2021 Model 3 Tire Fell Off - Get your bolts checked ASAP

[jjrandorin]

OP, I am pretty sure from other posts you made here that you did not own this car from new. How do you know that whomever owned it before you didnt do something to cause this?


You posted this in November of this year.

I just bought a 2021 Model 3 and it ran a stop sign on FSD. But my wife used it this morning and it stopped her at one.

I think maybe we should uncheck the "Beta" checkboxes?

BTW this is my first post, sorry if this enrages anyone!

Hi hello

Im not trying to marginalize anything, but with that being said, when you are not the first owner of the vehicle, and you dont know the first owner, you dont know the history, or what they may or may not have done, what happened to the vehicle, etc (and no carfax etc is not an end all be all of what happened to a vehicle).

 

[Ptheven]

OP, I am pretty sure from other posts you made here that you did not own this car from new. How do you know that whomever owned it before you didnt do something to cause this?


You posted this in November of this year.


Im not trying to marginalize anything, but with that being said, when you are not the first owner of the vehicle, and you dont know the first owner, you dont know the history, or what they may or may not have done, what happened to the vehicle, etc (and no carfax etc is not an end all be all of what happened to a vehicle).

It's a known problem with these cars. The simple answer is probably the correct one: tesla quality sucks and they did a bad job.


@OP: listen to your wife. She's the logical one.

Don't reward this company by buying another car from them when they've proven they don't deserve your trust.

Escape the cult.

 

[Lindenwood]

It's a known problem with these cars. The simple answer is probably the correct one: tesla quality sucks and they did a bad job.


@OP: listen to your wife. She's the logical one.

Don't reward this company by buying another car from them when they've proven they don't deserve your trust.

Escape the cult.

Are you here to save us all?

 

[Ptheven]

Are you here to save us all?

Some of you are too far gone.

 

[kbecks13]

Guessing the interface tolerance on the threaded section is not quite tight enough to create the interference required to secure the fastener reliably?

Even the best bolts loosen under repeated vibration, in very important applications you typically have a secondary form of retention like a threadlocker or mechanical means of capturing/preventing back off (i.e safety wire) if really important.

The design of this joint seems questionable with the bolt upside down and prone to falling out, plus the fact they are using a inaccessible, spot welded nut to capture it on the sub-frame (which just has an unthreaded through-hole). If that spot welded nut breaks free then you have to replace the entire sub-frame since accessing the nut is basically impossible.

 

[cubicalclang]

Even the best bolts loosen under repeated vibration, in very important applications you typically have a secondary form of retention like a threadlocker or mechanical means of capturing/preventing back off (i.e safety wire) if really important.

The design of this joint seems questionable with the bolt upside down and prone to falling out, plus the fact they are using a inaccessible, spot welded nut to capture it on the sub-frame (which just has an unthreaded through-hole). If that spot welded nut breaks free then you have to replace the entire sub-frame since accessing the nut is basically impossible.

There are no serial production normal people vehicles being sold by Ford, Honda, Toyota, Hyundai with safety wired bolts friend. That’s just not a thing outside of aviation, military, and racing.

 

[Lindenwood]

There are dozens of bolts on any vehicle that could cause catastrophic loss of control if they break free while driving. As mentioned, very few are ever safety-wired or anything (the only ones I have consistently seen are hub nuts or ball joint fasteners).

Realistically, of the millions of Model 3/Y sold, we are at a handful that have actually come loose on their own? Even 30 out of 3,000,000 is a 1/100,000 failure rate…and they genuinely tried to recall all vehicles they thought were affected. Both of my Toyota 4Runners—some of the most reliable vehicles on the planet—have had recalls for issues that also have slim chances of failure with catastrophic results. Vehicles are complicated. It happens.

I could just be blinded by God’s Elon’s allure… or I just recognize that the cars I was cross-shopping (new M3s and Hellcats, and used 911 Turbos) would actually be far less reliable than my M3P…

 

[Lindenwood]

As if on cue, Google thought I’d like this

Brand New 2023 Corvette Z06's Engine Dies After Just 52 Miles | Carscoops

www.carscoops.com

 

[kbecks13]

There are no serial production normal people vehicles being sold by Ford, Honda, Toyota, Hyundai with safety wired bolts friend. That’s just not a thing outside of aviation, military, and racing.

Yea i didn't say there were, the point is that in applications where the bolt falling out has large consequences its quite normal to use secondary retention and in this case it should almost certainly be threadlocker/a patched one-time use bolt.

