In Denmark when a car reaches 6 years, it needs to be safety checked to be used on the roads. After that it’s every 2nd years.
Tesla model 3 managed these safety checks extremely poorly, with 3 times the average failure rate.
In total, 1,392 errors were found on the Tesla model, which is three times as many compared to the other electric cars.
If you don’t have a translate page button (to your own language), You may want to switch to Firefox. I’m showing the original page in danish, because danish is delicious.
Me after eating a hot curry:
Raging high dump percentage
https://fdm.dk/nyheder/bilist/2025-01-populaer-tesla-model-dumper-med-et-brag-til-syn
English:
Problems with wheel suspension and play in the steering wheel
Original:
problemer med hjulophæng og ratslør
WTF! How has this been allowed to become an issue again? We solved this problem more than 50 years ago with better Sterring rack.
And the law demands ZERO play in the steering wheel!I just saw a review recently with a reviewer complaining there was a bit to much play in the steering wheel.
This is probably some drive by wire shit, how is this even legal?
What a fucking travesty. My 18 year old Opel Vectra doesn’t have that problem, and has never needed to have it fixed. A modern quality steering rack just works!!Goddam this pisses me off! I’m furious they allow this shit to happen now. Every single one of them should be permanently recalled.
Tesla also has an insanely poor accident record, maybe there’s a reason for that!We solved this problem more than 50 years ago with better Sterring rack.
No, we did not. Every steering system that uses a mechanical column, like the Model 3, will eventually develop play. The bushings and u-joints are mechanical parts and wear over time. Even electric (drive by wire) steering can eventually develop play simply because the steering itself is mounted used a bearing or bushing assembly.
Here’s an image of the steering assembly from an Opel Vectra.
You see those things at the very ends? Those are tie rods and they wear out. You see those black booted things on each side of the steering gear? Those are u-joint and they wear out and get loose.
There’s the actual column, the part that goes between the steering wheel and the steering assembly. As you can see in this image it too has wear points that will eventually cause looseness. Specifically there is a bushing at both the top and bottom where the steering shaft goes through the column. If you have tilt steering, that column does, there’s another wear point. If you have pull out / push in steering then there’s another one.
MANY vehicles, including the Model 3, also have a u-joint in their column. You can see it in this image. That U-Joint is necessary because the location of the steering wheel often doesn’t align with the steering box on the assembly. Here’s an image of a column out of an Audi A6 and it has a u-joint on BOTH ends.
I’m not arguing that Tesla’s are great, they definitely have QC problem, but the statement that this is a “solved problem” LET ALONE one that was solved in 1975 is absolutely untrue.
Every steering system that uses a mechanical column, like the Model 3, will eventually develop play
Not true, I own an 18 year Opel Vectra, no issues with play in the steering, and nothing was ever needed to be done to fix it, and no other old cars I’ve driven had it, and I haven’t heard of it as a problem you should to check for before a safety check. The older cheaper worm gear steering racks ALWAYS had it, and it was regulated how much was allowed. but they’ve been obsolete for about 50 years maybe more now.
For a 4 year old car to have it is ridiculous.
Not true…
My good person if I go to a search engine and type in “vectra loose steering” it returns results of people having problems with literally every mechanical bit that I pointed out to you; from tie rod ends (sometimes called track rod ends) to worn bushings in the column mounting hardware. The problem of “loose steering” exists even for your Make and Model.
It happens with nearly every vehicle manufacture. Here’s an owner of a 2019 Honda Accord ST complaining about it in 2020 when their car was only a year old! Heck I just did a search for “BYD steering loose” and got results!
For a 4 year old car to have it is ridiculous.
Now THAT I agree with. These problems really shouldn’t be showing up in vehicles this new unless they have more than 100,000 miles (160,000 kilometers) on the odometer or they’ve been subjected to abnormal conditions. I’m not arguing that Tesla’s are great, I’m pointing out (with evidence) that “loose steering” is not a solved problem and widely exists across all Makes and Models.
