2018 TESLA MODEL 3 Unknown Or Other Problems
166 NHTSA complaints on file
All Unknown Or Other Complaints — Page 2
Charging port door won’t open and ports won’t unlock when the button to unlock the charging port door is pressed on the app. Previously, the charge port door would open automatically when the unlock charge port door button is pressed on the app and touch screen. Now, I have to open the charging port door manually. However, the charging ports will unlock after I repeatedly press the button to unlock charge port door on the touchscreen. The ports have to unlock in order for the charger to be inserted to charge the car. I have requested service and cancel service when I was informed of the price to replace the charging port door. Recently, I requested service then a pop-up message appeared stating that several Tesla 3 users have been experiencing problems with the charging port door. If that is the case, there should be a recall And Tesla should...
Charge port door won’t open and charging ports will not unlock when the “unlock charge port” button is pressed on the app. I have to open the charge port door manually. However, the charging ports will unlock when I press the “unlock charge port” button on the touchscreen repeatedly. Previously, the charge port door and charging ports will open and unlock when the “unlock charge port” button is pressed on the app. I have previously requested service, then canceled service once I was informed of the price to replace the charge port door. Recently, I requested service through the app. Before I scheduled a service appointment, there was a pop-up message educating how to open the charge port door. I believe Tesla created the pop up because other users are experiencing the same issue. If that is the case, Tesla should issue a recall to replace the charge port door/charge...
Cabin noise is over the normal threshold creating distraction and discomfort for concentration. Submitted multiple complaints and repair request through car app for diagnostic and possible repair, but nothing has been addressed. I bought a sound level meter to measure the distracted noise and the sound level was measured at 87 dB. Asked Tesla repair center if they can measure the sound level to confirm my complaint, but they are not will to do so. All the complaints were submitted during manufacture warranty period, but nothing has been done and now my car is out of warranty and Tesla wants ti charge me $265 per hour for the diagnostic. What is Tesla’s published or acceptable cabin sound level? The high sound level is now causing my ear to occasionally have ringing and discomfortable feeling.
Re NHTSA recall 21V00D The rear view back up camera of my Tesla 2018 Model 3 went black on August 21 starting at approx 3pm and remained black for the rest of the day through August 22. I'm planning to check today, August 24 to see if the problem still persists. Lack of the backup camera makes it very difficult to park and to see people in the car's blind spots. I've informed the dealer of the problem but I've decided to have an independent third party repair service take a look to see if the problem could possibly pertain to recall.
I was notified by Tesla in early 2022 of recall 21V-00D for a safety issue. I have asked several times to have it fixed. As of August 18, 2023 it is still not fixed and Tesla is still claiming that the parts are not available.
THIS IS ON RECAL SB-20-31-006 R3. THE BALL JOINT OF MY TESLA MODEL 3. SQUEAKS/CREAKING, WHEN I TURN THE STEERING WHEEL, WHEN I DRIVE SLOW, DRIVE FAST, HIT ANY BUMP, TURN. THE NOISE HAS GOTTEN LOUDER. I WAS TOLD BY TESLA TAHT MY CAR DOES NOT QUALIFY UNDER THE RECAL DUE TO MY VIN#. REQUESTING ASSISTANCE TO GET THIS FIXED.
PCS failure right when warranty expired. This should have been covered under battery warranty since it is component of charging system. But, Tesla refused to consider this under battery warranty
Charging power conversion system component fail to take the full capacity the charging station able to give causing very slow charging. Warranty was not covered and costing over $1500 to fix & replace. When asked that this should be Battery warranty, I was turned down and was told that it's not 'part of the battery'. This is safety concern and fire hazard
This is an issue regarding the full self driving software. My car continues to run red lights at which it is already stopped. The light is solid red to the naked eye, and the camera definitely does not show the normal steady blink of a malfunctioning signal. The pitch forward in the video is me slamming on the brakes as the car tries to run the light (about 28 seconds in). I have previously reported this to Tesla on 12/28/21, 8/25/22, 9/21/22, 11/21/22, and 4/24/23. It has happened many more times than that, as I usually don't see a point in reporting the same bug multiple times on the same software version. As far as I know, nothing is being done about this and I have received no acknowledgement of the problem. The [email protected] autoreply states that they forward this information to the correct department. This is, in my opinion,...
