side rear wheel started to shake without warning. The vehicle was towed to tesla (881 boston post rd, milford, ct 06460) where the vehicle was diagnosed with an upper control arm failure. The vehicle was repaired. The manufacturer was not notified of the failure. The failure mileage was 78,127.
Here is a blood splattered model s in the salvage yard. Https://www.copart.com/lot/61373949/photos it has had an off-road adventure after the back wheel went whompy. It should be obvious to even a semiskilled shopping trolly mechanic that the suspension of a car should be stronger than the fragile alloy wheels. Even if this car had hit a bump whilst off-roading the suspension should not have snapped and left the wheel and tire undamaged. Now that tesla factory and service centers are closed down there will be no maintenance and repair. Not even the largely ignored tsb concerning weak suspension links what is your problem dudes? Get these things off the roads before more people get maimed and killed. Regards keef wivaneff the unhinged.
Rear subframe failed at 78k miles. Tesla response was I did harsh acceleration and street potholes were the issues. I was driving 20 MPH when I suddenly heard knocking noise. I came to complete stop. Looked around and underneath my car for any foreign obstacles. Everything was clear so I put my car in reverse. Heard loud knocking sounds from rear left tire. Took it to tesla service, where I was told that this is not drive unit( part that's under warranty, which is hold by the failed subframe and was replaced twice prior, but the subframe itself) and its a safety issue. Speaking of safety issue I had to go to the nearest tesla service, when I occurred this issue and advisor told me, they don't have time to resolve my issue right now , so I had to drive it 30 miles away to a different one, where I was told that this is safety issue.
Here is a model s in the salvage yard. Somebody ran into the back of it. Most likely because the front wheel and suspension fell off causing it to slow down unexpectedly. Https://www.copart.com/lot/58905699/photos even the headlights are intact. The air-bags have not deployed. So why did the suspension fall to bits? I think we know the answer to that. The suspension parts are as fragile as a sparrows leg. Teslas are stuck in ludicrous/insane mode. Please investigate. Thank you. Keef
Please note that I have used the VIN of another wrecked tesla to make this complaint since I do not have access to the correct VIN of the car involved. Here is an auction listing of a tesla in australia. Https://www.pickles.com.au/damaged-salvage/item/-/details/no-c-p--tesla--model-s--hatchback--5-doors/2003433925 the car has not been in a crash, the only damage is a detached rear wheel and suspension with slight bodywork damage where the wheel exited the vehicle. Since I am an australian citizen I feel that these cars pose a risk to my own safety as well as to other road users and that I am perfectly entitled to make such complaints. I am hoping that by the sheer volume of incidences of tesla suspension failures reported the federal safety agency will at least concede that there may be a problem and will launch a proper investigation. Thank you for publishing all of my complaints. Just need that investigation to commence. Have a great day. Keef
Tesla. Gone whompy. Very whompy indeed. Https://www.iaai.com/vehicle?itemid=33592193&rownumber=5&loadrecent=true
This is a complaint about the fragile tesla suspension components. I believe that it is the public interest that I should be allowed to file these complaints because the owners are being pressured to remain silent. Just today an owner has added a fresh report of a broken suspension and supplied photographic evidence. Https://teslamotorsclub.com/tmc/threads/tesla-upper-control-arm-cracked.96329/ **georgecm, yesterday at 2:37 am last edited: yesterday at 3:08 am my wife was driving us home this saturday. She hit a really small pothole when the car became hard to control. For a short time we went on the other side of the road, then she managed to get back on our side while reducing speed to a complete stop. The wheel was in an incorrect position. We managed to slowly drive the car in a position safe for other drivers, in a parking place nearby. The upper control arm was broken. I also observed interior side tires abnormal wear on both rear wheels. The car was driving with these tires less than 3000 miles! This looks to me like a catastrophic failure of that control arm, does anybody has knowledge if tesla has a newer, reinforced version of this part ? I am looking to replace them on both sides. Anybody who has a reliable source for new parts, preferably in europe please send me a message. The nearest tesla service from me is 2000 km away.** this thread has been running for more than 12 months. Many owners have reported broken suspensions. Posters are attacking the complainants and urging them not to report these failures. I have been advised that non-owners should not file complaints. If that is true then I would like to know how you expect to gain knowledge about this issue. Dummy us address used to comply with website requirements. My correct contact details are supplied with this submission.