 

[WyoDude]

They tried to recall what they thought were all affected vehicles. They missed yours. Your part failed in the manner they predicted, and after a day of frustration all is well. This is not an indication that the car is “poorly put together.” Every automobile in the planet has mechanical weak areas—most more than Teslas, in all honesty.

Your car is fine. Before you spin yourself into a heart attack comparing everything to perfection, ask yourself “what options would be better?” I expect you’ll find a very short list of vehicles would give you an overall better ownership experience

Hmm this is an interesting response. Something tells me lindenwood may not be married or have kids. Ha

 

[ucmndd]

I really would like to know if there's videos of Tesla testing what would happen when a fully inflated tire goes under the car at 80+ MPH - I would feel more comfortable knowing it wouldn't flip the car. If they would show me that, I would feel much better.

First, I'm sorry this happened to you, or anyone for that matter. Scary, and not confidence inspiring to say the least.

It has to be said though, your wheel did not "fall off". The wheel was not "completely disconnected from the car". One of the two lower control arms had one end fail. The wheel was still connected to the car by at minimum:

* The second lower control arm
* The upper control arm
* The strut and spring assembly
* The front sway bar
* The steering linkage
* The CV axle (if AWD)

As I said - scary, yes. Could have resulted in a loss of control? Certainly. "fully inflated tire goes under the car at 80+mph and causes it to flip through the air?" Not a chance. The fix you describe as rebuilding the "entire bottom and frontend of the car" was essentially replacing those two bolts and the plastic undercarriage panel (though I'd be interested for sure in seeing your service invoice and how they describe things).

Glad it was a non-event. Safety is important, but so is a reasonable understanding and acceptance of relative risk. Driving is dangerous for MANY MANY reasons, most of which are far more common and likely to occur than this particular failure. Yet we all still strap our five year olds in, usually multiple times per day.

 

[stopcrazypp]

First, I'm sorry this happened to you, or anyone for that matter. Scary, and not confidence inspiring to say the least.

It has to be said though, your wheel did not "fall off". The wheel was not "completely disconnected from the car". One of the two lower control arms had one end fail. The wheel was still connected to the car by at minimum:

* The second lower control arm
* The upper control arm
* The strut and spring assembly
* The front sway bar
* The steering linkage
* The CV axle (if AWD)

As I said - scary, yes. Could have resulted in a loss of control? Certainly. "fully inflated tire goes under the car at 80+mph and causes it to flip through the air?" Not a chance. The fix you describe as rebuilding the "entire bottom and frontend of the car" was essentially replacing those two bolts and the plastic undercarriage panel (though I'd be interested for sure in seeing your service invoice and how they describe things).

Glad it was a non-event. Safety is important, but so is a reasonable understanding and acceptance of relative risk. Driving is dangerous for MANY MANY reasons, most of which are far more common and likely to occur than this particular failure. Yet we all still strap our five year olds in, usually multiple times per day.

Yeah, I remember from the recall (given OP mentioned it was same issue as recall) that there were still plenty of links connecting the tire to the car even with that bolt off. The way the OP described it, I thought the actual wheel fell off completely, so I was confused (as it seems like a different issue than recall, like some others that mentioned that maybe the wheel hub fell out).

Like similar to what happened with the bZ4X:
Toyota Recalls bZ4X As Wheels "May Fall Off"

 

[Lindenwood]

Hmm this is an interesting response. Something tells me lindenwood may not be married or have kids. Ha

Actually, I just choose to focus on the positives of life rather than wasting my time complaining on the internet . Sure, I have noticed a couple of panel gaps well after purchase (because I don’t care, because nobody would notice if they hadn’t been scouring the internet looking for reasons to not like Teslas); I have developed a couple creaks here and there; and occasionally my phone-as-key doesn’t work or I need to restart the screen to get Spotify to work.

But again, zooming out a bit, stuff goes wrong with very complex machines. For the most part, though, this complex mechanical machine has overall provided a far more pleasurable ownership experience than most others I could have chosen.

 

[WyoDude]

Actually, I just choose to focus on the positives of life rather than wasting my time complaining on the internet . Sure, I have noticed a couple of panel gaps well after purchase (because I don’t care, because nobody would notice if they hadn’t been scouring the internet looking for reasons to not like Teslas); I have developed a couple creaks here and there; and occasionally my phone-as-key doesn’t work or I need to restart the screen to get Spotify to work.