Computer failure. The car became unsafe to drive because the screen went completely black and could not be reset. The rear view mirrors would not unfold, the car’s cooling system wouldn’t work, there was no way to see the speedometer or the amount of charge the vehicle had and the vehicle would not charge.
The Tesla was parked and locked unoccupied with all security features enabled. When I returned to the car the front driver's side was completely crumpled with the bodywork torn , like it was reveresed in to. I was gone about 30 minutes. The car gave no notification on the app, the car alarm didn't activate and the sentry mode did not record the incident. All the things they say the car will do. I called Tesla and was told it works 99% of the time ,(but clearly when you need safety and security it doesn't) they stated that if the car gets hit a certain way it can cause the system to shut down /reboot ,so that none of these systems work... Seems wrong that this can be allowed to be the case that not only all the systems fail, that when they do fail there's no backup or way...
My Tesla Model 3 without any warning stopped working suddenly. I could not put the car in drive and there were error messages about climate control and electrical system. I had to get the car towed to the service center as it was blocking my other car in the driveway. The service center in Sunnyvale, CA diagnosed the problem to be a faulty PTC heater and has charged me over $1100 to replace it. I beileve it is quite absurd to have a fault in the HVAC system render the whole vehicle completely immobile and useless. This seems like a serious design flaw and it could lead to serious health or safety concerns.
I am driving on the new FSD beta that Tesla just released to comply with NHTSA's previous recall, version 2022.45.13. Despite the claim that this release has addressed these issues, I experienced these today while driving around my town on city streets and on the open highway: As I approached the stop sign at the end of the exit ramp off the highway to my neighborhood street, the car blew right past the stop sign just like it wasn't there. It did this before the current update as well. While this is improved over previous versions, it still doesn't slow down in advance of a new lower speed limit sign to ensure it's moving at that posted new slower speed by the time it reaches that sign, as it should. As you know, it's illegal, e.g., to continue driving at 45 mph after you've passed a 35 mph sign. But...
Heater suddenly stopped working. Will not produce any heat or defrost windshield. Passenger/Driver safety affected by lack of warmth in extreme cold and visibility while driving with iced windshield. 35,000 miles on well maintained vehicle w no damage or accidents. Dealer states that resistance heater and wire harness will need replaced. No cause identified.
The issue is with autostart, enhanced auto pilot and lane departure warning. I paid for Enhanced auto pilot. This car totally relies on cameras. 1. In the slightest occurrence of rain, it complains about one or more cameras malfunctioning or out of vision. This doesn't happen often in Full Self Driving version. For early adopters of Model3 FSD, manufacturer updated the cameras. However they did not do that for early Enhanced Autopilot customers. 2. For the same reason, on a 3 lane or more highway, on autopilot when one moves from speed most lane and if there is a truck on the slowest lane, the camera shows somehow that the truck is on the middle lane when it is not, and hence the software assumes an impending crash and pulls you back to the speed most lane, giving no time for anyone behind you to think anyone, and leaves yourself...
OEM Chrome on door handles is a thick metallic wrap over plastic. Over time the chrome wrap delaminated on 3 out 4 handles. This results in very sharp metal edge that presents a laceration hazard. Just wanted to share this in case others have this issue. It's not a serious issue but it definitely is unsafe and it might be good to warn others.
looks like "upper control arms Parts" are poorly constructed and Tesla is not able to fix . I've had my 2018 model 3 for a 4.5 years now I notice a squeaking noise coming from the steering wheel and its constantly whenever I turn the wheel. Tesla said to replace upper control arms Parts by owner , even though it was poorly designed .costing about $2800.00.. which is not acceptable . Would you mind take a look at this issue
Hi, I did order Tesla in 2016 and delivered car in June 2018. Beased on the software updates, and recalls , Tesla was not about to full fill any of the recalls. Apart from existing recalls , I did notice couple of other issues with this my car . one of them is unable to configure /activate Cabin camera , even though Camera with pre installed Hardware. I did try to contact Tesla , as per their episode, 2018 Tesla models come with older computer/processor, and it not support Cabin Camera.& I have to pay $1000 +tax in order to make it active. They also said , I did not purchased 'auto pilot feature '. that way camera is not active. but newer models of does work without ' auto pilot feature'. That means older Tesla model3 computers of Tesla' must be recalled, because of poor computer design. Is there...
