Other suspension problem on the 2016 Tesla Model S
28 crashes 6 fires 12 injuries 5 deaths 51 of the 132 reports for this failure mention a crash, a fire, an injury or a death. Those are the owner's words on the complaint form, not a verified finding, and one report can mention more than one.
When other suspension problem gets reported
Owners of the 2016 Tesla Model S report other suspension problem at a median of 10,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 2,500 miles and a quarter after 40,000 miles, from 99 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 100,000 miles. It is the 1st most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 1,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 57,500 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 56,221 miles across the middle 80% of reports.
Reports bunched into a band this tight usually mean the component has a life of its own: it goes at roughly the same mileage regardless of who owns it.
73% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1,000 miles | 2,000 miles | 10,000 miles | 38,878 miles | 57,221 miles |
Read the 10th percentile as “one report in ten arrived this early”. Exact figures are shown in this table because it is the table of record; everywhere else on the site they are rounded to the precision the sample can carry.
What a percentile can and cannot tell you here
These five numbers describe the readings owners gave, in order. The median is the middle one: half the reports arrived below it. The 10th and 90th are the edges of the bulk of the distribution, and the distance between them is the part worth reading. A tight spread — say 70,000 to 95,000 miles — points at something that wears out on a schedule, and the schedule is knowable. A wide one, 20,000 to 190,000, points at a fault that hits some cars and never troubles others, which means the mileage on the listing in front of you tells you very little about your odds.
What these figures are not is a survival curve. Every reading here comes from a car whose owner filed a complaint, so the sample contains only failures: it cannot say what share of the fleet made it past 150,000 miles untouched, because those owners had nothing to report. Nor is the mileage the moment of failure — it is the odometer reading as recalled at the time of filing, which may be weeks later and is sometimes rounded to the nearest ten thousand by the person typing it.
Percentiles are shown at all only once 8 readings exist for the vehicle and mode. Below that the middle of a handful of numbers is noise wearing a decimal point, so the figures are withheld rather than dressed up.
What happens, and what it costs
Of these reports, 28 a crash, 6 a fire, 12 an injury and 5 a fatality are mentioned. Owners write their own complaints and the agency does not verify them, so read this as what the reports say happened rather than as a confirmed count.
Putting it right typically runs $350–$2,000 at an independent US shop. That range is an editorial estimate held in this site's failure-mode catalogue, not a figure from NHTSA, and it is a repair cost rather than a diagnosis cost.
The same failure on other years
The same failure is reported on 9 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2020, at a median of 500 miles, and latest on the 2012 at 60,000 miles.
By volume the 2016 is the worst of them, which makes this a problem of this specific year rather than of the model as a whole.
If one year stands out to the left, that is the year to avoid; if the whole line sits at a similar mileage, this is wear rather than a defect in one production run.
Tick median reported mileage Solid middle half of reports Faint 10th to 90th percentile Colour how bad the failure is when it happens
What owners wrote
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint narratives, trimmed for length. The mileage is the one the owner gave.
This is a report made in the public interest to address the continuing problem of snapping tesla model s suspension components. Please note that I am not filing any false information, this is a genuine report made to try and save lives. The VIN belongs to a tesla which is in the wrecking yard but is not the actual vehicle involved in this most recent incident. There is a new report from china posted on the tmc forum which includes photographs of broken suspension parts. Https://teslamotorsclub.com/tmc/threads/the-rear-axle-shaft-broken-without-reason.67935/ tesla supporters are claiming that this is a staged accident for nefarious purposes. I believe that the photographs show a failure which is consistent with many other failures that I have already reported to you. The person that started the thread claims that tesla are investigating the incident. Please follow up on this. Tesla owners and supporters are unwilling to accept that this car is anything less than perfect. I believe that problems are being under-reported because most owners are shareholders and tesla enthusiasts that refuse to acknowledge the danger posed by fragile…
This vehicle is for sale as a salvage wreck. Https://m.iaai.com/vehicledetenc.aspx?auctionid=0&itemid=21970334&rowid=1&pagesource=vehicleresults# the front suspension has completely torn away. The wheel is in the frunk of the car and appears to have been sliced in half. That is indicative of the wheel being gouged from the inside whilst the car was in motion. There is no significant impact damage forward of the wheel that could account for the suspension being torn off. I have submitted many other complaints of suspension failures on teslas. This is a 2016 model and the suspension knuckle has been redesigned to a much sturdier version than the hollow section that was used on earlier models and which photographs show has frequently snapped off at the tip or in mid section. Nonetheless the suspension has failed once again. I have evidence that tesla are offering customers a settlement offer in return for signing an nda. A copy of the nda form is attached. Please investigate this matter.
Here is a report of a crash that occurred in germany. Http://teslaclubsweden.se/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=5024 the owner is uncertain of the exact sequence of events and is not sure if he was on autopilot or not. He credits the tesla with saving his life but does not concede that the crash might have been caused by a vehicle fault. The rollover and crash may have been partially the fault of the truck driver but the reports are ambiguous. Both front and rear wheels have been torn off the car which may have been the result of the crash but bearing in mind the large number of crashes in which tesla wheels have snapped off it may be that this was actually the cause of the accident. Tires should not peel off the rim even during a high speed spin. Wheels and suspension assemblies should not snap off so easily. I would like NHTSA to contact the german investigators to alert them to the possibility of autopilot or mechanical failure being a factor in this crash. I am not a tesla owner. I am a concerned citizen that has to share the roads with tesla autopilot controlled vehicles and I believe that lives of road users are being put at risk…
Also reported on the 2016 Tesla Model S
Infotainment screen failure
Other electrical problem
Backup camera failure
Other steering problem
Other speed control problem
Control arm, ball joint or bushing failure
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 132 is a floor and not a count of affected cars. Mileages are typed in by owners and cluster on round numbers. And the mode itself is assigned by software reading the complaint text, which is reliable in bulk and fallible one report at a time.
Questions this page answers
At what mileage does other suspension problem happen on the 2016 Tesla Model S?
Across 99 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 10,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 2,500 miles and a quarter after 40,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is other suspension problem on the 2016 Tesla Model S?
132 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 2.0 per 1,000 vehicles. Complaints are voluntary, so this is a floor rather than a count of affected cars.
What this is and is not. These are the mileages at which owners chose to complain to a federal agency, which is not the same as the mileage at which the part fails on every car. It skews toward failures that happened outside warranty, cost real money, or frightened someone. It is still the only public dataset that carries failure mileage at all, and the shape of a few hundred readings is informative even when a single one is not. Methodology · JSON · this failure on other cars
Source Owner complaints and recall records published by the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, model years 1996–2027 Figures rebuilt Published by AtWhatMileage How every figure is computed