Photo: via Keef Wivaneff
You are peacefully driving at night when you see a Tesla Model 3 crash and climb a bollard. Thanks to your dash cam, you have recorded the incident and thought it was curious enough to publish it on YouTube to share with some friends. A few days later, you decide to take it down without realizing you may have recorded the first video example of "Whompy Wheels."
Luckily, the man who coined this expression to talk about these suspension defects in Tesla vehicles has taken revealing screenshots of the whole thing. Keef Wivaneff shared them on his Twitter account, as well as the video.
In his description of what happened, Wivaneff said that “the wheel fell off and the underside of the car is scraping on the roadway. And then it goes airborne as the spring hurls the car upwards.” We watched the video before it was taken down and can confirm what Wivaneff said.
The original video description gave another reason for the crash, probably having missed that the right front wheel was tilted, possibly because the upper control arm broke or got loose. That made its face rub on the tarmac until the Model 3 climbed the bollard. In the video, we can see someone apparently leaving the Tesla and picking up some components on the asphalt after the crash. The man looked perfectly lucid and there are no visible obstacles or potholes that could have damaged the car. From what the video presents, it seems the cause of the crash was indeed the suspension failure.
We tried to contact the video owner before he took the video down. We have insisted on talking to him about what happened and will update this article if we hear back from him. However, this article’s main objective is to contact the Tesla Model 3 owner involved in this crash.
According to the video, the crash happened at 6:55 PM on October 21 in Sandbach, a city 158 miles (238 kilometers) to the northwest of London. To be more precise, it was close to the Waitrose roundabout on Old Mill Road (A534). Without the video, it is hard to find exactly where. The footage itself shows a weird date: April 16, 2014, which is impossible because the Model 3 was presented in 2017. It probably has to do with the camera having the wrong date set when it was recording. The hour may also be incorrect.
If you happen to know someone who crashed his Model 3 in Sandbach on October 21, please warn them about this article and ask them to contact us. We would like to tell their side of the story and what caused this crash. If it were a suspension defect, the insurance company and the owner would be happy to learn they would not have to pay for the repair, especially if the battery pack was affected in any way. British readers, please help us tell this story in the right way.
In his description of what happened, Wivaneff said that “the wheel fell off and the underside of the car is scraping on the roadway. And then it goes airborne as the spring hurls the car upwards.” We watched the video before it was taken down and can confirm what Wivaneff said.
The original video description gave another reason for the crash, probably having missed that the right front wheel was tilted, possibly because the upper control arm broke or got loose. That made its face rub on the tarmac until the Model 3 climbed the bollard. In the video, we can see someone apparently leaving the Tesla and picking up some components on the asphalt after the crash. The man looked perfectly lucid and there are no visible obstacles or potholes that could have damaged the car. From what the video presents, it seems the cause of the crash was indeed the suspension failure.
We tried to contact the video owner before he took the video down. We have insisted on talking to him about what happened and will update this article if we hear back from him. However, this article’s main objective is to contact the Tesla Model 3 owner involved in this crash.
According to the video, the crash happened at 6:55 PM on October 21 in Sandbach, a city 158 miles (238 kilometers) to the northwest of London. To be more precise, it was close to the Waitrose roundabout on Old Mill Road (A534). Without the video, it is hard to find exactly where. The footage itself shows a weird date: April 16, 2014, which is impossible because the Model 3 was presented in 2017. It probably has to do with the camera having the wrong date set when it was recording. The hour may also be incorrect.
If you happen to know someone who crashed his Model 3 in Sandbach on October 21, please warn them about this article and ask them to contact us. We would like to tell their side of the story and what caused this crash. If it were a suspension defect, the insurance company and the owner would be happy to learn they would not have to pay for the repair, especially if the battery pack was affected in any way. British readers, please help us tell this story in the right way.
Play at 0:25 speed and watch the Tesla carefully.
— Whompy Wombat (The wombat formerly known as Keef ) (@WhompyWombat) October 22, 2022
The wheel fell off and the underside of the car is scraping on the roadway.
And then it goes airborne as the spring hurls the car upwards. pic.twitter.com/1aufqAo9Wq
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