This a complaint about the fatal tesla crash in fort lauderdale. Even though the ntsb is investigating this crash the inquiry is likely to take more than a year. I am certain that this crash was caused by yet another suspension failure. Http://miami.cbslocal.com/2018/05/10/ntsb-to-investigate-fiery-crash-of-tesla-in-ft-lauderdale/ crash scene photographs show that the rh back wheel and suspension have fallen off the car. The road is relatively straight at the crash site. There is just a single skid mark where the car suddenly went sideways. There is no indication of the car spinning out of control due to taking a curve too fast. The skid mark shows a very sudden swerve to the wrong side of the road and into the wall. The video shows what appears to be a detached wheel and tire lying in the roadway. It is also very concerning that teslas burst into flames so easily and that the electric door handles become inoperative preventing occupants or rescuers from opening them. Once again the early stage of these fires seems to be fuelled by the 7 gallons of ethylene glycol. The stored energy in the batteries can easily boil off the water content of the coolant causing it to become highly flammable. The fire does not yet appear to have ignited the actual batteries since these burn with a white heat and the individual cells explode like firecrackers. This situation is extremely dangerous. Please act immediately before more lives are lost.
Here is another tesla in the junkyard: https://www.copart.com/lot/31148767/photos back wheel has fallen off. This does not look as though it is caused by another vehicle running into the back of it. It is much more likely to be yet another case of the weak suspension parts causing self inflicted injury. The attached photograph shows that the suspension links have been stretched outward until they snapped. This was not caused by an impact to the rear of the tesla. Please investigate. Thank you. Persistent citizen.
Here is another tesla in the junkyard: https://www.copart.com/lot/38280127 it has been completely destroyed by fire. Despite the extreme fire damage it is clear from the attached photograph that the suspension links on the rh back wheel are cleanly snapped off. This is not because they have melted in the fire because there are two clear fractures and the wheel has gone whompy. Another case of fragile alloy suspension parts causing a crash followed by a fire most likely to to leaking hot glycol followed by ignition of the battery pack. These cars are worse than the old pinto and corvair. They are unsafe at any voltage. Please investigate. Seething citizen etc. Etc. Date of incident is an approximation.
Here is a mangled tesla in the junkyard: https://www.iaai.com/vehicle?itemid=27142707&rownumber=62&loadrecent=true judging by the condition of the wreck and the bio-hazard stickers on it there can be little doubt that this was a fatal crash. The front suspension is broken which may or may not be the result of the crash. The back rh wheel and suspension is completely missing but there is no damage to the bodywork at that section of the car. Given the know weakness and repeated failure of tesla suspensions it is a near certainty that the back wheel fell off and caused this crash. The number of smashed teslas in the junkyards is astonishing considering that these are near new cars and quite rare on the roads. They are mostly bought by wealthy and mature age drivers. No other luxury passenger car crashes at such a high rate as teslas. Please do something about this. Thank you. Concerned citizen. (name and contact details provided) date of crash an approximation.
Here is a tesla in the junkyard: https://www.copart.com/lot/23955718/photos it has been in a major crash, has bio-hazard stickers and it is near certain that occupants have been killed or injured. Obviously the car is badly damaged and has been in a rollover. Both lh wheels and suspensions have snapped off completely. Rh wheels are both whompy. It seems highly probable that detached or whompy wheels were the cause of the crash. Please investigate. Than you. Concerned citizen. (date of crash and deaths/injuries are approximations based on the photographs of the wreck.)
Here is a tesla model s freshly arrived in the junkyard. Https://www.copart.com/lot/23369768 the rh back wheel and suspension has broken off. Close up photograph shows that the suspension giblets have been ripped out. The wheel and tire are undamaged. It is highly unlikely that the wheel could have been struck a hard enough blow to snap the suspension without any damage being caused to the wheel itself. The alloy wheels are known to be quite fragile as can be seen in the crash test videos where the wheel is easily smashed in a collision. There are so many cases of failed tesla suspensions being reported by owners that it is blindingly obvious there is a problem. Do you actually have any engineers at the federal safety agency? Are your computer geeks waiting for the " oh crap there is a problem" algorithm threshold to be triggered? How many "get out of jail free" cards does tesla have left. Please get out of the office and go and inspect some of these broken teslas. Thank you. Concerned citizen. Date of incident is an approximation.
