Complaint volume
592 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
2019 Tesla Model 3 Complaints
592 consumer-submitted complaints on record for the 2019 Tesla Model 3, grouped by component category.
592 Total complaints
58 Crash reports
5 Fire reports
19 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 forward collision avoidance, suspension, unknown or other. Use those categories as a test-drive checklist instead of judging the vehicle from the total count alone.
Severity flags
Enriched records include 58 crash reports, 5 fire reports, 19 injury reports, and 3 fatality reports. These fields come from complaint records and should be read in context.
Mileage clue
Mileage is available on 134 complaints, with an average reported failure mileage of 21,753 miles. Compare that with the mileage on the listing.
Questions to ask the seller
- Have you had any problems related to forward collision avoidance, suspension, unknown or other?
- 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 2019 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.
2019 Tesla Model 3
Build buyer checklist Compare with other years Sends year, make, and model to pre-fill your checklist.
How severe are the 2019 Tesla Model 3 complaints?
58 Crash
5 Fire
19 Injury
3 Fatality
47 Towed
15 Medical attention
What are the most common 2019 Tesla Model 3 complaint categories?
FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE 64
SUSPENSION 53
UNKNOWN OR OTHER 35
FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE,LANE DEPARTURE 26
LANE DEPARTURE 26
ELECTRICAL SYSTEM 24
AIR BAGS 20
VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL 18
AIR BAGS,SEAT BELTS,SEATS 17
STEERING 17
592 total complaints on record
Latest complaints
| Date | Component | Summary | Severity | Mileage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dec 2022 | EXTERIOR LIGHTING | Poor LED headlight/headlight seal caused severe condensation (water dripping) inside headlight housing, which led to the headlight and turn signal to not function. No warning/notification received from the car. The car is 3 years old, past 50,000-mile warranty. Headlight inspected by Tesla service center and had to be replaced at owner’s expense due to out of warranty. Condition led to poor visibility and danger/risk to other drivers/pedestrians on the road especially at night. Attempting to obtain old headlight from service center, but have pictures on hand. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Dec 2022 | AIR BAGS,SEAT BELTS,VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL | I started to having "Faulty Restrain system fault" around 49k miles on Tesla Model 3. Error pop up "service needed". Consult Tesla for repair. First they ask for $384 for repair harness wires attach for driver front seat. Upon checking warranty on Tesla.com, it provides 60000 miles and 5 years warranty for Restrain System coverage so tesla agrees to fix error for "$0". Upon taking car for repair, I was informed I had rodent cause damage (chewed) wires and it's not cover. I had to pay $180 for repair. I live in Phoenix city and where I live we don't have any problem with rodents. It's very shocking to learn that rodent get access to underneath of Tesla and can chewed on wires. Why wires are not covered with better material rather than cheap plastic tapes. Those wires play significant role in vehicle safety as far as restrain system is concern. Question is why Model 3 is so inferiors in quality and design that rodent get access to the wiring. Error cause many driving problems with air bags not working and causing speeding errors. I have read on Tesla Motor Club blog and many customers are experiencing same problem. Is there anything Tesla needs to do to make their car more safer on road? If you need more information please email me at [XXX] I can provide pictures of damage due to rodent provided by Tesla. Thank You,[XXX] INFORMATION Redacted PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6). | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Dec 2022 | UNKNOWN OR OTHER,SERVICE BRAKES,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | Two lane highway I was in the left lane with the cruise control on not Full Self Driving. In the right lane was a semi which I came up along side off on the left , I was driving 70mph. (Speed limit) The car suddenly hard braked on it’s own. The car behind me had to brake to avoid an accident and went into the dirt. After that on this same drive, there were at least 6 more instances of phantom braking when traveling over a “wash bridge “ going under a highway sign, driving along side another semi and once without anyone near and an open road. This also happened 3 months ago and when I reported it to Tesla they said when I received the FULL self driving down load which I got the next day, the problem should be corrected. I also reported the previous problem to you, the case # 11488958. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Nov 2022 | ELECTRICAL SYSTEM,VISIBILITY,BACK OVER PREVENTION | The contact owns a 2019 Tesla Model 3. The contact received notification of NHTSA Campaign Numbers: 21V00D000 (Electrical System, Visibility, Back Over Prevention) and 22V702000 (Visibility) however, the parts to do the recall repair were not yet available. The local dealer was not contacted. The contact stated that the manufacturer had exceeded a reasonable amount of time for the recall repairs. The manufacturer was not made aware of the issue. The contact had not experienced a failure. Parts distribution disconnect. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Nov 2022 | LANE DEPARTURE | At night, both left and right side turn signal cameras (repeater cameras) become heavily obscured with glare when using turn signals. This interferes with lane keep assist, blind spot/collision warning, autopilot functions, and the ability for a driver to safely discern the presence of a vehicle in the vehicle’s blind spot. In November 2022 Tesla stated “It is a characteristic of the product… that has been design enhanced in newer vehicle production.” The issue is caused by 3 small holes located on the repeater camera’s printed circuit board (PCB) that allow internal light from the turn signal repeater to shine through the PCB to the camera sensor side, directly obscuring most of the camer sensor. The new “design enhanced” version covers these 3 holes with tape, eliminating the problem. Tesla does not view this as a concern and does not cover this safety issue under warranty. A very large number of owners have filed complaints with Tesla. Some owners had the parts replaced under “good will” while most have been charged for the replacement of the side repeaters as Tesla doesn’t classify this as a defect in “materials or workmanship”. Despite this, Tesla felt compelled to “enhance the design” by eliminating this problem. It’s absurd that Tesla knows about the issue and went as far as correcting it to prevent further problems, but won’t issue a TSB for vehicles effected by this “characteristic” that poses a major safety concern. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Nov 2022 | EXTERIOR LIGHTING | The high beams frequently don’t work. It has to be off auto. They only work sometimes I have to pull the left stalk forward to have them on. They should over ride the system if I push the stalk forward so I can see the road. I have allot of deer in my area and I’m afraid to drive often because the system isn’t working right. They want to charge me $1,363 to look at it. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Nov 2022 | ELECTRICAL SYSTEM,UNKNOWN OR OTHER | Battery system is malfunction with power conversion system. I notice it is only charging 32/48A. After talking to Tesla, they said it is the power conversion system failure and it wouldn’t be cover under the battery warranty. I know there is a lot of other Tesla owner with this issue as well. Please investigate this incident to see if Tesla should recall the system. Thank you. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Nov 2022 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE,LANE DEPARTURE | Was using autopilot feature on the vehicle on thanksgiving. Was going about 75 miles per hour when suddenly autopilot failed and the car lost control. I had to quickly regain control of the vehicle before I crashed. I took photos of the error messages and reported the incident to tesla via the tesla app. Typically autopilot fails gracefully and provides notifications. I’ve never seen it fail with no warning and loss of control of the vehicle. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Nov 2022 | ELECTRICAL SYSTEM,UNKNOWN OR OTHER | A recall was issued on Dec 21, 2021 regarding a potential camera issue due to a cable wearing out. It states that a remedy is unavailable. However, it has been almost a year since this recall and I believe this is not a reasonable time frame at this point. My camera has become glitchy and sometimes shows a green screen rather than the actual camera view | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Nov 2022 | AIR BAGS | Major side impact. Vehicle struck 30-35mph perpendicular to direction of travel. Vehicle did a 180 and suffered significant damage. Side Airbags did not deploy and shattered glass projectiles were flung to the head area of rear occupant, as evidenced by glass shards caught in car seat head area. | Crash: Yes Fire: No Injuries: 1 Towed Medical attention | Unknown |
| Nov 2022 | VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL,SERVICE BRAKES,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | While freeway driving with autopilot (adaptive cruise control) engaged the car will suddenly break VERY hard when there is no reason to. This is SUPER dangerous when traveling at 70 mph and someone is behind me. This is a known issue (phantom breaking) that has been a problem for years and not resolved. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Nov 2022 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | The contact owns a 2019 Tesla Model 3. The contact stated while driving 65 MPH, the vehicle experienced "phantom braking". The contact stated no warning light was illuminated. The contact was able to continue driving to his destination. The contact informed the manufacturer of the failure through the Tesla App and the mobile service unit was dispatched to inspect the vehicle. The vehicle was not repaired. The contact stated that recently he had experienced the failure five times within an hour and a half. The manufacturer had been informed of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 21,100. | Crash: No Fire: No | 21,100 |
| Oct 2022 | ELECTRICAL SYSTEM,VISIBILITY,BACK OVER PREVENTION | The contact owns a 2019 Tesla Model 3. The contact received notification of NHTSA Campaign Number: 21V00D000 (Electrical System, Visibility, Back Over Prevention) however, the part to do the recall repair was unavailable. The contact stated that the manufacturer had exceeded a reasonable amount of time for the recall repair. The manufacturer was made aware of the issue. The contact had not experienced a failure. Parts distribution disconnect. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Oct 2022 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | The contact owns a 2019 Tesla Model 3. The contact stated that while driving at 60 MPH, the vehicle experienced phantom braking while there was no other vehicles or objects around. There was no warning light illuminated. The contact depressed the accelerator pedal and was able to continue driving. The contact stated that the failure had been reoccurring increasingly while driving. The contact stated that the vehicle was not designed with self-driving mode. The manufacturer was notified of the failure but provided no assistance. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. The failure mileage was approximately 50,500. | Crash: No Fire: No | 50,500 |
