Model 3 : control arm disengaging

[Raj Kesavan]

My vehicle, was parked and pulled out of the parking lot on a doing a complete left steering turn, couple of nuts&bolts carrying the vehicle control arm fell to the ground and the entire control arm disengaged out of the shafts. This could have been very fatal, if my family or me were riding the car.

Tesla was trying to tell me that saying that, this is caused due to a high impact etc, (while I had not been in any accident etc..) other reason was not doing wheel alignment etc. And they want to charge me $3561+ to fix this shaft/control arm to put back the nuts and bolts that fell off from the car. I am out of warranty at this time.


I am driving the previous day, fine, and I am in a parking lot, and this *sugar* comes down .

Does anyone has such experiences ? Please help.

 

[jjrandorin]

My vehicle, was parked and pulled out of the parking lot on a doing a complete left steering turn, couple of nuts&bolts carrying the vehicle control arm fell to the ground and the entire control arm disengaged out of the shafts. This could have been very fatal, if my family or me were riding the car.

Perhaps you could explain this a bit more. Who was driving your vehicle, if it wasnt "you or your family"? What exactly do you mean by "vehicle was parked and pulled out of the parking lot?"

"pulled out" as in someone was driving it out of the parking lot, or "pulled out" as in towed out of the parking lot, since you mention "this could have been fatal if my family or me were driving" it implies no one was driving.

 

[Gauss Guzzler]

Yeah, that's normal, they sometimes forget to tighten those bolts. The nut you are holding is supposed to be welded to the subframe so the only "dealer repair" method is to replace the entire subframe - hence the cost. An independent shop would just tighten the nut with a wrench and it'd be fine. It doesn't actually need to be welded, they just tack it in there to save time in high volume assembly.

See this thread and the recall for more info. I'm guessing your VIN isn't included in the recall range, but you could certainly argue that it should be.

 

[Raj Kesavan]

Thank you!

 

[Alysashley79]

If you’re out of warranty with suspension stuff don’t take it to tesla. Take it to a reputable suspension place in your area. My out of warranty ms only goes to tesla if it’s HV or du related.

 

[Raj Kesavan]

Perhaps you could explain this a bit more. Who was driving your vehicle, if it wasnt "you or your family"? What exactly do you mean by "vehicle was parked and pulled out of the parking lot?"

"pulled out" as in someone was driving it out of the parking lot, or "pulled out" as in towed out of the parking lot, since you mention "this could have been fatal if my family or me were driving" it implies no one was driving.

I meant this happened in a parking lot luckily, otherwise if it were to happen in a high way or at high speed, this could have been a fatal incident.

 

[CKwik240]

I would submit a complaint to NHTSA. Especially since the is a recall for it. I would mention the recall by recall# in the complaint in hopes that it gets flagged for review and subsequently investigated. Could expand the affected population.

 

[texas_star_TM3]

My vehicle, was parked and pulled out of the parking lot on a doing a complete left steering turn, couple of nuts&bolts carrying the vehicle control arm fell to the ground and the entire control arm disengaged out of the shafts. This could have been very fatal, if my family or me were riding the car.

Tesla was trying to tell me that saying that, this is caused due to a high impact etc, (while I had not been in any accident etc..) other reason was not doing wheel alignment etc. And they want to charge me $3561+ to fix this shaft/control arm to put back the nuts and bolts that fell off from the car. I am out of warranty at this time.


I am driving the previous day, fine, and I am in a parking lot, and this *sugar* comes down .

Does anyone has such experiences ? Please help.

Doesn't really matter what Tesla blames this on when you are out of warranty anyways... now if you still had warranty I'd be furious about their BS excuses

 

[CKwik240]

Doesn't really matter what Tesla blames this on when you are out of warranty anyways... now if you still had warranty I'd be furious about their BS excuses

If a recall is issued for it, it would still be repaired.

Edit: not under warranty...

