2018 TESLA MODEL 3 Complaints

My 2018 Tesla Model 3 Long Range abruptly parks itself when a seatbelt is not used. The car does not wake up when sitting into the driver seat and the likely culprit is the driver side occupant sensor. To wake up the car one must press the brake or tap on the screen multiple times. If the sensor is faulty this means the airbags on the driver side will not deploy due to the car thinking there is no occupant. Tesla wants to charge customers $1300 for a replacement seat, which is unfair as it compromises the cars air bags and safety system. The car is drive able even when the sensor is not working. I am scared that if an accident were to occur the airbags will not deploy.

Recommended Software update is not available. Tesla App has stopped working for the past 2 months.

The Tesla was parked and locked unoccupied with all security features enabled. When I returned to the car the front driver's side was completely crumpled with the bodywork torn , like it was reveresed in to. I was gone about 30 minutes. The car gave no notification on the app, the car alarm didn't activate and the sentry mode did not record the incident. All the things they say the car will do. I called Tesla and was told it works 99% of the time ,(but clearly when you need safety and security it doesn't) they stated that if the car gets hit a certain way it can cause the system to shut down /reboot ,so that none of these systems work... Seems wrong that this can be allowed to be the case that not only all the systems fail, that when they do fail there's no backup or way for the car to know something is wrong. That if there is a unexpected forced reboot it doesn't tell you or acknowledge something is wrong in any way . They seem to think that this is ok . I have reported to them and they really didn't seem to care , just said the statement above about it working 99% of the time..However all the things they say the car can do ,and several reasons you think you are buying the car for with it's increased safety and security, apparently don't work at all. Now I have a 4 figure out of pocket to get the car repaired because I have no way to find the person who hit my car because the none of the cars security or safety warnings worked.

The main bolt that holds together the wheel and body on the driver side fell off while driving, resulting in wheel falling off and car not able to operate safety. The bolt is marked with kxv109. This caused damage to the entire subframe assembly. This could have been a very terrible accident if I was driving at a higher speed. On October 27, 2022 I noticed an odd sound from my steering wheel which I reported to Tesla and had my car in for service and was told that nothing was wrong and everything worked as expected, so I continued to drive my car. My car’s wheel fell off on January 20, 2023, the bolt that held the wheel to the body completely broke off and fell on the ground.

The front left control arm (lateral link) of my Model 3's front wheel just came completely off (bolts unscrewed) without any incident. It fell to the ground and preventing my car from steering properly and was dragging on the ground. The car couldn't drive properly and needed to be towed to the Tesla service center. This could have easily caused a fatal accident by causing the car to suddenly not be able to steer and drive properly. I had the vehicle towed to the Tesla service center and the engineers did not know how or why the bolts were unscrewed and came out. The Tesla service center forced me to pay out of pocket since my vehicle had 70K miles and was out of warranty. They refused to accept it as a manufacturing safety defect.

The side blind spot cameras are blinded at night by the turn signal lights when flashing, making them very unsafe. Difficult to view due to the orange light flashing, blinding both left and right cameras.

My Tesla Model 3 without any warning stopped working suddenly. I could not put the car in drive and there were error messages about climate control and electrical system. I had to get the car towed to the service center as it was blocking my other car in the driveway. The service center in Sunnyvale, CA diagnosed the problem to be a faulty PTC heater and has charged me over $1100 to replace it. I beileve it is quite absurd to have a fault in the HVAC system render the whole vehicle completely immobile and useless. This seems like a serious design flaw and it could lead to serious health or safety concerns.

Rear passenger side seat belt, when used for the first time since new car purchase in 2019, had an issue where it kept getting stuck and the retractor made a clicking noise majority of the time. This seatbelt is unable to be used as expected due to it getting stuck and not retracting fully and making noise. Reported this issue to Tesla Santa Monica Service center in October 2022, where the service advisor simply showed me how to use seat belt properly and come back later if issue kept happening and "resolved" the issue via "remote education," thus not offering a proper fix.. Issue has persisted, and I have reported it once again to Tesla Santa Monica Service center who tells me they're under new management and will decide whether I will be required to pay out of pocket after a test drive but are otherwise quoting me a diagnostic fee now. A test drive is not needed for this though since it's a seat belt malfunction issue. Reporting this to NHTSA because other Teslas have faced seatbelt recalls too.

I am driving on the new FSD beta that Tesla just released to comply with NHTSA's previous recall, version 2022.45.13. Despite the claim that this release has addressed these issues, I experienced these today while driving around my town on city streets and on the open highway: As I approached the stop sign at the end of the exit ramp off the highway to my neighborhood street, the car blew right past the stop sign just like it wasn't there. It did this before the current update as well. While this is improved over previous versions, it still doesn't slow down in advance of a new lower speed limit sign to ensure it's moving at that posted new slower speed by the time it reaches that sign, as it should. As you know, it's illegal, e.g., to continue driving at 45 mph after you've passed a 35 mph sign. But with this latest update, even though the car can "see" the new lower speed limit sign ahead, the car only begins to slow down once you've passed this new lower speed limit sign and then goes about 200 ft before it actually reaches the lower speed. This is still illegal in every state and is a danger to drivers and others. Please make Tesla fix both of these problems fully.

Heater suddenly stopped working. Will not produce any heat or defrost windshield. Passenger/Driver safety affected by lack of warmth in extreme cold and visibility while driving with iced windshield. 35,000 miles on well maintained vehicle w no damage or accidents. Dealer states that resistance heater and wire harness will need replaced. No cause identified.