Complaint volume
741 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
2022 Tesla Model 3 Complaints
741 consumer-submitted complaints on record for the 2022 Tesla Model 3, grouped by component category.
741 Total complaints
51 Crash reports
3 Fire reports
26 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, vehicle speed control,forward collision avoidance, service brakes,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 51 crash reports, 3 fire reports, 26 injury reports, and 1 fatality report. These fields come from complaint records and should be read in context.
Mileage clue
Mileage is available on 55 complaints, with an average reported failure mileage of 13,827 miles. Compare that with the mileage on the listing.
Questions to ask the seller
- Have you had any problems related to forward collision avoidance, vehicle speed control,forward collision avoidance, service brakes,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 2022 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.
2022 Tesla Model 3
Build buyer checklist Compare with other years Sends year, make, and model to pre-fill your checklist.
How severe are the 2022 Tesla Model 3 complaints?
51 Crash
3 Fire
26 Injury
1 Fatality
32 Towed
21 Medical attention
What are the most common 2022 Tesla Model 3 complaint categories?
FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE 261
VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE 75
SERVICE BRAKES,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE 72
VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL,SERVICE BRAKES,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE 48
UNKNOWN OR OTHER 34
ELECTRICAL SYSTEM 14
UNKNOWN OR OTHER,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE 14
VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL 14
FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE,LANE DEPARTURE 12
SERVICE BRAKES 11
741 total complaints on record
Latest complaints
| Date | Component | Summary | Severity | Mileage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 2025 | STRUCTURE | The power lift‑gate strut PN 1551489‑00‑B failed, bent inward, and shattered the rear glass on 16 May 2025. A known defect: Tesla superseded the part to PN 1551488‑00‑C in Oct 2023. Local Tesla Service center declined goodwill coverage to resolve the issue. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| May 2025 | SERVICE BRAKES,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | When the vehicle is set to regenerative braking mode, lifting off the accelerator pedal causes the car to decelerate significantly. However, in many cases, the brake lights do not illuminate during this process. This could potentially create a safety risk, as drivers behind may not realize the car is slowing down and may not respond in time. tesla | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| May 2025 | STEERING,VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL,SERVICE BRAKES | Wy wife and I drove our Tesla Model 3 from Palo Alto, CA to San Francisco downtown, to meet friends. I was the driver, and my wife sat on the passenger seat. The weather was clear, and the pavement was dry. I did not engage auto-pilot features during the entire trip. The car condition was normal with no signs of error or warning. I made a right turn onto [XXX] from [XXX] Shortly after I completed the turn, the car unexpectedly lost control. Without any prior warnings, it suddenly veered into the center divider, snapped a tree, dashed towards oncoming traffic on the other side of [XXX] , and finally stopped on [XXX] , labelled as location A on the attached drawing. Everything happened so quickly: I could not control the steering wheel, and I applied the brakes in vain. The vehicle seized control, no matter how hard I tried to stop it. I regained control of the vehicle at the intersection of [XXX] and [XXX] , and was able to park the car at location A. We were very fortunate and blessed that we did not hit people at the bus stop, that there were no cars in front of us, that the opposite traffic on [XXX] was stopped by a red light, and that the traffic was light on [XXX] Without such luck, my wife and I, and probably others, would have been seriously injured, if not worse. Because [XXX] is one-way, we decided to move the vehicle to [XXX] , and parked at location B in the drawing. I called 911 and spoke to a female dispatcher. She asked us to remain at location B and wait for police officers to arrive. We waited there for almost 3 hours, but no police arrived. The dashboard display indicated that we had a flat tire(s). We called mobile tire services. After their inspection, most of our tires were alright, except the rim of the front-left wheel was badly bent, as you can see in the attached photo. The mobile tire service staff was skilled enough to carefully patch the damage and said it should be OK to drive back to Palo Alto. INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6) | Crash: Yes Fire: No | Unknown |
| May 2025 | POWER TRAIN,VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL,SERVICE BRAKES | If you are on a hill and you accidently press both the brake an accelerator, the car will fall to neutral and free roll. In whatever direction is downhill. I have big feet. Happened again to me, I bumped the brake pedal (but not enough to apply the brakes to stop) when attempting to pull forwards slowly and my car beeped with the "both pedals detected pressed" alert. and then it free rolled backwards (because I was on an uphill). THIS WILL CAUSE AN ACCIDENT BECAUSE THE CAR IS NOT SUPPOSED TO FREE ROLL BACKWARDS WHEN IN DRIVE, THIS IS A SAFETY PROBLEM. It has been 4 years now, and no action has been taken to adress this software defect. a NORMAL gas car does NOT do this. If you bump the brake in a normal gas car, IT DOES NOT FREE ROLL IN ANY DIRECTION. This is a tesla software problem that tesla needs to promptly fix ASAP!!!!! | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| May 2025 | AIR BAGS,SEAT BELTS,SEATS | Passenger safety restraint system fault error appears on and off without any correlation to driving conditions or passenger presence. This error is potentially deadly since it will cause the passenger airbag not to deploy in an accident. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Apr 2025 | SEAT BELTS | We received a Front passenger safety restraint system fault on our car. When a passenger sits in the seat the fault is not displayed. This was not a software update and the sensor was faulty and could cause the airbags not to go off. The sensor was faulty in the seat but because we were out of warranty we had to pay for the repair. Clearly they have seen this issue and said it was not a recall but a bulletins and bulletins were a caution, they made us pay for the repair. