Complaint volume
983 consumer-submitted complaints are matched to this model year. Treat the count as a research signal, then read the actual summaries for repeated symptoms.
Complaint records
2018 Tesla Model 3 Complaints
983 consumer-submitted complaints on record for the 2018 Tesla Model 3, grouped by component category.
983 Total complaints
100 Crash reports
4 Fire reports
34 Injury reports
Complaint data reflects consumer-submitted reports. A complaint is not proof
of a defect, recall, or manufacturer fault. Enriched severity fields come
from official bulk records when the complaint can be matched by ODI number.
Buyer interpretation
How to use these complaints before buying
Complaint records are most useful when they turn into inspection points, seller questions, and comparison checks against nearby model years.
Pattern to inspect
The most common categories are suspension, unknown or other, forward collision avoidance. Use those categories as a test-drive checklist instead of judging the vehicle from the total count alone.
Severity flags
Enriched records include 100 crash reports, 4 fire reports, 34 injury reports, and 0 fatality reports. These fields come from complaint records and should be read in context.
Mileage clue
Mileage is available on 219 complaints, with an average reported failure mileage of 25,782 miles. Compare that with the mileage on the listing.
Questions to ask the seller
- Have you had any problems related to suspension, unknown or other, forward collision avoidance?
- Can I see recent maintenance and repair records?
- Has the vehicle ever been towed, involved in a crash, or repaired for the same issue twice?
- Can we also check the recall record for this 2018 Tesla Model 3?
Used-car checklist
Use these complaints before the test drive.
Build a buyer checklist to turn these issues into questions and inspection points.
2018 Tesla Model 3
Build buyer checklist Compare with other years Sends year, make, and model to pre-fill your checklist.
How severe are the 2018 Tesla Model 3 complaints?
100 Crash
4 Fire
34 Injury
0 Fatality
63 Towed
19 Medical attention
What are the most common 2018 Tesla Model 3 complaint categories?
SUSPENSION 116
UNKNOWN OR OTHER 82
FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE 73
ELECTRICAL SYSTEM 49
AIR BAGS 42
SEAT BELTS 39
SERVICE BRAKES,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE 34
STRUCTURE 27
STEERING 26
AIR BAGS,SEATS 20
983 total complaints on record
Latest complaints
| Date | Component | Summary | Severity | Mileage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oct 2022 | SUSPENSION | 2 bolts mounting the left lower front control arm to the subframe has come loose. The car is out of warranty and Tesla refused to work on it without charging. The car has been making clunking noise and lately is pulling to the right when on freeway. Glad that I am handy and capable of doing DIY repair and glad I discovered it early. If one of these bolts comes loose on freeway, it could be fatal to me. I researched and found that I am not the only one. https://teslamotorsclub.com/tmc/threads/suspension-rattling-sound-turned-out-to-be-a-loose-bolt.185958/ When there are that many reports of the same problem, I believe Tesla should be more proactive or do a recall. The bolts have been tightened by me but I don't know the exact torque specs, nor do I know if any other suspension components or threads of the bolts have been compromised. I did not check the right side of the car for loose. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Oct 2022 | EQUIPMENT | https://www.tesla.com/support/home-charging-installation/wall-connector The strain relief on the cable that is used to charge the vehicle became loose exposing dangerous high voltage 240v (40A) bare wires inside where the consumer holds it to charge the vehicle. If touched by anyone while charging, would likely cause electrocution and possible death. As the vehicle takes hours to charge outside, not only is the driver and passengers at risk but passerby's including young children. This could happen during clear, dry conditions and exacerbated by wet conditions. The manufacturer, Tesla, responded to my complaint by telling me the only remedy is for me to buy a new charging unit at a cost of $500 plus a few hours of electrician labor. There was no mention of a replacement part (strain relief/handle) other than purchasing the entire system and paying an electrician to replace it. There were no prior symptoms (no scratches, no cracks, no physical damage, etc..) which leads me to believe that this is a manufacturing defect and a serious live threatening one. Furthermore, the Tesla support team wrote on 7/16/2022: "Thank you for reaching out to the Tesla Wall Connector Support team. "he crack shouldn't stop the unit from charging. Your unit is out of warranty. If you would like to purchase the newest Wall Connector while it's on sale for $400 instead of $500, I have provided the link. We do recommend a certified electrician install the Gen 3. https://shop.tesla.com/product/wall-connector." This implies that the wall charger can be used to charge the vehicle and ignores the DANGEROUS ELECTRICAL HAZARD present which is totally unacceptable. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Oct 2022 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | On Sept. 9th, around 9:05pm, my wife was on the driver's seat, FSD was engaged. so the Tesla model 3 car was driving itself on highway 395 close to susanville. Then suddenly a car coming, we had a head-on collision, the other car's front left hit our front left. The other driver passed away, my wife and I got serious injuries, we are recovering from 3 surgeries. 1.FSD did not give alert or warning, 2.FSD did not break the car, 3.FSD did not slowing down the car 4.FSD did not change direction of the car. 5.FSD just kept the speed and direction. “Disabling FSD” needs time, my wife did nothing, because there was only few 10th of a second. But I am afraid if she was driving without engaging FSD, she might be able to steer the car slightly to the right to avoid the accident. CHP will pull data from the car in the next few days. We would like to request NHTSA has a full investigation of the accident. Attached please find a form we received from CHP, a picture of both cars, and driving data downloaded from Tesla web site. | Crash: Yes Fire: No Injuries: 2 Towed Medical attention | Unknown |
