Front RH side lower control arm unexpectedly snapped without any outside collision or driving error. Moving at low speed. Avoided catastrophic incident being on a local road and not the highway.
2017 Tesla Model S suspension complaints
Page 3 of 5: complaints 41 to 70 of 107, newest first, as owners wrote them.
2017 Model S 75D, Suspension Defect. Pulling out of my garage, I heard a snap when I turned the steering wheel. I drove about 1 mile and could hear clicking. Did not receive an error message from the car, but I came back home and made an appointment with Tesla Repair. I tried to drive it to the appointment, but the entire front end of the car dropped and scraped as I pulled it out of my garage. I called Tesla Roadside assistance and had it towed to the Tesla repair shop. I never received any warning or messages from the car system.
The upper control arm was replaced by Tesla outside of warranty because, as mentioned by technician, "the upper control arm ball joint was rubbing metal on metal and will fail eventually". I initially noticed this when the wheels were squeaking loudly while turning the wheel. According to the technician, this has been a common issue on the car. I realize Tesla did a recall in China but not in US so I'm submitting this info in case the data is helpful for any potential recall in the future. Please contact me for videos.
My car with nearly 17,621 miles only had a part come off the suspension system off drivers side. Appeared to be an aluminum part that cracked in half while pulling from the garage. This car never was in a wreck. The suspension failed and my tire backed into the plastic casing which eroded the tires causing extensive damage. If this had occurred on the highway, this would have certainly caused a fatality to myself, family and other cars on the road. It appears this has happened to many prior owners of this vehicle, mainly model X and S around this time frame. I do not want to become a statistic before a recall is reached. As a physician, I am very concerned for my family and others that may be driving a dangerous vehicle.
Front driver side control arm/fore link assembly snapped and broke while pulling out of a parking spot. Low speed, standard pavement. Felt like I had run over a nail where the front of the car lifted up slightly, popped, sounded like a tire pop, but then would continue to drive. I drove it home, but could feel the car wasn't right. Steering wasn't very responsive.
Here is another terdsla in the junkyard https://www.iaai.com/vehicledetails/39311673?tenant=us&rownumber=21 the front wheel has fallen off because all the ball joints have popped apart.\ the back wheek has gone whompy because that is just what terdslas do. I suppose an investigation is out of the question. Yours disgustedly keef
The wheel control arm broke for no reason. It seems to be defective from the time it was made, it happened with a popping sound when parking
Please note that I have used the VIN of another junkyard tesla since the VIN of the car I am whinging about is unobtainable. Here is the lovely 3 wheeled tesla. Https://www.iaai.com/vehicledetails/38899714?rownumber=22 the back wheel and entire suspension has wrenched itself off. All of the monkey metal giblets are stretched and snapped. These suspensions are absurdly weak. You know what to do. Recall this death-mobile right now. This has been a public service announcement by the legendary keef wivaneff. Thank you for your attention. Best regards keef please note that I have used the VIN of another junkyard tesla since the VIN of the car I am whinging about is unobtainable. Here is the lovely 3 wheeled tesla. Https://www.iaai.com/vehicledetails/38899714?rownumber=22 the back wheel and suspension has been twisted off. This is not crash damage. It is self destruction caused by monkey metal suspension giblets. Please recall these deadly abominations. Thank you. Keef
Front suspension makes a knocking noise going 30 MPH or slower on small bumps in the road, tesla replaced front struts under warranty in may of 2020, is little better but the knocking is still there
Tl* the contact owns a 2017 tesla model s. The contact stated that while operating the vehicle, the suspension disabled message was displayed and the vehicle was lowered causing difficulty to drive the vehicle. The vehicle was taken to tesla of mathews located at 9140 e. Independence blvd, matthews, nc 28105, where the front suspension was replaced. Approximately one month later, the rear suspension experienced the same failure and the vehicle was repaired by the dealer. The manufacturer was notified of the failure. The failure mileage was 100,000.
Left front suspension part broke allowing the tire to jamb into the wheel cowling. It happened on a city street then was unable to move, needed to be towed. I found a small cracked aluminum part under the car. It sounds like the recall that is now being discussed, at first they said it was my fault but they were"talked into" fixing it for free, thought you should know.