| Oct 2022 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | The contact owns a 2019 Tesla Model 3. The contact stated while driving approximately 70 MPH with adaptive cruise control mode and passing a semi-truck, the vehicle experienced phantom braking and pulled hard to the left on three occasions. There were no warning lights illuminated. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. The manufacturer was notified of the failure and advised the contact to provide a two minute time frame of the next occurrence of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 27,019. | Crash: No Fire: No | 27,019 |
| Oct 2022 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | On a recent cross-country trip in our Tesla, we experienced "phantom braking" a number of times when we had the adaptive cruise control engaged. We were not using more advanced features on any of these occasions. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Oct 2022 | VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | While the vehicle has adaptive cruise control engaged, there are times it applies braking (sometimes aggressive braking) for no reason (commonly referred to as phantom braking). It’s almost as if the vehicle thinks there is an object in front of it and is applying emergency braking, however there is nothing on the road. In my experiences, it happens mostly on the Highway at speeds 60-80mph. This happens on clear days, with no weather concerns. This is a severe issue that will cause accidents (if people are following closely behind me, there is a concern of them hitting me). It is scary and concerning ; this needs to be immediately addressed and corrected. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Oct 2022 | STEERING,SUSPENSION | Front upper control arm is failing, making an awful noise and can be felt grinding inside the car while driving. Reported to Tesla service and they denied the repair. It is a known issue, they need to recall all effected vehicles for repair. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Sep 2022 | SERVICE BRAKES, HYDRAULIC | The contact owns a 2019 Tesla Model 3. The contact stated while driving approximately 12 MPH, there was a rattling and grinding noise coming from the front passenger’s side tire. The contact pulled over and noticed that the front brake caliper bolts had detached and the rear brake caliper bolts appeared loosened. Additionally, there was damage to the front passenger’s side tire and rim. No warning lights were illuminated. The vehicle was towed to a local dealer and the contact was made aware of NHTSA Campaign Number: 21V387000 (Service Brakes, Hydraulic) however, the VIN was not included in the recall. The brake caliper bolts were replaced. The manufacturer was made aware of the failure however, a case was not opened. The approximate failure mileage was 38,000. | Crash: No Fire: No | 38,000 |
| Sep 2022 | SUSPENSION | Squeaking while turning left, right, and under load while braking in a straight line. Problem is upper and lower control arms. Also at time is sound like metal grinding in a circular fashion like a break pad on a rotor, or like an inner bearing going out. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Sep 2022 | VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | I was traveling approximately 70 mph in passing lane when I engaged (standard) autopilot, as I approached to pass a vehicle with another vehicle following me in the same lane as I was traveling. My vehicle (phantom) braked hard to which the wheels began to squeal slightly and the vehicle behind me had to brake hard to avoid hitting my vehicle. I almost immediately applied pressure to the accelerator pedal to avoid a complete stopping of the vehicle and to which the vehicle responded to accelerate. And I disengaged the autopilot immediately by applying an upward motion on the gear stock. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Sep 2022 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | I experienced more than 10 incidents of “phantom braking” while on Interstate highways (I90 and I29) on a round trip from Solon Iowa to western South Dakota. ( late Sep 2022). There were no apparent obstructions, nearby vehicles, or other dangers. In several incidents I was traveling at the speed limit (80 mph) and the car braked so suddenly and hard it jolted wife and terrified her. If a car or truck was behind me I would have almost certainly had a serious accident. This behavior seems to have gotten much worse in the past few months, although I have seen it occasionally over the 3 years (48000 miles) I have owned the car. I have noticed it happens most often near the crest of hills. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Sep 2022 | SERVICE BRAKES,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | It has happened twice already today 9/21/22 was the second time that happened i was driving in the highway and the tesla suddenly hard brake with no cars near me if this problem continues it could lead to future accidents if someone is following to close… | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Sep 2022 | STEERING,SUSPENSION,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | Broken control arms | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Sep 2022 | ELECTRICAL SYSTEM | 2019 TESLA MODEL 3. CONSUMER WRITES IN REGARD TO TRUNK HARNESS SAFETY RECALL. THE CONSUMER REQUESTED INFORMATION REGARDING WHEN THE HARNESS MAY BE AVAILABLE. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |