Rust question

[tamaramiisu]

So I just bought my S and I was reading something about the recalls in China that has to do with the suspension forelinks and it got me super paranoid because I've been hearing a weird crunching like sound in the front end of the car sometimes when I turn left. So I went to look at the area in between the tire and the wheel well. The metal seems to be pretty rusted on the parts that I've attached pictures of. The rust seems to be on both sides. Can someone tell me if this should be something I need to be worried about or not? I have kids and I'm just trying to prevent any kind of catastrophic event. Thank you

 

[InternetDude]

The control arms rust, that's very normal for these cars. See the vid below, I fixed mine (sorta). The weird crunching sound shouldn't be the control arms , you should look at the wheel well liner to see if the tire rubs on something when you turn left. Your control arms don't actually look all that bad rust-wise.

 

[David29]

The control arms rust, that's very normal for these cars. See the vid below, I fixed mine (sorta). The weird crunching sound shouldn't be the control arms , you should look at the wheel well liner to see if the tire rubs on something when you turn left. Your control arms don't actually look all that bad rust-wise.

Another video you might look at is this one from Bjorn Nyland. His shop does a thorough inspection of his 2013 Model S, which includes some comments about rust on certain body and mechanical parts. he also has a later video in which they show the repairs they made.

 

[tamaramiisu]

Another video you might look at is this one from Bjorn Nyland. His shop does a thorough inspection of his 2013 Model S, which includes some comments about rust on certain body and mechanical parts. he also has a later video in which they show the repairs they made.

Thank you so much for that! Very informative I appreciate it!

 

[David.85D]

Those parts that appear rusty are the _upper_ control arms. The _lower_ fore link (the one closer to the front) is often the one that gives people trouble, but it is aluminum and not steel. I cleaned my upper control arms and coated them with POR-15 to control the rust. I believe it is just cosmetic as they are pretty heavy steel parts. They do fail, BTW, I've seen pictures on this forum of cars where the ball joint seperated. When I asked about replacing the lower fore and aft links as preventative maintenance, I had one service adviser tell me upper control arms are more likely to fail than the aft lower link and they suggested doing the fore links and the upper control arms, but it would have to be self-pay since they hadn't failed.

 

[Wol747]

I'm ignorant about cars generally, but it looks as if something in image 2 towards the top left is broken? About 10 o'clock to the dome?

 

[KalJoMoS]

No, it’s not broken. This is the section of two different body panel edges so all as should.

 

[Wol747]

OK - thanks.