 

[blackT3$!@]

I am out of warranty at this time

Please help.

Take it to a trusted auto repair shop. Tesla doesn't need to work on it since you are out of warranty. Literally the mile and day after your warranty expires, you the owner, are responsible for any component failure whether it is mechanical or electrical. Trying to convince a company that they are at fault for a mechanical/electrical failure post warranty period is a losing argument.

 

[nate704]

By closely looking at the bolt heads, it looks like those were removed at least once due to the impact mark (I could be wrong). Did you get any suspension work done, such as damper replacement, lower/upper control arm ball joints, etc??

 

[Raj Kesavan]

I would submit a complaint to NHTSA. Especially since the is a recall for it. I would mention the recall by recall# in the complaint in hopes that it gets flagged for review and subsequently investigated. Could expand the affected population.

I did this already.

 

[ahmadr]

Glad you’re alive. Seems to be a common issue, unfortunately.

https://www.reddit.com/r/teslamotors/comments/kd5vbc

My car wasn’t part of the official recall

 

[texas_star_TM3]

I looked under my car to check those bolts (fairly easy to see if you lie on the floor with a flash light) and all “looks” good. Obviously couldn’t get close enough to check torque or so but bolt and metal seemed tight visually. Will periodically check from now on.

 

[Jane4]

My vehicle, was parked and pulled out of the parking lot on a doing a complete left steering turn, couple of nuts&bolts carrying the vehicle control arm fell to the ground and the entire control arm disengaged out of the shafts. This could have been very fatal, if my family or me were riding the car.

Tesla was trying to tell me that saying that, this is caused due to a high impact etc, (while I had not been in any accident etc..) other reason was not doing wheel alignment etc. And they want to charge me $3561+ to fix this shaft/control arm to put back the nuts and bolts that fell off from the car. I am out of warranty at this time.


I am driving the previous day, fine, and I am in a parking lot, and this *sugar* comes down .

Does anyone has such experiences ? Please help.

Yikes! Scary. No...

 

[Vines]

By closely looking at the bolt heads, it looks like those were removed at least once due to the impact mark (I could be wrong). Did you get any suspension work done, such as damper replacement, lower/upper control arm ball joints, etc??

I agree that is exactly what it looks like especially on the left bolt. I'll be the shop used the big impact they use for the wheels and that snapped the tack weld on the nut.

Did you have it aligned recently?

 

[Raj Kesavan]

By closely looking at the bolt heads, it looks like those were removed at least once due to the impact mark (I could be wrong). Did you get any suspension work done, such as damper replacement, lower/upper control arm ball joints, etc??

Nothing did I do.. except for tire changes.

 

[Raj Kesavan]

BTW :: Tesla kept on arguing that I was in an impact or collision etc.. I know I was not in any. In the end they charged me $2800 for this work. Which I feel is really a ripoff, as I did not cause this in the first place. My simple recommendation to folks in this forum is, please don't buy a tesla, it is a very very finicky car, it will cost you a lot more on the go.

 

[Alysashley79]

BTW :: Tesla kept on arguing that I was in an impact or collision etc.. I know I was not in any. In the end they charged me $2800 for this work. Which I feel is really a ripoff, as I did not cause this in the first place. My simple recommendation to folks in this forum is, please don't buy a tesla, it is a very very finicky car, it will cost you a lot more on the go.

While I’m really sorry this happened to you this isn’t technically on tesla. This could have happened to any vehicle. They aren’t finicky in any manner. They’re just cars.

 

[blackT3$!@]

please don't buy a tesla, it is a very very finicky car, it will cost you a lot more on the go.

And if the battery needs to be replaced,$16k+. These are expensive cars to have the major components fixed on. You could have had a third party shop repair the suspension at a much lower cost. If you have ever had a Mercedes or BMW, you already know the monetary commitment when it comes to services/parts.
You should consider a Toyota Camry or Nissan Sentra.