Tesla always had extremely poor quality control, it’s just that everyone and their grandma just ignored it because back then Tesla was cool and new and back then most people didn’t see that musk literally lies all the time about everything
Remember the full autonomous driving that every telsa has since 2016 that can drive the car across the entire US? Yeah…
This is probably some drive by wire shit
No, none of the model 3’s use drive by wire, it’s a classic steering column like other cars.
however there is a case running between Tesla and the FDM because the bushings that the steering wheel adjustment mechanism is mounted with has some play in it, which is supposedly what the inspections are rejecting them with as play in the steeringg column, even though there is not any play in the actual steering column itself. Shitty quality, absolutely, but not an inherent safety risk like play in the steering column.
So they’re rejecting play in the steering system, rather than play in one component of the steering system. That seems the correct thing to do.
So Tesla just can’t make it properly like every other manufacturer can, and have done for 50 years!
Wow, that’s kind of a worse look for Tesla.
ejecting them with as play in the steeringg column, even though there is not any play in the actual steering column itself.
That’s probably because AFAIK there is zero play allowed in the steering wheel. It’s not enough that the column is OK if the rest isn’t.
This goes back to pre-Musk Tesla. Their original idea was to treat car manufacture as a greenfield problem, and they deliberately didn’t hire anyone from the “legacy” industry. They assumed that their knowledge of high-tech manufacturing and supply-chain optimization would be much better than anything existing carmakers were doing. But they soon discovered that Teslas are, in most ways, just like other cars, and the brilliant manufacturing processes they came up with weren’t really any different than those of any other carmaker, except the quality was worse. So at some point, a while before Musk stuck his nose in, they started quietly recruiting industry veterans to sort out the quality issues, which kept getting worse as production scaled up.
Since Musk has been in, the progress that Tesla had made in addressing quality has again gone down the shitter, due to his arrogance and inability to grasp engineering detail.
This goes back to pre-Musk Tesla.
Tesla started in July of 2003 and Musk showed up in February of 2004 with VC money, becoming employee number 4 IIRC. How many vehicles do you figure that Martin Eberhard, Marc Tarpenning, and Ian Write built in their garage before Elon showed up? Couple hundred maybe?
Since Musk has been in…
Musk has been involved since 9 months after Eberhard and Tarpenning started the company. He was involved with the design of the Roadster, which he and others won an award for in 2006. That was two years before he became the CEO.
Elon is a disappointment and has truly become another billionaire douchebag jackass but that’s no reason to rewrite history. Practically speaking Elon has been involved with Tesla since the beginning.
due to his arrogance and inability to grasp engineering detail.
Yeah I just joked with my wife that Musk probably told the engineers to cut the number of parts in the steering from 5 to 3.
Obviously simplified, since it’s way more parts. In general it’s true that fewer parts is better, but Musk is absolutely insane on the idea, to the degree that basic functionality suffers or is even completely removed.I admit I was actually very impressed with Tesla early on, and the Tesla S, and I cheered for them. They helped make electric cars cool IMO. But I quickly began to notice things that I did not like at all. Like his insane promises on FSD when he discontinued cooperation with a company that actually knew what they were doing. His reaction was to spew bullshit about how Tesla was leading the field.
Also his complete disregard for conditions in the work place, both safety and regarding racism. And his claim that working for him was a “lifestyle” helping to change the world.
That last part was an enormous red flag! That this man is likely an insane megalomaniac.I really really hope the Nazi salutes will backfire in a big way. But probably not.
That’s probably because AFAIK there is zero play allowed in the steering wheel. It’s not enough that the column is OK if the rest isn’t.
The thing is, there isn’t any play WRT turning of the steering wheel, it is only horizontal and lateral movement of it. The law doesn’t specify this unequivocally, which is why they’re arguing to figure out how to interpret it.
which is why they’re arguing to figure out how to interpret it.
Yeah that’s the goto argument for companies literally not meeting regulation, they try to make it into a matter of interpretation if they can.
If you have play in the movement vertically and horizontally, there will at least potentially/occasionally be similar play in the actual steering.
My god it sounds like an embarrassing issue to have IMO. Even the cheapest cars from traditional makers that cost about a third don’t have that issue.If you have play in the movement vertically and horizontally, there will at least potentially/occasionally be similar play in the actual steering
No, they are two completely independent mechanical systems. Failure of one does not have a causal link to failure in the other.
There is no way that makes sense. If you have vertical play in the mounting, that vertical play will also have an impact in your movement of the steering wheel. When if for instance you hold the wheel on the side with one hand. any turning movement begins with a vertical movement.
It’s worse than that, the first safety inspection is after four years, not six.
Sorry, I thought it was 6, but I checked it out, and you are right, it’s already at 4 years now!
Turns out Elon Musk is a grifter hyping overpriced low-quality crap, who doesn’t care about the customer. Who would have suspected such a thing?
Anecdotally heard from a tow truck operator that im 2024, he alone towed ~40 Teslas. Make of that what you will.
Why didn’t he use the tow truck?
C’mon man. There were 40 of them! He only had 1 tow truck! What was he supposed to do?
Sounds like a lot for a brand of cars that on average aren’t very old!
Yup, and they’re not even very common here. I’m in Malaysia, and it’s branded above the byds, of which there are much more.
“Dump”? Is that a literal translation of the Danish word for failure?
Du dumpede = You failed the exam.
It’s very specific to failing an exam/inspection etc.
God I love how Dutch is essentially just how I talk after I’ve had a pint too many. If I can ever get a hand on German, Dutch is the next language on my list.
While as a Dutchman i find your statement hilarious, they’re talking about Danish here ;)
Maybe that’s not a good translation, I just went with the auto translation, and didn’t really think about it, because we have the word “dumpe” for failing.
Maybe it doesn’t work in English.I would correct it, but I already tried to correct 6 years to 4, and it doesn’t take for some reason?
In English, to dump is (usually) to unload or discard, so its use here is a bit strange. I thought I understood what was meant anyway, but I wasn’t sure.
When a car dumps this safety check, it’s illegal to drive unless the problem is fixed withing 14 days.
So generally with older cars it’s recommended to take the car to a mechanic for inspection first, and have issues fixed before inspection.
But with an only 4 year old car, that generally have been through manufacturer recommended services until very recently, this shouldn’t be necessary.Unfortunately the article doesn’t mention any particular safety hazard, but I’m guessing brakes are high on the list, because there have been stories about that already before they were old enough to require inspections.
Edit:
Changed 6 to 4 year.When a car dumps this safety check, it’s illegal to drive unless the problem is fixed withing 14 days.
I like that. Unsafe vehicles on the street are public danger.
It’s weaker in Germany: 1 month to fix it, and if you fail that, you get fined, but you can still drive it for a while longer, and have more attempts to repair it.
In the UK the safety check (the MOT) starts 3 years after the car is first sold, and annually after that. MOT results are categorised into “pass,” “minor (= warnings)” or “major.” If any findings are marked as “dangerous,” you can’t drive the vehicle until they’re fixed. Otherwise, if it failed, you can still drive the vehicle as long as its old MOT hasn’t yet expired. Driving with “dangerous” findings will get you in some major trouble, including fines and a driving ban.
I admit I’m not 100% familiar with the rules, I think if the car is in the shop, you can get an extension.
But if it’s really bad, they can take the plates on the spot. There are degrees.USA:
I read an article about how many more Teslas failed the safety check in Germany, and the % was extremely high compared to other cars! The thing that failed the most was the breaks, as they had rusted. If you live in the Northern hemisphere where there’s snow, Tesla recommends to have the car in for service to clean the breaks, lubricate etc. every year. It’s not a high cost (1200 DKK) compared to other yearly services.