The left front fore link ball joint snapped like glass during normal driving. Luckily I was going at relatively low speed on a side street. This allowed the suspension to allow the wheel to slam into the firewall and it locked up causing the right side of the vehicle to hit a curb. As an engineer this scares the daylights out of me, as if it would have happened on a high speed highway turn, the results could have been deadly. Even without an understanding of advanced metallurgy, it's clear that a hardened steel ball joint should be stronger then the surrounding aluminum alloy parts on either side that it attaches to. It looks like a glass rod hit with a hammer. This same thing happened to another 2014 in our family about a year ago, and I chalked it up to random failure. But now 2 failures? I have the original failed part if needed for analysis. The replacement part I obtained through tesla has been re-engineered, and appears to be from a different supplier. I went ahead and replaced both sides, and I still have the non-failed part on the left side. I attempted to contact tesla about this, and they have not responded to me.
Here is a tesla in the junkyard: https://www.iaai.com/vehicle?itemid=27142707&rownumber=46&loadrecent=true it has been in a massive collision. It has bio-hazard stickers and judging by the condition of the wreck it is almost certain that people have been killed. The front end is completely smashed up but the back rh wheel and suspension has completely fallen off even though there is zero impact damage to that part of the car. Given the large number of reports that have been submitted to the federal safety agency showing strong evidence that teslas have frequent suspension failures it should be considered that this crash may have actually been caused by the failure of the rear suspension. I understand that it is the role of the federal safety agency to look for such patterns of failure and to investigate the reasons. Please do just that. Thank you. Very concerned citizen. (date of crash is an approximation. Details of injuries/deaths also an estimation based on severity of wreck)
Here is another wrecked tesla with suspension fallen to pieces: https://www.iaai.com/vehicle?itemid=26166552&rownumber=38&loadrecent=true once again the steering knuckle has snapped in half. Tesla changed to a redesigned steering knuckle in 2015 but have not warned owners of earlier model cars of the danger. Please take action now. Thank you. Concerned citizen.
Another tesla in the junkyard: https://www.iaai.com/vehicle?itemid=26176753&rownumber=61&loadrecent=true the front suspension has fallen to bits. Several of the alloy suspension parts have snapped. The wheel and tire appear undamaged even though the tesla wheels are reportedly built fragile so they do not intrude into the passenger compartment during a crash. There are so many of these failures occurring that it is blindingly obvious that there is a weakness in design and construction. Please be so kind as to investigate. Thank you. Concerned citizen.
Another tesla in the junkyard: https://www.iaai.com/vehicle?itemid=26239435&rownumber=49&loadrecent=true suspension collapsed and back wheel is just hanging on by a thread. This is the same kind of failure that caused a fatal crash in hawaii. How many more incidents of suspension failure do you need before you issue a recall? Please investigate. Concerned citizen etc.
Here is yet another report of a tesla suspension collapsing and sending the car veering across the road: https://teslamotorsclub.com/tmc/threads/urgent-spontaneous-suspension-failure-lack-of-tesla-support.97394/ snip - enumc, saturday at 10:22 pm hi everyone! Does anyone have any experience with tesla repairs? We were driving on the freeway when our model s suddenly started swerving after an initial loud sound. There's nothing on the road, and we had to drive the vehicle off the freeway without hitting other vehicles. Luckily, no one got hurt, but we rolled off the side of the freeway onto an exit ramp. The local repair shop that highway patrol tolled to informed us that this is a suspension failure. We were driving at around 60mph when this happened. We contacted tesla support, who said they will take a look at the issue, but they are still trying to evade talking to us about the exact issue after a month with no updates. They informed us they have "escalated" the issue over a week ago, but no updates at all. Could we get some suggestions on what we should do from fellow tesla owners? I am completely lost at this point. The wheel seems to have caved in: ******* I am reporting this in the public interest as it is obvious from the discussion in that forum that the owner will not be reporting it himself. He is being pressured by the forum posters and also by tesla who want him to sign an agreement so that he takes over responsibility for the repair. A photograph of the tesla with a whompy wheel is attached.
Here is another model s in the junkyard: https://www.iaai.com/vehicle?itemid=25560077&rownumber=32&loadrecent=true it can be seen that the front suspension has collapsed causing both wheels to be jammed up in the wheel wells. The front wheels have gone cross eyed. The left one is pointed straight, the right one is turned inwards and canted over. Both back suspensions have been ripped off. The right hand wheel and suspension have snapped off without any real damage to the bodywork. The lh quarter panel is bashed in, most likely because the car became rather difficult to steer after the suspension collapsed. There have been many other similar cases of tesla suspension failures. Please recall these cars before more lives are lost. Thank you. Please note I am not a tesla owner but simply a concerned citizen who is forced to share the roads with these dangerous vehicles. A dummy us address has been used to comply with your website requirements. Genuine contact details are provided. I have been informed that I am fully within my rights to file these complaints and I confirm that the complaints I am making are truthful and not in anyway false or fraudulent. Date of incident is an approximation based on date of arrival in junkyard.
