Complaint volume
587 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
587 consumer-submitted complaints on record for the 2019 Tesla Model 3, grouped by component category.
587 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 63
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
STEERING 17
VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE 17
587 total complaints on record
Latest complaints
| Date | Component | Summary | Severity | Mileage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jun 2024 | SEATS | "front left safety restraint system fault/service is required" this is the error message, and i am being charged over $300 for a faulty seat wiring harness being replaced out of warranty for a massive safety issue | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Jun 2024 | AIR BAGS,SEAT BELTS | Car repeatedly shows a warning for "Front passenger safety restraint system fault." The error goes away after a few minutes usually, but comes up frequently - about 1/2 of all drives. Error came up in 2021 and Tesla fixed it under warranty in about 2 minutes, tech said it's a sensor under the seat and a frequent error. Called Tesla about it in May 2024 and they said it's a safety hazard and we need to replace the entire front seat and seatbelt, estimated at $1,500 and multi-day repair. Warranty expired last year which may explain difference in recommended repair. Friends with same car have been experiencing the same warning and there are many reports of it online. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Jun 2024 | AIR BAGS | Driver-side Airbags deployed for no reason. While my husband was driving, the Tesla screen showed that the crash had been detected, so airbags were deployed, and he was asked to call 911. However, no collision occurred. Attaching photos of the towed car. Police came and didn’t make a report since no collision was present. After the tow truck towed the car, and a couple of hours later, we went to pick up our belongings; we couldn’t access the trunk, the car was fully dead. However, the charge was 71% before the deployment of the airbag. | Crash: No Fire: No Injuries: 1 Medical attention | Unknown |
| Jun 2024 | STEERING | I had the control arms replaced and now the steering assist/ steering gear assembly has stopped working. The vehicle is undrivable and it only has 29K miles. This happened while driving and I had to go straight through an intersection as I could not steer the car. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Jun 2024 | STEERING,ELECTRICAL SYSTEM,SERVICE BRAKES | I was driving my Model 3 when this alert occurred: ALERTS DRIVABILITY - VEHICLE MAY NOT RESTART/SERVICE IS REQUIRED ADDITIONALLY THE SCREEN STATED PULL OVER THE VEHICLE IMMEDIATELY SAFELY. I was in the middle of the road driving so it became dangerous. I could not steer the vehicle and the brakes were barely working. I could not immediately stop because I was in the middle of traffic. I pulled right over as soon as I could and shut down the vehicle. I believe this is a defect. When I spoke to Tesla repair personnel I was told they know about this and it is happening when the Model 3 reaches 40K. How can they not address this - why would someone wait until someone is in a serious accident? I called to set up an appointment for this emergency and was told I cannot get an appointment for 1 month and I should not drive my car. When an electric vehicle just shuts down you cannot control the vehicle - this is very very dangerous. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Jun 2024 | AIR BAGS | Occupant sensor and wiring harness in the front seat becomes "pinched" under the seat when my son sits in the seat. Error code comes up on the dashboard. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Jun 2024 | ELECTRICAL SYSTEM,AIR BAGS,SEAT BELTS | Received a system fault for seat belt SRS airbag safety restraint system for front left passenger. code RCM_a021_pretenLapFrontLeft Causes the pretensioner and restraint system to not function as designed. Has not been in an accident and verified problem was persistent with hard system reset and software update. Did not do modification or touch the seat belt components at all during ownership period. Worried that the pretensioner and SRS airbags will not go off if involved in a crash. First appeared last year intermittently and then starting June 1st, 2024 The airbag lamp is on inside the warning panel of screen. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Jun 2024 | SUSPENSION | The upper control arm on the driver's side of my Tesla Model 3 has started making a loud squeaking noise. After researching, I discovered that many owners have experienced this issue. Tesla Service Centers acknowledge it as a known defect but refuse to issue a recall, only addressing it upon customer request. Since my vehicle is out of warranty, they have quoted me over $500 for the repair. This defect poses a significant safety risk if the upper control arm fails. Please look into this matter. Thank you! | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| May 2024 | STEERING | The steering wheel needs extra power to steer at low speeds. It acts as if the power steering has no power | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| May 2024 | AIR BAGS,SEAT BELTS,SEATS | Car giving message 'front passenger safety system error'. Scheduled service with Tesla and was given a qoute of $2500. I checked online and found that this is a common problem where seats have been replaced, some harness under seat is issue and in some cases airbags were replaced. Seems to be a common safety issue which is manufacturing defect and should be recalled with no cost fix. Given it is a safety issue, I cannot drive with a passenger on front seat. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| May 2024 | AIR BAGS,SEAT BELTS,SEATS | I have a known safety issue with my Tesla model 3. There is a fault in the clips, requiring a filter clip to allow the safety restraint system to work appropriately. Tesla admits this is a known manufacturer fault but still charges 400$ to correct it. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| May 2024 | ELECTRICAL SYSTEM,AIR BAGS,SEATS | The car has a feature which adjust the seats for easy entry and for a driver based on driver profile. This results in the drivers seat to automatically adjust per profile. It seems overtime this damages a cable or connection under the seat, resulting in a fault in the sensor which recognizes a driver being present in the seat in case of emergency, ie determines if it should deploy airbag. Right now our car is showing this error and it’s only present when the seat adjust for my partner who is a shorter driver. Tesla has stated previously that this would be around $250 to repair, could only do it in person at the repair center. Online I’ve seen reports of onsite techs making the repair in less that 5 minutes with no or minimal charge for a replacement sensor or cable. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| May 2024 | SUSPENSION | The car is just out of warranty and has been driven about 62,000KM. The suspension and both frond and back control arms started to squeak badly during low speed driven, turning, back-in etc. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| May 2024 | AIR BAGS | Front passenger restraint system fault. Tesla service informed that the airbags may not deploy and they need to be replaced. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| May 2024 | SEAT BELTS,SEATS | Tesla model 3 frequently displays front passenger safety restraint system fault message. This message is hard to take seriously as it comes and goes. It is rather confusing as the message full disappears if full self driving is enabled or subscribed. While I got the message on the display consistently from Jan to March 2024 I did not get the message during moth of April as I had free trial full self driving enabled. Now the full self driving grinders ended, the message is back. I am paying tesla to troubleshoot and fix. I believe this issue should looked by NHTSA and possible issue a recall. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| May 2024 | STEERING,POWER TRAIN | Steering wheel lost power (in city driving) it took the driver and the passenger turning the wheel to wrestle the car to the side of the road. Turned off the car’s power after coming to a stop. The car would not start. Took 6 resets to power up the car and return it to “normal.” This is the second time the car had the steering lock up and the car not start. The first time was after shopping. The car was parked at the time. Took 4 resets to return the car to “normal.” | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| May 2024 | AIR BAGS | Starting on May 6, 2024, my vehicle display showed an error message stating "Front passenger safety restraint system fault - Service is required." I alerted Tesla of this error through my phone app and set an appointment to have this fixed. I then received an estimate of $1400 which consisted of replacement of the passenger airbag ($1000) as well as an additional sensor that Tesla is indicating went bad ($400). I have never been in an accident with this vehicle so I can't understand why the airbag would be to be replaced, unless it was defective. I questioned this with Tesla and was told that none of the safety systems are covered anymore since the vehicle is now our of warranty. My wife drives my daughter to school daily and I'm more concerned that a car I spent $40k + on will not protect her in the event of a crash. Why would an un-used airbag need to be replaced at the owner's expense? Why isn't Tesla covering a defect in their restraint systems? | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| May 2024 | AIR BAGS | I received an error. - RCM_a056 "front passenger safety restraint system fault" So I scheduled service to review what happened. According to Tesla, and my service center - this is a known and common issue. The issue is a failure of the seat occupancy sensor. This requires replacement of: seat harness assembly, seat belt reminder sensor box clip and the first row occupancy sensor. However, the major issue (and what should be a class action lawsuit) is that Tesla created a new sensor - that now works, however, requires the replacement of the PASSENGER AIRBAG. Tesla's solution to this widely known issue (according to my service center) was to create a sensor that is not compatible with the current airbag system. This cost is astronomical. If the sensor alone could be replaced, this could be around a $400 fix, but because the airbag is an extra (approximate) $1,000. Total cost of repair is $1,329.34, not including the required $100 remote diagnostic fee. