Cracked forelink?

[FastRedCar]

I just joined the broken forelink club. My 2015 S P90D developed an erratic low "thump" sound from the front end while driving home - fortunately on low speed streets. Next day I planned to take it to the service center to have it checked, but while backing out of the driveway, turning the wheel to the right to join the street, it made an ominous crunching sound and shut off. Finally, the car rebooted and I slowly moved up the driveway and stopped. When I turned the wheel to the right, I could see the tire hitting the rear of the wheel well - the car again shut itself off. I called Tesla roadside service, a flatbed came, the car rebooted long enough to straighten the wheels and get the car on the truck. The truck driver said he had seen this before, and that whole wheel wells had disintegrated.

They replaced both forelinks with "Improved" parts. It is frightening to think of what would have happened at 75 mph on the freeway!

I'm not sure how much I trust the repair from what I have read in this forum, but I will certainly keep an ear out for low-frequency thumps - another vigilance task. This should have been a recall. Shame on Tesla . . .

 

[JenniferQ]

I just joined the broken forelink club. My 2015 S P90D developed an erratic low "thump" sound from the front end while driving home - fortunately on low speed streets. Next day I planned to take it to the service center to have it checked, but while backing out of the driveway, turning the wheel to the right to join the street, it made an ominous crunching sound and shut off. Finally, the car rebooted and I slowly moved up the driveway and stopped. When I turned the wheel to the right, I could see the tire hitting the rear of the wheel well - the car again shut itself off. I called Tesla roadside service, a flatbed came, the car rebooted long enough to straighten the wheels and get the car on the truck. The truck driver said he had seen this before, and that whole wheel wells had disintegrated.

They replaced both forelinks with "Improved" parts. It is frightening to think of what would have happened at 75 mph on the freeway!

I'm not sure how much I trust the repair from what I have read in this forum, but I will certainly keep an ear out for low-frequency thumps - another vigilance task. This should have been a recall. Shame on Tesla . . .

Same model and year as mine. Same exact problem. I was on the freeway at the time mine cracked but luckily was in stop-and-go traffic.

 

[morbidz]

just joined the club with my 2016 85D with ~51K on the clock. Have to say that Tesla service is outstanding providing me with enough uber credits to last the weekend and beyond. They are replacing both fore links.

 

[ADEEL421]

So I experienced a similar issue. Noise from suspension and then one day backing up and hearing a clunking sound. Looked under and the same exact broken link. had to get it towed to Tesla. They first asked me “oh how did it happen? Did you hit a pothole”. I was like are you kidding me. As if they don’t know about this issue.
anyways they took 3days and replaced both side links. See pic of broken link and the parts number they used. I’m just hoping this is a revised version and won’t break again.
Also I wonder if they are doing allignment after they change this part as it’s a suspension part. I hope so!

 

[mongo]

Also I wonder if they are doing allignment after they change this part as it’s a suspension part. I hope so!

Per your first image, the part description calls out an alignment check, so I'd expect they do.

 

[Watts_Up]

So I experienced a similar issue. Noise from suspension and then one day backing up and hearing a clunking sound.
Looked under and the same exact broken link. had to get it towed to Tesla.
They first asked me “oh how did it happen? Did you hit a pothole”.
I was like are you kidding me. As if they don’t know about this issue.
anyways they took 3days and replaced both side links. See pic of broken link and the parts number they used.
I’m just hoping this is a revised version and won’t break again.
Also I wonder if they are doing allignment after they change this part as it’s a suspension part. I hope so!

Don't there was a recall for it?
Would this be covered by the warranty?

 

[cousin_IT]

Didn't any of you noticed odd driving behaviour of the car? Mine's had a noticable pull to the right, brought it in and they replaced the fore link. Still wonder if I was lucky or if this was unrelated to the issues described here.

 

[Gtech]

Didn't any of you noticed odd driving behaviour of the car? Mine's had a noticable pull to the right, brought it in and they replaced the fore link. Still wonder if I was lucky or if this was unrelated to the issues described here.

When you drive with a broken forelink when braking your wheel will be grinding into your wheel well so you would definitely be triggered by that sound

 

[ADEEL421]

Don't there was a recall for it?
Would this be covered by the warranty?