| Oct 2022 | ELECTRICAL SYSTEM,VISIBILITY,BACK OVER PREVENTION | The contact owns a 2019 Tesla Model 3. The contact stated while driving at various speeds, the Back Over Prevention camera intermittently failed to operate as needed. The contact then received notification of NHTSA Campaign Number: 21V00D000 (Electrical System, Visibility, Back Over Prevention). The vehicle was taken to the service center where the back-up camera cable was reinforced as stated in the recall. Upon return of the vehicle, the contact stated that the back-up camera failed to operate as needed. The contact stated that the dealer had not tested the cable and that the recall repair did not fix the failure. The manufacturer was notified of the failure and informed the contact that since the failure was intermittent prior to the failure, they were not responsible for the failure. The vehicle was not repaired. The failure mileage was approximately 41,000. The contact stated that the manufacturer had made a mistake and refunded the cost to the contact. The complaint has been resolved. | Crash: No Fire: No | 41,000 |
| Oct 2022 | AIR BAGS,SEATS | I believe the front passenger occupancy sensor has failed or malfunctioned again. The first instance of issue took place on 03/05/2020 and a second instance of the same issue has occurred again on 09/29/2022. It is available for inspection upon request. Front passenger safety is put at risk because the vehicle may not deploy the front passenger airbags if it is not able to detect the occupancy status of the front passenger seat. The problem was reproduced by the Tesla dealer after the first instance of failure. The vehicle was inspected by the manufacturer after the first instance of failure. The system warning that displays on screen - "Front passenger safety restraint system fault/Service is required". | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Oct 2022 | ELECTRICAL SYSTEM | -PCS (Power Conversion System) failure. - No warning light, message or symptoms, failed overnight. - Car is not drivable, HV completely isolated and drain 12V battery overnight. Can’t open any door, screen dead and had to tow. - Repair cost $1884, 53k miles / 4 yrs and 2 months. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Sep 2022 | UNKNOWN OR OTHER | My vehicle received the Full Self Driving Beta (FSD-B) update Software Version 2022.20.17. I took the vehicle for a ride near my office in The Heights area of Houston, Texas, and when stopped in traffic at a red light briefly placed the vehicle into park to engage the FSD-B via the touchscreen. When I engaged Autopilot with the FSD-B active, the vehicle made a right turn from the MIDDLE lane of the roadway which had just opened into three lanes a short number of feet beforehand crashing into another vehicle causing damage to both vehicles and injury to my hand. It appears the Full Self Driving Computer failed to recognize that the roadway had just changed from two to three lanes whereas there were not vehicles in the third lane until the moment my Tesla Model 3 turned suddenly and aggressively. Had it been less than a second earlier, my vehicle would have been fully into the turn and the accident likely of a catastrophic "T-Bone" nature. The manner in which the computer turned the wheel was especially shocking. I am accustomed to Autopilot having used the system for several years, but not with the vehicle making full-turn maneuvers as is the case with the new FSD-B software. I was holding the wheel firmly close to the "six and nine" positions and beneath the "V" areas of the steering wheel. The wheel turned so aggressively and suddenly that there was no possible way to counter the maneuver and soft-tissue injury occurred to may hand requiring prescribing of steroids to reduce inflammation and pain. Tesla was notified of the accident and provided with video from the vehicle's Dashcam system, but denies liability for the accident claiming it is driver responsibility. | Crash: Yes Fire: No Injuries: 1 Medical attention | Unknown |
| Sep 2022 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | Constant "phantom braking" occurrences despite great conditions (sunny, no wind, good visibility, low traffic) during a road trip that was two hours both ways. Typically happened when coming to the crest of small hills, or when "road mirages" due to light refraction, or when a car in the distance just became noticed by the vehicle. Happened both on divided highway and two lane highways. Several braking occurrences were pronounced enough to be likened to not quite slamming on the brakes, but definitely applying them firmly. This, besides being terrifying and attention grabbing, itself a safety issue, it could also mean close following vehicles may have to react in such a way to also apply brakes heavily at highway speeds which could cause a rear end collision or swerving to avoid my vehicle. I also get little to no warning it's about to happen, until it does, no alarms go off, and in general it was noticing the hills, mirages, and vehicles just coming into the car's "sight" that the correlation of the phantom braking was occurring. I know this is known by Tesla, and I am going to take it in for a winter tire swap this week, and let the dealer know it is a major issue with my car. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Sep 2022 | POWER TRAIN,ELECTRICAL SYSTEM,FUEL/PROPULSION SYSTEM | Originally received notification of DTC "BMS_a035 - Vehicle may not restart." Vehicle was serviced and the rear motor drive unit was replaced. Was not given the oppertunity to inspect the serviced components upon request. Within 48 hours of service, "BMS_a027: Power limited, OK to drive," & BMS_a170 - (de)acceleration warning & top speed warning." My concern is related to a potential cascading problem, which cannot be diagnosed, and which will lead to failure of the propulsion system or an unexpected discharge issue / thermal event from an electrical issue while the vehicle is in use and/or parked. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Sep 2022 | LANE DEPARTURE | Tesla Model 3 (and other models) comes equipped with side cameras on the vehicle's B-pillars. Tesla has designed these components to allow cabin air to infiltrate the space between the cameras and the exterior glass. Of course, this means that humid cabin air will condense on the glass when ambient conditions cool the glass enough. This blocks the cameras, causing certain features (e.g. blind spot camera, auto lane change, lane keeping assist) to stop functioning. These features have been actively advertised by Tesla and sold for thousands of dollars as software upgrades, but do not reliably function because of this design flaw. As can be seen on many internet forums (e.g. https://teslamotorsclub.com/tmc/threads/b-pillar-cameras-fogging-up.172226/page-8), this issue has been known for years, yet Tesla has provided no fix for the problem. As recently as Sep 2022, their service centers are still telling customers to run cabin heat to eliminate condensation, but the cameras are well insulated, thermally, from the cabin (see Page 2 infrared pics https://teslamotorsclub.com/tmc/threads/camera-condensation.168472/page-2), so this does almost nothing, while potentially overheating the occupants. After 3-4 years, it is clear that Tesla is not interested in taking this design flaw seriously, and will only act if forced by safety regulators. This is an integral part of what Tesla has marketed as their cars being "safer than humans", and it's unable to cope with normal weather conditions (I live in Seattle, WA and routinely see this in temps as high as mid-50s to low-60s). | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Sep 2022 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | My Model 3 often breaks for no reason when using autopilot on freeways. Even though there is no vehicles around my car, the car "phantom brakes" often causing me to slow down extremely fast with no warning. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Sep 2022 | SEAT BELTS | Car displayed a vehicle passenger harness safety fault that requested I contact Tesla service for an appointment. Received a repair estimate from Tesla identifying that they need to "install Occupant Classification (OCS) Filter Module" requiring part "Service Kit- OCS Rework (1479982-00-C) and saying the cost to me is $151.25. This isn't listed as a recall item but I don't believe this should be a owner issue to resolve. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Sep 2022 | SERVICE BRAKES | Periodically the driver side front brake will emit a squeal when travelling at low speeds. Reported to Tesla and they attributed the lack of braking as a contributory fault. They bevelled the brake pad and explained that this was normal behavior. However this did not fix the problem and it periodically reoccurs. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Sep 2022 | UNKNOWN OR OTHER | [XXX] has/is watching me through the in car cabin camera & the 9 cameras surrounding my Tesla. I have proof he has audio recorded me & also has watched me and who knows how many other unsuspecting women, men and minors. This is a clear privacy violation and he needs to be stopped. INFORMATION Redacted PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6). | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Sep 2022 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | As I enabled the FSD Beta ADAS system, the vehicle accelerated inappropriately quickly away from a 90 degree stop. While continuing on the road, the vehicle braked inappropriately for oncoming cars within their lane, inappropriately braked within intersections, inappropriately braked for turn radius, and was unable to avoid a closed road marked with signs and cones. Steering input was erratic, and I believe the vehicle created an unsafe condition for myself and the vehicle following me. There were no AEB or FCW alerts, the system did not display any error messages, and appeared to be operating fully. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Sep 2022 | SERVICE BRAKES,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | On a recent trip from northern califorina to southern california, I experienced 5 episodes of phantom braking, that involved my brakes being applied at 75 miles per hour when no other vechiles were around me. This also happened 3 days later 4 times when traveling from southern california to my home in northern california. all incidents happened on hwy I--5 I have contacted Tesla service and they tell me nothing is wrong after checking vehicle logs. I believe this is a known issue, that is why i am reporting it. my first trip was sep 1st and second trip was sept 4th In all incidents adaptive cruise control was engaged | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Sep 2022 | VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL | Car was stop at left turn lane waiting for light to change to green arrow. Car just accelerated on its own . Car crashes into to car in front of me and pushes us onto center island and continues to accelerate sending us on to crossing traffic, endangering others and my family life . Tesla never investigated or tried to respond. Insurance company couldn’t or never did any investigation and made me at fault for the accident. Tesla certified body shop told me they can’t pre scan Tesla and print out reports like any other vehicle. Cars driver front camera was coming on and off prior to acceleration for no apparent reason . Camera is part of ADAS system. | Crash: Yes Fire: No Injuries: 2 Medical attention | Unknown |
