MS Suspension Ball Joint Failure?!

[nkightley]

Driving home from work in the snow on Friday, I thought the steering felt a bit loose.

My wife went out for a haircut, said she was going really slowly round a roundabout & couldn't steer, so ended up going up the curb.

She got home so I went out in the car & at first, couldn't turn out the drive. After going about 100 yards I turned round & came back. This happened when I was trying to turn round on the drive.

I can't believe bumping up a curb would cause this especially when the wheel & tyre are fine.

What do people think happened?

I've read online about loads of control arm failures?

Tesla are picking it up in the morning...

 

[brkaus]

Sliding into a curb with a 5000 lb car is a pretty big force.

 

[RyanS]

Thank god. You and your wife are safe. And it didn’t happen while driving at high speed. That is absolutely scary.
What year is your car and how many miles?

 

[nkightley]

Thank god. You and your wife are safe. And it didn’t happen while driving at high speed. That is absolutely scary.
What year is your car and how many miles?

MS 75D: UK 17 reg, 8 months old, 7,400 miles.

 

[nkightley]

Sliding into a curb with a 5000 lb car is a pretty big force.

Agree, but surely the wheel or tyre would have been damaged too?
Need to review the dashcam footage to see exactly what happened?

 

[brkaus]

Agree, but surely the wheel or tyre would have been damaged too?
Need to review the dashcam footage to see exactly what happened?

I would think the rim is pretty strong. Tire too on 19”. Really depends on the angle that the tire is to the curb and the height of the curb.

 

[365gtb4]

I would like to see larger pictures of the ball seat and the nut securing the joint. Something is not right here, I suspect the joints weren't tighten and simply came loose. I see no corrosion or any indication of metal failure.

 

[Dr. Smoke]

Wives get 'haircuts' in the UK?

You mean they doesn't go to get their hair did like in the US?

 

[Saghost]

I would like to see larger pictures of the ball seat and the nut securing the joint. Something is not right here, I suspect the joints weren't tighten and simply came loose. I see no corrosion or any indication of metal failure.

Agree that I'd like to see other angles and that I don't see corrosion. Not sure about your speculation yet.

 

[Xtek]

I think people are talking about the symptoms rather than the root cause. You said she couldn't steer? That sounds like power steering may have failed. Hitting the curb might have caused the suspension failure but ultimately it sounds like it might be due to something that happened earlier.

 

[Saghost]

I think people are talking about the symptoms rather than the root cause. You said she couldn't steer? That sounds like power steering may have failed. Hitting the curb might have caused the suspension failure but ultimately it sounds like it might be due to something that happened earlier.

Need more information. If the steering got very heavy, that's the power steering having an issue (or a problem with the steering gears.) If the car stopped reacting in the normal fashion to the steering wheel, that's the suspension problem happening before hitting the curb - and might also be described as "couldn't steer."

 

[Xtek]

Need more information. If the steering got very heavy, that's the power steering having any issue (or a problem with the steering gears.) If the car stopped reacting in the normal fashion to the steering wheel, that's the suspension problem happening before hitting the curb - and might also be described as "couldn't steer."

Great point.

 

[MP3Mike]

Need more information. If the steering got very heavy, that's the power steering having an issue (or a problem with the steering gears.) If the car stopped reacting in the normal fashion to the steering wheel, that's the suspension problem happening before hitting the curb - and might also be described as "couldn't steer."

Or the couldn't steer could be because of snow/ice.

 

[daktari]

My thought also, you said "driving in snow", do you have winter tires? Only a few cms of slush can cause serious understeer, in slow speed also. With summer tires a cm of snow could be catastrophic.

Just want to add that each autumn, the first snow fall here is usually stopping a lot of trafic, even if we use proper winter tires.

 

[brkaus]

Or the couldn't steer could be because of snow/ice.

Why do you disagree with this @Troy ?

The first post says snow day and the photo shows ice on the road?

 

[MP3Mike]

Why do you disagree with this @Troy ?

The first post says snow day and the photo shows ice on the road?

Don't mind Troy, he is just going through rating my posts disagree in retaliation since I had the audacity to rate some of his posts that I disagree with.

He shouldn't even be seeing my posts since according to his tracker I am on his ignore list here. In one of the last groups he rated 7 of my posts in less than a minute so he probably isn't even reading them first, so he has no idea what he is disagreeing with.

 

[mongo]

That is just weird. I'm used to ball points with tapered shafts. No way to shear off the stud without leaving it on the knuckle side. It seems like this would require fracturing the stud, losing the nuts, and then having the stud work it's way out.

I suppose if the nuts fell off, then the studs worked loose, then they fatigued and broke off... But there does not appear to be any misshapenness on the knuckle mount points. Plus, once one ball joint went, the steering would not work (but that could have been the early lack of steering).

 

[nkightley]

Update: After just under 3 weeks, I received my car back from Tesla.
No real explanation as to the cause, suggestion that it might have been skidding up the curb, but all repaired as 'goodwill'!

Driving home from work in the snow on Friday, I thought the steering felt a bit loose.

My wife went out for a haircut, said she was going really slowly round a roundabout & couldn't steer, so ended up going up the curb.

She got home so I went out in the car & at first, couldn't turn out the drive. After going about 100 yards I turned round & came back. This happened when I was trying to turn round on the drive.

View attachment 284233

I can't believe bumping up a curb would cause this especially when the wheel & tyre are fine.

What do people think happened?

I've read online about loads of control arm failures?

Tesla are picking it up in the morning...

 

[dwavo]

this just happened to me too. dec 2018. i have a P85 model S and the front left wheel fell off. The ball joint (AST Link?) apparently sheered.

 

[dwavo]

this just happened to me too. dec 2018. i have a P85 model S and the front left wheel fell off. The ball joint (AST Link?) apparently sheered.
View attachment 362013