Suspension longevity & maintenance cost $$ ?

[Averdi]

Hi All
I have a 2015 85D air suspension and 86k miles and noticed some clunking noise from the front of my suspension. Sounds like it’s coming from around the wheel area

Has anyone had any suspension components replaced due to ware and tare yet? And if so, what did you have to replace, what was the cost & at what mileage?

Thanks

 

[maximizese]

Hopefully it's just a front sway bar bushing that is worn. It's a fairly common noise on cars more than 6yr/60K miles, but perhaps you should have the car inspected by a mechanic who knows suspension components. Would be a good idea to inspect the control arms and links especially since you're in a region that sees snow and road salts.

 

[Averdi]

Hopefully it's just a front sway bar bushing that is worn. It's a fairly common noise on cars more than 6yr/60K miles, but perhaps you should have the car inspected by a mechanic who knows suspension components. Would be a good idea to inspect the control arms and links especially since you're in a region that sees snow and road salts.

I haven’t brought my car to the SC yet as I bought it out of warranty. I am prepared to cover the expenses if worn parts, I just hope they are honest with what is actually wrong

 

[houstonian]

Uncertain if this will help but happy to share my 2017 S75D suspension work.

Opted for coil - not air - when ordering in 2016. Had original OEM (Bilistien … SP) shocks until about 160k at which point they were, shall we say, “busted”.

Very busted.

TSLA quoted some obscene number to replace all 4 so leaned on a buddy who’s handy with cars to figure out a plan B.

He eventually found SCALE and we ordered their coil overs and installed them over a weekend.

Install was somewhat awkward (was the first time he’d tackled this on a Tesla despite having quite a bit of MX experience on ICE cars/trucks) but we got it. Biggest pain in the ass was figuring out how to configure the shocks as adjusting them required lifting/removing the wheels, but again we got through it.

Later we replaced both upper control arms due to squeaking (see other threads about how the nipple thing looses lubricant) which was far less involved than replacing the shocks.

Key to making this work - besides a good friend who was willing to help! - was having a makeshift lift (I use the quickjack) to easily raise/lower the car as well as some mechanical know how.

The squeaking noise from the upper control arms was certainly annoying but I don’t believe it was an impediment to safe operation of the vehicle.

Will also note I opted to replace the lower control arms around 100k voluntary (suspect TSLA had a defect there with the original part) and the steering rack was replaced after a comprehensive insurance claim where a piece of flying debris struck the front of the car at speed.

 

[KalJoMoS]

Well we have salty roads and almost four or five month snow but I have not yet needed any suspension work on my 2016 MS which I’m the second owner. Perhaps all that was squeaking was replaced four years ago (before the owners change), but as I started to use the car there was very faint knocking sound from front. I never had a chance to look at it but in about six or seven months I scheduled a service visit and amongst the other issues asked to check steering alignment. And after that I have not heard any knocks or squeak’s from suspension.
Apart from this I have had parking brake issue resulting to change rear calipers, and the learning curve from this is that now I clean and lubricate them annually.