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Mar 2025 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | Forward collision warning was falsely triggered causing the car to inappropriately apply the brakes twice in one drive. This causes the car to brake harshly and causes cars behind me to either swerve or slam their brakes. This causes a chain reaction of extremely dangerous behavior. The forward collision warning system is far too sensitive when there’s literally no obstacles to cause a collision or avoid. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Mar 2025 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | The cars forward collision warning system is far too sensitive and braked extremely hard when there was nothing to collide with. This caused the car behind me to slam their brakes and they got rear ended. This needs to be forced on Tesla to be addressed | Crash: Yes Fire: No | Unknown |
| Mar 2025 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | Two false collision warnings were triggered when in fact, there was nothing to collide with. This caused the car to brake extremely forcefully nearly causing another can to rear end me in midday traffic. If they would have hit me, it easily would have caused a 10+ car accident. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Mar 2025 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | The forward collision warning system is too sensitive. When cars are in a completely different lane, the car will sometimes think they are in your lane when they’re aren’t. This forces the FWC warning to alert and the brakes to slam. When this happens cars behind you sometimes swerve or nearly rear end me. This happened twice today march 14th. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Mar 2025 | STEERING,ELECTRICAL SYSTEM | Sometime I have power steering and sometime I don’t have power steering assist sometime came back and was driving and car just took my wheel to left itself on [XXX] 2 times on same spot was coming out of highway didn’t have no cruise or self driving On all was off INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6) | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Feb 2025 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | As I was approaching a green light with stopped vehicles the car caught glare from the car ahead of me thinking it was stopping when it was turning. This caused aggressive breaking mid turn and caused a spike in my insurance as well as decrease in my safety score. I reported this as a bug to the car but they never get checked for fixed. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Feb 2025 | STEERING | I was driving over an overpass on to the free way. It was about 11am. The steering wheel locked in a turning position, driving the car off the overpass. I was able to yank the wheel and get it back straight. The auto pilot was not on, the cruise control was not on. I drove it straight to the service center, i though i should call so i put the car in curise control to pull out my phone but decided against it and turned it off at 11:15. Now the service center says they can not duplicate it they are telling me nothing is wrong. This has never happened before. I have never had any issues with my car. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Feb 2025 | VISIBILITY | The contact owns a 2022 Tesla Model 3. The contact stated that after having a software update completed on the vehicle, while the defroster was activated, the windshield failed to clear up as needed. The contact stated that the heater also failed to operate as needed. The vehicle had not been taken to the dealer to be diagnosed or repaired. The contact learned of a recall for the failure however, the contact was unable to confirm if the VIN was previously included in the recall. The manufacturer was made aware of the failure and confirmed that the next repair was not covered under the recall. The failure mileage was 83,000. | Crash: No Fire: No | 83,000 |
| Feb 2025 | VISIBILITY | * The AC/Heat Pump Compressor and Supermanifold has failed at 64k miles. Vehicle is undrivable and parked at this time. * AC/Heat Pump Compressor and Supermanifold prevents the windshield from being cleared/defrosted/defogged, causing visibility issues and a danger to myself and others. * Vehicle remotely diagnosed and quote received totalling $3047.52 to repair the issue. * Components have not been removed from the vehicle yet. * There were no warnings prior to the failure of the AC/Heat Pump Compressor and Supermanifold. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Feb 2025 | EXTERIOR LIGHTING | My car just made 50k and is out of warranty and the headlight fail. I contacted Tesla and they quote $1800 to fix it. When I went on the internet and found out that this is very common and seems to be a bad design. Can you do anything so they redesign and recall so we consumers are not ripped off by Tesla? I know is a long shot now that Elon is running the government but I have nowhere else to complain. Thank you | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Feb 2025 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | Computer system improperly triggered two false forward collision warning while changing lanes, today, on 02/02/2025. These forward collision warnings and applied excessive braking for no reason causing an increased chance of being rear ended or losing control. In heavy traffic, the car is constantly creating dangerous situations like this and the sensitivity of the forward collision warnings needs to be dialed back when the blinker is on or while in between lanes. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Jan 2025 | WHEELS,LANE DEPARTURE,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | The car was advertised at 312miles on the battery. It is 265. The charging takes 45 to hr and I was lied to about the mileage overage and the ability to purchase the car. This car isn't as advertised. I reached out to tesla and they do t offer any solution. I was scammed. I want to return the car. The tires do t last as the cars are too heavy. If the tires don't last 1 yr that's a defect. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Jan 2025 | ELECTRICAL SYSTEM | Our car was parked in our garage for two days before August 25, 2024 not plugged in for charging and was clear of issues. On the morning of August 25, 2024 we woke up to the smell of smoke and evacuated our house as the source was coming from our Tesla in the garage. This incident burned our home and took 6 of our cats with it. We filed with insurance and they are reporting that they are not liable for the accident. They did not bother to show up to the joint investigation and paid the bare minimum for the market price of the vehicle. The company has been slow in responding and has shown zero remorse or care of the matter. Fire department pinned it as a 99.9% probability of cause that the front battery of the Tesla triggered the fire. | Crash: No Fire: Yes | Unknown |
