Steering has gone wishy/floaty - feels like gusts of wind

[hooky]

Hi All,

My 2015 85D, 123k miles, has started to steer erratically. The best way I can describe it, is it is similar to when you are driving along and a gust of wind suddenly pushes the car left or right a little. It's not all the time, just at moments, but is unnerving.

I've had the car since 2017 / 16k miles, and I've not had this sensation until the last few weeks or so.

It's not the road surface (e.g. tram lines from lorries), or actual wind, and happens at all speeds, but more noticeable at higher speeds, and I think it might be worse/more frequent under acceleration.

I'm going to see if the wheels need re-aligning. What other things could be causing it?

 

[RedTesY]

Service appointment!

 

[hooky]

Service appointment!

Yes, quite possibly, but as it's out of warranty I'd like to see if it could be something simple a local garage could deal with first.

 

[EastCoast85D]

Either your wheel bearing is bad and not making noise or you have bad bushings in your control arms.

 

[strider]

Could be bushings or the suspension arms need to be tightened/re-torqued. If you turn the wheel from lock to lock while stationary do you hear any clicking from the suspension?

 

[snorp]

I had this before, it was a broken rear toe link assembly. Best to get it fixed soon.

 

[hooky]

Thanks for the extra thoughts - all seem serious enough that I should probably skip the prevaricating and just book a SC slot asap!

 

[hooky]

Could be bushings or the suspension arms need to be tightened/re-torqued. If you turn the wheel from lock to lock while stationary do you hear any clicking from the suspension?

I'll give this a test after work.

 

[PCMc]

One other thing to quick check. There was a recall on early Model S vehicle for the bolts that held the steering assist motor. If that's never been performed on your vehicle, would be a good thing to check or at least performed if you have it in for other work. Tesla indicates this primarily shows up as increased steering force on low speed but if the bolts have actually failed, I'd say all bets are off on what you might actually feel.

Here's reference to the recall notice.

Model S Steering Assist Motor Bolt Recall

In order to ensure the safety of our customers, Tesla will be proactively repairing a power steering component in all Model S vehicles built before April 2016. (No other Tesla vehicles are affected.) There have been no injuries or accidents due to this component, despite accumulating over...

www.tesla.com

 

[airborne spoon]

just worth asking but did you change from sport steering to the lower setting? I drove it on a different profile once and all that slop in the steering felt very similar to what you're describing.
If not make a service appt for a diagnostic. Don't let them fix it because you can prob find an indy shop to do the actual repair if you're not capable of doing it yourself. That way you know the actual problem and aren't fixing things that aren't broken. but its prob a bearing or something that's gone out.

 

[VaztheDad]

is it is similar to when you are driving along and a gust of wind suddenly pushes the car left or right a little.

Lightly accelerate, then lightly decelerate... does the sway occur during those events?

If so, this is failed rear toe links. Mine had that and I described it exactly how you did.

 

[GazMav]

Keep us updated.
Mine does this and i actually think it's some electrical input as sometimes it's fine, once I go past 80mph it seems to turn something on that has a stronger input on steering, really weird feeling and makes me lose confidence in the car.
I've changed the steering motor on mine so might do the full rack, also replaced all left side suspension and had a track rod end fail in 6 months.

I'll check the rear too.

 

[hooky]

Lightly accelerate, then lightly decelerate... does the sway occur during those events?

If so, this is failed rear toe links. Mine had that and I described it exactly how you did.

Thank you - this turned out to be the problem.

I managed to get an appointment at the SC on Monday and they quickly found this issue. Unfortunately they didn't have the parts in stock so these are being ordered in. It was due to be repaired this coming Monday but parts delay has pushed back a further week.

 

[hooky]

just worth asking but did you change from sport steering to the lower setting? I drove it on a different profile once and all that slop in the steering felt very similar to what you're describing.
If not make a service appt for a diagnostic. Don't let them fix it because you can prob find an indy shop to do the actual repair if you're not capable of doing it yourself. That way you know the actual problem and aren't fixing things that aren't broken. but its prob a bearing or something that's gone out.

I'd be tempted by an Indy shop, as it's the Labour rate that's really pushing up the total repair, but my experience so far is most garages are hands-off for EVs even though this is a mechanical issue unrelated to battery/drivetrain.

 

[amallah]

I have the exact same symptoms and the SC scheduled me for a replacement of just the FR Spring Module. I already had an alignment done and changed all tires and still had the issue. I'm not getting a lot of information from my SC, so I'm nervous that I'm going to pay a lot for the wrong repair. If your SC fixes it, please follow up here and maybe that will be my next suggestion.

