Car veers to the left during hard acceleration, to the right when the throttle is released

[artsci]

For the past several weeks my car lurches to the left on hard acceleration then to the right when I let off the throttle. I found a thread on the official Tesla forum that indicates this may be caused by a loose lower ball joint.

Any other ideas what this may be?

This concerns me as it could be a serious safety issue. To that end I'm having the front suspension checked out tomorrow by a local shop that I trust. Ball joints, control arms -- the whole shebang.

If major repairs are needed I'll take the car to my service center -- I have the extended warranty.

 

[Drewflux]

Artsci, do you know if the Tesla paint shop had your subframe out during repair? Or is this something new ish? It realy sounds like an alignment issue due to something flexing under load. I would also be looking at the integral link for excessive play.

 

[mongo]

For the past several weeks my car lurches to the left on hard acceleration then to the right when I let off the throttle. I found a thread on the official Tesla forum that indicates this may be caused by a loose lower ball joint.

Any other ideas what this may be?

This concerns me as it could be a serious safety issue. To that end I'm having the front suspension checked out tomorrow by a local shop that I trust. Ball joints, control arms -- the whole shebang.

If major repairs are needed I'll take the car to my service center -- I have the extended warranty.

If you have RWD it is more likely the rear suspension than the front due to happening under varying load. Possibly the left rear wheel shifting forward under load whereas the right rear is pushing the car forward first.

 

[Ande]

In any case, any suspension behaviour like that should be fixed.

 

[Zythryn]

My first guess would be alignment. Had this happen with my roadster.
I hope you have already taken it in to have it looked at?

 

[artsci]

It was fixed today at a local shop. Won’t know details until tomorrow but will post when I pick up the car and receive the repair invoice. All I know now is that it was a loose nut in one of the upper left front suspension pieces. They also had to realign the front.

Details tomorrow.

 

[artsci]

I was wrong about the source of the problem in my previous post. @ Mongo was close to being right. The nut on my left rear adjustable camber link had loosened so the rear camber was out of wack and the rear alignment was way off. With the nut tightened down and the alignment reset to spec, the problem is gone. My service center likely would have refused to deal with the problem (the adjustable rear camber link is an aftermarket mod). Better yet the repairs cost me nothing as the shop that did the repairs had done my last alignment and felt they were responsible for the problem.