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New Model 3, can feel the road from wheel
- Thread starter dannydan
- Start date
p-f-g
Member
I would love to feel the road! But these electric power steering are not known for this...
I experience this too, right from delivery mid August. Very minor but reproducible. Noticeable at various speeds above 50.
Typical effect of slight misalignment/balans (not saying it is the root case for this car). I also noticed that my steering wheel is a few degrees rotated (clockwise), max 10 degrees I estimate.
I have a service appoint in about a month to correct the wheel and two very minor paint issues. I assume the vibration can be fixed.
I also thought: let's see what happens when the tires brake in. After about 700 miles it seems less noticeable and would not be reason to make an appointment.
Having experience with minor vibrations in a brand new BMW F30, i know it requires fine detail. In the BMW they only fixed it after correcting a .07 degrees offset on the right front wheel. For a long time the kept saying 'within tolerance', but thankfully also "we are not happy until you are".
I hope Tesla lives up to the premium-wannabe statements.
With the M3, using autopilot helps
Your experience with BMW and this being an issue that is not easily corrected is exactly what I've been trying to communicate here.
I don't want to go through multiple service appointments of tweaks and patches.
It should have come aligned / balanced from the factory. We don't need to settle, this is a very expensive car.
That's just a hypothesis. It could be a million things, and I'm not in the mood for servicing a brand new car. Someone posted earlier how their BMW dealer failed to fix this after multiple attempts. I expect Tesla to have similar difficulties.
In the BMW case it was related to the design of the car. It wasn't an incident so my only alternative was to pick a different model or brand. You might want to test some other model 3 cars to make sure it is not your eye for detail. Most people don't even notice things like this.
The best suggestion here has been to man up and switch your wheels front to rear and see what happens.
I hate to break it to you, but tires wear out, and then they will have to take the tires off the wheels and put new ones on!!! And they will have to rebalance the wheels at that point.
My point is that rebalancing is a routine activity, and quite distinct from “taking the car apart.”
But do whatever you feel you must. If it’s not a simple wheel balance issue, I’m in favor of a return - though I didn’t realize the terms were so poor for returns for a legitimate reason. (Wheel balance is not a legitimate reason for a return as far as I am concerned.)
Good luck!
Difference being is putting on a new tire vs removing and re-installing the same tire which wears / stretches it out. Tires are expensive, too expensive for me to let them take em on and off multiple times.
Wow you guys must be pretty rich or just very loyal if you think Tesla deserves any slack for this crap.
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And this is a classic example of people reasoning by analogy instead of by first principles. Ok, well if you can only reason by way of analogy, here's an apt one:
Builder builds me a new home. I find a light bulb not working. I refuse to buy the house.
The builder should have caught it. And now that the bulb has been unscrewed, and a new one has been screwed in, the wear on the fixture makes it a repaired house. The house is never quite in the same condition after it's been taken apart. Such an expensive purchase should not come with a dead bulb.
Bad analogy. It's not a light bulb. And it's unlikely to get successfully repaired on first attempt. These type of issues are trial and error corrections. Light bulbs aren't. They're Boolean.
Tires stretch out when you remove and reinstall them. And they aren't cheap to replace. A light bulb is and so is the housing.
A better analogy would have been builder builds your home with issues in the piping, but they don't know which pipe and they have to tear out entire walls to find out and replace the defective one.
At that point you even have a case to sue the builder. And even with regards to cars, California has a lemon law. Main difference is its easier to return the car than go through the lemon process.
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Sounds as if you have buyers remorse, soured on the car, and it's unlikely you will be happy with it moving forward. Just return it and get it over with.
AlanSubie4Life
Efficiency Obsessed Member
You missed my point - which was that taking off wheels is normal and ok - they don’t have to remove the tires for this issue anyway. They just need to take the wheel off, spin it, and reweight it.
The only issue is the apparent draconian (though probably sensible otherwise it would be abused) terms of the return policy. If you don’t want the car, and you don’t mind not having another copy for another year, and not getting your money back for a few weeks, returning it is fine.
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Didn't read all the posts, but why do you have to unmount the tires? Just check the wheel balance. If out of balance, they'll remove the wheelweights and rebalance. There's no unmounting involved, so no tire stretching. That'd be the first thing I'd check. It's totally non-invasive.
As for your pipe analogy, those have to undergo an overnight pressure test in order for the local plumbing inspector to pass them. If your pipes passed, do you really have a case to sue?
AlanSubie4Life
Efficiency Obsessed Member
To be clear, I would be annoyed and frustrated in your situation too. Balancing is something that should be done. But in the end I also understand it is a very minor issue and easy fix (if that is even the issue)
I would also be upset about having to have someone remove my wheels. Personally (not recommending it) I would actually do that part myself and bring the wheels to a third party shop (after swapping them to the rear to confirm that is the issue) so as to avoid having anyone scratch them with the lug wrench and to make sure they are torqued correctly. And if I’m using a third party shop to fix my balancing issue (easier than a service center) I wouldn’t want them lifting my Tesla.
I definitely understand your “don’t touch the car” philosophy. That being said, there are times you will have to touch the car in future. This being a Tesla, I can virtually guarantee you there will be some warranty or service work in your near future! So it seems like maybe it just is not the car for you. I would recommend a Toyota. But even that has its risks - the Highlander we have has only seen the shop once in 3 years - for a single warranty replacement on the windshield due to a crack and an issue with the laminate.
I would also be upset about having to have someone remove my wheels. Personally (not recommending it) I would actually do that part myself and bring the wheels to a third party shop (after swapping them to the rear to confirm that is the issue) so as to avoid having anyone scratch them with the lug wrench and to make sure they are torqued correctly. And if I’m using a third party shop to fix my balancing issue (easier than a service center) I wouldn’t want them lifting my Tesla.
I definitely understand your “don’t touch the car” philosophy. That being said, there are times you will have to touch the car in future. This being a Tesla, I can virtually guarantee you there will be some warranty or service work in your near future! So it seems like maybe it just is not the car for you. I would recommend a Toyota. But even that has its risks - the Highlander we have has only seen the shop once in 3 years - for a single warranty replacement on the windshield due to a crack and an issue with the laminate.
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I get it. You think balancing a wheel is more like open heart surgery. If it is just a wheel balance issue, you should get it rebalanced. This would be the light bulb situation. No tire stretching needed. If it's something more invasive, return it.
Sounds like you don't want the car and this is a good excuse to get out of it. Best of luck!
Bill Foster
I'm going home!
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