In the 11th Cybertruck recall so far, Tesla is recalling its rear-wheel drive (RWD) Cybertruck Long Range due to faulty brake rotors, amid concerns about rust in the stainless steel trucks. In a notice posted by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Tesla says that “the brake rotor stud hole may crack and the stud may separate from the wheel hub.”
Tesla’s description of the defect is as follows: “On affected vehicles, high-severity road bumps and cornering may exert pressure on the stud holes in the wheel rotor, causing cracks to form. If the crack expands with continued use and stress, the wheel stud may eventually separate from the wheel hub.” In such a situation, some RWD Cybertruck owners who are driving for fun may end up frustrated with their own wheels.
Poor Cybertruckers have enough to cope with without worrying about the wheels of their “apocalypse-proof” pickup falling off, so thankfully Tesla says it will replace the wheel hubs, rotors, and lug nuts for all 173 trucks affected by the recall, completely free of charge.
Kelley Blue Book Managing Editor Sean Tucker explains how Tesla is once again in a position to fix a released model of the Cybertruck before a potentially dangerous incident occurs. “A car is such a complex machine that a very small change in its design can have consequences for years,” he says. “It’s really just about some fat. [Tesla] Research was done on the lug nut that tightens the 18-inch wheel to connect it to the brake rotor.”
Tucker says the grease was not reducing friction enough and could cause the nut to loosen over time, causing vibration that could crack the brake rotor. “So they changed Greece,” he says. “However, that message did not reach the production line in time, and they built 173 with the wrong grease. This is a very specific material problem.”
Some reports have suggested that the recall number of 173 reflects a surprisingly low number of RWD Cybertrucks, but Tucker says that’s not the case. The recall applies to trucks built using specific shipments of lug nuts and grease on certain dates and cars with 18-inch wheels produced on certain dates. He says it’s a “subset of a subset” of the Cybertruck.
“Certainly, the Cybertruck is not selling in the numbers Tesla had hoped it would,” Tucker says. “But this is really just a case of a small production change that was not communicated to the factory floor in time.”
Cybertruck sales have been really disappointing. “Demand is off the charts!” Citing more than one million reservations for Tesla’s polarizing Polygon pickup, Elon Musk pegged the crown for late 2023. But that wrong glue is not only affecting a small part but All Cybertruck data compiled at the time revealed that the company had moved only 46,096 trucks in its first 14 months of sales.
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