Front Suspension Control Arm problems of the 2013 Tesla Model S

Rear passanger control arm cracked and broke as I was driving on the freeway. Tire began to wobble and make driving unsafe.

My vehicle started making some loud creaking/squeaky noises when turning and going over bumps at any speed or parked. I had it inspected by a Tesla service center and they said the left control arm is starting to fail and should be replaced. They also recommended replacing the fore link assembly to address some rattling noise that was going on also. I recently read that Tesla had issued a recall in china for this problem for the Model S and is currently investigating the issue in the us. I would like to add my vehicle to this investigation as it seems that I'm being affected by this problem.

Changed the suspension components before full failure occurred. Car was brought in due to safety concerns, technicians noted the entire suspension system was on verge of collapse and not safe to drive. Under their service bulletin they replaced the rear control arms as a good will gesture and charged for the front upper and lower control arms. There is a design flaw for this suspension system and the manufacturer is refusing to acknowledge their flaw, leaving users unaware and with the potential for severe loss of life.

Here is a Tesla Model S in the junkyard. . Read more...

While slowly backing car up in driveway, the left rear lower control arm unexpectedly failed and the suspension collapsed with the wheel cambered outward at 30 degrees or so. The wheel was trapped in the wheel well and unable to rotate, and related suspension parts including a brake line and the air spring module were damaged. If this had happened at speed the locked-up rear wheel would have caused loss of control with serious consequences. There is an existing Tesla service bulletin, sb 19-31-001, which states: "on certain Model S vehicles, either lower rear control arm might crack, causing excessive negative camber of the rear suspension. " it states that the correction replace both lh and rh lower rear control arm assemblies with updated parts. " this describes exactly what happened with my vehicle. The circular, cast aluminum part of the arm which contains a large bushing at the outboard end of the control arm cracked and failed so that the bushing was no longer held by the arm. Under the vehicle two pieces of the cast aluminum part were found. These broken parts were the result of two cracks in the assembly. One crack has evidence of corrosion, suggesting that it occurred months before the unit failed; the other crack shows bare metal indicating that it just occurred. The Tesla sb states that this defect is a "known non-safety-related condition. " I cannot possibly see how this is a "non-safety-related" issue -- if this failure had occurred at speed it could have been catastrophic. Tesla service has quoted almost $4000 for repair, but this does not include replacement of the control arm on the other side of the vehicle per the service bulletin -- in other words, they are ignoring the bulletin. Others on the Tesla forums are having exactly the same control arm failures. The situation is unnerving and discouraging.

This is another complaint about the deadly weakness of Tesla suspensions. Please note that I have used a substitute VIN since the VIN of the affected car is unavailable. This should not matter as this is a systemic failure affecting every Tesla on the roads. Here is a thread on the official Tesla motors forum which only allows posts by verified owners. Https://forums. Tesla. Com/forum/forums/rear-lower-control-arm-failed the latest in a long string of failures is reported here : natecval | July 14, 2020 I had an nearly identical issue! rear passenger suspension failure. After normal drive home from work with nothing out of the ordinary happening. I put the car in reverse and began to back up towards my driveway and the wheel tire nearly fell off. Very unnerving since I was on the freeway over the weekend traveling 85 mph, thank god this didn't happen then. I was able to pull up my dash cam footage and see the exact moment the part cam flying out from under my car. Then drove back and found it on the road. With our other vehicle. Https://youtu. Be/ag022fhsz7m pictures- 2013 Tesla s85 rear lower control arm catastrophic failure. Https://imgur. Com/a/0h47aym this is incontrovertible proof that Tesla suspensions are breaking and putting lives at risk. I have copied the pictures referred to and they are attached to this complaint. Contrary to the claims made by some commentators on that thread this is not the result of abuse or neglect. It is a crack that is the predictable result of poor quality casting, bad design and utter lack of quality control. I strongly urge you to investigate this issue immediately. I thank you keef.

We own a 2013 Tesla Model S 85, rear wheel drive, no autopilot. As vehicle aged, the steering was noticeably vague and the vehicle became "darty" on the highway, seemingly wanting to drive out of the current lane on its own. This dartiness became worse and worse over time, and also was worse when accelerating or decelerating. We first alerted the dealer of the problem in Aug 2019, and they replaced few components in the front suspension (both upper control arms and the right forelink) and charged us $1571+tax for parts and labor. The steering seemed a little better for a while, but in Jan 2020 we brought the car back in with concerns about vague steering and the dealer recommended a wheel alignment, which we paid for. The alignment yielded no improvement and the car became increasingly difficult to drive on the highway, requiring constant steering adjustments to keep in its lane. We brought the car back to the dealer in may 2020, and by this time the dealer verbally agreed that the car was not safe to drive in its current state. They replaced both rear lower control arm assemblies and charged us $1382+tax, but this still did not resolve the dartiness. We returned to the dealer later in may 2020, and they recommended replacing nearly every other suspension part, including both rear toe links, both rear upper links, both front aft links, the front fore link that wasn't previously replaced. The cost for this was a $1870+tax. Fortunately, the steering issues did not result in any accidents. Since this last repair, the car now drives relatively normally for a 7 1/2 year old car. We are reporting our experience after we learned that the NHTSA is investigating a series of other suspension-related concerns with Tesla Model S cars. We believe it is unreasonable for a car to become unsafe to drive in 7 years subjected only to normal personal use.

Front right, upper control arm failed on right turn on a flat road. Traveling in neighbor streets at <30 mph. No previous accident occurred.

Front suspension control arm disconnected, dropping body onto tire. This happened at low speed in a parking lot. Tesla replaced the control arm.