Hello, The side camera in our Tesla model 3 have stopped working. Because they have stopped working, the GPS, and the car status (360 overhead view) parts also stopped working. This means that we can't use the Enhanced Autopilot with the car. This is a huge issue as the side cameras and the car status are very important for safety. It looks like this is a known problem but Tesla isn't issuing a recall to fix this https://www.cnbc.com/2021/12/06/tesla-is-replacing-faulty-autpilot-cameras-in-some-model-s-x-3-cars.html This started happening in mid-Jan, when our car had 41K miles and 4 years 1 month age. Tesla's warranty only goes 40K miles and 4years
After software update 2022.44.30 PTC heating failed. No warning lights, just failure to keep cabin warm.
The manufacturer pretended the backup camera recall for the vehicle didn’t exist and attempted to charge me for the repair. Even after I pointed out that the recall covered exactly what was wrong they said it wasn’t covered and provided no further information explaining why.
On December 14, 2022, around 5pm, in slowly moving rush hour street traffic, my 2018 Model 3 shut down completely. This happened twice more within a few minutes. The car was towed to the tesla Sacramento Service center. Technicians could find no valid reason for the car shutting down, excepting to say that the driver was not fully seated. I did not change my position in the driver seat. The service advisors could not say how it was determined that the driver was not fully seated. The only mention in the Tesla manual for interference with the driver seat sensors is a caution about using seat covers. I do not have a seat cover.
On December 16, 2022, Tesla made an Over the Air firmware update to my Tesla Model 3. The car's User Interface (UI) screen subsequently began to make erratic and random visualizations. The screen displays motorcycles, trucks and human bodies that are not actually present. The screen fails to display objects, such as other moving vehicles, that are present. The car was towed to the Tesla Sacramento Service center. The technician determined the screen was functioning as expected, and no "fix" exists. The technician also noted the screen's problems will eventually improve over time with firmware updates. The service advisor told me to ignore the screen when driving. The screen is large and within my field of vision. The safety features of the car includes the UI screen to display objects around the car, both while in motion and at rest. The UI screen continues to malfunction.
We're a US Military family and are going to be stationed overseas. The US Army WILL NOT take our Tesla Model 3 into a storage facility while we are gone because there is still an outstanding safety recall notice associate with this vehicle. NHTSA Recall # 22V702. We are leaving in less than two weeks and we can't get our vehicle into storage without all safety recalls being fixed (even though it is only an over-the-air recall). We also can't even sell our car because it is illegal to sell a car that still has unfixed recalls! Argh!!! Can you please put pressure on Tesla to fix this issue and send out an over-the-air fix? We're stuck and stressed right now and we have to go overseas regardless of this Tesla matter being fixed or not. And no, we can't even leave our Tesla with someone without getting a power-of-attorney...
Cabin heating unit failure during winter with temperatures in the 10-20F range, loss of front window defrosting/defogging leading to poor visibility. Problem was confirmed by dealer and heating unit replaced at dealer service center, dealer now has possession of the broken heating unit. There were no indications that the unit was about to fail, until it stopped making hot air and reported a "climate system fault" when trying to select heat/defrost, it stopped working while the car was in use. The heating system stopped working around 12:30 on Friday and did not work all day, tried rebooting the head-end computer to no effect. Started working at 9am the next morning for a few hours, but stopped working while driving around 12:30 again and didn't work for rest of day, worked for an hour or so the next day and again an hour or so the day after that. The vendor...
HVAC Heating system not fuctional (PTC Heater) has failed. It seems through a series of internet searches and forums that the PTC Heater is failing prematurely on earlier builds of the Model 3. Tesla additionally has limited supply/backordered of PTC Heaters therefore would be assumed that the issue is larger than Tesla wants to disclose.
One lovely frigid winter day, my son woke up really ill. We had to take him to the hospital, which is roughly 30 min from our house. In our rush, we didn't grab hardly anything to bring with us. Just a small blanket for him so that we could get out the door. Once we got in the car, we got the lovely "Climate control unavailable due to system fault" error. We have not had heat since. Our son who is only 10 months old had to be driven back and forth in our car. It was only 30 degrees outside, and basically the exact same temp in the car. We had seat heaters, he did not. It was bad. Fast forward, we put in a service request. I started researching the issue and realized this is a widespread issue.We couldn't use our defroster at all either which is a...
