Photo: Lucid
Bloomberg broke the news about Lucid Air’s first recall on February 22. Despite that, we still wanted to learn more about the issue. Thanks to the NHTSA (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration), we now know exactly what the front damper installation error was: an upside-down snap ring.
According to the Part 573 Safety Recall Report 22V-090 that Lucid sent to the traffic safety agency, it was Thyssenkrupp Bilstein that sounded the alert on January 6, 2022. The suspension supplier detected that it had sent Lucid the front damper assemblies with inverted snap rings below the front damper lower spring seat.
Installed like that, the snap ring could not resist the forces with which the suspension works, eventually making them fail between 4% and 44% of their estimated lifespan. If the failure occurred, it could have caused a “sudden loss of ride height, damping force, and possible damage to the front brake line hoses.”
Lucid immediately checked its data and saw that 188 cars had received the suspect parts. On January 10, Bilstein informed that it shipped no more defective front damper assemblies to the EV maker. However, a problem with the supplier’s “new visual inspection system” made it send possibly defective assemblies to Lucid until January 27. Bilstein warned Lucid about that on February 16.
A new analysis added 15 units as potentially involved with the recall, resulting in the 203 Lucid Air units that may present the defect. The EV maker thinks that only 1% of these vehicles will genuinely show the inverted snap ring. In other words, around 2. Bilstein has reinforced its quality control procedures. On top of that, Lucid is also inspecting the parts to prevent installing the front damper assemblies if they display the issue.
So far, there has been no report of incidents related to this defect. Despite that, Lucid said it would replace the entire front damper assembly should the vehicles really have upside-down snap rings installed. Lucid did not inform when the repairs would begin nor how much time the inspection and eventual replacement of the assembly would demand. However, Jon Rettinger shared a tweet informing his car was already checked by a mobile technician "within an hour." His car did not have the issue.
Installed like that, the snap ring could not resist the forces with which the suspension works, eventually making them fail between 4% and 44% of their estimated lifespan. If the failure occurred, it could have caused a “sudden loss of ride height, damping force, and possible damage to the front brake line hoses.”
Lucid immediately checked its data and saw that 188 cars had received the suspect parts. On January 10, Bilstein informed that it shipped no more defective front damper assemblies to the EV maker. However, a problem with the supplier’s “new visual inspection system” made it send possibly defective assemblies to Lucid until January 27. Bilstein warned Lucid about that on February 16.
A new analysis added 15 units as potentially involved with the recall, resulting in the 203 Lucid Air units that may present the defect. The EV maker thinks that only 1% of these vehicles will genuinely show the inverted snap ring. In other words, around 2. Bilstein has reinforced its quality control procedures. On top of that, Lucid is also inspecting the parts to prevent installing the front damper assemblies if they display the issue.
So far, there has been no report of incidents related to this defect. Despite that, Lucid said it would replace the entire front damper assembly should the vehicles really have upside-down snap rings installed. Lucid did not inform when the repairs would begin nor how much time the inspection and eventual replacement of the assembly would demand. However, Jon Rettinger shared a tweet informing his car was already checked by a mobile technician "within an hour." His car did not have the issue.
Seen some chatter recently about the @LucidMotors strut recall. Mobile technician came to me checked the car and was done within an hour. Super easy. My car did not have the issue. Kind of a non story but figured I’d provide some commentary. pic.twitter.com/tTV6lNYUfq
— Jon Rettinger (@Jon4Lakers) February 23, 2022
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