| Sep 2022 | SUSPENSION | The contact owns a 2018 Tesla Model 3. The contact stated while operating the vehicle, there was a squeaking sound coming from the front passenger’s side of the vehicle. The sound was present while making turns, stopping, and accelerating. The cause of the failure was not yet determined. The manufacturer and local Service Center was notified of the failure and a Service appointment was scheduled. The failure mileage was 25,750. | Crash: No Fire: No | 25,750 |
| Sep 2022 | UNKNOWN OR OTHER,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | During use of Full Self Drive vehicle brakes unexpectedly. Sometimes vehicle studder brakes and other times hard brakes. This has caused a concern with drivers following me as well as passengers I'm my car. Also on a two lane road with double yellow while stopped in traffic, vehicle attempts to exit lane to pass stopped vehicle, in essence breaking the law. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Sep 2022 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | Traffic aware cruise control (TACC) frequently and sometimes violently brakes when there are no obstacles. This potentially puts the safety of myself, passengers, and other drivers at risk during these events. This events occur without warning. Since the purchase of my vehicle in 2018 the events have gotten worse through software updates. I would expect improvements through subsequent updates not a regression. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Sep 2022 | UNKNOWN OR OTHER,SERVICE BRAKES,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | On two occasions while on adaptive cruise control, my car slammed on the brakes while driving on the interstate going 65-70 mph. This was terrifying and the car practically stopped in the middle of the road. We are very lucky no one hit us from behind and that we did not lose control. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Sep 2022 | ELECTRICAL SYSTEM | A portion of the Power Conversion System "PCS" has failed in my 2018 Tesla Model 3 extended range with 34,000 miles, resulting in the inability to charge the vehicle but at 32 of 48 capable amps. Reports from other Tesla owners indicate that remaining portions of the PCS can fail resulting in charge amperage reduction to 16 amps or inability to AC charge completely if all portions of the PCS fail. This issue is apparently not an isolated incident. The PCS in this vehicle appears to be flawed due to reports of early failure and the number of reported failures. The issue goes beyond the previously released service bulletin of 2018 Tesla Model 3s manufactured between June and July 2018. Tesla will not cover the cost for the repair, either in good faith or under the battery and drive unit warranty. The repair is costly, but left unrepaired the car may not be capable to charging using level 1 or 2 charging if the PCS fails completely. The error for this issue is seemingly difficult to find. It is not indicated on the Tesla app. It is only discoverable when in the car, while the car is charging and when trying to charge at or above 33 amps. Unlike a traditional check engine light, the error goes away and because the car still charges, it is difficult to realize an issue exists. I'm unaware of when the error first occurred because of this. It is likely the error existed before the general warranty for the car had expired. It doesn't appear Tesla does a diagnostics scan for this error during service appointments which I would think would be routine. The description and troubleshooting steps for this error are also heavily weighted towards possible power grid issues and only suggest a possibility of there being an issue with the car upon further investigation. I'm sure power grid issues exist and often result in the error, but it seems the PCS failure is more often the cause and should be equally stressed. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Sep 2022 | POWER TRAIN,ELECTRICAL SYSTEM | The car charging is not functioning at certain Amp rating ( 48Amps). Car displays " Power Grid or Vehicle issue limiting the AC charging" and goes to a lower 32Amps charging mode. This could lead to Battery damage and I see that there is a service bulletin asking Tesla to replace "Power Conversion System" (https://static.nhtsa.gov/odi/tsbs/2018/MC-10148850-9999.pdf) but that is limited to a limited time period. But I see several cars manufactured outside of those dates having the issue and this part should be replaced on all cars without a charge to the customers | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Aug 2022 | SERVICE BRAKES | Phantom braking is extremely dangerous and a cause for disaster! While in Autopilot, it will unexpectedly brake while driving on the freeway. This causes a jerk to the human body and cause a possible rear end accident. This is quite frequent. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Aug 2022 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | Newer software disables existing radar in the car; this "Tesla Vision" is objectively worse at providing automatic braking response correctly, often scared literally of it's own shadown Newer cars don't even include the rdar, an ill-advised cost saving initiated by Tesla | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |