2021 TESLA MODEL Y — Complaint #2177292
Open-data reference.
NHTSA Complaint about SUSPENSION filed February 16, 2026
NHTSA complaint #2177292 (ODI reference 11718296) concerns a 2021 TESLA MODEL Y and was filed on February 16, 2026. The owner reports the failure occurred on February 12, 2026. The report was geocoded to California based on the filer's self-reported location. The affected component is categorized as suspension, one of NHTSA's standardized taxonomy codes used to group defect patterns across make, model, and year.
The filer flagged the following severity indicators: crash: no, fire: no, injuries: 0, fatalities: 0. No crash, fire, or fatality was associated with this report, which places it in the early-warning stream rather than the priority-review stream. Because a VIN was supplied, this complaint is tied to a specific vehicle and not just a model-year cohort.
Individual complaints are consumer-submitted and unverified by NHTSA engineers — the agency's role at this stage is to collect, index, and make them searchable. What matters for federal action is the pattern: when many owners of the same TESLA MODEL Y cohort independently describe similar suspension failures, defect investigators have grounds to open a PE and request manufacturer data. Related filings for the same vehicle and component appear below, and the detail page for the full 2021 TESLA MODEL Y shows the complete component-level complaint distribution alongside any active investigations or recalls.
Complaint Description
Vehicle experienced front suspension lateral link failure. The links separated from the sub-frame due to improperly secured fasteners. This is the exact defect described in existing recall SB-21-31-003 / NHTSA Campaign 21V835000. The existing recall states 'front suspension lateral link fasteners may loosen, allowing the lateral link to separate from the sub-frame.' This vehicle has this identical manufacturing defect but was not included in the recall database. Tesla Service confirmed the links 'fell out' and separated from the sub-frame at approximately 65,000 miles. Technician notes indicate a 'speed mismatch between wheel and motor' caused by the link separation - this is the symptom of the underlying fastener defect. The failure resulted in loss of steering control and made the vehicle undriveable (VOR - Vehicle Off Road). This is a safety-critical manufacturing defect affecting front suspension, creating crash risk due to sudden loss of vehicle stability and control. Owner is
Complaint Details
| NHTSA Complaint ID | 2177292 |
| ODI Number | 11718296 |
| Date Filed | February 16, 2026 |
| Failure Date | February 12, 2026 |
| VIN | 5YJYGDEE8MF |
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Source: NHTSA Vehicle Complaints Database. Component taxonomy and severity codes are standardized by NHTSA Office of Defects Investigation.
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