Front suspension Squeak

[Zakalwe]

2020 Model 3 (refreshed model).
I got the dreaded front suspension squeak and had the upper control arm replaced at the beginning of June this year. The squeak returned and the same arm was replaced again at the beginning of September. One month later and the squeak is back

Three control arms in 4 months? This can't be right, surely?

 

[Zigway]

That does seem very excessive; I had my first upper control arms replaced on my June 2020 M3LR when it was one year old, with the new improved ones, and I've just had them replaced again when the squeak came back, so about 2 years lifespan for me... that's far from ideal but surely they should last more than the few weeks you've experienced. Maybe there is an underlying geometry issue our other suspension damage which is putting excessive wear on them? How even is your tyre wear? Or perhaps there's a dodgy batch of replacements?

 

[HCassidy]

I have a Model 3 70 plate (21 model year) and never had the issue but a friend has the same vehicle, mere 300 apart on the VIN and had the upper control arm squeak.

He is out of warranty so we took the wheel off and released the pinch bolt and moved the ball joint in all directions. This removed the squeak. For reference Tesla are currently on revision G of the control arm with the latter revisions not squeaking as much, would be interesting to know which revision you have.

 

[MrBadger]

Maybe there is an underlying geometry issue our other suspension damage which is putting excessive wear on them? How even is your tyre wear? Or perhaps there's a dodgy batch of replacements?

Might be some mileage in that. Tesla did a 4 wheel alignment on ours after replacing bottom arms due to delaminating. Even though our car runs true and no noticeable tyre wear when we check twice a year on seasonal tyre change, they clearly adjusted something according to the sheet.

Makes you wonder if they are checking things. Never had one when they replaced out top ones. Or maybe bottom replacement simply requires an alignment check.

 

[Zigway]

Makes you wonder if they are checking things. Never had one when they replaced out top ones. Or maybe bottom replacement simply requires an alignment check.

That's interesting, because I was having excessively uneven wear on my NSF tyre (that also had the worst squeaking), where the inner edge would wear to the canvas and become illegal before the centre 75% tread wore down to 2mm for the lease company to replace it. Rather than pay for alignment they seemed happier to throw tyres at it, regardless of my appeals to them (luckily I don't pay for them!).

So when the squeak was being fixed by the service centre, I asked them about the wheel alignment and they said they included it in the job as it had to be done along with the control arms. Haven't done enough miles yet to really ascertain if my tyre wear issue is fixed, but more optimistic now.

 

[Zakalwe]

Both front wheels wore the tyres down to the canvas on the inner 40mm or so of the tyre, so there could be some other factor at play here.

 

[Zakalwe]

I have a Model 3 70 plate (21 model year) and never had the issue but a friend has the same vehicle, mere 300 apart on the VIN and had the upper control arm squeak.

He is out of warranty so we took the wheel off and released the pinch bolt and moved the ball joint in all directions. This removed the squeak. For reference Tesla are currently on revision G of the control arm with the latter revisions not squeaking as much, would be interesting to know which revision you have.

How would a 21 plate be out of warranty? I thought that the M3 warranty was 4 years, unlimited mileage in the UK?

https://www.tesla.com/en_gb/support/vehicle-warranty

 

[Adopado]

How would a 21 plate be out of warranty? I thought that the M3 warranty was 4 years, unlimited mileage in the UK?

https://www.tesla.com/en_gb/support/vehicle-warranty

Friend with different vehicle is out of warranty ...

 

[Zakalwe]

Friend with different vehicle is out of warranty ...

I had assumed that with the cars being so close together on the VIN that they'd be very close in age.

 

[Adopado]

I did hear a suspension squeak earlier this year and was keen that it developed more so it could be looked at under warranty ... but it went away as soon as it started and before I could get the SC involved. The car had had the ball joints lubricated early in life as part of preventative maintenance when Tesla was first getting reports of this issue. I'm wondering if it's because my car gets a full lock-to-lock workout when arriving home and again before leaving home that redistributes the grease. Also I'm on gravel at these times so the strain on steering components is more moderate than on tarmac when stationary and needing to steer lock-to-lock. I have even tyre wear all round. (Of course having posted this I'm really asking for trouble now!)

