NHTSA Complaint #11578369 — 2018 TESLA MODEL 3

AIR BAGS issue reported to NHTSA

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Complaint Details

ODI Number 11578369
Vehicle 2018 TESLA MODEL 3
Component AIR BAGS
Date of Incident
Date Filed
Mileage N/A miles
Crash No
Fire No
Injuries 0
Deaths 0
Vehicle Towed No
State CO

Consumer Description

I purchased the car new in 2018. About two years into owning there would be a random notification about an "rcm_a036 : passenger safety restraint system fault". I reported and was told that the seat occupancy sensor was responding to noise from my cell phone. I stopped putting the cell phone on the seat, it kept happening with increasing frequency in 2021 and 2022 and I reported it two more times and was told to keep charging cables away from the seat, and then in 2021, they added a noise filter. I was told repeatedly that the fault was caused by noise and was not a real issue. The alert occurred with increasing occurrence and today I took it in and Tesla charged $1533.16 to replace the airbag and the occupancy sensor. I thought it was unsafe for Tesla to tell me the issue is a noise-related issue when it was related to the airbag and to tell me that the issue was not actually a real fault when both the OCS sensor and the airbag needed to be replaced. I think it's absurd to have a car 6 years old with 66,530 miles have to have an airbag replaced. I thought Tesla's comments about noise were disingenuous attempts to put off the repair until after the car was out of warranty.

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