NHTSA Complaint #11540421 — 2018 TESLA MODEL 3

SUSPENSION issue reported to NHTSA

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Complaint Details

ODI Number 11540421
Vehicle 2018 TESLA MODEL 3
Component SUSPENSION
Date of Incident
Date Filed
Mileage N/A miles
Crash No
Fire No
Injuries 0
Deaths 0
Vehicle Towed No
State CA

Consumer Description

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.

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