general problems of the 2023 Tesla Model 3 - part 2

Model 3 steering assistance just stopped working. The car was immobilized and towed.

The car lost all adaptive driving features and power steering.

Vehicle started displaying warning messages as I pulled out of garage - "steering assist reduced" and "lane departure avoidance features unavailable. " afterwards, I noticed vibration and clicking sensation while turning steering wheel and driving at low speeds. I performed a software reset but messages were still there. Then I performed controls, safety, power off procedure. Messages disappeared, but steering still felt jerky. This happened when the vehicle had approximately 2,300 miles on it. A few days later, when exiting the garage, steering wheel was initially locked. It then "popped" when I applied gentle pressure to turn the wheel and the warning messages returned. Steering felt stuttery afterwards. I scheduled service appointment with Tesla. They replaced steering rack. I have had no problems since. Currently at 3,700 miles.

Steering issue will be calling Tesla service about this problem. Put the vehicle in reverse to back out of a driveway and a message stating “steering assist reduced” appeared on the display. Did not back up; could not turn the steering wheel. Put vehicle in park and exited. After ten minutes put the vehicle in reverse, no message, and was able to steer again.

Summary: fsd malfunctioned, failed to disengage, causing loss of steering control, thus causing car to steer into wrong lane and resulting in an accident. Tesla service center refused to inspect unless car is fixed. Car was sent to crash champions ( autobody shop) and was quoted $35k to fix. Car was deemed as totaled by Tesla insurance. No response from fsdbeta@Tesla. Com I suspect that the latest fsd software update has caused my car to lose control. Time of incident: 19:28 pm location : wildwood Ave, sunnyvale Ave. Entering from lawrence expressway. Weather condition: clear night, well lit. Low traffic. What happened:? my car has been driving in fsd on lawrence expressway and it was doing everything correctly. Approaching that upcoming tight bend, the fsd slowed down the car, and I took over by steering the steering wheel to the right to deactivate fsd and taking the tight turn, right before the white rows of triangles on the street. At this moment, the steering wheel forcibly turned to the opposite direction (I. E. Left). I tried to correct the steering wheel by turning right even more, but the steering wheel wasn’t responding to my input for a split second. At this moment, my car is now on the wrong lane of wildwood Ave and my car finally responded to my steering input. I had to swerve in the opposite direction to avoid the incoming traffic and ended up brushing against an SUV, followed by an impact on the curb, before finally slowing down. Seeing that there was incoming traffic from the back, I drove down to a residential street to park my car for safety reason. The SUV driver called the police to handle the situation, we had our information and testimonies recorded down. I have already followed the safe practices of driving with fsd according to the manual, but in this situation, I am not certain which technology is responsible for causing my car to override my manual steering input. This led to me to question the driver safety systems in this car.

Steering is very jerky/choppy - vehicle is hard to keep straight while driving on freeway.

1. Power steering diminished as I was driving. As the steering wheel was turned their was a "clicking feel" , more than a vibration. I drove slowly and safely returned home. The message on the screen was "steering assist reduced" steering may require increased effort. 2. I did fear for my safety and the safety of others on the road because I did not have full normal control of the steering wheel. I slowed speed to 20mph and carefully made my way home. 3. Yes, they determined my steering rack needed to be replaced. 4. Tesla service inspected the steering rack and determined it needed to be replaced. 5. The message displayed on my Tesla screen was "steering assist reduced, steering may require increased effort".

Lost power steering while driving. Luckily this occurred while I was going less than 5mph and near a parking lot, so was able to muscle the steering to a safe place. Received a warning from the car that “steering assist is reduced” randomly. Luckily we were going slowly and able to find a safe place to park, so my wife and kids were safe. Could barely turn the wheel enough to park safely. Once restarted a few hours later power steering worked again. Car has now been in a manufacturers shop for a week to try and figure out the issue.

I parked the vehicle. When I returned to it and was about to drive, the steering wheel became too stiff and I had to apply extreme manual force to turn. The code ui_a020 appeared and the message “steering assistance reduced. Steering may required increased effort. ” it happened twice on the same day. I had to stop driving the car.

I received an error message while driving that the steering assist was turned off, and I was unable to the car. This has happened twice in the last week.

The power steering failed while I was backing out of a parking space. I was unable to turn the wheel and almost ran into another car. I was able to use all my strength to turn the wheel and took it to the dealership Tesla said "there was a fault within the steering rack that caused the power steering to go out, therefore we had to replace this part" there was no warning messages about the problem before, during or after the steering went out. If this were to happen to anyone that did not have significant strength, it could have caused a major accident. If it went out while I was driving on any other road, I would have been in an accident for sure.

Power steering stopped working when the car starts up, cannot steer the wheel at all in pdnr. Basically cannot steer the car at all and it is not drivable.

Steering wheel froze while attempting to turn across opposing traffic into shopping center nearly resulting in an accident. Was able to forcefully turn into a parking lot and turn off the car. Steering notification came on. After ten minutes car seemed to resume back to normal. This caused insurmountable anxiety and I was unable to return to work. Car was towed to service center and estimated repair will take 2-3 days. This was a brand new car I bought for safety yet the safety of me and my children were jeopardized!.

