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Great question. I've got a 2015 that needs new control arms but haven't done so yet.
beatle
Active Member
Do you have coil suspension? If so, then yes, you're just replacing mechanical parts, nothing electronic to fiddle with.
Someone else may chime in with more knowledge of the air suspension. The height may need to be calibrated.
What is wrong with your current setup?
Someone else may chime in with more knowledge of the air suspension. The height may need to be calibrated.
What is wrong with your current setup?
beatle
Active Member
It may not be your dampers. Bushings can also wear out with time and mileage, and the slop associated with a fatigued set can show the same symptoms. I'd check your dampers for leaks. These show up as dark traces of fluid running down the damper's body. Dust and road grime will accumulate on it.
Not saying your shocks aren't worn out, but most OEM shocks will last until they leak.
You can also check your bushings by inspecting them for cracks and seeing if you can move the suspension easily with a pry bar. If they move easily, they might have gone south.
Aggmeister2010
Active Member
If you're just replacing strut assemblies (air or coil) with new, any shop can swap them out. Lift the car, 3 nuts on top, one on the bottom. Easy stuff.
For air suspension, you just have to put the car in jack mode, slowly unscrew the air line from the top to depressurize it, and then when you put the new one in and take it out of jack mode, the car will re-level itself. No special software or tools needed.
For air suspension, you just have to put the car in jack mode, slowly unscrew the air line from the top to depressurize it, and then when you put the new one in and take it out of jack mode, the car will re-level itself. No special software or tools needed.
For what it's worth, I feel like the ride of my 2013 P85 with air suspension has degraded too. Original dampers, no leaking fluid.
I don't remember any sudden change, I think it was gradual in recent years. So it could be all in my head. I think it's real though. When the car was newer I remember liking the ride quality quite a bit, the air suspension gave a nice premium feel to the ride. You always felt the road but that feeling was nicely muted and muffled.
Now it just feels...alright. It's not horrible but it no longer feels premium. I've been thinking about replacing the dampers. Keeping the air suspension is a must for me though, so options are limited, and kind of pricey for putting on a 10+ year old car.
I don't remember any sudden change, I think it was gradual in recent years. So it could be all in my head. I think it's real though. When the car was newer I remember liking the ride quality quite a bit, the air suspension gave a nice premium feel to the ride. You always felt the road but that feeling was nicely muted and muffled.
Now it just feels...alright. It's not horrible but it no longer feels premium. I've been thinking about replacing the dampers. Keeping the air suspension is a must for me though, so options are limited, and kind of pricey for putting on a 10+ year old car.
Aggmeister2010
Active Member
Could be the shocks within your air strut assemblies, but I'd put my money on the bushings in your other suspension components. Fore/Aft Control Arm, Upper Control Arm, etc. Rubber gets old, it gets hard and brittle, and doesn't absorb motion as well. This is the classic problem with old Mercedes.....they ride so well when new because they have a ton of nice rubber bushings, but when they get old they crash and rattle around because the rubber deteriorates.
I agree with this. This week, I had to replace the front, lower aft links as the MOT tester felt movement. I hadn't noticed it. After changing the links, the ride definitely improved.
@philip295 Thanks for bumping this thread, I'd forgotten about it!
Over the summer the ride got even worse, and the "old car" creaks & squeaks & clunks ramped up further. When I finally got it on a lift and took a good look underneath, it was like a house of horrors of failed bushings and bearings. Almost every single control arm on the car had some kind of worn out or failed bushing or bearing. All four FLCAs had torn rubber, one of the FUCA bearings was leaked out and shot, all four RUCA had cracked or torn rubber, the RLCA has flaking worn out looking rubber, and even the dogbone links were worn out with the rubber permanently compressed/offset (new ones aren't offset!).
So I replaced every single control arm on the car. No reason to half a** it at this point. 2x FUCA, 4x FLCA, 4x RUCA, 2x RLCA, and 2x rear dogbones. I probably should've done the endlinks too while I was at it, but those are easy to do and shouldn't affect alignment, so no big deal, I'll do them later if needed.
Wow, after doing all that, and with a fresh set of really quiet EV tires (the new Pirelli P-Zero Elect allseasons)...wow it's almost like a new car again. Smooth and very quiet. Like a Model S should be.
One clunk (among multiple) turned out to be loose axles, but all the other noises and symptoms were the bushings, exactly as you described.
@Aggmeister2010 You were 100% correct! It was all worn out bushings and bearings.
Over the summer the ride got even worse, and the "old car" creaks & squeaks & clunks ramped up further. When I finally got it on a lift and took a good look underneath, it was like a house of horrors of failed bushings and bearings. Almost every single control arm on the car had some kind of worn out or failed bushing or bearing. All four FLCAs had torn rubber, one of the FUCA bearings was leaked out and shot, all four RUCA had cracked or torn rubber, the RLCA has flaking worn out looking rubber, and even the dogbone links were worn out with the rubber permanently compressed/offset (new ones aren't offset!).
So I replaced every single control arm on the car. No reason to half a** it at this point. 2x FUCA, 4x FLCA, 4x RUCA, 2x RLCA, and 2x rear dogbones. I probably should've done the endlinks too while I was at it, but those are easy to do and shouldn't affect alignment, so no big deal, I'll do them later if needed.
Wow, after doing all that, and with a fresh set of really quiet EV tires (the new Pirelli P-Zero Elect allseasons)...wow it's almost like a new car again. Smooth and very quiet. Like a Model S should be.
One clunk (among multiple) turned out to be loose axles, but all the other noises and symptoms were the bushings, exactly as you described.
A few notes for anyone else with an older S in need of a similar control arm makeover:
I used all Tesla OEM parts, purchased directly from Tesla service centers, except for the 4x rear upper arms where I got the N2Itive adjustable length ones to finally tame that tire-eating rear camber. I also purchased all new bolts and nuts and washers from Tesla, I figured might as well while I'm replacing everything. So basically I bought from Tesla everything I the front & rear control arms section of the parts catalog, except for the rear upper arms.
I don't regret getting OEM parts, I trust them the most and we are all the time driving rural winding roads with cliff edges, no cell service sections, etc. The car needs to keep my family safe. That said holy cr*p buying that many parts from Tesla service was a PITA, they really don't like being in the parts business, but you can't order parts from Tesla online unless you're an actual registered auto business.
If I ever do this again for a Tesla I might instead get most of the arms from one of the more reputable brands offering "OEM equivalent" - probably Delphi (I just learned on these forums they made a Model S DIY video which is pretty cool, hopefully means they put some care into their Model S products). That would also be cheaper of course. There's a couple brands with Model S arms in the Rockauto catalog, but some I just couldn't bring myself to trust... it's NOT worth it to me to cheap out too much and have to go back and do the bushings/arms again in another year or two!
For really cheap there are some brands offering replacement press in bushings for some of the arms. I considered it but ultimately I didn't trust those brands to make bushings that would last as long as OEM or Delphi, and I wanted new arms (updated revisions too) given all the reports of cracked control arms on these cars esp as they age. (We've had other big metal parts crack over the years, an original wheel and rear subframe.) And not all the bushings are available this way anyways.
I did most of the work DIY with a friend's help (whose is a vastly more experienced hobbyist mechanic than I'll ever be). We ended up leaving the rear upper arms for the alignment shop to do, since I was running out of DIY time and those were the N2itive ones they were going to be adjusting anyways and which I'd bought from them.
I used all Tesla OEM parts, purchased directly from Tesla service centers, except for the 4x rear upper arms where I got the N2Itive adjustable length ones to finally tame that tire-eating rear camber. I also purchased all new bolts and nuts and washers from Tesla, I figured might as well while I'm replacing everything. So basically I bought from Tesla everything I the front & rear control arms section of the parts catalog, except for the rear upper arms.
I don't regret getting OEM parts, I trust them the most and we are all the time driving rural winding roads with cliff edges, no cell service sections, etc. The car needs to keep my family safe. That said holy cr*p buying that many parts from Tesla service was a PITA, they really don't like being in the parts business, but you can't order parts from Tesla online unless you're an actual registered auto business.
If I ever do this again for a Tesla I might instead get most of the arms from one of the more reputable brands offering "OEM equivalent" - probably Delphi (I just learned on these forums they made a Model S DIY video which is pretty cool, hopefully means they put some care into their Model S products). That would also be cheaper of course. There's a couple brands with Model S arms in the Rockauto catalog, but some I just couldn't bring myself to trust... it's NOT worth it to me to cheap out too much and have to go back and do the bushings/arms again in another year or two!
For really cheap there are some brands offering replacement press in bushings for some of the arms. I considered it but ultimately I didn't trust those brands to make bushings that would last as long as OEM or Delphi, and I wanted new arms (updated revisions too) given all the reports of cracked control arms on these cars esp as they age. (We've had other big metal parts crack over the years, an original wheel and rear subframe.) And not all the bushings are available this way anyways.
I did most of the work DIY with a friend's help (whose is a vastly more experienced hobbyist mechanic than I'll ever be). We ended up leaving the rear upper arms for the alignment shop to do, since I was running out of DIY time and those were the N2itive ones they were going to be adjusting anyways and which I'd bought from them.
Did yo
Did you cut the front lower aft link bolts? I spent 2 hours cutting one side off using a black and decker scorpion. The other side I cut all around the bolt then tightened the nut to snap it off: much quicker.
Did you cut the front lower aft link bolts? I spent 2 hours cutting one side off using a black and decker scorpion. The other side I cut all around the bolt then tightened the nut to snap it off: much quicker.
@philip295 Yup, we cut them off with a sawzall, which was pretty quick to cut all the way through.
The service manual pic looked like an angle grinder which should be very fast. We didn't have one that could get the blade in there though.
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