For a few days I noticed a clunking noise emanating from the left front of the car when going over uneven pavement. Then while backing out of a parking space, the tire collided with the wheel liner and the car would not move. The car was towed to the tesla dealership where it was found that the front driver caster arm was broken. I later read that there had been other reports of 'linkages near the ball joints' of the suspension failing, allowing contact between the tire and the wheel liner. This sounds a lot like what happened to my car so I wanted to share my experience
This is my second tesla. I've had noises in suspension and have been told it was a control arm and paid for it. Noise immediately returned. Later told its stabilizer. That was on first tesla. Media control unit constantly failed. Second tesla - [xxx]- suspension problems. Something feels like it will pop of I turn wheel too far and the brake or something makes a loud noise when disengaging. They say they can't duplicate but it happens every time I brake or release hold. My mcu is failing on this car. They replaced the ram but it still fails. Gps is barely functional and my reverse camera will not appear many times. Sometimes my car won't charge. They ignore and say it's normal. Mcu needs replacement. I spoke to a tesla employee and I'm sure you know, but he says they only wipe and recycle the ram used on the mcu. That would explain fast failures again. They are trying to stall our warranties out to force purchase of the second mcu that they claim is the best solution. They are not going to stop these behaviors if we aren't protected. I have video I can share. Information redacted pursuant to the freedom of information act (foia), 5 u.s.c. 552(b)(6).
Suspension fire link made of aluminum broke
Here is yet another tesla that has arrived in the junkyard because its wheel went whompy. Https://www.copart.com/lot/55641240/photos/2017-tesla-model-s-nc-china-grove there is no crash damage and no airbags deployed. This is a self inflicted injury caused by pitifully weak extruded monkey-metal suspension parts. Tesla admits to the weakness but claims it is not dangerous and will not lead to a loss of control. This is bullplop! China has ordered a recall because of these suspension breakages. All the teslas around the world have the same problem. What is wrong with your organisation that you are allowing this situation to continue. You have received hundreds of valid complaints about this. Contrary to what musk has tweeted out these complaints are not fake or fraudulent. Please get on with doing your job. Thank you. Citizen keef
Driving on highway on autopilot when another car cut into my lane immediately in front of me. I slammed on the brakes to avoid hitting him and heard a horrific noise. After the brakes stopped my car I had difficulty steering & still heard a terrible grinding noise underneath the car, but was able to limp off the highway to a safe place. I discovered that the suspension had broken. After car was taken to nearby tesla service location I read that there had been issues with the suspension in my model year 2017 and that in china tesla had agreed to repair this defect, but that in the u.s. So far they had deemed it 'wear and tear'. I understand there are attempts at some legal class action suits going on. They removed and replaced both front lower fore links with updated parts and replaced damaged left front wheel arch liner and said the failure was due to 'metal fatigue, most likely onset by the sudden braking maneuver'. The charge was initially over $1,300, but as soon as I mentioned my knowledge of the aforementioned suspension problems,tesla immediately said the entire cost would be covered as 'goodwilll service'.
Driving home from service on the highway, while on a straight section, I was forced to use my brakes to slow down for another car and bam! Catastrophic failure of the drivers side front control arm. Interesting thing though... I'd addressed a concern about a grinding noise from up front, at a prior service, and they informed me that the sound was normal based on the high performance brakes. Which I knew sounded wrong. Now this? Seems a bit shady to me.
I was backing out of parking spot when I heard a loud clunking noise from the front passenger wheel well. The tire was unstable and wobbly. I took pictures underneath to be able to see the problem, and noticed a hunk of metal on the ground. See attached pic. Turns out the fore link had snapped near the tire attachment. Seems like this is a known issue and has since been redesigned but not recalled. Why wouldn't this be a recall if its a serious safety issue? I can only imaging what disaster could have happened if I was at highway speeds!!!
I was braking from about 35 MPH to make a 90 degree right hand turn into driveway. There was a sudden grinding noise and shuddering. I continued to brake and turn until I was safely in the driveway. A quick inspect revealed some damage to the wheel well, but the car seem drive-able, so I very slowly limped into a parking spot. I've read enough posts from other people having this same failure to immediately suspect a suspension failure. When parked it was easy to identify the same failure I've seen all over the internet. Control arm failed, resulting the wheel touching the wheel well as I was braking, burning through to the metal and gouging my wheel.