Power steering is intermittently and unpredictably failing. The issue has occurred approximately 10 times in total and has occurred both while exiting parking spots and while driving on the road. The vehicle is available for inspection upon request and has been given to Tesla service center for review. The service representative was not able to reproduce the issue and the vehicle was returned. Especially while driving, loss of power steering could force me into an accident, as I'm not able to control the vehicle in a reliable manner. When the issue occurs, I receive an error that says "steering assist reduced, steering may require increased effort. ".

Loss of power steering. Car started normally, but with no warning from the car, the steering wheel could be turned only with extreme effort. I tried to make a circle around the house, but barely avoided hitting other parked cars and called Tesla service.

On 09/11/2023 at approx. 6am cst, my wife went to a nearby walmart store for groceries. As she was parking the car in the parking space, the car started to accelerate by itself and went around the parking lot in random directions. She couldn't control the steering and brake despite the continuous tries. It was such a traumatic experience, and the car went on to hit couple of other parked cars and the cart return stations in the parking lot. After few seconds of random self-drive in multiple directions of parking lot, it finally came to a halt as it got on a curb that flattened the tires. By god's grace, the car stopped right before entering the main busy road due to flat tires and also no pedestrians at that time. Otherwise, the situation could have been worse as the car was going in an uncontrollable manner. The incident was reported to 911 and they got the car towed to a towing garage. We got the incident report from the police department. They also have the cctv footage of this incident. We also have the dashcam videos recorded by Tesla and pictures taken after the incident. I will provide any supporting documentation you might need to understand this incident and address the issue. We are trying to come out of the trauma from this incident and would like to bring this issue to the attention of all concerned parties for next steps.

We picked up a brand new car and as soon as we drove it off the lot, we noticed that the steering was pulling hard to the right as if the steering wheel were too loose, especially at high speeds on the highway. There were never any alerts or warnings about this issue in the car. But if we took our hands off the wheel, it would have driven off the road fairly quickly. We immediately reported it to Tesla since it was a new car and dropped it off for servicing. They realigned the car, but again after driving it it was still noticeably pulling to the right. We brought it in again and they did another realignment that ended up not making a difference. We brought in a 3rd time and they manually realigned it and tightened some bolts and said that should fix it, and again the problem persisted. So the 4th time we brought it in, we said this is on the verge of lemon-status, so they ended up replacing the whole steering rack and that ended up fixing the issue finally. Luckily they didn't charge us given it was under warranty and reported immediately. But given the recent news on your investigation into related steering issues, we wanted to flag this. Tesla clearly has quality control issues and didn't address the issue until we pressed them after 3 visits to the shop.

Lots of power steering. Unable to move vehicle…extremely unsafe.

Steering wheel could not turn after after parked and tried to drive again. Car could only go straight forward or backward. Also tried to restart the whole car computer, problem still persisted. The car screen displayed error message ui_a020 steering assist reduced, steering may require increased effort.

Car lost power steering without warning.

I was driving and the power steering stopped functioning. The car had just over 1000 miles and both the lane departure avoidance and steering assistance cut out. Restarting the start would bring it back on temporarily but it would cut out again after a minute or two.

While driving yesterday night, I lost steering control. I stopped the car in the middle of the street and tried again but the steering wheel was very stiff. It took so much effort to change the lane and find a safe place to park. It was a scary moment for myself and my 2 kids. I was about to crash into other cars. A message appeared “ui_a020 - steering assist reduced”.

Steering wheel got jammed while driving on highway. Stopped vehicle on rode side and called for Tesla road side assistance. Tesla towed my vehicle and replaced steering rack. Invoice attached for details.

The contact owns a 2023 Tesla Model 3. The contact stated that while driving at various speed, the steering wheel would lock in place; as a result, excessive force would be required to steer the vehicle to left. A "steering assist reduced steering may require increased effort' message would appear on the contact's Smart phone but not on the vehicle's home screen. The contact sent a message to Tesla through the app; however, the contact had yet to hear a response. The vehicle had yet to be diagnosed or repaired. The failure mileage was 4,369.

The contact owns a 2023 Tesla Model 3. The contact stated while making a right turn the steering wheel became stiff and the warning message saying "automatic steering may not be able to be engage” display. The vehicle was towed to the dealer, but the vehicle was not diagnosed. The manufacturer was contacted that sent the towed that towed the vehicle to the dealer. The failure mileage was 1,859.

Steering wheel locked up while operating not allowing me to turn the wheel. Loss of power steering and control. Screen displaying error "steering assist reduced" when in reality was completely unable to steer. Vehicle still powered and accelerated however no control over steering.

After charging my car at a charging center, the steering assist reduced message appeared on the screen. Then the power steering gave out and I couldn't turn the steering wheel. I had to get the car towed to a service center.