 

[Adopado]

I had assumed that with the cars being so close together on the VIN that they'd be very close in age.

Tesla reportedly don't use sequential VIN numbers ... unless that changed?

 

[Billbrown1982]

How would a 21 plate be out of warranty? I thought that the M3 warranty was 4 years, unlimited mileage in the UK?

https://www.tesla.com/en_gb/support/vehicle-warranty

4 years and 50,000 miles in the UK afaik

 

[HCassidy]

How would a 21 plate be out of warranty? I thought that the M3 warranty was 4 years, unlimited mileage in the UK?

https://www.tesla.com/en_gb/support/vehicle-warranty

As another user mentioned its 4 years, 50,000 miles in the UK. For reference I am on about 92k miles now on my 21 model-year December 2020 car.

 

[Smileysam]

Are you sure you don't have a mouse infestation?

They can be quite tenacious.

 

[M1tch]

I recently had a courtesy car which squeaked like mad under 30mph. I had it for nearly 2 weeks and just continued driving it as they had no others. By the time I handed it back, it didn’t squeak anymore…..

 

[E-Lectric]

2020 Model 3 (refreshed model).
I got the dreaded front suspension squeak and had the upper control arm replaced at the beginning of June this year. The squeak returned and the same arm was replaced again at the beginning of September. One month later and the squeak is back

Three control arms in 4 months? This can't be right, surely?

Video on YouTube shows a guy injecting motor oil into the rubber gasket. Claims it fixed it. Reasonable?

 

[MrBadger]

Video on YouTube shows a guy injecting motor oil into the rubber gasket. Claims it fixed it. Reasonable?

It’s a bodge that Tesla did early on many cars as part of soft recall. Didn’t fix anything other than delay the squeak for 6-12 months before it returned even louder.

The fix is to replace the upper control arms and check the lower arms for delamination which followed less than a year later. No amount of oil would fix the latter.

 

[Dangerous Fish]

I'd also add that the outside temperature often plays a part with ball joint and rubber bushing related noises - the colder it is the less viscous grease gets and the harder rubber becomes. Noises can appear and disappear with weather changes.
Also with my upper control arms especially, the longer the trip, the noiser they became. After a 100 mile journey they were very squeaky but the next day they'd be almost silent for the first few miles at least.
Makes it harder to diagnose which suspension part is the issue. My lower control arm bushes failed a while ago leading to more noise and the MOT didn't pick up on them at all because they didn't really know what to look for on a Model 3. Gave me more time to sort the problem, which was very obvious (to me at least) when I had a front wheel off for something else.
The longer you own a car, the more you learn about it...

 

[Adopado]

Makes it harder to diagnose which suspension part is the issue. My lower control arm bushes failed a while ago leading to more noise and the MOT didn't pick up on them at all because they didn't really know what to look for on a Model 3. Gave me more time to sort the problem, which was very obvious (to me at least) when I had a front wheel off for something else.

There’s nothing unusual about Tesla suspension that would be in any way challenging to an MOT tester. They simply check for excessive play at the time of testing… if there is then the car fails.. if there isn’t it passes.

 

[Dangerous Fish]

There’s nothing unusual about Tesla suspension that would be in any way challenging to an MOT tester. They simply check for excessive play at the time of testing… if there is then the car fails.. if there isn’t it passes.

I agree it's no different to 90% of cars they see, but one of the bushes was very obviously torn and they missed it. It would have been an advisory at the very least. Because of the nature of that particular part, you'd couldn't pick up the failure by grabbing it to see if it had excessive play, but a visual inspection tells you all you need to know. That's where knowledge of a particular make and model comes in handy.