The defective mcu went down and what is not being properly reported, especially in this pandemic world we now live in, is that besides the entertainment, the air conditioning (and viral hepa filter), the suspension height, the steering and acceleration properties, nearly everything is no longer accessible when the mcu fails because to the driver, these things can only be accessed and manipulated through the center console, which is in permanent shut down mode. Look, I perform fmea analysis for a living. This is a single point failure being caused by the poor decision to select an mcu chip that has a limited number of data writes to the memory, and that cannot be cleared out by any system designed into the car. Mine just failed last week and my car only has 30,000 miles on it. Tesla claims that they only warranty the entertainment system for 25,000 miles. The problem is that they've integrated the mcu and emmu as the single source of operations for all other vital systems in the vehicle. This is completely insane and is without a doubt a safety issue, as it was 90 degrees the day my mcu failed and dangerously hot inside my car, even with all windows down, which only got worse because there is so much thermal loads created by the battery, normally protected by the overheat sensors & fans, that are now not operating properly thanks to the mcu failure. It also important that you understand the most of the need to write to the finite mcu & emmu memory is caused by tesla during their frequent software updates. Mine is a p100d ludicrous + and cost well over $100,000 when new. Tell me what other manufacture would be allowed to get away with designing a single point of failure that effects nearly every system including safety features, and then say its only covered for less then the time they know the first failure will occur. Criminals and make them accountable now please.
Please note that I have used the VIN of a different car to submit this complaint since the VIN of the car in question is unavailable. Here is page 15 of a thread in which many owners report broken suspensions. Https://teslamotorsclub.com/tmc/threads/another-front-suspension-control-arm-failure.114967/page-15 the latest complainant provides photographs of the broken parts and says that he will be filing an the federal safety agency complaint. If he has done so then you may disregard my complaint. However, his final post suggests that he has accepted an offer from tesla to cover the cost and it is highly likely that he will be persuaded to not file a report. Snip **https://teslamotorsclub.com/tmc/threads/another-front-suspension-control-arm-failure.114967/page-15** additionally my own posts on this forum that encouraged the owner to file a complaint have been deleted. Snip**your post in the thread another front suspension control arm failure was deleted. Reason: conspiracy theorist nonsense** these forums are complicit in the cover up of these lethal defects and in my opinion should be prosecuted. Please investigate. Regards keef
I just bought the 2017 90d a month and half ago at 59k miles now at 65k miles and heard a pop as I was pulling away from the curb at 3-5 MPH. Thought it sounded weird but may have just been a water bottle or something. Unfortunately I was on a road trip back home from the bay area with my daughter. I stopped on the freeway for a bathroom break and heard my front wheel drivers side grinding against the wheel well. After speculation it looked as though while facing the wheel it offset to the right. I asked for a call from the sc via text after making an appointment and he said to bring my car in asap as it could be a safety issue. An hour longer into driving I braked lightly because a car came into my lane on I-5 and then there was a louder pop, grinding noise followed by a loud screech, and steam coming from the wheel well. I immediately pulled over and had the car towed to costa mesa service center with me, my 5 year old, and girlfriend in a tow truck. Sc said that there's signs of impact and that it cannot be covered under warranty. Though their 'signs of impact' are clearly wear and tear and curb rash from parking margins( which I'm positive were there when the car was sold to me) I didn't hit anything and if I did the 4 cars in front of me would've too. And even more unfortunately tesla started the repairs before insurance got out there and now they're talking about not covering it. So I may be out 5k that I was quoted because tesla decided it'd be great to replace the front bumper and get it painted
Please note that I have used the VIN of another 2017 model s to file this complaint because the actual VIN is unavailable. Here is a tesla discussion thread (limited to verified tesla owners). Https://forums.tesla.com/forum/forums/front-drivers-wheel-came-loose snip** I heard a sound from the left front wheel and felt it in the steering wheel. So I immediately stopped. Everyone came running over to the car. It had ripped off the inside felt lining. It seems the driver front wheel shifted backwards on its mount** snip *** it seems the rear lower control arm failed. The ball joint with which it connects to the wheel spindle plate broke** snip**johncrab | august 3, 2020 this has become so common that in the uk it is referred to as 'whompy wheels' teslatap.com | august 3, 2020 and fudsters like johncrab so common they are referred to as "liers". Bighorn | august 3, 2020 total bs again from our local misanthrope. Whompy was coined by a fraud in australia who was submitting dozens of fake the federal safety agency reports. Crikey! Regards keef whompmeister
Please note that the VIN of the tesla which is the subject of this complaint is unreadable and therefore if have used a substitute VIN. It will be easy for you to contact the salvage yard and obtain the correct VIN. Here is the salvage auction listing. Https://www.iaai.com/vehicledetails/36847721?rownumber=0 it can be seen in the photographs that the tip of the steering knuckle has snapped off. This insane design uses a slotted hole in the tip of the knuckle to clamp the top ball joint in place. Cast aluminium is brittle and has virtually zero elasticity. It is unsurprising that this type of failure happens repeatedly in teslas. Due to the dictatorial rule of elon musk these failures are never investigated or remedied. They are simply swept under the rug and buried under non disclosure agreements. Tesla is a sick company. Please investigate. Thank you. [xxx] information redacted pursuant to the freedom of information act (foia), 5 u.s.c. 552(b)(6).
