Have the thrill of crashing your 3 wheel whompy Tesla!!!'Aladdin' star says a defect in his Tesla Model 3 led to his car wreck, and it comes from a problem area the company has known about for yearsLINETTE LOPEZ JUN 6, 2019, 5:24 AM
Massoud v. Tesla. Mena Massoud’s Tesla.
The star of Disney’s live-action “Aladdin,” Mena Massoud, is suing Tesla after he said a faulty suspension caused his wheel to come off, spinning his Model 3 out of control a day after he bought it.A Tesla spokesperson contradicted Massoud’s account, saying that the car’s “wheel was torn off because the driver crashed into a tree at high speed.”
Suspension problems have dogged Tesla Model S and X vehicles for years, to the point that observers on the internet have started referring to them as “whompy wheels.”
Tesla has issued several technical service bulletins for suspension-related problems, and it has been monitoring similar cases internally since at least 2013, according to internal documents obtained by Business Insider.
Tesla has never issued a recall for this specific issue.
The star of Disney’s live-action version of “Aladdin” is suing Tesla, claiming a defect in the car’s suspension caused the front wheel of his Model 3 to pop off as he was changing lanes on Hollywood Boulevard, spinning the car out of control and into a tree.
The actor Mena Massoud had bought the car the day before and Geico, his insurer, ultimately found that the issue was with Tesla, not Mena, according to the complaint. Massoud is suing Tesla, alleging negligence and breach of warranty, among other things.
In a statement to Business Insider, a Tesla spokesperson contradicted Massoud’s account, saying that the car’s “wheel was torn off because the driver crashed into a tree at high speed.”
For those who watch Tesla closely, though, Massoud’s sounds familiar. Suspension problems have plagued Tesla’s cars for years. On the internet an incident like Mena’s is known as the “whompy wheel,” and it has become something like Tesla lore. The National Highway Safety Transportation Administration’s site is littered with anonymous complaints about broken suspensions, and there are sites dedicated to spotting whompy wheels in the wild.
Tesla has issued multiple technical service bulletins, or TSBs, warning mechanics of suspension issues with its Model S and X cars. Tesla has never issued a recall for this problem.
One of those TSBs – issued for 2016 Model S and X cars in February 2017 – warned: “Some Model S and X vehicles may have been manufactured with front suspension fore links that may not meet Tesla strength specifications. In the event of a link failure, the driver can still maintain control but the tire may contact the wheel arch liner.”
Jason Levine, at the Center for Auto Safety, told Business Insider that there are two instances in which a company is supposed to issue a recall: when a car is in violation of federal motor safety standards or when there’s a significant defect.
“Tesla’s not doing that,” he told Business Insider. “They’re putting out over-the-air software updates [for some problems] and not reporting them as defects. Maybe they believe the problems are not safety issues or maybe they’re worried about how it will impact share price. To be fair, they’re not the only ones doing this … there is a long sad tradition of car companies doing this.”
A Tesla spokesperson said that the company uses TSBs like any automaker – when cars need an upgrade or when it needs to share repair instructions that are not included in Tesla’s repair manual.
“However, they are not recalls,” the spokesperson said. “They do not indicate that a recall is needed, and they do not indicate that there is any safety concern.”
If you see something, say somethingAccording to internal documents viewed by Business Insider, engineers at Tesla have been tracking suspension issues in the Model S since at least 2013, and later tracked similar problems in the Model X. They have been examining failures in the field and writing reports comparing new cases to previous cases.
One investigation in 2016 found that Model S and X suspension failures were still being caused by the same issues that Tesla observed in a 2013 study – when fore links were fracturing at the ball joint because of visible flaws and/or improper forging. As Daily Kanban said in its examination of this problem back in 2016, a similar ball joint failure in the 2000 to 2003 Dodge Durango and Dakota models resulted in a recall.
Instead of doing a recall on potentially defective suspensions, Tesla has been releasing TSBs related to this issue for years.
Even though Tesla’s Model 3 has been on the road for less than a year, the company has already issued a TSB related to its suspension. It says that on some Model 3 cars “the front stabilizer bar link ball joint studs might crack at the flange. As a result, the nut that attaches the stabilizer bar might lose torque. This might result in noise coming from the front of vehicle while driving on rough surfaces.”
Read the whompy rest herehttps://www.businessinsider.com.au/aladdin-stars-problem-with-tesla-known-as-who...
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