What 379 owners told NHTSA about the 2017 Tesla Model S 75d

When backing up at a low rate of speed (<10 miles per hour), I heard a loud grinding noise. When I got out of the car, I noticed that my driver's side wheel was out of proper position. Forward driving caused grinding or rubbing noises. When I took the vehicle in for service, I was quoted a repair for front fore links (lower control arms) for driver's and passenger side. Q: What component or system failed or malfunctioned, and is it available for inspection upon request? A: Driver's side fore link. I'll ask for the replaced part to be returned. Q: How was your safety or the safety of others put at risk? A: Minimal risk was observed as I was completing a parking maneuver in my own driveway. A failure at a higher rate of speed might have caused loss of control. Q: Has the problem been reproduced or confirmed by a dealer or independent service center? A: Yes - by dealer Q: Has the vehicle or component been inspected by the manufacturer, police, insurance representatives or others? A: Yes - the manufacturer has reviewed the issue at their wholly-owned dealership/service center. Q: Were there any warning lamps, messages or other symptoms of the problem prior to the failure, and when did they first appear? A: No

NHTSA ODI 11484460

Vehicle was handling normally. I pulled into the parking lot of my bank, put vehicle in Park, and exited the vehicle to use the ATM. Within five minutes I returned to the vehicle, put it in reverse, and immediately heard a loud scraping noise like a plastic water bottle perhaps having become wedged between a tire and the wheel well. I stopped the car and looked underneath but all appeared normal. I continued backing up another three feet, again with the horrible rubbing noise. I exited the vehicle and more closely observed the right front wheel and tire, which the entire wheel/tire assembly appeared to be offset toward the rear of the car with the tire jammed up against the wheel well liner. I pulled forward into another parking space about ten feet away and called for a tow truck. After about ten minutes I observed brake fluid puddling around the tire. I Googled the symptoms and it said this was most likely failure of the suspension fore-link. This was confirmed by the dealer, who replaced the right and left front lower fore links, the wheel well liner and some other parts. Vehicle acted normally until the fore-link failed with no warning. Had this happened while driving on the freeway it would have likely shredded the tire and/or resulted in an accident. Vehicle had about 54,700 miles on it. I have NEVER had any suspension failure like this on any vehicle I have ever owned and several of my vehicles have been high mileage vehicles with over 200-300,000 miles on them.

NHTSA ODI 11482615

while pulling out of our garage, the aluminum left hand fore assembly cracked and a piece fell on the driveway. The left front tire then rubbed up against the wheel well, which made the car undriveable.

NHTSA ODI 11481414

Suspension links are failing after only 50k miles causing tires to rub wheel well liner.

NHTSA ODI 11481222

Front driver’s side suspension fore link snapped while traveling at low speed(possibly while turning). Wheel slid back and hit rear wheel arch during braking, compromising braking & controllability of the vehicle. The car was inspected and repaired by Tesla. The car only has 60K miles, but I was charged nearly $700 to replace. No warning lights indicated a problem.

NHTSA ODI 11477895

My vehicle had a 360-degree dashcam safety recording feature, and a safety feature called Sentry which warns people who are too close to the car or bump the car that it is recording them. Tesla removed the feature from my car, presumably because it did not work with the hardware (they quickly upgraded the next cars), and now shows the Sentry feature in the software and even pretends like it is recording, but it is not. The feature was removed on all HW 2.0 MCU 1 vehicles even though it's paid for in the Advanced Autopilot package. Tesla should have to recall these cars and put in the appropriate hardware that all cars built shortly after my car have once they learned that the equipment they put in was not sufficient for what was advertised. I have recordings from my vehicle from when the feature was there that I can share with you to prove that the feature was there, then it was removed because of the inadequate hardware in the car (rather than recalling them to upgrade the hardware).

NHTSA ODI 11476697

With no prior warnings while driving onto a main road with my wife and daughter I heard a thud in the rear of car at which time the car suddenly stopped. The driver's screen flashed "Suspension Failure". I could not drive the car to a safe location. I called local police who arrived and blocked traffic and my car was towed to nearby Tesla Service. The car has been at Tesla Service for past 11 days with no "diagnosis" and I received texts that they are awaiting parts and expect completion of repairs by evening of 7/26/2022.

