Has anyone had any experience with noise from front upper control arms? Got quite a bit of noise when stationary turning the wheel. Attached some pictures and as I was taking them spotted a rusted o ring which is the same for both sets on either side of the wheel which looks suspicious.
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Tesla Model 3 Front Upper Control Arms
- Thread starter hayats
- Start date
I had two of these replaced on my last model 3, one under warranty and one not. The cost of replacement was like $90 although the SC only charged me for the part, no labor for some reason. Perhaps because it was the same control arm that went bad the second time. Tesla redesigned the suspension a bit on the 2023s so hopefully this issue was resolved.
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I had the same problem about 2 years into ownership - actually the only problem we have had with our Model 3 in the now 3.5 years we have had it. Tesla fixed it without argument, free and very quickly. Only one of the front upper control arms was making a sound - a sort of 'creaky' sound - when we turned the wheels while parking or at slow speeds. Telsa nevertheless decided to replace them on both sides.
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Not a lot of companies will "good will" cover issues out of warranty.
It's hard enough to get Tesla to honor the warranty while you are within 4 year / 50K mile window. I've personally had 2 claims rejected that would have been addressed without raising an eye brow by any other decent automaker. But not Tesla.
That's the bargain we all made when we purchased cars from the OEM directly, bypassing the dealer.
Now, the service center employees has ZERO incentives to go to the bat for the customer. In fact, they risk getting fired.
The results are consistent with the incentives.
a
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A failed suspension ball joint WILL become a safety issue, given enough time.
Yeah, that was lame.
There are multiple issues with Model 3's front suspension, due to choice of geometry and undersized bushings and ball joints.
The issue with the upper control arm, is that the rubber boot starts cracking and tearing over time, allowing water to get in. Once the ball joints starts rusting, it is game over. Creaking and groaning are the symptoms, not the root cause of the problem. Injecting extra grease quiets the noises, but the damage has already been done, and will only get worse over time.
Multiple re-designs have been deployed by Tesla ("A" was original, the one I got installed in 2022 was "H"). None solved the underlying problem - rubber boot sits on top of the wheel and tire, and gets pummeled with road debris. It's only a function of time before it gets compromised, and you get to buy and install a new set of upper control arms.
It's a yet another undocumented maintenance cost of owning a Model 3.
a
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GHammer
Dark Star
In millions of vehicles there is no evidence this particular ball joint has caused any safety issue. Just annoying noise.
The letter series of this part ended with J. There is now a completely different part number, time will tell how this holds up.
As far as ownership cost, my 3 has been my cheapest car to own by far including a supposed reliability leading Toyota.
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This is quite illuminating - thank you for sharing! One of the upper control arms of my 2018 Model 3 gave in at around 100k miles. The Tesla service center replaced this in a couple of hours for around $100. This is really not too bad. Now that I know the issue has to do with the design of the upper control arm, I'm going to budget $200 every 100k miles for upper control arm replacement, which again is not bad at all.
Any insights on the lower control arms? According to the inspection at the Tesla service center, one of the links is quite worn and needs to be replaced soon. Replacing all 4 links costs $2k though, a much more substantial maintenance cost.
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Hi Hiline, how was your estimate for this around $100 final bill? right now I made request for this same issue, Tesla app gave $668 estimate for it.
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A possibly explanation of different estimates is that they can replace arms singly or in pairs and for warranty claims they will probably try to replace only one, for cost reasons.
For the front upper control arms you should check they are using the new redesigned parts (128832x) because they should last a lot longer and then they have to replace both at the same time. If they use the older part number they can get away with just replacing one side.
IMO it's worth paying for them to both be replaced with the new part. In the UK the total job costs around £200. I can't see where they get $668 from so maybe you can show us your estimate?
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Hi Dangerous Fish,
I think for $100 charge, it is single side without labor charge. I didn't get my breakdown of estimate yet. but from those who didn't get label for goodwill, it is around $350 for single side replacement.
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