2018 TESLA MODEL 3 Complaints

The horn has failed. It started failing around 40,000 miles, and has completely died now at 147000. I am aware of many other horns that have died on MY 2018 vehicles, and apparently they don't consider it a big deal. They're replacing it (which I have to pay for), and apparently they charge everyone for it. If these really are failing like crazy, these should be a safety recall.

The car has had numerous ball joints fail over its service life. None were covered under warranty (at least the first set should have been). Tesla doesn't consider this safety critical, and for the latest round, made me wait over a month for parts to arrive. I don't know how severe the problem actually is and whether its dangerous or not, but they never even bothered to inspect it. This is clearly a design flaw since these keep failing, and the control arms have to be replaced as well since its apparently one assembly.

The ball joint and control arms in the front start squeaking just after warranty ends at 50k miles. Eventually this could lead to it locking up and causing an accident. This needs to be a covered recall, since all 2018 tesla model 3 cars experience this. When researching I found out how much of a problem this is and itvwill cost over 1000 dollars to fix.

This defect is regarding Tesla’s FSD (beta). In the FSD mode, the car switched lanes without noticing the presence of a vehicle in the destination lane and caused a non-fatal accident. I was driving on O’Shaughnessy blvd in San Francisco around 8:50 AM. The weather was clear, and traffic was moderate. I had turned on FSD and entered my destination address. I stayed below the posted speed limit as I was new to FSD and wanted to stay extra alert. At this point, O’Shaughnessy is a single lane on each side. The lane gets wider as it nears a major intersection (Portola Drive). And then it splits into two lanes. Finally, the right lane becomes the right-turn-only lane. Per the route, the car was supposed to take a right turn at the intersection. When the lane split into two, the vehicle remained on the left for about 30 feet. Then it rapidly began to shift to the right lane by giving a signal. However, the vehicle behind me had moved into the right lane by this time. My car did not notice the vehicle as it tried to move to the right lane. It hit the other vehicle. This shift to the right lane was so rapid that I could not react to the impending collision fast enough. The other vehicle’s left-hand front fender hit my passenger door. Even as the vehicle collided, Tesla’s advanced driver assistance system failed to notice the presence of the other car. It did not give an alarm. My Tesla had all available safety warning options on. Since there was no injury, we did not file a police complaint. We notified insurance companies. This is a severe safety defect where the vehicle fails to detect the presence of another car in the lane. Not only did it proceed to change the lane, but its ADAS also did not warn of this obvious safety situation. There was no visibility issue, and vehicles traveled below the speed limit. The FSD is a safety hazard because it fails to notice a normal vehicle and switches lane.

I was driving in rain with lane keeping assistance enabled. As the car followed a curve, my tires began to hydroplane and the front end began to lose directional control and drift to the right of my direction of motion. I overrode assisted steering and attempted to keep the front end aligned with the rear so as to avoid a spin. At this moment, I felt the adaptive cruise control add torque to the rear wheels which pushed the rear tires out from behind and aggravating the planing, and defeating my effort to keep the car aligned. I suppose I then fully disabled the cruise control, but the car had already rotated too far to recover directional control, and it spun 180 degrees (front wheels trailing the rear wheels.) This continued briefly until turning tail first up an earth embankment before coming to rest. There were no cars immediately near me at the time or it might have resulted in a multi-car collision in a hydroplane zone, with a good chance of multiple serious injuries. The vehicle was inspected by the insurance adjuster and repaired. The car is available to examine. There were no indications of a system failure and Tesla did not concede to any. I contacted Tesla service and requested to examine the control system data to assess if the adaptive cruise control had contributed to the loss of control. After providing a Tesla agent with the time of the event he asked for, he reached back to me and stated that they were able to archive the data from the time of the accident. However, since I had claimed that the design might have contributed to the crash, Tesla had prohibited him sharing that data with me and custody of the data had been taken over by Tesla legal department. He added that for me to see the data, I would have to obtain it through Tesla Legal. I emailed Tesla Legal with my request on 5-25-22. I have received no response. Tesla claims the car has electronic traction control. I think this accident demonstrates flaws that can make situations worse.

With NO WARNING, and while on AutoPilot-Full Self Drive, our Tesla TOTALLY HARD AND LONG BRAKED out of nowhere, THRUSTING our necks forward for four seconds until I could disengage the brake, then SLAMMING our heads to the headrest. I have a CERVICAL SPRAIN, WHIPLASH, and a CONCUSSION! I was driving 65mph. I’ve been to the ER, to a chiropractor, and to physical therapy since this incident Sunday, July 31, 2022 at 6:37-6:38pm. On the 405 South. I’ve reported it to Tesla Service who said it was escalated to the Fremont location Engineers to review which takes 2-3 months! I have INJURIES! Phantom braking is usually unwarranted and terrifying but has not HURT ME until this time. I was almost HIT by the car behind us!

The rear back up camera on my vehicle is experiencing intermittent delays in showing a picture. Although there is an open recall on my vehicle that was issued back in December of 2021, Tesla has still not contacted me to advise when my vehicle can be brought into compliance with the recall. When I proactively contacted them earlier today, they stated that they still do not have the part(s) necessary to complete the recall. It seems odd that a vehicle manufacturer can fail--for approximately 8 months and counting--to address an open NHTSA recall without any communication to customers (or their regulator) as to when, exactly, they expect to remedy the issue.

Phantom braking that causes the vehicle to suddenly apply the brakes for no reason. Issue occurs at least once each time I use the Autopilot. Occurs on interstates as well as highways. In my 6 hour drive today it happened 5 times. Each time the vehicle decreases in speed by 15-30mph. This is extremely dangerous for vehicles following behind and for the passengers who are suddenly jolted.

I have the issue recorded on video. The computer display totally froze for several minutes while driving on the highway. The turn signals would not work while the computer was frozen and the system needed to reboot after several minutes before the turn signals would start working again. I was in autopilot at the time of this happening. Video documentation can be provided. Here is a link to the video of the safety issue on Google Photos: https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipMUiX6JR5ppOGGqTCRlWxH1Hiv7hLr2Gm9G5wjjIfYFKz4-Lg7D-_nfAzTTalFX3Q?key=anRJQWo3TGNiM0F1cEJOczZOZ3RTRnRQMm1WOFpB

The contact owns a 2018 Tesla Model 3. The contact received notification of NHTSA Campaign Number: 21V00D000 (Electrical System, Visibility, Back Over Prevention) however, the part to do the recall repair was not yet available. The contact stated that the manufacturer had exceeded a reasonable amount of time for the recall repair. The dealer was not made aware of the issue. The manufacturer was made aware of the issue. The contact had not experienced a failure. Parts distribution disconnect.