NHTSA Complaint #11480098 — 2018 TESLA MODEL 3

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.