My X developed a very loud creaking/squeaking in the front from the suspension a few months ago. I didn’t know what the issue was and I was super busy and didn’t have time to deal with it so I took it to Tesla and they said the upper control arm in the front on pass side was bad and needed replaced. So they replaced it and $1,000 later there was no more squeak.
A few months goes by and then all of a sudden I get the same noise again but this time coming from drivers side. Now I’m getting pissed off because a vehicle that costs north of 100K shouldn’t have issues like this just out of warranty. I’m a pretty handy guy so I decided to jump in and take a look at it. I jacked up the vehicle and took off the front tire. I put a second jack just under the lower control arm to take the pressure off the suspension and I removed the bolt that connects the upper control arm (see attached). It’s a 15mm nut with a torx on the opposite side. With the bolt out I used the jack to lower the suspension about 1” and then used a small pry bar to pop out the upper control arm from the socket. I noticed the ball joint was stiff. I clamped on a pair of vice grips onto the stud of the ball joint and proceeded to rotate the ball joint around and around and side to side and front to back to move all the grease around inside the socket of the ball joint. I moved it around for about 2 minutes until it didn’t feel as tight because of the lubrication. I then jacked up the suspension the 1” I had lowered it and then pulled down the upper control arm to drop the ball joint stud back down into the hole. I had to use a large pair of pliers to sort of clamp it together to get it to go in. I prob could have done it by hand but pliers made it easier. I reinstalled the bolt that I removed and put the tire back on. Voila, no more squeak. The suspension is completely quiet.
The issue is the grease inside the ball joint doesn’t get moved around inside the socket enough and causes a squeaking over time. This took me all of 15 minutes start to finish to complete. That’s the easiest $1,000 I ever saved.
If you are a mechanical person it’s a quick and easy fix.
Wish I had of done this when my first one was noisy and would have saved a thousand bucks. Lesson learned.
See attached picture of the only bolt that needs to be removed. Except the wheel nuts of course.
I hope this info is able to help someone else.
A few months goes by and then all of a sudden I get the same noise again but this time coming from drivers side. Now I’m getting pissed off because a vehicle that costs north of 100K shouldn’t have issues like this just out of warranty. I’m a pretty handy guy so I decided to jump in and take a look at it. I jacked up the vehicle and took off the front tire. I put a second jack just under the lower control arm to take the pressure off the suspension and I removed the bolt that connects the upper control arm (see attached). It’s a 15mm nut with a torx on the opposite side. With the bolt out I used the jack to lower the suspension about 1” and then used a small pry bar to pop out the upper control arm from the socket. I noticed the ball joint was stiff. I clamped on a pair of vice grips onto the stud of the ball joint and proceeded to rotate the ball joint around and around and side to side and front to back to move all the grease around inside the socket of the ball joint. I moved it around for about 2 minutes until it didn’t feel as tight because of the lubrication. I then jacked up the suspension the 1” I had lowered it and then pulled down the upper control arm to drop the ball joint stud back down into the hole. I had to use a large pair of pliers to sort of clamp it together to get it to go in. I prob could have done it by hand but pliers made it easier. I reinstalled the bolt that I removed and put the tire back on. Voila, no more squeak. The suspension is completely quiet.
The issue is the grease inside the ball joint doesn’t get moved around inside the socket enough and causes a squeaking over time. This took me all of 15 minutes start to finish to complete. That’s the easiest $1,000 I ever saved.
If you are a mechanical person it’s a quick and easy fix.
Wish I had of done this when my first one was noisy and would have saved a thousand bucks. Lesson learned.
See attached picture of the only bolt that needs to be removed. Except the wheel nuts of course.
I hope this info is able to help someone else.
