The shudder problem: Current status (end of February 2020)

[Syncra]

Sorry guys, I might have replied a bit too much without an intro.

I bought a new 2020 model X (I assume Raven) and got this shudder issue. Nobody warned me about the issue, nor about keeping specific suspension height or driving limitations - a must from what I hear and such a know design issue.

The answer from the garage "need to wait an indefinite time for Tesla finding a fix before we will do anything" is not acceptable for a new car under warranty.

This is a 115k Swiss francs = 120k dollars = 110k euros car - it cannot degrade in one year and ruin the driving experience of a Tesla supporter and customer.

I now seriously regret the purchase, and I'm thinking on how much I'll lose if I change car.

I'd be very interested in filing a law suite if anybody is going that direction and has time to lead this in Europe (I am Swiss based). In case, contact me please.

 

[Syncra]

One last question for the experts: it sounds like this shudder problem belongs to model X but not model S - is this true?

Has anybody tried to ask for a model exchange as resolution to the issue?

Thanks for your advise.

 

[spectrum]

One last question for the experts: it sounds like this shudder problem belongs to model X but not model S - is this true?

Has anybody tried to ask for a model exchange as resolution to the issue?

Thanks for your advise.

1. Technically it affects both Model S and Model X because they share the same chassis— but due to the increased ride height of Model X, the issue is much worse on Model X. It's rare for a Model S to have shudder.
2. Exchanging vehicles will not fix this as it affects every single Model X. It's an engineering flaw, not a manufacturing flaw.

 

[mrElbe]

Not so rare on Model S Performance Ludicrous. After a few "spirited" accelerations I also have the CV joint shudder. These shafts and joints are too weak to take the power without damage. Granted, I have over 289,000 km on it.

 

[spectrum]

Not so rare on Model S Performance Ludicrous. After a few "spirited" accelerations I also have the CV joint shudder. These shafts and joints are too weak to take the power without damage. Granted, I have over 289,000 km on it.

The shudder showed up on my Model X after just 9,000 km.
What suspension height do you drive your Model S on?

 

[mrElbe]

Model S suspension set to Normal.

 

[n1h1]

I'd be very interested in filing a law suite if anybody is going that direction and has time to lead this in Europe (I am Swiss based). In case, contact me please.

@Syncra

In case it is helpful my plan is currently:

1. Wait for Plaid parts to see if the reported discussion with a service manager earlier in this thread that it will resolve the issue is true. Not sure when this would be, but I am expecting sometime this summer. Fingers crossed!
2. If this gets significantly delayed and things continue to get worse, just get it replaced with the current part
3. Lock everything to low from then on, and hope I don't get the inner ring rear wheel tire wear issue as a result of running on low with standard profile tires (oem 20s)
4. If I get the inner tire wear issue then try and find someone that can install the n2itive solution. This is a challenge to find someone I would be comfortable with doing this correctly.

 

[Syncra]

@Syncra

In case it is helpful my plan is currently:

1. Wait for Plaid parts to see if the reported discussion with a service manager earlier in this thread that it will resolve the issue is true. Not sure when this would be, but I am expecting sometime this summer. Fingers crossed!
2. If this gets significantly delayed and things continue to get worse, just get it replaced with the current part
3. Lock everything to low from then on, and hope I don't get the inner ring rear wheel tire wear issue as a result of running on low with standard profile tires (oem 20s)
4. If I get the inner tire wear issue then try and find someone that can install the n2itive solution. This is a challenge to find someone I would be comfortable with doing this correctly.

In answer to the 4 points:
1. What is Plaid? I must have missed something in the thread?
2. The garage refuses to do so, which is annoying as I don't have much energy to start fighting... Life is already busy and stressful enough. Maybe I can be referred to another service centre in Switzerland where they'll do it without refusal?
3. It is now on "low" and I even tried chill mode - shudder still présent even if less evident. But I'm worried about wearing tires, since here we use winter and summer tires, so before I'll notice the issue ill have to change two trains of tires!!
4. Tweaking an original "new car" under warranty with a 3rd party patch doesn't seem very sensible - I'd consider first any option to abandon Tesla for a different brand

 

[n1h1]

In answer to the 4 points:
1. What is Plaid? I must have missed something in the thread?

Plaid is the tri-motor powertrain that replaces the Performance Model X. It ships this year after retooling (they are saying ETA June in NA, but could be delay.

This is the post where a poster had a conversation with a SM that said new parts from the redesign would fix it The shudder problem: Current status (end of February 2020)

2. The garage refuses to do so, which is annoying as I don't have much energy to start fighting... Life is already busy and stressful enough. Maybe I can be referred to another service centre in Switzerland where they'll do it without refusal?

Folks have reported success getting replacements in Switzerland, not sure where. Others have been able to change the SC's mind by pressing. Others have reported switching SCs (just picking a different location in the app).

They might be told to pushback to keep the number down, but will still do it when pressed.

3. It is now on "low" and I even tried chill mode - shudder still présent even if less evident. But I'm worried about wearing tires, since here we use winter and summer tires, so before I'll notice the issue ill have to change two trains of tires!!

Driving in low just prevents the problem, it won't correct an already damaged shaft. What happens is the raceway in the half shaft gets deformed with high torque on a sharp angle (force tolerance is less as the angle (ride height) increases). Once that happens the only solution is replacement.

In this video you can see how much of an angle we are talking about:

This video linked on this post provides a very good overview of the problem from the maker of the aftermarket part:
Watch the video here: The shudder problem: Current status (end of February 2020)

4. Tweaking an original "new car" under warranty with a 3rd party patch doesn't seem very sensible - I'd consider first any option to abandon Tesla for a different brand

I am not familiar with the consumer laws in Switzerland, but I think almost everywhere you can't void your warranty with an aftermarket part. I wish to avoid that option as well, but I love the X. All I care about is a solution. I agree with you that it's getting ridiculous that Tesla has not come up with a solution like this by now.

 

[nBar5EV1]

Long time lurker here. I've been looking to buy a MX for a while and was waiting for the refresh but honestly prefer the pre-refresh version. So I've been searching for used 2020/2021 MXs and have found a few, nothing close to me though. After going through this entire thread I'm really torn and not sure if I should just by a MY or continue my search for a used MX. This shudder issue is my biggest hesitation with buying a used MX right now. But we think there is a permanent fix in sight which if true would help put me at ease. Is it worth having the MX and dealing with the shudder issue or is it so much of a headache it's not even worth it?

 

[n1h1]

Long time lurker here. I've been looking to buy a MX for a while and was waiting for the refresh but honestly prefer the pre-refresh version. So I've been searching for used 2020/2021 MXs and have found a few, nothing close to me though. After going through this entire thread I'm really torn and not sure if I should just by a MY or continue my search for a used MX. This shudder issue is my biggest hesitation with buying a used MX right now. But we think there is a permanent fix in sight which if true would help put me at ease. Is it worth having the MX and dealing with the shudder issue or is it so much of a headache it's not even worth it?

Out of curiosity whats wrong with the refresh? If it were me I'd buy the refresh and flip the "Default to Low" to on, and you probably will never have to worry about it. If you have a situation where you need to drive in the higher levels you can just drive easily or throw it in chill (probably the case if you need it that way).

 

[nBar5EV1]

Out of curiosity whats wrong with the refresh? If it were me I'd buy the refresh and flip the "Default to Low" to on, and you probably will never have to worry about it. If you have a situation where you need to drive in the higher levels you can just drive easily or throw it in chill (probably the case if you need it that way).

I do not like the steering wheel, if they do indeed go with the yoke. As well as taking away all the stalks behind the wheel and having to switch gears with the main display. And the large price increase. The car itself does seem to have some awesome new features but the few things I don't like are turning me off from the refreshed version. I'm also impatient and don't wait to wait till the end of the year for delivery of the refreshed version.

 

[n1h1]

I do not like the steering wheel, if they do indeed go with the yoke. As well as taking away all the stalks behind the wheel and having to switch gears with the main display. And the large price increase. The car itself does seem to have some awesome new features but the few things I don't like are turning me off from the refreshed version. I'm also impatient and don't wait to wait till the end of the year for delivery of the refreshed version.

Yeah instinctively I am skeptical I would like the yoke but Tesla has been good at surprising me with things I didn’t think I would like turning out to be awesome. I had been expecting there would be a standard steering wheel option, since it could be polarizing and face regulatory hurdles

You can definitely get a much better deal going with a preowned. I have a 2020 Performance (Dec 19 delivery), and out of curiosity looked into a trade up and it’s already lost nearly 40k in value. I was kinda surprised Plaid was very close to what I paid. Granted the 0-60 is barely improved, the efficiency has a nice boost and I suspect handling is better on this design.

Anyway, For 40k you can buy ALOT of half shafts Although if you get one within warranty I’m sure you can find a way for Tesla to cover it

There really is nothing quite like the X. It’s a shame it has this issue because IMO everything else about it is perfect. It’s like a scratch on a work of art. So far I can live with it and be patient, but it’s obnoxious if I do hard acceleration, and so if you don’t look hard enough you won’t notice and it just bugs you that it’s there.

 

[mxnym]

I do agree it’s surprising they wouldn’t just switch to low by default (especially if you have the higher profile 20s) as part of a bandaid.

The did this with the pre-raven models. I'm surprised they haven't done it with the Raven models as well. You can still change it, but certain updates (and perhaps certain service center visits) will turn on automatic lowering and set it to always.

Sure I am referring to the camber tolerance of a larger sidewall mentioned in the previous video.

Yeah, my 2017 MX rear tires would like to show you the belts sticking out of the inside edge while the tread still looks good on the outside edge even though I typically drive at normal height and not low.

 

[verygreen]

There's now a service bulletin about shudder.

 

[Harvey Danger]

Looks similar to previous bulletins about shudder. Replace half shafts. Older cars, redo clevis mount while you're at it.

Thank you for posting!

 

[n1h1]

Cool Fingers crossed. Looking at part #s

 

[n1h1]

So they are definitely new part #s, everyone was getting 1027113-00-B & 1027119-00-B installed. @PungoteagDave do you still have that SM contact? Wondering if you could ping him and see if the SB-21-39-001 (1420113-00-B, 1420119-00-B) is indeed the fix he was talking about.

 

[n1h1]

I scheduled a service visit, will see what they say on part availability. Now here is the question, when these get installed who among us is confident enough to drive in the standard suspension level

 

[sw1008]

What is interesting that the test drive before repair should be performed on very high. In my case the shudder is very annoying