Recall of 137 Tesla Model Ys over issue with steering wheel fastener

Headed into Tesla's 2023 investor meeting, shares are down about 4% over the past two weeks. Still, shares are up about 63% year to date.

Nearly 140 of Tesla's electric Model Y vehicles could potentially have an issue with the fastener for the steering wheel, leading to a recall by the electric car maker.

In a notice published on the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's (NHTSA) website, it said 137 2022-2023 Model Ys may possibly have a "loose" fastener that could cause disconnection of the steering wheel from its column. Tesla manufactured the recalled cars between June 23, 2022 and May 1, 2023, according to the safety recall report.

The recall report said the driver "may lose steering control" if the fastener "allows the steering wheel to disconnect," something that could make the chances of a crash higher.

LOS ANGELES, CA - APRIL 10: A Tesla corporate logo hangs on the front of their store in Santa Monica on April 10, 2023, in Los Angeles, California. ((Photo by Gary Hershorn/Getty Images) / Getty Images)

Elon Musk's electric vehicle and clean energy company submitted the recall to the NHTSA last week. FOX Business reached out for comment but did not receive a response by press time.

The fastener issue stemmed from some Model Ys potentially having "incorrectly received a complete torque record because of a torque action in the preceding station" in the production process, according to the recall report.

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Four warranty claims and one field report potentially related to the problem have been fielded by Tesla, the report said. The company got those in a roughly 5.5-month time frame between mid-November and late April.

Tesla Model Y electric vehicles in a lot at the Tesla Inc. Gigafactory in Gruenheide, Germany, on Saturday, Jan. 21, 2023. (Liesa Johannssen/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

No reports of crashes, injuries or fatalities have happened to date. Tesla is also "not aware of any instances of the steering wheel completely detaching from the steering column due to this condition," per the report.

Tesla plans to put in new fasteners for recalled vehicles found to have loose ones during service inspections. That will come at no charge to the impacted customers, according to the NHTSA notice.

GRUENHEIDE, GERMANY - MARCH 22: Tesla CEO Elon Musk attends the official opening of the new Tesla electric car manufacturing plant on March 22, 2022 near Gruenheide, Germany. The new plant, officially called the Gigafactory Berlin-Brandenburg, is pro ((Photo by Christian Marquardt - Pool/Getty Images) / Getty Images)

The recall report said the company "programmatically and physically updated" the manufacturing tool that rotates the steering wheel fastener and gave more training to its production associates.

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Notification of Tesla stores and service centers about the recall was slated for the beginning of the month, with vehicle owners getting theirs via mail in late July, according to the recall report.

Tesla customers first got Model Ys in early 2020. That year, the company manufactured over 454,900 of its Model 3 and Model Y models, according to a press release.

Production of the two models has increased in the two years since, climbing to about 906,000 in 2021 and nearly 1.3 million last year.

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