NHTSA ODI 11475477

The contact owns a 2017 Tesla Model S. The contact stated that he received notification of NHTSA Campaign Number: 21V035000 (Back Over Prevention, Visibility, Exterior Lighting) and the vehicle was taken to the local Tesla Service Center for recall repair however, upon picking up the vehicle, the center display screen turned black and was no longer operative. The vehicle was taken back to the Tesla Service Center where it was diagnosed that the computer chip that allowed the vehicle audio and radio to operate needed to be updated. The dealer informed the contact that he needed to pay out-of-pocket for the repair. The vehicle was in the process of being repaired. The manufacturer was notified of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 13,715.

NHTSA ODI 11472815

I was driving north on I-5 in San Diego, in the right hand lane at 11:37pm, at 70mph with the FSD autopilot engaged. Approaching a gentle left hand bend in the road I spotted a disabled vehicle in the right shoulder with its hazard lights on and the driver door open. The car was fully off the road and was not a hazard. My car suddenly applied the brakes and did a weird “shimmy” as if it was trying to decide to make a turn. The autopilot did not disengage. My hands were on the wheel the whole time so I immediately took control and disconnected the autopilot by pulling up on the bottom-left control column stalk. The autopilot relinquished control as expected. I have not experienced any previous incidents of random autopilot braking on the freeway. This particular incident did not create an unsafe situation but the sudden braking did startle me. I tried to use the vehicle’s voice recognition system to file a “bug report” right after but it didn’t work.

NHTSA ODI 11471472

The display screen, which controls the vehicles defrost, a key road visibility function, repeatedly freezes during driving, incapacitating the defrost, heat and cooling systems .This presenta an extreme risk to life and limb that needs immediate attention action that Tesla refuses to address. Tesla has replaced the recalled chip, however, the problem persists and they claim it’s the age of computer and I would have to upgrade it at my expense. They claim my full car warranty doesn’t cover this as a pre-owned vehicle. Given that this is still related to the recall issue with the Tesla computer, they need to repair this at their expense by replacing the unit as they have with others in the past. Please help all affected Tesla owners before someone dies by representing us again as huge multinational company more interested in hitting sales targets than customer safety.

NHTSA ODI 11470546

Went to back into charger and back up camera still showed photo from where car was parked at home before I started my trip. I noticed a car behind me in mirror but picture showed no cars (and wrong location).

NHTSA ODI 11470066

Vehicle automatically and unexpectedly applies brakes when using Cruise Control when no other cars are in proximity or approaching. Sometimes braking is light but other times it is a jolt that is extremely starling. Often happens multiple times within minutes. Unpredictable when it will occur. I have taken the vehicle to Tesla 3 times and they say that they know about the problem but their Autopilot is still in Beta and are not actively working on a fix. On 4/28/2022, while on a trip, there were 5 incidents between 9:51am and 1:43pm.

NHTSA ODI 11469671

The suspension failed when I was backing out of a parking spot. As I drove to the Tesla service center for the diagnosis, I could hear rattle and clanging. Tesla notified me the suspension forelink LH and RH had to be replaced.

NHTSA ODI 11468833

Tesla has announced their intent to use "Tesla Vision" instead of radar to detect forward obstacles. "Tesla Vision" is a camera-only approach. Tesla cars receive OTA (over the air) updates, and these updates cannot declined. If an OTA update changes my car so that it no longer uses the radar with which it is equipped, I will have a much less safe vehicle, one that can't detect obstacles when there is poor visibility such as in the heavy fogs, rains, and snow conditions that we often encounter here on Washington's Olympic Peninsula. NHTSA should forbid the use of "Tesla Vision" without radar, and should require all Tesla vehicles to be retrofitted with functional, forward-looking radar.

NHTSA ODI 11468671

The contact owns a 2017 Tesla Model S. The contact stated while driving approximately 70 MPH, the vehicle experienced phantom braking. The contact stated that the vehicle quickly decelerated without warning to 50 MPH. The vehicle was taken to the dealer but was not repaired. The manufacturer was notified of the failure. The approximate failure mileage was 37,798.

NHTSA ODI 11467785

The contact owned a 2017 Tesla Model-S. The contact stated while driving approximately 55 MPH, there was a sound of something fracturing on the vehicle. There were issues with the steering functionality. The vehicle drove off the side of the road and crashed into a telephone pole, then landed on an embankment. All air bags were deployed. The vehicle was destroyed. The vehicle was towed to an auction facility. The police and fire department arrived on the scene. There was a police report. The contact and passenger received medical treatments for back injuries. The manufacturer was notified of the steering failure prior to the accident, and after. The approximate failure mileage was unknown.

NHTSA ODI 11467395

The car had multiple computer issues causing it to break unexpectedly, turn unexpectedly, avoid things that were not there unexpectedly. It was brought into the dealer multiple times, who actually viewed the error, and when they were driving it, they were involved in an auto accident. Even with the warranty, they could never fix it, and it was amazingly dangerous almost killing me several times.

NHTSA ODI 11465228

The 2017 Tesla Model S we purchased has a known issue with the MCU. The MCU rewrites information in a log chip repeatedly and has been known to burn itself out after short periods of time. Tesla has agreed to replace the MCU owners when it malfunctions, but they will only do so when the chip has completely destroyed itself and will no longer boot. Ours was malfunctioning every ~40 mins...all of our screens would black out while driving. Tesla refused to replace it. Additionally, we purchased Full Self Driving from Tesla with a contract that stated "all needed equipment and software included." This was not a true statement. Those of us with the malfunctioning MCU1 were not included in the FSD program and were forced to bribe Tesla with $2500 to update our MCUs even when they were under warranty and should have been included under the FSD contract.

NHTSA ODI 11464939

Front left forelink broke No prior accidents. No large pot holes

NHTSA ODI 11464087

While the tesla “traffic aware” cruise control was engaged (part of the “auto pilot” system), the car breaked aggressively for no good reason. This has happened 4 times over the 9,000 miles I’ve driven the car, always at freeway speeds. Although no injuries or damage resulted so far, serious injury could occur if a car is following me too closely when this happens.

NHTSA ODI 11461162

My vehicle driver door handle keeps popping open while parked and while driving. The door handle will either present itself or Not when this occurs. Disallowing me keep door shut. Also, door stays shut as times and doesn’t not present itself and makes a mechanical sound. This is a HUGE safety concern. I was advised since my warranty is up, it’s on me to fix, however, this is a safety defect and I am wanting to escalate ASAP before I have an accident from the door opening.

NHTSA ODI 11459696

Unknown My daytime driving lights for safety have begun to go out. It has been a long standing complaint but they refuse to fix mine under an expired warranty and I was quoted $1650 each to replace. I was told they would do a good will replacement but they will not. There are many complaints on the Tesla forums.

NHTSA ODI 11457759

The backup camera stopped working. I took the vehicle to the Tesla dealership and had to have the camera replaced. I am aware that there is a recall on Model 3 Tesla’s for a camera issue. I have also seen multiple sites online where Tesla drivers report issues with the backup camera for Model S vehicles.

NHTSA ODI 11457203

On March 22, 2021 Tesla announced a recall of the 8GB MultimediaCard (eMMC) for my 2017 Tesla Model S. It causes the main touchscreen to go fail, rear camera to fail, lose of control of radio/defrost and all other commands that require this touch screen. Tesla said they would replace the eMMC. That was almost a year ago. My vehicle has experienced this failure multiple times both before and after the notice and yet still nothing. I actually took my car in for this failure in Nov 2020 and was told nothing was wrong. Its an intermittent failure which requires a reboot to fix temporarily.

NHTSA ODI 11456363

The left front fore link assembly broke while I was driving approximately 30mph. See photo. The car made a bad vibration noise when braking or driving over a bump. I was barely able to drive it back home. The car did not have braking ability. I had to have it towed to the nearest Tesla Service Center (80 miles from my home). If this failure had happened at high speed, I imagine this could have resulted in an accident. I had the car repaired, and Tesla had a replacement part different from the original part, and also replaced the right side. It seems they are very aware of this part’s failure. Between the towing and repair, the total cost was approximately $1725.

NHTSA ODI 11455372