| Jan 2025 | SUSPENSION | Front and rear suspension bushings wear and rip at very low mileage | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Jan 2025 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | There has been numerous false Forward Collision Warning reports from my car over the past two years. Over 100 to be exact. These false collision warnings cause the car to brake abruptly increasing the change of being rear ended, causing accidents behind me or even causing my car to swerve. This has been witnessed by at least 3 different passengers of mine. Tesla refuses to acknowledge that their software can be flawed in any way despite my attempts to contact Tesla Service, Tesla Insurance, Tesla Support and Tesla Internal investigative services. I have requested a complete list of all Bug Reports and no one is able to reproduce them for me or give me a list. No my vehicle has not been inspected because Tesla claims that this is working as intended. Which, if that is the case, they're doing/using it to arbitrarily raise people's premiums and make them pay more with Tesla Insurance. No warnings. Just abrupt stops due to the camera improperly reading a situation, seeing something that isn't there, or simply activating out of thin air. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Jan 2025 | STRUCTURE,VISIBILITY/WIPER | Dear NHTSA, I am filing a formal complaint regarding Tesla's refusal to properly address a critical safety recall on my vehicle (Recall Number 24V554). This recall involves a significant safety issue that Tesla is legally obligated to remedy free of charge under the National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act. The required over-the-air software update associated with this recall repeatedly fails to install, getting stuck at 50% completion. I scheduled a service appointment and took the vehicle to Tesla for assistance. However, Tesla informed me that they will not diagnose the issue or investigate why their software update fails to install unless I agree to pay $255.00 for a general diagnosis. Additionally, they require me to pre-approve a total of $2,658.28, including the diagnostic fee, in case the computer needs to be replaced. This approach leaves me unable to proceed with a mandatory safety recall and directly contradicts Tesla’s legal obligation to repair safety-related defects at no cost to the consumer. I urge the NHTSA to investigate Tesla's practices concerning this recall and their apparent refusal to adhere to their obligations under the law. This situation raises concerns about Tesla’s commitment to addressing safety-critical issues in a manner that ensures public safety and compliance with federal regulations. Thank you for your attention to this matter. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Jan 2025 | VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL,SERVICE BRAKES,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | I'm not quite sure what component was affected, some module of some sort got water in or near it that wasn't supposed to. It is available for inspection. Yes my safety and others was out at risk. Yes the problem was fixed by service center supposedly. Yes the car has been inspected by the manufacturer. There were no warnings. What happened was on 12/29 I was driving the car and out of absolutely nowhere a bunch of warnings came up including loss of ABS, any and all safety features. And more importantly lost usage of brakes almost entirely when car came to a stop it was grinding and shakey. This problem all arises due to teslas negligence when it came to installing a new windshield on the vehicle. As stated in messages below, they made a mistake while installing my windshield that caused this major issue to arise. They have offered nothing as a solution but saying that their error is supposedly fixed. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Jan 2025 | TIRES | Both front tires are loosing chunks of tread toward the outside of the tire near the sidewall. I’ve never seen chunks of tread come off of a tire. These have quite about of tread life left as well. 235/40/R19 | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Jan 2025 | VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL,UNKNOWN OR OTHER,SERVICE BRAKES | NHTSA Vehicle Safety Complaint •Vehicle Information: •Make: Tesla •Model: Model 3 •Year: 2022 •Summary of Incident: On November 28,2024, I experienced an incident involving my 2022 Tesla Model 3 while it was stationary just outside my garage. I accidentally pressed the accelerator pedal instead of the brake. The car surged forward and crashed into the back wall of my garage. Despite Tesla’s advertised safety features, such as Collision Avoidance Assist and Automatic Emergency Braking (AEB), none of these systems intervened or activated during the incident. I expected the safety systems to detect the garage wall and mitigate the collision, but they failed to respond. Additionally, Tesla’s Obstacle-Aware Acceleration system did not seem to function as intended to limit acceleration in this scenario. •Injuries or Property Damage: There were minor injuries to passenger, but the vehicle and the garage sustained significant damage. •Steps Taken Post-Incident: I have contacted Tesla to request an analysis of the vehicle’s event data logs to determine why the safety features did not activate. I am waiting for their response. •Concern: I am filing this report because I believe this may indicate a potential safety issue with Tesla’s collision prevention systems in low-speed scenarios involving stationary obstacles. This raises concerns about the reliability of these features in real-world situations, particularly for drivers who may accidentally press the accelerator. •Supporting Information: If needed, I can provide photographs of the damage, repair estimates, and additional details. | Crash: Yes Fire: No Injuries: 1 Towed Medical attention | Unknown |