While Tesla’s current
day Model 3 production tries to keep up with demand, the company is dealing
with an issue affecting earlier cars.
Today it announced a
recall affecting every Model S build before April 2016. That adds up to about
123,000 vehicles worldwide that it plans to retrofit with new power steering bolts
because it has “observed excessive corrosion in the power steering bolts,
though only in very cold climates, particularly those that frequently use calcium
or magnesium road salts, rather than sodium chloride (table salt).
According to tesla,
initiating this recall (similar to others it has done in the past) even though it
estimates that less than 0.2 percent of vehicles will exhibit this issue.
In an email to owners
it explained that if the bolts fail then the steering would still work, but
with lost or reduced power assist.
There is a sizeable
thread on tesla Motors Club showing at least one vehicle this happened to, but
with less than an hour of service it should be preventable on other cars.
