2017 Tesla Model 3 UNKNOWN OR OTHER
Owner-reported problems and safety issues filed with NHTSA. Review common failures, severity levels, and complaint trends over time.
Complaint Timeline
Chronological view of owner reports
I purchased a new 2017 Tesla model 3 in late 2017, drove it 135k miles and suddenly had issues with the battery cooling fan staying on all the time and the interior cooling not working. The Tesla service center found the condenser completely blocked with road debris. This was possible because of a design flaw in the condenser being horizontal and receiving unfiltered air directly scooped from the vent below the grill of the car. This design flaw is present in all model 3 and model Y as I can see but, the amount of debris scooped depends on many factors such as mileage, geography, highway vs local, etc. The result was damage costing $4k to repair and no way of preventing the design flaw from causing another failure in the future.
My rear glass cracked. However, there was no damage to suggest an impact of any sort. I looked carefully and saw there was no damage to suggest this was caused by an impact. I took the car to the Tesla dealership and they also examined the glass and agreed that there was no impact of any sort that would have caused the glass to crack. They then told me that they have seen this on multiple Tesla vehicles and believe it's a manufacturing defect possibly related to the defroster. They refused to cover it under any warranty as I was out of the warranty period.
Trend Over Time
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Other Issues
Common problems reported
Quick Summary
The 2017 Tesla Model 3 has 2 UNKNOWN OR OTHER complaints on file. Review the timeline above for detailed owner experiences.