If you drive in low your tires are going to exhibit accelerated tire wear from uncorrectable toe and camber. You are also posting in a Model X forum. Your Model S does not ride as high as a Model X which greatly contributes to the half shaft angle. I'm not sure what you replaced for $350 but my invoice very clearly outlines the itemized cost of parts. And, I'm not sure where you are getting 50k miles from. The shudder is hit or miss, and there are many reports of brand new Xs with shudder off the line.
That would be nice, but I don't have much faith in Tesla. I had my front control arm snap in half and they still charged me even though it's a known, documented issue (yes, I filed a complaint with the NTHSA).
Using your own logic: To solve the shudder one must drive in low, that will result in an alignment that has uncorrectable toe and camber without a $1500+ kit which will ultimately result in a blow out. Best case, somebody loses a tire. Worst case, that tire takes takes out a bunch of the body and they hit someone, or something.
Anyways. We are just presenting information to the OP. Not arguing semantics about what we all consider major.
I'll invite you to try to be a little bit more respectful and open to other's experiences being relevant on this topic. Try to have a 2-way conversation for the sake of learning and respecting others rather than just posting your way is the only way to try to make everyone else wrong and belittle them.
I experienced uneven tire wear on my Model S's until I started driving all of them exclusively on the "low" suspension setting. Now they wear perfectly even. I've even had to get tires warrantied out multiple times due to tread wear period and the tires not lasting even close to the stated warranty period. In those instances, the tire shops confirmed the wear is even or that would void the wear warranty. Previously I would have to pay out-of-pocket because there was uneven tire wear and one of the cars was springs and those just always wear horribly no matter how you align them.
I also know how half-shaft input angle works as I've owned and modified many AWD vehicles over the decades. The best input angle is a straight 180 degree shot out of the diff/x-fer case. Anything that causes that angle to decrease (raising or lowering typically, on these vehicles it's mostly raising since the height is optimal ride height at the "low" setting) puts more stress on these parts. The fact that the Model X has "more ground clearance" doesn't by itself mean that the input angle are any different. There's a lot more involved with that downstream and simply stating that the Model X rides higher means the angle is greater isn't accurate because it doesn't account for any of the other suspension geometry that's mounted in different locations compared to the Model S.
This point really doesn't matter though and genuinely feels like you just brought it up to argue something as irrelevant to the conversation as how long these parts last. I never once tried to claim they should last 200k or even 100k miles so... what's the point if this exercise? Feels more like an irrelevant knowledge dump than anything since we're both in agreement that the parts typically fail at a higher rate than most would expect. Playing devil's advocate I could argue that the engineering forces at play with these cars is unlike any other seen but that's also a pointless exercise since, to me, it appears as though we're both in agreement that these parts commonly fail and should last longer. 50k was a totally arbitrary number I threw out for conversation sake. Sure I've seen cars start to have shudder at a lower number but I've also seen FAR more cars have shudder at a number much higher than that. Again, it's an arbitrary median figure though so... who cares if it's 40k, 60k or some number even further from the mean?
The more important fact is if becomes symptomatic long before it actually fails in almost every case. You won't be left stranded if you address it in any reasonable amount of time and it's relatively inexpensive. For me, these are the most important factors when determining "minor" vs "major" so that's the only reason I even brought that up because it's not like you have to do this every 500 miles or something. The official TSB from Tesla is now that ALL parts associated with the "shudder" symptom are replaced for a grand total of $350. I'm sorry that you overpaid or maybe my information is newer than your experience but that's the real number. Today. Right now. My shop had the parts in stock and my car was fixed and returned back to me that afternoon. Easy.
It should be noted that this is from someone who historically has nothing positive to say about Tesla Service. I've been very vocal and detailed with my numerous negative experiences with them. I give credit where credit is due though as they're stepping up to the plate on this issue.
Much like you, I also had a front control arm snap in half on one of my cars. This is an issue I wouldn't consider "minor" because it's first symptom for most owners is total failure w/o warning leaving the owner stranded. That was the case for me and it ruined my entire day and was a big pain. In extreme scenarios it can also very costly damage to other components as well incurring even higher repair bills. In my opinion this is a bigger issue than the shudder one for all of these reasons.
I also never said that one "must buy a $1,500+ kit" of any sort to drive in "low" as you've indicated. We are in agreement that this kit is entirely unnecessary though.
I'm not here to argue semantics. I just think that some things are greatly exaggerated and often times may prevent entry due to others assigning a much higher value to them than reality would indicate. Nothing about this shudder issue would indicate "major" for me so scaring others off is kind of unwarranted in my opinion. You're entitled to your own even if it differs from mine.
