Tesla Upper Control Arm CRACKED

[mongo]

What 2 parts? The arm with the break is in one piece. It's bent "in half" but still intact as an arm.

Maybe, or the top break is resting in the middle void/ lip.

 

[alexml500]

So which is it? Is the only broken part the upper camber arm, or was the brake line broken, and two wheels bent as well?

Those must be some huge bots dots to bend wheels. (I have never seen those kind of dots bend a wheel before.)

So Final finding is that 2 bent wheel, 1 Right Front and 1 Rear Left, 1 Broken Upper Camber Arm, 1 Brake line.

Just for your reference I attached one of the Dot I found on the scene Today. It is a Decent size DOTS

 

[alexml500]

Looks like the anti-roll bar link in the photo of the front suspension is slightly bent. (Buckled)

That would match well with a 5000lb car clotting the inside curb of a corner. I think this will be obvious if you ever post the photos of the wheels.

It would also be interesting to know the exact intersection where the sudden failure occurred. (Direction of travel, etc)

My wife was Making a left turn onto Kellogg Dr from Valley Blvd From a Complete Stop and Once after making the turn that is when the loud bang occur. At that time she was travel about 30-35 MPH. She came to a complete stop Right before getting into the Round about.

If you google Kellogg Dr and Valley Blvd on Google you will see the exact location where this took place.

Yes will update with picture of wheel once I get a chance to go back for more picture

 

[alexml500]

Learning all kinds of things about cars reading these threads and trying to understand about certain parts. One thing I read with regard to Control Arms is that if they are going bad there's a few things that can be noticed: loud banging or clunking sound when driving over bumps or turning the car, wheel assembly moves or shakes (noticable when jacked up), steering wheel feels loose, steering wheel or car vibrates when driving at anything over 30mph, tires have uneven wear (if PSI is at kept at correct level and tires are cupping or warping time to check the arms).

OP did you or your wife notice anything like this before this happened?




Oh sorry, just noticed your updated info post about a revision on ID'ing the part. Now need to learn about camber arms. I do know cambers are designed to keep your wheels/tires flat and vertically straight on the road. Are there "warning signs" for these if they are going to fail?

For anyone like me having trouble knowing what part we are talking about, I think Jeff Chan's site has 2 nice photos of the upper and lower cambers (photos 3 and 4): Comments on Tesla Model S public engineering presentation The photos are clickable for a larger image. So am I correct that the Air Suspension is attached to a part that's bolted to the upper camber arm? Can someone outline the sequence of events on how all these parts and damage would come into play. Assuming a broken camber would start it. Also thinking when the shop said OP's car hit something they were refering to something more like a pothole that would cause the wheel to jerk down quickly and stress the part?

As far as what the Tesla Tech claim that we hit an object or a pothole and clearly there road were clear with nothing on it. If there were some thing was hit at 35MPH I am sure it would cost lot more damage than just a broken camber . Possible bumper, or more visible scratch at the bottom of Model S. And to be honest there weren't any warning sign at all

 

[alexml500]

Wait, I thought she ended up stopping on the dots... So, the vehicle has two bent wheels on opposite sides, and ends, of the vehicle and the thought is that this damage occurred by hitting some dots below 35 miles an hour after the part failure?

Yes she did ended up on the dot and presumable that while trying to stop the car she pull to the right and front right wheel and rear left wheel must has ran over those DOTS

 

[SMAlset]

So Final finding is that 2 bent wheel, 1 Right Front and 1 Rear Left, 1 Broken Upper Camber Arm, 1 Brake line.

Just for your reference I attached one of the Dot I found on the scene Today. It is a Decent size DOTS

View attachment 242251

OMG that thing is big and not a full piece. Is it heavy? Looks like a chunk of cement but smoother in texture, like a plaster maybe. I wonder if the dots here in my area are that size, only see them passing by from inside a car and never gave them a thought. Thought ours were a plastic. Do you think one of those dots on the roadway or a piece of one could have been loose on the roadway back near where your wife turned the car and it ran over it just at the right angle to send it or a chunk of it upside the wheel area hitting the upper camber? In which case maybe a loose piece also made the white chalky mark seen on the underside if the piece was a projectile.

Since the bottom of the battery looks fine and you said it wasn't damaged and there were wheels on the car that raised it up from the ground still, I can't picture the car being able to scrape along a glued on road dot on the road that would place it where the white marking is under the car. Kind of hard to visualize everything with just the present photos. I'm very curious to know how this all happened. Sorry to see and hear about the damage to the car and yes thankfully she got the car to stop and wasn't hurt. Sure it was frightening to go through and then to see the car in that shape when she got out of it.

 

[jaguar36]

So Final finding is that 2 bent wheel, 1 Right Front and 1 Rear Left, 1 Broken Upper Camber Arm, 1 Brake line.

Just for your reference I attached one of the Dot I found on the scene Today. It is a Decent size DOTS

So you've got two bent wheels and a broken suspension component. Yep, that's clear evidence the car hit something, curb, pothole, chunk of concrete on the road.

As I said before, even if it was a defective part, it wouldn't have failed when you were casually driving slowly along. It would have failed under a hard turn, or at the very least at highway speed where the loads are much higher.

 

[ecarfan]

1 right front wheel and 1 left rear wheel were bent due to that she ran over them trying to stop, no other damage part reported beside the the brake line.

So, the vehicle has two bent wheels on opposite sides, and ends, of the vehicle and the thought is that this damage occurred by hitting some dots below 35 miles an hour after the part failure?

I had the same reaction. This is very puzzling. How can two wheels on opposite corners get "bent" at the "low speed" the OP describes due to a single fractured upper camber arm? I'm really trying to understand this scenario and it's not making sense to me. It takes a lot of force to bend a wheel.

 

[jaguar36]

I had the same reaction. This is very puzzling. How can two wheels on opposite corners get "bent" at the "low speed" the OP describes due to a single fractured upper camber arm? I'm really trying to understand this scenario and it's not making sense to me. It takes a lot of force to bend a wheel.

My guess is that the left rear was bent in a separate incident. Its a P85 so its likely to have the 21s which are quite easy to bend from normal usage..

 

[mongo]

I had the same reaction. This is very puzzling. How can two wheels on opposite corners get "bent" at the "low speed" the OP describes due to a single fractured upper camber arm? I'm really trying to understand this scenario and it's not making sense to me. It takes a lot of force to bend a wheel.

If the dots are large enough to bend the rim, then a car pulling onto the right shoulder could hit them with the right front and left rear, assuming the car ends up to the right of the dots. Or like @jaguar36 suggested, the bends were from a different event.

Heck, I've had to get the alloy rims on our mid sized SUV fixed 3 times, and those aren't even low profile.

 

[JohnSnowNW]

If the dots are large enough to bend the rim, then a car pulling onto the right shoulder could hit them with the right front and left rear, assuming the car ends up to the right of the dots. Or like @jaguar36 suggested, the bends were from a different event.

Heck, I've had to get the alloy rims on our mid sized SUV fixed 3 times, and those aren't even low profile.

If you hit the dots with the right front, and left rear, it would be unlikely that the vehicle would come to rest on the dots. You would think...unless someone turned back towards the road.

I would say that if the wheels were previously bent, especially the right front, that may have had an impact on the "failure" here. As an aside, would you not notice two previously bent wheels? I've never had a bent wheel.

 

[mongo]

If you hit the dots with the right front, and left rear, it would be unlikely that the vehicle would come to rest on the dots. You would think...unless someone turned back towards the road.

I would say that if the wheels were previously bent, especially the right front, that may have had an impact on the "failure" here. As an aside, would you not notice two previously bent wheels? I've never had a bent wheel.

Good point, on the dots precludes to the side of the dots.

The only reason we found out the rims were bent was due to the tire slowing leaking from the crack.

 

[silverp85+]

are the p85+ control arms different? these are my upper control arms (that may get replaced)
https://1drv.ms/f/s!AihnWpuO55swh-Vh-w_bdIdjmP4MbA

 

[mongo]

are the p85+ control arms different? these are my upper control arms (that may get replaced)
https://1drv.ms/f/s!AihnWpuO55swh-Vh-w_bdIdjmP4MbA

It's a camber arm, not a control arm.

 

[u00mem9]

Those are the front. OP broke the rear upper

 

[silverp85+]

that's interesting, because the ranger called it a control arm. learn something new everyday

thanks

 

[u00mem9]

that's interesting, because the ranger called it a control arm. learn something new everyday

thanks

Camber link is a subset of the control arm genre. Semantics.

 

[mongo]

that's interesting, because the ranger called it a control arm. learn something new everyday

thanks

Hi,

The broken piece on the OP's car is the camber arm, your pics are a control arm (I think).

 

[silverp85+]

Hi,

The broken piece on the OP's car is the camber arm, your pics are a control arm (I think).

you're right mongo

 

[Az_Rael]

are the p85+ control arms different? these are my upper control arms (that may get replaced)
https://1drv.ms/f/s!AihnWpuO55swh-Vh-w_bdIdjmP4MbA

Why are yours being replaced? The ones in my 2015 look like they are in a similar state. Tesla replaced my tie rods when we had a steering gear fail, so they were in this area, but didn't squawk mine as needing to be replaced.