In Denmark a car will fail with brakes as the cause for simply having rust on them, even if the actual braking performance is good enough to pass. This is causing a lot of BEV and PHEV to require brake replacements even though they’re not worn and still work just fine.
Why don’t other cars suffer the same fate as often?
EVs don’t use the brakes nearly as much as regular ICE vehicles. Regenerative braking can provide nearly every bit of braking necessary for everyday driving.
They do, all BEV and PHEV suffer from this. For most teslas it’s probably not getting corrected before inspection because there is no service requirement from Tesla to maintain vehicle warranty. Since other manufacturers require service to maintain warranty, they discover and fix these before inspection.
The reason EV’s have this problem is regenerative breaking, I’m guessing other brands are better at taking that into account.
Other brands have mandatory service to maintain warranty, so they likely replace parts just before inspection rather than just after.
brakes are not generally on the list for more than an inspection - which quick lube plates won’t do.
But a simple visual inspection is all you need to see if there’s rust on the discs requiring action before the safety inspection. And it’s this check many BEV owner’s don’t do, so it’s not caught until they do the actual safety inspection.
Det er særligt fejlgrupperne „bremseudstyr“, „lygteudstyr“, „aksler, hjul og dæk“ samt „styretøj“, som bilerne dumper på.
Ouch.
Brakes not passing the inspection is actually pretty “normal” for electric cars. The brakes see very little use due to regenerative braking and the disks start to rust. A large amount of vehicles fails the TÜV because of that here in Germany.
I had something like this on my hybrid, but it was fortunately spotted when I had my winter tires put on.
The problem was rust between the calipers and pads, which meant that the pads could come loose from even a mild impact.
Det er særligt fejlgrupperne „bremseudstyr“, „lygteudstyr“, „aksler, hjul og dæk“ samt „styretøj“, som bilerne dumper på.
In English: The cars are particularly prone to failure in the fault groups “braking equipment”, “lighting equipment”, “axles, wheels and tires” and “steering equipment”.
Tesla braking systems are regenerative, so more complex than non-regen brakes. The other three categories should be bog-standard.
It’s not clear if categories such as batteries, electric motors, bodywork, etc are omitted because they’re OK or because the Danish authorities don’t regard them as safety-critical in the same way.
Thanks, that’s really bad, where did you find that?
Thanks, I should have posted that instead.
Who knew Nazis were bad car designers?
Ironic because historically they were pretty good.
It was the Communist that were bad at car design.
Imagine driving around the fascistmobile with the attitude “yeah i know he’s a fascist billionaire destroying democracies, and throwing up the heil hitler, but i already bought this car” lol, gotta be the weakest weaksauce justification and it seems most are like “understandable” hahahahahahaa, flying the fascists flag everywhere you go
Wow the downvotes are insane here??
Whatever happened with “vote with you wallet”?
Buying a Tesla is as a matter of fact supporting Nazism, which has been clear for a while now. That’s indisputable!
As in literally supporting Nazism! Not just in USA, but also in Europe!it’s lemmy tech bros sunk cost fallacy “not me, i don’t have to do nuthin, does’t apply to me” bullshit
Yes the crowd that will support fascism with their money, do absolutely nothing against it, and then complain why things suck and they’ll never be able to afford to buy a house.
I imagine one of the reasons for this, is because people don’t have their cars serviced yearly. Most other car manufacturers require you to have your car serviced once a year.
That’s still just not good enough.
My 18 year old Opel has managed 4 years with only an exhaust repair, that’s from 14 to 18 years without a problem that can occur on an EV!
4 years ago I had the breaks fixed.I know it’s anecdotal, and that I’ve been lucky with this car, but for fucks sake 30% failure rate on a 4 year old car!!
That’s horrendous even if none of them had ever seen service for 4 years!These are the most basic SAFETY issues, that are legally required, not about being 100% top condition as new.