 

[Jpandes]

I had previous car(s) go out of alignment, due to not torquing the alignment bolts enough, that made the car feel as you are describing.

 

[hooky]

Sorry for the long delay on update - the SC didn't manage to get the parts for a while and pushed back my SC appointment, which gave me the chance to take it to an independent garage, who whilst not having EV experience, are well regarded mechanics locally. The indy put it on a high bay and were happy to show me the underside and point out their diagnosis. I'm glad I saw them. Whilst the rear passenger side had a lot of play (I mean, a couple of mm of movement or so, but that's enough!), the rear drivers side also had some play too which the SC hadn't mentioned or had planned to resolve.

Interestingly they thought it was an issue with the control arms rather than the toe links, so to be safe, I bought the control arms and toe links for both sides through Tesla (which in the UK has a returns policy if unused). These were then fitted on Monday. The garage first replaced just the control arms, and on re-assembly found issue with the toe links, so did end up replacing them as well. Whether the control arms therefore were at fault I don't know, but the total cost of parts and labour was still roughly the same as Tesla just replacing one part on one side - and that includes labour for fitting new discs/pads I had bought years back (different story).

Maybe I've got some new control arms I didn't need (or maybe I did), but both sides resolved for the same cost as just one rear toe at Tesla.

It wasn't just the labour rate (which was less than a third), but also it took them only 3 hours to do both sides and brakes, and Tesla were going to charge 2.3 hours just for fitting one toe.

It handles well now. The next thing to do is get the wheels re-aligned (they didn't have alignment equipment), but uneven tyre wear is a slightly less pressing issue from my perspective; the car now drives in a predictable manner!

I'm now facing the issue of standard garages refusing to touch the alignment due to the self-drive feature, but there is a Tesla approved accident repair centre not too far away that will look at it.

Thanks to everyone again for the suggestions and pointers.

 

[GazMav]

Thanks for the update,
Let us know how you go on with the approved garage.
I got a quote from one in Trafford Park, Manchester (4 wheel alignment) for £225+ vat, went to book it in and insisted I also paid for radar calibration at a further £350+ vat, they refused to just to the alignment.

I wonder if tesla SC would force me to do this too.

I'm using a garage in Stafford for mine and will hire Toolbox for £33 instead.

 

[hooky]

Thanks for the update,
Let us know how you go on with the approved garage.
I got a quote from one in Trafford Park, Manchester (4 wheel alignment) for £225+ vat, went to book it in and insisted I also paid for radar calibration at a further £350+ vat, they refused to just to the alignment.

I wonder if tesla SC would force me to do this too.

I'm using a garage in Stafford for mine and will hire Toolbox for £33 instead.

There's such inconsistency around when it comes to Tesla and what does/doesn't need to be done. That said, your quote seems high; the repair centre near me (MG Cannon, Salisbury) were going to charge £222 inc VAT for the alignment AND re-calibration. I'm pretty certain the radar recalibration is software only, based on when I've had my windscreen replaced a couple of times, so £350+VAT for that seems a rip-off. How did Toolbox work out for you?

In the end I'm now sat at Tesla because I was only quoted £5 more for the alignment, which is a small premium for Tesla paperwork in case of follow up issue.

Funnily enough though over the last few days my front passenger suspension has started making a racket. So I asked them to look at that before doing the alignment as I don't want to pay twice for that if the suspension needs looking at again...

I'm now getting both front control arms done first whilst I'm here as they're looking corroded. I did consider buying just the parts and taking it back to the Indy, but due to a quirk in the Tesla systems there's only 1.15 hours of labour to change both front arms - the tech had run a quote on changing one arm and that had 2 hours labour. He double checked the labour for both and it came back as 1.15 so he's happy to crack on, on that basis.

For transparency:

£473 + VAT = £568 2 x Front Control arms (1043966-00-A & 1043965-00-B)+ handful of nuts/bolts
£190 + VAT = £228 Labour for front suspension (1.15hrs)
£82.50 + VAT = £99 Labour for diagnosis (0.5hrs)
£190 + VAT = £228 Labour for wheel alignment (1.15hrs)

I can't say I'm pleased paying out another £1,120, but by the end of this process the more wearing parts of both front and back suspension will have been replaced and hopefully my steering wheel will be central (something which it wasn't quite, when I bought it used 5 years ago).