But again, zooming out a bit, stuff goes wrong with very complex machines. For the most part, though, this complex mechanical machine has overall provided a far more pleasurable ownership experience than most others I could have chosen.

Panel gaps, creaks and your phone key not working 100% of the time are way different than your tire coming off or an important bolt failing due to improper assembly.

I can definitely agree on the perspective as a whole regarding people on here complaining about every little thing but this one is in a tier of legitimacy.

And being dismissive of someone’s concerns about this type of issue as if it was Spotify not loading properly is one of the other terrible mindsets prevalent on here. That’s not “just looking at the positive”.

 

[rpiotro]

...Escape the cult.

So what are you doing here?

 

[rpiotro]

OP, I am pretty sure from other posts you made here that you did not own this car from new. How do you know that whomever owned it before you didnt do something to cause this?


You posted this in November of this year.


Im not trying to marginalize anything, but with that being said, when you are not the first owner of the vehicle, and you dont know the first owner, you dont know the history, or what they may or may not have done, what happened to the vehicle, etc (and no carfax etc is not an end all be all of what happened to a vehicle).

Don't even get me started on CarFax. They should be sued out of existence.

 

[BigNick]

At the first report of this occurrence, if I were the TechnoKing, I would immediately issue a TSB requiring blue Loctite to be used on these bolts. (Edit: I mean on the assembly line)

If the problem persisted, red Loctite. They’re not bolts that normally have to be removed as part of routine maintenance. Add 0.1 hours to the book rate of the job to compensate the need to use a torch to heat the bolts prior to removing them. And also specify new bolts and Loctite for reassembly.

(I don’t work for Loctite or Henkel Corp.)

 

[Lindenwood]

Panel gaps, creaks and your phone key not working 100% of the time are way different than your tire coming off or an important bolt failing due to improper assembly.

I can definitely agree on the perspective as a whole regarding people on here complaining about every little thing but this one is in a tier of legitimacy.

And being dismissive of someone’s concerns about this type of issue as if it was Spotify not loading properly is one of the other terrible mindsets prevalent on here. That’s not “just looking at the positive”.

Again. It is a known issue and there is a recall. There are maybe a handful of cars on the planet where the maker got everything right and never needed to recall it for anything. As mentioned, both of my 4Runners had recalls for things that have killed people (a failing ball joint on my 3rd gen, and the shrapnel-producing airbag on my 5th gen). Still, when I bought the 5th gen, it was statistically the most likely vehicle to make it past 300,000 miles in the US.

If you or anyone thinks the Model 3 is inherently unsafe—despite it statistically and scientifically being one of the safest cars on the planet—sell it and buy something else. You aren’t going to change anyone’s mind about it.

 

[WyoDude]

Again. It is a known issue and there is a recall. There are maybe a handful of cars on the planet where the maker got everything right and never needed to recall it for anything. As mentioned, both of my 4Runners had recalls for things that have killed people (a failing ball joint on my 3rd gen, and the shrapnel-producing airbag on my 5th gen). Still, when I bought the 5th gen, it was statistically the most likely vehicle to make it past 300,000 miles in the US.

If you or anyone thinks the Model 3 is inherently unsafe—despite it statistically and scientifically being one of the safest cars on the planet—sell it and buy something else. You aren’t going to change anyone’s mind about it.

But according to OP, this wasn’t a vehicle included in the recall, and thus the reason for the post and being somewhat upset with Tesla. Which all makes sense to me. I don’t see anyone on this thread arguing they are unsafe across the board or trying to convince anyone of that, I’m certainly not. Which then is confusing why you are arguing against things not being said.

 

[jjrandorin]

But according to OP, this wasn’t a vehicle included in the recall, and thus the reason for the post and being somewhat upset with Tesla. Which all makes sense to me. I don’t see anyone on this thread arguing they are unsafe across the board or trying to convince anyone of that, I’m certainly not. Which then is confusing why you are arguing against things not being said.

I am not @Lindenwood , but I read the responses from them in this thread as a reaction to the poster in post #22 (who is actually implying that these cars are not safe) and the OP whose first post is somewhat intimating in a round about way that everyone needs to check this, because its inherently unsafe in their opinion.

I personally am sidestepping both opinions, other than to say that the OP did not buy the car new so has no idea of how it was taken care of, what was done, etc.