Here is another tesla in the junkyard. Https://www.salvagereseller.com/cars-for-sale/25069826-2014-tesla-model-s-van-nuys-ca the front suspension has fallen apart in an interesting manner. The top ball-joint stem has simply pulled out of the clamped slot which is meant to hold it in place causing the entire suspension to fall outwards. I am a well trained engineer and in my opinion the design of this suspension that relies upon an undersized ball-joint held in place by clamping up a slotted hole in a brittle alloy steering knuckle is an accident waiting to happen. I have attached a photograph of a tesla steering knuckle from another car that failed without good cause. I can provide evidence of the incident that is associated with that failure. The knuckle has suffered brittle fracture which is to be expected with such a poor design. Date of incident is an approximation. Please take action. Concerned citizen.
Here is another tesla just arrived in the junkyard: https://www.salvagereseller.com/cars-for-sale/23213537-2014-tesla-model-s-west-palm-beach-fl the front rh wheel has snapped off. The steering knuckle is jammed into the tire. The front rh headlight is not even broken it is near impossible that the damage was the result of a collision. Looks like another case of suspension failure. Please investigate.
Here is another tesla in the junkyard: https://www.iaai.com/vehicle?itemid=24813111&rownumber=12&loadrecent=true the front rh steering knuckle has snapped. The airbags have not deployed which implies that either the suspension snapped without good cause or that the airbag system is defective. Please investigate the reason for so many teslas showing up in the salvage yards with snapped suspensions. Thank you.
Here is another tesla in the junkyard: https://www.salvagereseller.com/cars-for-sale/20632557-2014-tesla-model-s-van-nuys-ca the suspension has collapsed on all 4 wheels. The front wheel has been smashed to pieces. This is not a one off event. There is a clear pattern of failure. Please investigate. Concerned citizen, etc.
Here is a tesla in the junkyard. Https://www.copart.com/lot/25802716/photos the suspension has collapsed on all four wheels. The back wheel has fallen off. In my opinion this car is unsafe at any speed. Please investigate the reason for so many of these cars having suspension failure. Please note that I am not the owner just a concerned citizen.
Here is another tesla in the salvage yard. Https://www.iaai.com/vehicle?itemid=24302646&rownumber=34&loadrecent=true it has not been in a crash. The air-bags have not deployed. The suspension has collapsed on all four wheels causing the wheels to jam up into the wheel wells and damaging the body of the car. If this had occurred at a high speed it would probably have caused death or injury. Once again it seems that a simple air leak in the suspension can cause disaster because the tesla is not fitted with bump stops to limit suspension travel. Please launch an investigation. The number of written off teslas in the junkyards is far too high for the small number of cars that are on the roads. Note: I am not the owner, just a concerned citizen. Date of incident is an approximation.
Here is a tesla in the salvage yard. Https://www.salvagereseller.com/cars-for-sale/19708347-2015-tesla-model-s-85-ky-louisville the front suspension has fallen apart and the wheel and tire are badly damaged. It looks highly probable that the wheel was wrecked while the car was still moving forward. Given the many other similar failures it was quite possibly the cause of the crash. Please investigate
Here is a tesla in the salvage yard. Https://www.iaai.com/vehicle?itemid=24154272&rownumber=38&loadrecent=true the suspension has collapsed on all four wheels causing the wheels to jam up in the wheel wells. The front rh tire has been peeled off the wheel. It only requires an air leak in the suspension air lines to cause a disaster. This is the only car on the road that does not have limit stops to avoid this kind of catastrophic failure. Please investigate.
Here is a tesla in the salvage yard. Https://www.iaai.com/vehicle?itemid=24320063&rownumber=33&loadrecent=true the suspension has collapsed on all four wheels. The back rh wheel and suspension has been completely torn off. There is no collision damage. The air-bags have not deployed. This is yet another example of tesla suspension failure. Owners are driving around in these cars believing that they are in one of the safest cars in the world. The numbers of crashed teslas showing up in the junkyards suggest that it is simply unsafe at any speed. Please issue a warning to the public and prevent further death and injury.
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