While traveling on a busy interstate highway, my Tesla 3 presented four errors on the control screen: automatic emergency braking disabled, power reduced, vehicle shutting down and unable to drive. The left hand side of the screen flashed red and instructed me to pull over safely. The car was immediately slowing down, and as I was in heavy traffic, I was unable to pull over to the shoulder safely. I turned on my hazard lights and performed a soft reset of the car - which caused my hazard lights to turn off, all while cars were honking and whizzing around me. After the car reset, I was able to drive a short distance, with enough speed, to cross several lanes of traffic and come to a stop on the shoulder emergency lane of an exit ramp. The car is only 6 months old, with 4000 miles, but had to be towed to the Tesla service center. The problem has been diagnosed as a problem with the rear drive unit inverter and will be replaced under warranty. While I appreciate the resolution and that it will be fixed, it could have been a very serious situation and caused an accident. Thankfully, I was able to get to safety and wait to be towed.

2023 Tesla Model 3 with 3,000 miles. No accidents or impact with potholes or curbs. Started vehicle, put in drive, pressed accelerator, car went forward but would not turn. Steering wheel was stuck in straight position. I stopped the vehicle and put it in park, same symptom of stuck steering wheel. My wife (passenger) and I did not notice any error lights or messages. I exited the vehicle walked away to trigger automatic locking. Returned to the vehicle, started it , and tested steering. Steering was free. Took approximately 5 mile test drive. Steering was erratic, making small movements to the left and right. At times it felt the car would veer offroad or into oncoming traffic. Contacted support. Dealer dispached tow truck to return vehicle for inspection. Was informed by dealer that no loaner vehicles are available, they only offered uber credits.

The contact owns a 2023 Tesla Model 3. The contact stated that while attempting to make a left turn, the vehicle experienced gradual loss of power steering assist. The contact veered to the side of the road and contacted roadside assistance. The contact turned off and restarted the vehicle, and the steering wheel responded as needed; however, the contact stated that the failure had been reoccurring while driving. The power steering assist warning light was illuminated. The manufacturer was notified of the failure. The vehicle was not diagnosed nor repaired. The failure mileage was 834.

Steering requires notably more effort to turn left than right, particularly as speed increases, putting vehicle control in question. Service center was able to duplicate issue, but claims (after four failed service attempts) that the behavior is within limits, and "normal because the vehicle has 20" wheels. " the service center claims that engineers from the company remotely inspected the steering system. There have been no associated warnings or indications, but the issue has been present since the vehicle was delivered with 3 miles on the odometer.

The contact owns a 2023 Tesla Model 3. The contact stated that while driving at an undisclosed speed, the steering wheel stiffened and became difficult to maneuver. The contact then stated that he turned off and restarted the vehicle when the steering assist reduced warning light illuminated and a messaged displayed “steering increase required effort”. The dealer was notified of the failure and an appointment was scheduled. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. The manufacturer was not notified of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 3,000.

I picked up a new Tesla Model 3 on July 29, 2023. On July 31, I received a steering reduced alert as I was backing out of my driveway and could not move the steering wheel. After I did a hard power off, the alert went away. I called Tesla service, and was told that this was not a typical issue but to schedule a service appointment and cancel if the issue did not recur before the next available date (Aug. 23). Two days later, on Aug. 3, I saw news articles about an NHTSA investigation into the same steering issue in 2023 Model 3s. I called Tesla service again, and now was told that they could not say that my car was safe to drive, and that there was no "official" response from the company. I was directed to emergency assistance, which told me that the car was safe to drive at least to the milford, CT service center, and noted that had I waited until Aug. 23, the alert would have been deleted from the system. I brought the car to the service center on Aug. 4. I was told that my steering rack needed to be replaced, and they gave me a loaner because the repair would take a few days. Soon after I drove back home (which is 30 min. Away), I received notice saying that the service was complete. The service center did not give a coherent explanation for why they did not replace the steering rack and the correction codes did not line up. I told Tesla that I wanted to return the car, including bc it seemed like Tesla was trying not to perform an expensive repair they had listed themselves in their own documents with NHTSA scrutiny on this issue. I received no response, but was told by td bank that Tesla had agreed to a flat cancellation on my auto loan as of Aug. 9, with title to be reverted back to the dealership, and to discuss next steps with Tesla. I then contacted Tesla to return the car and obtain my deposit, and received no response. Then td told me that Tesla reapplied for the loan on Aug. 22, without my consent. This whole ordeal has been a nightmare.

On 7/21/2023, I received an alert saying “steering assist reduced”. I could not turn the steering wheel. Luckily I was parked and trying to back out of my spot. The steering assist came back after getting in and out of the vehicle. Contacted Tesla about this and they told me to monitor the situation. I took delivery of my vehicle 7/20/2023 around 3pm est. So I had the car less than 24hrs.

After 1. 5 months of ownership (I purchased the car end of may 2023) the steering wheel appeared tilted to the right, and car pulling to the wright when driving. I have taken the car to Tesla service centers for 4 separate service appointments. They have conducted numerous alignments, adjustments, replaced front lateral links, retorquing but this has not resolved the issue. The car still pulls to the right. The car currently has 3000 miles. There were no incidents or car accidents.