Brakes complaints and recalls from NHTSA
Summary
The 2021 Tesla Model 3 has 70 NHTSA brakes complaints and 1 brakes-related recall.
70
Complaints
1
Recalls
0
Injuries Reported
Data source: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) · Last updated June 10, 2026
21V387000
SERVICE BRAKES, HYDRAULIC:FOUNDATION COMPONENTS:DISC:CALIPER
Tesla, Inc. (Tesla) is recalling certain 2019-2021 Model 3 and 2020-2021 Model Y vehicles. The brake caliper bolts may be loose, allowing the brake c...
| Date ↓ | Component | Summary |
|---|---|---|
| Oct 20, 2025 | SERVICE BRAKES,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | I drove into my neighbor’s driveway to drop her off. As I slowed down and applied the brakes to stop... |
| Jun 6, 2025 | SERVICE BRAKES | On [XXX] at approximately [XXX] on [XXX] in Oakland, CA, I was intending to park the car on the stre... |
| May 1, 2024 | SERVICE BRAKES,VISIBILITY/WIPER,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | Tesla ADAS detects non existent objects and issues collision alerts and phantom brakes randomly if t... |
| Aug 25, 2023 | SERVICE BRAKES,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | Major phantom Braking at 70mph on interstate 5, 4 times the brakes slamed on as if yo had done an e... |
| Aug 20, 2023 | SERVICE BRAKES,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | My Tesla Model 3 Phantom Brakes when using Cruise Control, particularly in the morning when the road... |
| Jul 27, 2023 | SERVICE BRAKES,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | “Phantom Braking”. Driving on the interstate approximately 75 mph using cruise control, auto steer, ... |
| Jul 18, 2023 | SERVICE BRAKES | My car is braking hard while I'm on the highway. It's happened on this trip 7 times already. In one... |
| Jul 8, 2023 | SERVICE BRAKES,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | When vehicle is in cruise control or autopilot the car will suddenly brake without warning. It will ... |
| Apr 22, 2023 | SERVICE BRAKES,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | While on Autopilot, the car suddenly phantom brakes when there is no risk of any collision ahead. Th... |
| Feb 24, 2023 | SERVICE BRAKES,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | I was driving Tesla on the freeway using adaptive cruise control at 65 miles per hour and the car su... |
| Nov 24, 2022 | SERVICE BRAKES,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | While using cruise control on a cross country drive, there have been numerous instances of phantom b... |
| Nov 12, 2022 | SERVICE BRAKES,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | I have had the car for about 1.5 years. In the last week it has started to have phantom braking whe... |
| Nov 6, 2022 | SERVICE BRAKES,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | Driving in empty highway, no cars in front of me for great distances, on cruise control, the car wou... |
| Oct 18, 2022 | SERVICE BRAKES,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | Twice in October 2022 (18th and 20th), my vehicle decelerated suddenly during cruise control with no... |
| Sep 6, 2022 | SERVICE BRAKES,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | While using my Tesla's Full Self Driving (FSD) feature (Navigate on Autopilot) on a recent road trip... |
| Jul 18, 2022 | SERVICE BRAKES | My Tesla slowed from 70 to 50 on the freeway in under two seconds for no apparent reason while on au... |
| Jul 15, 2022 | SERVICE BRAKES,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | This incident happened last summer, 2022 but I recently read that it is happening to many other peop... |
| Jun 12, 2022 | SERVICE BRAKES,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | When driving on the highway in adaptive cruise control, our vehicle all of a sudden breaked which sl... |
| Jun 11, 2022 | SERVICE BRAKES,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | I had 2 phantom braking incidents one one trip today. The situation was similar- a car broken down o... |
| Jun 3, 2022 | SERVICE BRAKES,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | On a trip to Northern California, I used the "traffic-aware cruise control", and there were several ... |