There is a recall on the trunk of my car: NHTSA recall: 21V-00D It has been a year and Tesla has not contacted me to perform the inspection or repair on my car
I have been using autopilot on my 30 min commute for the past 4 years with zero major issues. On Sept 20th, 2022 at 5:45pm I was driving on my usual route at 70 mph under autopilot. I tried to disengage with the normal procedure of lifting the right stalk. It did not disengage. I tried moving the steering wheel by changing lanes, and again, it did not disengage. Finally tried to brake, and it did not brake. I was essentially stuck in 70 mph. I then quickly rebooted the car with the 2 scroll bars while driving and after about 1 minute stuck in 70 mph, the system rebooted and I was able to slow down with my brakes. Needless to say, this could have ended horribly if I did not reboot. I called Tesla right away to report it and the rep stated a service adviser will contact...
Water/liquid entering cabin from behind glovebox. Potentially affecting computer and other electronics. Also could affect the AC system and its intake air filtering. Possibly adding mold growth due to the excess moisture entering from the outside. When it rains, the water will gush through into the front passenger’s feet on occasion. This is possibly from pooling water in the intake within the front trunk. When activating the air conditioning in the car after sitting in the rain, it will spill over into the front passenger’s mat. This issue could additionally damage the floor with rust over time if a weather proof mat is not in place. Tesla Service will charge the customer when out of warranty, even though this is an issue that should not occur in any vehicle. Thank you. P.S. photos of puddling water taken from a video made during the occurrence of the issue
Our heater stopped working in very low temperatures . Upon researching, this is a huge problem in cold climates which could be extremely dangerous. Tesla has recalled Tesla cars with heat pumps. This is not just an issue for new models and is an issue in older models as well. It appears this issue may have occurred because of a software update pushed out to fix newer cars Tesla’s with a heat pump. This update is potentially causing the heater in the older Tesla’s without heat pumps to break. Therefore, when the older cars are breaking, in order to stay warm in cold temps Tesla owners are paying $1200+ to fix their heaters due to a pure Tesla issue. We had no warning. Our heat went out. My son was ill with RSV and in fact we were bringing him to the hospital. It was 30 degrees in our car....
on certain model year 2021-2022 Model S and Model X vehicles, model year 2017-2022 Model 3 vehicles and model year 2019-2022 Model Y vehicles to correct performance of automatic window reversal systems to comply with regulatory standards no response from tesla
AT 70000 THE FRONT RIGHT BAR THAT CONNECT TO WHEEL WENT BAD 350 DOLLARS. AT AROUND 90000 MILES THE AC WENT BAD AND THEY SAID IS BECAUSE I USED IT TOO MUCH 4700 DOLLARS AT 110000 THE LID FOR THE CHARGER KEPT OPENING UP AND CLOSING BY ITSELF AT 127000 THE BATTERY RANGE REDUCED SIGNED WENT ON 129000 MAXIMUM CHARGE COULD BE CHARDED 47 PERCENT. AND COULD NOT BE CHARGED MORE THAN WHATEVER IS IN THERE ALREADY
My vehicle, was parked and pulled out of the parking lot on a doing a complete left steering turn, couple of nuts&bolts carrying the vehicle control arm fell to the ground and the entire control arm disengaged out of the shafts. This could have been very fatal, if my family or me were riding the car. Tesla was trying to tell me that saying that, this is caused due to a high impact etc, not doing wheel alignment etc. And they want to charge me $3561+ to fix this shaft to put back the nuts and bolts that fell off from the car.
My vehicle received the Full Self Driving Beta (FSD-B) update Software Version 2022.20.17. I took the vehicle for a ride near my office in The Heights area of Houston, Texas, and when stopped in traffic at a red light briefly placed the vehicle into park to engage the FSD-B via the touchscreen. When I engaged Autopilot with the FSD-B active, the vehicle made a right turn from the MIDDLE lane of the roadway which had just opened into three lanes a short number of feet beforehand crashing into another vehicle causing damage to both vehicles and injury to my hand. It appears the Full Self Driving Computer failed to recognize that the roadway had just changed from two to three lanes whereas there were not vehicles in the third lane until the moment my Tesla Model 3 turned suddenly and aggressively. Had it been less than a second earlier, my...