My car's mcu (media control unit touchscreen) is near death and 900 miles from being out of warranty. The screen went black on me for an entire day before coming back and constantly freezes and needs reboots. During this time, I lost ability to turn on and off the headlights, must rely on auto. Lost ability to control the HVAC and defrost. Lost ability to adjust air suspension. Lost ability to use backup camera.
Here is a tesla model s in the junkyard. Https://www.iaai.com/vehicledetails/36599781?rownumber=2 the back wheel and suspension has simply fallen off. Other than this the car is unmarked and in immaculate condition. It has not been in a crash ( due only to good fortune) the back suspension has simply fallen to bits. The air suspension has failed causing the wheels to jam up in the wells until the strain caused the suspension to snap. Tesla makes suspension parts from low quality extruded aluminum. This same failure happens over and over and has played a part in many fatal crashes. Check out this collection of photos to see many more examples. Https://www.flickr.com/photos/136377865@n05/sets/72157658490111523/ how much more evidence do you need before demanding a recall? Yours whompily [xxx] information redacted pursuant to the freedom of information act (foia), 5 u.s.c. 552(b)(6).
My car is only 2 yrs old and while backing out of a parking space in a parking structure, I felt a lift then lowering of front driver's side wheel (like going over speed bump, but there was none) then would barely drive. Told that the driver's front lower control arm is broken.
Pulling away from a stop in a parking lot, there was a new rattle at the left front of the car, but the car drove normally. Made a right turn onto a street and slowly approached an intersection. Stopping at the intersection, there was a loud thunk. Got out and saw the front left tire was off-center in the wheel well and touching the rear wheel well wall. Drove the car 100 feet back into the parking lot. Car was towed to tesla service center. Tesla replaced both fore link assemblies. There is a notation on the repair invoice that "found both fore links revision a's. Replaced both fore links with revision b's." I strongly feel that this should have been a recall, as I find many blog entries where the same part has failed over the past few years and tesla replaced the one that had not failed with the new revision.
Please excuse me for being so persistent in my reporting of tesla defects. I am a man on a mission. The affected car is a 2017 tesla model s, I do not have the VIN so I have used one from a wrecked vehicle instead. Here is a thread discussing tesla suspension breakages. Https://teslamotorsclub.com/tmc/threads/lower-control-arm-failure.172590/#post-4173704 *** coloradogirl22, nov 5, 2019 I have a 2017 model s. Yesterday, when I was backing up slowly in a parking lot, I heard a loud crunching, scraping sound, and then my front right wheel "fell off." taking a closer look, it appears that the lower control arm sheered off from the wheel assembly (see pics). I didn't hit anything and have no idea what could have caused it."***** see attached photographs. This time, rather than a cracked alloy casting it is the shaft of the lower ball joint that has snapped. This same failure has been reported many times. This ball joint stem looks to be of very poor quality and is undersized for the weight of the car. This is bad design. Bad manufacture. Bad inspection. Bad maintenance. On the tesla forums owners who are considering reporting this failure are strongly discouraged by the tesla congregation. Although many of these suspension breakages are reported to have happened at low speed, it is likely that some have happened at high speed and the owners did not live to tell the tale. Please investigate. Thank you keef
This is another complaint about the fragile suspension components on teslas. Here is a tesla in the junkyard. Https://www.iaai.com/vehicledetails?itemid=34366240&rownumber=43&similarvehicleitemid=&isnext=&loadrecent=true this time the lower control arm has snapped in half. Both sections of the arm have fractured. This is clear evidence of bad quality casting. These cars are ticking time bombs. Please take action. Thank you. Keef
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