2013 TESLA MODEL S Complaints

To whom it may concern, Tesla Model S, and potentially other vehicles, have notorious issues with their front suspension fore links perhaps causing unsafe driving conditions. The topic has been brought up on Tesla forums numerous times and countless drivers are experiencing the same issue due to faulty parts provided during the manufacture of Tesla vehicles. The issue causes turning tightness, tire rubbing, and complete car driving capability failure, usually at low speeds. With the frequency of the complaint and the potential danger it could cause should the front suspension fully fail at higher speeds, this serious matter needs to be investigated on an urgent basis. As older Tesla vehicles are now aging the occurrence and increased risk is only rising to everyday, unsuspecting drivers. Just recently, my fore link and front suspension failed only minorly, and without and complete understanding of what the issue was the car was experiencing I continued to drive the vehicle. The only noticeable issue that came up for me was tire rubbing during reversing and slight misalignment when the vehicle was parked. After taking it in to Tesla I now know that this could have been a fatal error on my part of the front suspension would have failed completely during highway speeds. When these front fore links fail, most will only experience minor issues like me and avoid taking it into repair, as the average car buyer does not understand that this could be a catastrophic failure. If this issue is not resolved and a recall seriously considered, I’m concerned in the not so distant future that this may lead to serious bodily harm if full failure of the front suspension occurs during highway or roadway speeds. Again, this is not an isolated issue. Countless and thousands of Tesla owners have shared their experiences online with the same issue. I’ve attached my Tesla service quote for your review, this repair costs upwards of $3,500.

March 2021: Experienced center touch screen display persistently shutting off. This is a safety hazard because the center screen is the only way control much of the car's safety components and functionality. Received safety recall notice, NHTSA Recall_No.: 21V-035. Attempted to make an appointments through mobile app and phone calls to service the recall multiple times but was told they do not have the part to repair the car and to continue driving the car. August 2021: Somehow managed to successfully schedule an appointment through mobile app. Took car to service center. Was told by service advisor that the purpose of the recall was to repair my issue with center display shutting off while car was in use. Car was repaired by replacing 8GB eMMC and released back to me on the same day. September 2021: Recall issue with center display shutting off was not resolved such that not only does the center display continue to shut off while car is in use, the instrument cluster screen directly in front of the steering wheel is now shutting off as well, another clear safety hazard. The cluster screen displays information such as speedometer, battery state of charge, gears (P,N,R,D). October 2021: Scheduled another service appointment through mobile app to repair issues of both screens shutting off. Reviewed repair estimates prior to appointment which showed zero cost to me. Took car to service center. Was told by service advisor that it they will charge me $200 to inspect the car, if issues are related to recall there will be waive the $200 fee and repair at no cost, however if issues are not related to recall, they will charge me $2000. I declined the offer and drove the car home while both screens are persistently shutting off. I believe the car is dangerous to drive in its current state and Tesla refuses to repair the car and resolve these safety hazards.

They were supposed to replace the eMMC board in 2020, and I have been asking for a year now(I have made at least 4 requests) and they still say that they don't have the parts to do it and to keep checking back in the future.

i was driving over 100mph, let off the accelerator and the car kept going that fast. Then all of warning lights came on, traction turned off, anti skid turned off. etc etc. I immediately applied brakes to NO affect. I called the Tesla Road Side Assistance. Lady was on the phone looking at my warnings. She could see the same warnings i was seeing. Applying brakes as hard as possible got the car to eventually slow down. It acted like the Cruise Control was stuck on 100mph. BUT, i never turned it on. EVER. This happened around first of May. Well two weeks later it happened again. This time Help Desk referred it to Jacksonville Service Center. The mechanic said he referred it to the "engineering" team at Tesla on 6/10/21. Have not heard back, I have been there several times, NO help at all. Refuse to discuss it.

I had a failure on my main computer. The MCU failed and the screen would not turn on. Tesla replaced a chip in my MCU but it did not fix all of my issues. I have to reboot my computer 95% of the time I am driving. Here are the issues: 1) 3g/GPS not activating. Leads to not being able to use GPS navigation. 2) Computer freezes. Usually while sleeping, computer does not wake up or the central screen does not respond leading to failures in many systems including: blinker, AC, radio, rear view for backing up, garage control, creep mode, etc. One time I left my computer in 'camp mode' so that it would keep cool on a hot day. While I was away from car, I checked on my mobile app to see the status of the car. The app could not connect to my car. When I came back, the computer had frozen up which meant that the AC was no longer working. This caused a unsafe level of temperature in my car of 100 degrees +. Luckily there was no dog or child in the car but I hate to think if there was. When I leave the car in 'dog mode' or 'camp mode', I expect it to do what it states it is going to do and keep my car cool. This could be very dangerous, especially on a hot day. In conclusion, even though Tesla did the fix for my MCU and my screen does turn on, it is not fixed 100% leading to constant reboots due to 3g failures and computer freezes. This happens almost every day.

The vehicle's main center console doesn't work, even after a recall notice from Tesla. Tesla tried to see what was going on with my car, but they could not find it, but 5-10% of the time my car still has a center console screen not working. There is a defect and these times it is very dangerous to drive the car.

I was approaching a stop sign at 2 mph when I heard a terrible metallic clunking sound from under the front of the car. When I went to make a right turn, I was unable to steer the car. I was able to get it into a parking lot where I saw that the front right wheel was cambered in at about 30 degrees. I took photos of the car and in the wheel well and saw that the wheel was disconnected from an upper control bar. I had it towed to the Tesla Service Center and they confirmed that the Upper suspension link had disconnected from the wheel. There is a ball and socket type of joint that connects the two and the ball had popped out of the socket causing the problem. I had them check the Right front connection and was told that that socket was also loose and needed to be replaced. I had both sides repaired. My concern is that had I been traveling on a highway at 70 mph, I would have lost control of the car causing a terrible accident. The fact that the other side also showed similar problems leads one to conclude that there is a design or material flaw in the Tesla Modal S front suspension. The car has only 83,000 miles of normal driving usage. I believe that all Model S cars from this era should be recalled and inspected for this problem. Otherwise, accidents will occur and some may be fatal. Tesla told me that they were unaware of any such problems with their cars. A quick internet search shows that this is not true. I have the parts that were removed if you need to inspect them.

RE: NHTSA Action Number: DP19005 - INVESTIGATION Subject : Battery Management Software Updates Dear sirs, my 2013 Tesla Model S p85 is a victim of this battery management software update that has reduced my driving range and time to takes to recharge the battery. this is a safety concern because I cannot drive as far (the range) as the manufacturer promised and I cannot recharge as fast as the manfuacuterer promised. I was forced to program this software update in my car, it was claimed as a must have safety update and the affect was reduced range and usability of this car. For example, if I had a medical emercengy while driving the car and needed to get to the hospital, and the car had this range reduction software, I might have a dead battery before I can get to the hospital. this is crazy! and when I try to recharge it take twice as long to recharge as the manufacturer claims, this is crazy too. Please help.

2012/2013 MODEL S. HAD WINDING NOISE PRIOR TO WARRANTY EXPIRATION. TESLA VAN NUYS SERVICE CENTER STATED ALL NORMAL. AFTER WARRANTY EXPIRATION REAR DRIVE UNIT FAILS ON FREEWAY, SHUTTING VEHICLE DOWN, NEARLY CAUSING CATASTROPHIC ACCIDENT. TESLA REFUSED TO REPLACE UNTIL WE PAID OVER $7000 TO FIX. REAR DRIVE UNIT FAILED PREVIOUSLY UNDER WARRANTY. THIS IS TYPICAL PROBLEM WITH TESLAS. NOW 8 YEAR WARRANTY EXPIRES FROM ORIGINAL PURCHASERS AND NHTSA SHOULD START TO SEE (ALREADY SEEING) NUMEROUS COMPLAINTS IN THIS REGARD. OBVIOUSLY NHTSA TESLA HAS A DEFECTIVE DESIGN WITH REAR DRIVE UNIT. TRANSPORTATION SAFETY ACT PROTECTS CONSUMER FROM MANUFACTURER DESIGN DEFECTS. TESLA RELYING ON WARRANTY EXPIRATION AND CONSUMER IGNORANCE TO NOW CHARGE FOR THIS NEVER ENDING FIX. NHTSA MUST START INVESTIGATION OF TESLA REAR DRIVE UNIT FAILURES. NO THOUSANDS OF REPORTS UNTIL NOW BECAUSE COVERED BY WARRANTY BUT TESLAS NOW OVER 8 YEARS OLD AND WARRANTY'S ARE EXPIRING. PLEASE INVESTIGATE.

Navigation and speedometer display went blank while driving , on 7/30/2021 at Palo Alto, CA. I pulled off the road, reset computer three times or so. Eventually, speedometer display came back, navigation was slow. I had to use Google map for a while. Service Center tested saying a chip update will be needed, and an upgrade, for $219.0. Set up service appointment for 8/10/2021at Tesla service center in Fresno, CA. I reside in Clovis , CA, zip 93619. Two days in service center, since 8/10-8/13/2021, I was told MCU board is in need of replacement, for a cost of $1500.0 extra. Tesla will not fix the condition on older model, 2013 S85!.?. OEM refusing to correct problem on older models. Driver confusion, and the car mechanism misbehaving, felt confusion while driving on three lane busy streets. Thank You, Bava