[XXX] has/is watching me through the in car cabin camera & the 9 cameras surrounding my Tesla. I have proof he has audio recorded me & also has watched me and who knows how many other unsuspecting women, men and minors. This is a clear privacy violation and he needs to be stopped. INFORMATION Redacted PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6).
During use of Full Self Drive vehicle brakes unexpectedly. Sometimes vehicle studder brakes and other times hard brakes. This has caused a concern with drivers following me as well as passengers I'm my car. Also on a two lane road with double yellow while stopped in traffic, vehicle attempts to exit lane to pass stopped vehicle, in essence breaking the law.
On two occasions while on adaptive cruise control, my car slammed on the brakes while driving on the interstate going 65-70 mph. This was terrifying and the car practically stopped in the middle of the road. We are very lucky no one hit us from behind and that we did not lose control.
With NO WARNING, and while on AutoPilot-Full Self Drive, our Tesla TOTALLY HARD AND LONG BRAKED out of nowhere, THRUSTING our necks forward for four seconds until I could disengage the brake, then SLAMMING our heads to the headrest. I have a CERVICAL SPRAIN, WHIPLASH, and a CONCUSSION! I was driving 65mph. I’ve been to the ER, to a chiropractor, and to physical therapy since this incident Sunday, July 31, 2022 at 6:37-6:38pm. On the 405 South. I’ve reported it to Tesla Service who said it was escalated to the Fremont location Engineers to review which takes 2-3 months! I have INJURIES! Phantom braking is usually unwarranted and terrifying but has not HURT ME until this time. I was almost HIT by the car behind us!
The rear back up camera on my vehicle is experiencing intermittent delays in showing a picture. Although there is an open recall on my vehicle that was issued back in December of 2021, Tesla has still not contacted me to advise when my vehicle can be brought into compliance with the recall. When I proactively contacted them earlier today, they stated that they still do not have the part(s) necessary to complete the recall. It seems odd that a vehicle manufacturer can fail--for approximately 8 months and counting--to address an open NHTSA recall without any communication to customers (or their regulator) as to when, exactly, they expect to remedy the issue.
1) Ongoing issue with car braking suddenly when no other cars are ahead of it. 2) When in auto-pilot, the car brakes late when carrying speed. This has happened when the car is less than 1 car length behind the car ahead of it forcing me to disengage and brake hard to avoid a collision. In one incident, I had to swerve the car and drive onto shoulder of the highway to avoid a collision. 3) On 7-16 the the undercarriage cover detached from car while driving on highway.
There was a recall for the Model 3 trunk harness on Dec 21, 2021. Manufacturer Recall Number: TBD NHTSA Recall Number: 21V-00D Recall Status: Recall Incomplete I attempted to schedule a service appointment with Tesla to remedy this situation but they rejected my appointment. It has been more than 6 months and they still have not reached out on fixing this recall.
Intermittently, the main screen that has the map will go haywire, making navigation with the map impossible and putting safety at risk. Even after rebooting the computer (while driving), the issue can persist, making it very difficult to know what speed I'm going due to the issue as it is very distracting. I have video of the latest incident available.
The recent full self driving update that was received approximately one week ago has resulted numerous, substantial, and dangerous Self driving errors. The Vehicle struggles greatly to understand lanes and has on multiple occasions suddenly and without warning jerked the wheel to completely change lanes and then re-jerking the wheel to change back into the Original Lane. There has also been a shocking increase in phantom breaking while driving at highway speeds which is unsafe because other nearby drivers may slam on the brakes. The behavior of the vehicle has a times been so erratic that I could’ve gotten a ticket from an officer. Finally, the vehicle increasingly does not understand lanes and has several times veered into a left turn lane despite having a follow vehicle and despite being on a navigational Straight path, subsequently the vehicle then suddenly jerks the wheel back into the correct lane. This all...
Recall not addressed by Tesla after 6 months
Main screen freezes up while driving multiple times per week requiring reset and unable to control safety items such as defroster.
Tesla refusing to repair car to address the recall issued by NHTSA on Dec 2021.
2018 Tesla Model 3, 87,000 miles. While driving, the display computer went completely black and would not reboot or display any data. Tesla repeatedly rescheduled the repair and it did not take place for three weeks during which time I could not drive safely. There was no heating, AC, defrost, speed limit, navigation, audio alerts, or sound system. When Tesla finally fixed it, they did so by replacing the entire computer at a cost of almost $1800. They never told me why the computer failed. Tesla had similar failures in the Model X and S which were repaired at no cost up to 100K. The NHSTA should issue a recall and require Tesla to pay for all these failures at no cost. This is a huge safety issue.
The enhanced autopilot failed to recognize a divider/Jersey barrier or alert the driver of the obstacle, as the software is advertised and was relied on to do, at an exit ramp and ran into the barrier without any type of maneuver or breaking to avoid the collision causing substantial injury to the driver. This exit is a very busy exit on I-95 with many commuters going to work at this time. It was by sheer luck that no other vehicles were involved. The driver endured an immediate stop from above 50mph to 0 in about a second. As far as I know, no inspection was performed. There were no warning messages, symptoms or problems related prior to the incident.
The horn has failed and been replaced twice in three years. The problem is the placement and design which leads to water getting in and causing corrosion. The first time this happened in late 2019, I had no warning that it was failing or not working until I needed to use it to alert another driver of a potential incident. Now in 2022, I heard the horn had a different tone to it when someone pulled out in front of me. I made an appointment to have it repaired again. Once again, there was corrosion on the horn. I believe this is a safety concern as the horn allows any vehicle to alert other drivers or pedestrians of what could be a bad situation. The Tesla service center did not seem too concerned with this issue and recommended that the horn be used after parking the car when it is...
Other 2018 TESLA MODEL 3 Problem Areas
Suspension
159 complaints
Electrical System
152 complaints
Air Bags
124 complaints
Forward Collision Avoidance Adaptive Cruise Control
124 complaints
Forward Collision Avoidance Automatic Emergency Braking
111 complaints
Seat Belts
97 complaints
Vehicle Speed Control
89 complaints
Service Brakes
85 complaints
Steering
71 complaints
Seats
67 complaints
Structurebody
47 complaints
Visibilitywiper
46 complaints
Forward Collision Avoidance Warnings
37 complaints
Power Train
26 complaints
Wheels
25 complaints
Fuelpropulsion System
23 complaints
Lane Departure Assist
23 complaints
Lane Departure Blind Spot Detection
22 complaints
Exterior Lighting
15 complaints
Lane Departure Warning
14 complaints
Visibility
13 complaints
Back Over Prevention
11 complaints
Engine
9 complaints
Back Over Prevention Warnings
5 complaints
Back Over Prevention Rearview System Braking
4 complaints
Electrical Systemadasautonomousself Driving
4 complaints
Electronic Stability Control Esc
4 complaints
Air Bagssensoroccupant Classification
3 complaints
Back Over Prevention Sensing System Camera
3 complaints
Latcheslockslinkagesdoorslatch
3 complaints
Air Bags Air Bagrestraint Control Modulesoftware
2 complaints
Electrical Systemadasautonomousself Drivingsoftware
2 complaints
Tires
2 complaints
Air Bagssensoroccupant Classificationfront Passenger
1 complaint
Air Bagssrs Malfunction Warning Lamplight
1 complaint
Electrical System12v24v48v Battery
1 complaint
Electrical Systemadas
1 complaint
Electrical Systemadashudcamerasensor
1 complaint
Equipment
1 complaint
Equipmentelectricalinfotainment
1 complaint
Forward Collision Avoidance
1 complaint
Lane Departure Lane Keep Automatic Steering
1 complaint
Latcheslockslinkagesdoorslatch Plate
1 complaint
Latcheslockslinkagesdoorslatchemergency Mechanical Release
1 complaint
Seat Beltsfront
1 complaint
Service Brakes Hydraulic
1 complaint
Structure
1 complaint
Structurebodybumpers
1 complaint
Structurebodydoorhandleexterior
1 complaint
Structurebodyroof And Pillars
1 complaint
Structureframe And Members
1 complaint
Structureframe And Membersunderbody Shields
1 complaint
Visibilitydefrosterdefoggerhvac System
1 complaint