Tesla Motors Club
Hello all - I tried searching for the symptoms of this issue last night on the road side, no joy. So it seems worth mentioning here.
We have a new Model 3, just over 200 miles on the clock. Last night after pulling over on a single lane country road to let another car pass, we started getting a grinding noise from the left wheels. Visual inspection by touch light showed nothing. Brakes etc all still worked fine, we continued gently for a mile to a village with street lights, again nothing obvious by visual inspection. Reverse made a far more screeching noise, and putting a passenger outside confirmed it was from the rear left wheel.
I called Tesla, and got put though to their emergency response team (there is probably a direct number for this which I ought to bookmark in my phone), and after waiting about 15 minutes (with small child getting increasingly bored) spoke to an advisor.
They agreed with my guess that it was a stone or gravel between the brake disk and the callipers, and said it was a common problem on the Model 3. They suggested if I could find a large carpark doing figure of eights and exercising the breaks periodically should help dislodge the stone - pretty sure the call was routed to the USA, we don't have many carparks in the UK where that would be possible.
They reassured me that as long as the brakes worked, don't drive a hundred miles, but the moderate distance home would be fine, and if the stone was still stuck, take the car to a tyre place to have the wheel off, and then the stone could be removed with a screwdriver. I was told the stone would not cause excessive wear to the brakes.
We opted to take minor roads home, and I deliberately put the left wheels on as many small bumps and pot holes as possible - after a mile there was a ping noise and grinding/screeching noise stopped. Hooray.
We have a new Model 3, just over 200 miles on the clock. Last night after pulling over on a single lane country road to let another car pass, we started getting a grinding noise from the left wheels. Visual inspection by touch light showed nothing. Brakes etc all still worked fine, we continued gently for a mile to a village with street lights, again nothing obvious by visual inspection. Reverse made a far more screeching noise, and putting a passenger outside confirmed it was from the rear left wheel.
I called Tesla, and got put though to their emergency response team (there is probably a direct number for this which I ought to bookmark in my phone), and after waiting about 15 minutes (with small child getting increasingly bored) spoke to an advisor.
They agreed with my guess that it was a stone or gravel between the brake disk and the callipers, and said it was a common problem on the Model 3. They suggested if I could find a large carpark doing figure of eights and exercising the breaks periodically should help dislodge the stone - pretty sure the call was routed to the USA, we don't have many carparks in the UK where that would be possible.
They reassured me that as long as the brakes worked, don't drive a hundred miles, but the moderate distance home would be fine, and if the stone was still stuck, take the car to a tyre place to have the wheel off, and then the stone could be removed with a screwdriver. I was told the stone would not cause excessive wear to the brakes.
We opted to take minor roads home, and I deliberately put the left wheels on as many small bumps and pot holes as possible - after a mile there was a ping noise and grinding/screeching noise stopped. Hooray.