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| May 2024 | SEAT BELTS | I bought a used 2019 Tesla model 3 and just got a system warning that says “Front passenger safety restraint system fault”. I was researching this and it seems to be a common enough issue that a recall should be issued for it. If the seat belt system fails, someone could be very seriously injured if they’re in an accident | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| May 2024 | POWER TRAIN,ELECTRICAL SYSTEM | Tesla Model 3 battery pack coolant connector design flaw. It is made by plastic and covered with very thin cheap plastic cover which can very easily create impact and break the battery pack connector when any small objects hit front wheels(both side) while driving that leads the following safety and hazard issues to driver and passengers. 1. When there is hit in the coolant connector while driving the coolant start leaking which put safety of car,driver,passengers and others in very high risk 2. When it happens the dashboard shows the car is running reduced power and not giving enough info to take immediate action 3. This issue can be easily reproducible just driving the car in freeway where the road has debris or due to work zone 4. This issue reported to Geico Insurance 5. There is no warning before it first appears 6. It leads to change the entire battery pack which cost ~ $20,000 7. Since this is very critical component it should be well protected which is not the case currently | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| May 2024 | TIRES | Continental 235/40/r19 This is what I sent to Consumer Affair website: My personal experience reflects exactly the same as the poor rating of this brand. Tire has separation at 32k miles on the Tesla 3. I first noticed a thumb thumb sound. I ignored but it got worse then the vibration inside cabin started to occur. I pulled the tire off and inspected. My God i have a tire separation with steel wire sticking out and a big hump. I got mad after i found out that Tesla wants nothing to do with it (heck they don't even a have no. to call for an expensive car, shame on you Tesla) and Continental does not have a warranty. Spending time searching for another tire to buy i find out it is expensive for EV tire. I was frustrated and angry that i have to deal with a defective tire with no warranty from Tesla and Continental for low miles (plenty of thread left on tire). I decided to call Continental. The experience was horrible with them hung up on me and a run around. They told me to take to Discount tire to have it inspect. Dt agreed tire is defective and expect me to pay $250 with pro rate covered by Continental. I already found the same tire for $225 so i tell D.t take a hike. I called Continental back and [XXX] broke loose. I got a lot of run around, hung up with the rep. then manager and they won't do the tire pro rate more than 30%. I got fed up with lot of cussing I went back to D.Tire and settled with another Continental tire that is cheaper. I was pushing my luck driving with the tire that will blow anytime. The [XXX] Tesla does not have a spare tire on an expensive car (shame on you Tesla). I had no choice to replace a tire out of my pocket of $150 for the same brand as that is the only one with similar thread pattern very reluctantly as I had NO other choice or take a risk driving and NO spare tire. INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6) | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| May 2024 | STEERING | The contact owns a 2019 Tesla Model 3. The contact stated while driving at 55 MPH, the steering wheel seized and made it difficult to turn. The vehicle was taken to a local dealer where it was diagnosed that the steering rack needed to be replaced. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was not made aware of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 93,000. | Crash: No Fire: No | 93,000 |
| May 2024 | 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 not yet available. The local dealer was contacted. 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 |
| Apr 2024 | STEERING,SERVICE BRAKES,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | The following recalls have been pending on my vehicle: 23V-838; TC2023-657, 24V-051 Tesla is unable to push over-the-air (OTA) updates to my vehicle to remedy these recalls due to an issue with the onboard computer being unable to receive updates. This issue arose when Tesla pushed a software/firmware update to my vehicle which effectively "bricked" the Advanced Drive System portion of the computer. In other words, I am unable to safely receive an update to resolve the issues (solved by the recall) because Tesla's failed software update damaged the onboard computer. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Apr 2024 | STEERING | February 2024 my car gives me a pop up warning on screen that “ steering ability may be reduced”. A few minutes later I could barely steer the car as if steering was partially locked up to maybe 90%. Tesla service dept. said the car “ reset” and it was ok to drive. Today April 16 2024 the same thing happened while driving. This is very dangerous. This is a software issue Tesla needs to resolve. The contact stated the vehicle is in the repair shop again regarding the same issue. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |