A rainy city in Canada where the wet weather and winter road salt can cause car parts underneath to rust and wear out faster than they would in dry climates.
This is a popular all-electric sedan made by Tesla. Because it runs entirely on heavy batteries, it weighs much more than a gas car of similar size, which can put extra stress on its steering and suspension parts over time.
The Tesla Model Y is a mid-sized, fully electric family SUV made by Tesla. It does not use gasoline, relying instead on a rechargeable battery, and is controlled almost entirely through a large touchscreen on the dashboard.
Think of this as a metal ball-and-socket joint, similar to a human hip. It connects the wheel to the car's suspension so the wheel can turn left and right to steer while also moving up and down over bumps.
This is a metal arm shaped like a wishbone that holds the top of the wheel assembly in place, keeping it straight and stable as the car drives over bumps.
This is a heavy-duty spring wrapped around a metal shock absorber. It sits above the wheel to absorb the impact of bumps, keeping the ride smooth and preventing the car from bouncing up and down constantly.
This is a heavy metal bracket behind the wheel that acts as the anchor point for almost everything. The wheel bolts to it, the steering system turns it, and the suspension holds onto it.
When you take your foot off the accelerator in an electric car, the motor reverses to slow the car down and acts like a generator to put electricity back into the battery. This means you rarely have to step on the actual brake pedal.
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Hi, it's Mark.
I'm here with Bernie Pawlik, Pawlik Automotive in Vancouver, BC, Canada.
Vancouver's best auto service experience.
We're talking cars.
Bernie, how you doing?
Doing well today.
Today's guest is a 2021 Tesla Model 3.
What was happening with this space vehicle?
So this vehicle, the owner came to us.
He had a creaking noise in his front suspension, and we had a look at it, diagnosed it, found
that the upper ball joint was making some noise.
It was like, when you move the wheel around and when you hit bumps, an issue that's not
just a Tesla issue, that it happens on all vehicles sometimes.
It's not the most common noise, but he usually had dried up ball joint or tie rod end, it
will cause that.
So we found the upper right ball joint was doing that on this car.
And what kind of kilometerage did this vehicle have?
It had 60,000.
So not a lot.
Five years old, 60,000 k.
It's probably a little sooner than you'd expect it to happen.
But EVs do have a lot of weight issues with suspension components because there's a lot
of weight on the parts, more so than generally internal combustion engine because of the weight
of the batteries.
So tires and suspension components do wear more generally on EVs than they do on internal
combustion engine cars.
Here's our vehicle, Model 3.
Yeah, nice shiny blue model.
And let's jump right to the culprit here.
So this is a picture on the left.
That is the upper ball joint, which is attached to the upper control arm.
It's all one in piece assembly.
So that's the piece we replaced that whole unit there.
I think you have a wider view of this piece.
I didn't get the back piece, but it's like a wishbone shaped control arm.
It's attached at the front and the rear.
And what's involved in replacing is you actually have to lower the strut tower down from the
vehicle because the rear bolt, you can't get it out of the control arm without lowering
the strut tower because it interferes with the body of the vehicle.
It's a little bit of a job to do.
Line here.
That's the wire to the ABS brake sensor in the front right wheel.
I did have a couple of comments about this, which we can go over now.
There's a lot of talk about the build quality of Teslas.
They're a great car to drive and the screen and the electronics of state of the art for
sure.
But there's a lot of strange build quality I find.
If you look at these lines, they're attached with a zap strap, which is the kind of thing
that we would do in an emergency when something's broken and we couldn't get the proper clip.
But the clips that Tesla uses are a clip with a zap strap.
It works fine, but it just looks a little less than other auto manufacturer quality.
Let's put it that way.
Yeah.
Plastic is not known for being super durable.
No, exactly.
But a lot of the clips that use are plastic, but it's just something that just caught my
eye going, that's kind of interesting.
So this whole assembly is moving up and down.
It's moving up and down.
You can see the coil spring and it's a strut.
There's a shock absorber inside the coil spring.
So it's a strut assembly and it's got the steering knuckle, which is that sort of silvery
piece below the black control arm.
So we're going to go to the upper side of this thing now.
So this is the top side.
So in order to remove it, there's four bolts that hold that strut tower in place.
And this is all underneath.
If you're to open the front trunk or the hood on an internal combustion engine vehicle,
you would basically see a bunch of black plastic in there in a storage area and we have to
remove all those pieces, plastic.
And then we can get at this and we can take the strut tower out.
So was this car injured or something?
Why is this a different color than the main body of the car?
I think it's just the way Tesla paints their cars.
Again, that's an interesting thing.
If you look at any other car, if it's a blue car, the whole car is blue no matter where
you look on the car.
Because I believe most manufacturers, I think they dip the whole car in paint.
So that if they do spray them, they spray the whole thing.
But I would assume from this, the Tesla sprays their cars and they just spray the important
parts and just leave the things that are unseen, unsprayed.
It's covered in a protective coating, but it's just a little, again, interesting.
It's like a cut corner in my opinion, but it doesn't affect the way the car drives.
So after repair, how was the steering?
Great.
Steered great.
No creaks and no noises.
So all good.
Brakes and suspension are really the main maintenance items on EVs, ultimately.
Brakes actually do last a long time because you've got regenerative braking.
So they're not used that much.
But one thing with brakes is you do need to get them serviced regularly because they're
not used very much.
Things can get sticky.
Corrosion comes in and if you're just driving in Arizona all the time, it's probably not
so much of a deal.
But when anywhere where there's rain, salt, snow, anything like that, there's corrosion
that's bound to build up in the brake.
Things will rust and corrode.
So it's good to every probably three years, 23 years to remove the brake pads,
have them cleaned and make sure all the backing plates are good and the sliding pins and everything
are all in good shape.
So the brakes move properly.
And then they'll last a very long time.
Otherwise they'll prematurely stick and then they'll fail and wear out.
And how about batteries?
You guys serve us quite a few different makes and models of EVs.
What about batteries?
You basically, I think you just charge them and hope for the best.
Yeah, charge them and hope for the bad.
Yeah, that's what I was going to say.
Charge them and hope for the best and hope that they're built well.
And most of the time they are, a lot of them do last a long time.
12 volt batteries do fail on a lot of models of EVs and they need to be replaced.
But again, they're not outrageously expensive and not much more than they would be on a
regular gasoline or diesel powered vehicle.
If you're looking for service for your EV in Vancouver, BC, Canada, the people to
see are Pollock Automotive.
They're experts.
They've been trained.
They have all the equipment to be able to do all kinds of repairs on your EV.
And they have the expertise to be able to do it the first time.
Pollock Automotive in Vancouver, BC, Canada, you have to book ahead at PollockAutomotive.com
or you can call them at 604-327-7112.
Again, thanks so much for watching and listening.
Thanks Bernie.
Thank you Mark.
Thanks for watching.
About this episode
Bernie Pawlik discusses a common but early suspension issue on a 2021 Tesla Model 3 with only 60,000 kilometers. After diagnosing a creaking front upper ball joint, Bernie explains why heavy electric vehicle batteries accelerate suspension and tire wear. The repair process reveals some surprising Tesla build quality quirks, including zip-tied sensor lines and unfinished interior paint. The discussion wraps up with essential EV maintenance advice, highlighting why regenerative braking systems still require regular servicing to prevent rust and sticking in wet climates.
