Tesla’s Latest Recall? Wheels May Fall Off Cybertrucks

Last year, nearly all Cybertrucks had to be recalled because Tesla used the wrong glue on a steel trim panel that the carmaker said could become detached while driving. Now, yet another embarrassing recall exposes that the electric pickup could see wheels come off certain models due to the use of the wrong grease.

In what is the 11th Cybertruck recall so far, alongside concerns that the stainless steel trucks could be rusting, Tesla is recalling its Rear Wheel Drive (RWD) Cybertruck Long Range over faulty brake rotors. In a notice posted by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), Tesla states that “brake rotor stud holes may crack and allow the stud to separate from the wheel hub.”

Tesla’s description of the defect is as follows: “On affected vehicles, higher severity road perturbations and cornering may strain the stud hole in the wheel rotor, causing cracks to form. If cracking propagates with continued use and strain, the wheel stud could eventually separate from the wheel hub.” In which case, some RWD Cybertruck owners merrily driving along could be disconcertingly overtaken by their own wheels.

Poor Cybertruckers have enough to contend with without worrying about the wheels on their “apocalypse-proof” pickups falling off, so thankfully, Tesla says it will completely replace the wheel hubs, rotors, and lug nuts free of charge for all 173 trucks affected by the recall.

Sean Tucker, managing editor at Kelley Blue Book, explains how Tesla is once again in the position of fixing released models of the Cybertruck before something potentially dangerous occurs. “A car is such a complex machine that a very small change to design can have consequences years down the road,” he says. “This is literally about some grease [Tesla] discovered on the lug nuts that tighten to hold the 18-inch wheel to the brake rotor.”

Tucker says the grease was not reducing friction enough and could loosen the nuts over time, causing vibrations that could crack the brake rotor. “So they changed the grease,” he says. “However, that message didn’t get to the production floor in time, and they built 173 with the wrong grease. It’s a very specific materials problem.”

Some reports have suggested that the recall number of 173 reveals a staggeringly low number of RWD Cybertrucks made, but Tucker says this isn’t the case. The recall applies to trucks built on certain dates using a specific shipment of lug nuts and grease, and cars with 18-inch wheels produced on certain dates. He says it’s a “subset of a subset” of Cybertrucks.

“Certainly, the Cybertruck is not selling in the numbers that Tesla expected it to,” Tucker says. “But this is really just a matter of a small production change that wasn’t communicated to the factory floor in time.”

Cybertruck sales have indeed been woeful. “Demand is off the charts!” Elon Musk crowed at the end of 2023, citing more than a million reservations for Tesla’s polarizing polygonal pickup. But that wrong glue snafu affecting not just a tiny proportion but all Cybertrucks made to that time revealed the company had shifted a mere 46,096 trucks in the first 14 months of sales.