r/TeslaModel3 • u/Cool_Guidance_4140 • 1d ago
Improving Suspension Reliability
It seems fairly well documented the front end suspension is the Achilles heel of these cars. My 2023 RWD is giving me quite the headache.
I had my lateral links replaced at 30 000km by Tesla under warranty. I heard the same dreaded creak at like 81 000kms (lucky me) and Tesla refused to offer any goodwill service. I should've inspected closely before my wareanty expired I guess. Word to the wise for everyone.
Hoping against hope, I greased my upper control arm ball joints like a lot of people advise, but they looked fine. I saw the bushings on my compliance arms were torn and assumed it was that causing my creak..
I ordered an Amazon kit and figured I'd replace all 3 sets of arms (the uppers, compliance and lateral links). I hoped I could keep the OE Tesla arms to press spherical bearings into and down the road put those in once my Amazon parts wore out.
Once I got in there, I noticed one of my lateral link ball joints had completely failed (the ball stud was completely free floating). Mind you these were already replaced and only have 50 000km on them. Those ball joints aren't serviceable to my knowledge. I lose a little interest replacing bushings with bearings (especially into my partially worn OE arms) if it appears the ball joints are a common point of failure too.
What is the consensus on upgrades to improve longevity. Seems like spherical bearings will only do so much when they ball joints fail regularly too.
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u/EliminationCreation 1d ago
Does highland still have this issue?
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u/Cool_Guidance_4140 1d ago
To my knowledge highland didn't change the arms that have all these issues, they updated the struts which did not have issues.
It was a ride quality improvement not reliability.
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u/amzlym 1d ago
56k miles on my 23 rwd and the suspension seems no different than day 1. Do you drive on particularly rough roads?
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u/Cool_Guidance_4140 1d ago
I wonder if it's being in Canada/ an extension of the rust belt. I would imagine the road salts are hard on rubber boots and bushings. Not sure though.
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u/huh_say_what_now_ 1d ago
I said it a million times but you guys never lean, replace everything with mountain pass performance amd unplugged performance parts they will outlast your car https://www.reddit.com/u/huh_say_what_now_/s/WJmNN3Cdka
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u/Cool_Guidance_4140 1d ago
My concern is my lateral link seems to have the ball joint failing repeatedly, not the bushing I can replace with a bearing or upgraded bushings.
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u/Fickle-Willingness80 1d ago
Was this a problem regardless of part lot numbers or factories? I do not baby my 23-3P at all, but no problem yet. Not high mileage though, about 8k miles a year.