No recall in US. But they replaced it under warranty

 

[aerodyne]

No recall in US. But they replaced it under warranty[/QUOTE

But there is a service bulletin. You can find it under Manufacturer Communications on the NTSB site..

 

[ADEEL421]

watch this video...he showed the broken part..many people had suspension issue.

 

[aerodyne]

watch this video...he showed the broken part..many people had suspension issue.

It is insane the crap they tried to pull on the owner to avoid paying towing, work, and alignment, if that was even done!

The service bulletin clearly indicates this is a design or manufacturing flaw.

 

[KDriver]

Has anyone been charged the cost of replacement? I was charged for one, which was cracked just like everyone else’s here, and they “voluntarily” as an act of “goodwill” replaced the other. This just happened. I thought they should cover it in full, as it is clearly a defective part - this shouldn’t happen under any circumstances. They refused to do so (and the manager was quite brash and rude about it, which was totally surprising to me as they’ve always been nice).
But this got me wondering, how often is this happening? Are they generally charging people for it, or covering it? I have found out that in China, Tesla was forced to do a recall and replace the fore links because of this very problem.

 

[ccdisce]

Has anyone been charged the cost of replacement? I was charged for one, which was cracked just like everyone else’s here, and they “voluntarily” as an act of “goodwill” replaced the other. This just happened. I thought they should cover it in full, as it is clearly a defective part - this shouldn’t happen under any circumstances. They refused to do so (and the manager was quite brash and rude about it, which was totally surprising to me as they’ve always been nice).
But this got me wondering, how often is this happening? Are they generally charging people for it, or covering it? I have found out that in China, Tesla was forced to do a recall and replace the fore links because of this very problem.

What is the year of manufacture of your car? Was it under warranty or extended warranty?

 

[evanklein2007@]

What is the year of manufacture of your car? Was it under warranty or extended warranty?

I just had my 2016 model S flatbedded to the service shop. Same exact problem as everyone else - broken forelink. This car never had any impact nor ever hit any potholes of meaningful size. The part simply failed at 50,000 miles and now I'm $1,800 poorer thanks to a crummy parts used by Tesla.

Very frustrating.

 

[ngng]

I paid for one side, but had the other sided replaced as "goodwill"

 

[evanklein2007@]

I just filed a complaint with the The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration on this very issue. My fore link failed while backing out of my driveway. There was never any impact or pothole that could have caused it. Tesla clearly had a manufacturing problem and these parts are defective on certain model and year cars (mine is a 2016 Model S). I have emailed Tesla to pay the costs I incurred to repair (almost $2k). I sincerely hope they do the right thing. Fortunately, no one was hurt as I was only going 2 MPH. It could have been much worse.

 

[Percy]

I just filed a complaint with the The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration on this very issue. My fore link failed while backing out of my driveway. There was never any impact or pothole that could have caused it. Tesla clearly had a manufacturing problem and these parts are defective on certain model and year cars (mine is a 2016 Model S). I have emailed Tesla to pay the costs I incurred to repair (almost $2k). I sincerely hope they do the right thing. Fortunately, no one was hurt as I was only going 2 MPH. It could have been much worse.

Later model year Teslas may have stronger parts but it does not seem that Tesla is proactively replacing these parts on the older cars.

This is not good.

 

[evanklein2007@]

I paid for one side, but had the other sided replaced as "goodwill"

I don't know why the person in the video says they didn't need to cover the costs. They absolutely should cover the cost when there's a manufacturing defect. I'm very troubled by the fact that Tesla hasn't done a recall on this very dangerous part failure.

 

[ngng]

I don't know why the person in the video says they didn't need to cover the costs. They absolutely should cover the cost when there's a manufacturing defect. I'm very troubled by the fact that Tesla hasn't done a recall on this very dangerous part failure.

that's my video. the car is out of warranty, so they didn't have to do anything. there are no outstanding recalls, so they didn't owe me anything. should the part be reccalled and owners reimbursed? 100% yes. is that the current state of affairs? unfortunately not.