The United States National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) on Friday said that it had opened a formal investigation into around 115,0000 Tesla vehicles over a front suspension safety issue.
The NHTSA said that it has received 43 complaints alleging failure of the left or right front suspension fore links, following which it has decided to open a preliminary evaluation into 2015-2017 Model S and 2016-2017 Model X vehicles.
They also said that, in February 2017, Tesla issued a service bulletin describing a manufacturing condition that may result in front suspension fore link failures.
The 2017 service bulletin said that some vehicles have “front fore links that may not meet Tesla’s strength specifications. In the event of a link failure, the driver can still maintain control of the vehicle but the tire may contact the wheel arch liner.”
32 out of the 43 complaints, involved failures that occurred during low-speed parking manoeuvres, while the other 11 occurred while driving, NHTSA said. They also added that another eight complaints may involve the same issue.
In October, Tesla told NHTSA it was recalling around 30,000 Model S and Model X vehicles in China at the request of Chinese regulators due to front suspension link issues. Tesla said they did so, “because the environment in China required stronger suspension due to local roads and driving conditions.” The company is also issuing a separate rear suspension link recall in China for the Model S vehicles.
On November 20, a class-action lawsuit was filed against Tesla in the U.S. District Court in California over suspension issues in Model S and X vehicles. The lawsuit claimed defects that can result in the premature failure of the front and rear suspension control arm assembly components.
But reportedly Tesla has told NHTSA that it did not believe there was any suspension defect and also said that no U.S. recall was needed, calling the issue “exceedingly rare.” It added it is unaware of any related crashes, injuries, or deaths worldwide.
The auto-safety regulator had previously opened a preliminary evaluation in June over touchscreen failures. It said that the failure can result in the loss of rear-camera image display when in reverse and also reduce rear visibility when backing up. It can also impact defogging ability and audible chimes relating to Autopilot and turn signals. That probe now covers 2012-2018 model year Tesla Model S and 2016-2018 Model X vehicles. The preliminary investigation covered 63,000 Tesla Model S cars.
