A Boomerang-Shaped 5 lbs, 9-foot-Long Stainless Steel Flies off a Tesla Cybertruck While Driving 70 Mph on the Highway, Owner Says “It Could’ve Hurt a Motorcyclist or Gone Through a Windshield”

Jochen, a Cybertruck owner from Ann Arbor, Michigan, says the large stainless steel piece extending from the A-pillar to the bed, flew off at 70 mph while he was driving on the highway.

The Cybertruck owner says he put the stainless steel that fell off on a scale and reports it weighs 5 lbs.

This means the trim that flew away at high speed is a 9-foot-long, 5-pound, 2-inch-wide piece of stainless steel shaped like a boomerang.

Jochen says the stainless steel was attached to the vehicle only using glue and adds this piece could’ve severed the neck of a motorcyclist behind him or smashed through a windshield.

The Cybertruck owner shared his frightening experience on the Cybertruck Owners Club forum.

Here is what he wrote…

“Dangerous Trim Issue

A few days ago, I noticed that the boomerang-shaped upper window trim on the driver's side seemed to stick out a hair at the front lip. I checked it and pressed it back in. Knowing that I had a service appointment today at Tesla, I added it to my list of topics.

The advisor called their Cybertruck specialist, who inspected the truck and stated that “the trim piece was starting to separate from the base, and they would order a new one to replace it.” No further comments were made.

Bonus bummer for me, the truck is wrapped, so I made an appointment with my wrapper to coincide with my next Tesla appointment in 30 days. Who wants to drive around with a silver lip on a white truck?

I ran a quick errand tonight, and while merging and accelerating on the Interstate in normal traffic, at about 70 mph, I heard a loud ripping sound and the metal panel liberates and flew into traffic behind me.

I was not able to stop as I was in the middle of a highway split. I rolled the window down and felt for it, and yes, the trim was gone.

I looped around, next exit off/on, back to my original exit off/on, stopped with the hazards on, and located the piece, by that time it was run over multiple times with tire marks on the white wrap. I threw the piece into bed and drove home.

So the trim piece did not come off as one would expect (as the bed sail panel did on some trucks). The stainless portion separated from the plastic subframe that mounts the trim panel to the truck.

The subframe is still there, all clips are in, and you can see the glue spots that once bonded the metal to the plastic, 17 to be exact.

I scaled the metal portion, to 5 pounds. So imagine, a 9-foot long 2-inch wide 1/16th thick piece of stainless steel in the shape of a boomerang liberating at 70mph on the Interstate. This could have decapitated a motorcyclist behind me or could have gone through someone's windshield. Someone should be thankful tonight, including myself.

Might as well throw longswords out the window. This part is simply glued on, something is very wrong here. This is a major flaw in my book. I had my Cybertruck since May just reached 10,000 miles, and driven it sun, rain, sleet, or snow.

Not a good situation. Has anybody experienced this?”

Below his post, Jochen shared a picture of his Cybertruck showing the stainless steel trim separated from the truck.

You can see glue marks all over where the stainless steel attached to the plastic that bonded it with the vehicle frame.

This is not an ideal situation in any shape or form. In this case, thankfully no one was hurt however, a boomerang-shaped 9-foot long stainless steel flying off at 70 mph is a recipe for disaster.

Looking at the comments fellow Cybertruck owners blamed the person who wrapped Jochen’s Cybertruck for causing the stainless steel to separate.

A fellow Cybertruck owner from Florida says…

“Have you checked the other side?

You said you had it wrapped, I'm wondering if someone got overzealous with post-heating and it affected the early adhesives Tesla was using.”

Another Cybertruck owner seconds this point writing…

“Good point, the wrap installer could have caused this. Just saying.”

A third Cybertruck owner, from California, also echoes this sentiment writing…

“Actually it's bolted on. Are you sure your wrapper didn't take the nut off and forgot to put it back on? This issue seems to only affect wrapped trucks. I wonder what the common denominator is.” 

However, Jochen says he put on the wrap 8 months ago and that’s unlikely to cause any issues now. He adds that the last people to do work around the trim piece that fell off are Tesla service technicians.

Jochen postulates maybe the Tesla techs did something wrong when they were performing the recalled wiper motor replacement.

He writes…

“The wrap was done last June, so too long ago to cause an issue now. The last one who was active in that area was Tesla Service when they did the wiper motor modification and installed the new assembly that ended up with its base not being completely flush with the windshield.

Maybe it put some undue pressure on the leading edge of the boomerang, which over time started to separate the glue?

The tech today also spoke about the road salt causing havoc on the wiper sprayer valve, maybe salt (we have more salt on the roads than we have ice and snow) was also a contributing factor to the ungluing?”

Overall, whatever caused the stainless steel to fly off we can all agree that it’s not safe having it detach like that in the middle of the highway.

It’s also interesting to see Cybertruck’s stainless steel ending up as a glued-on trim piece when it was supposed to create an exoskeleton that should increase the hardness and decrease the weight.

This puts into question the wisdom behind building a vehicle out of stainless steel in the first place. However, please let me know what you think in the comments. Share your ideas by clicking the “Add new comment” button below. Also, visit our site, torquenews.com/Tesla, regularly for the latest updates.

Image 1: Screenshot from Marques Brownlee's YouTube channel

Image 2: Screenshot from Joschen’s Cybertruck Owners Club post

For more information, check out: Tesla has Exhausted the Cybertruck Reservation List in Canada and Mexico. New Order Deliveries Set for February – Cybertruck is Now $265 Cheaper in Canada Than in the US

Tinsae Aregay has been following Tesla and the evolution of the EV space daily for several years. He covers everything about Tesla, from the cars to Elon Musk, the energy business, and autonomy. Follow Tinsae on Twitter at @TinsaeAregay for daily Tesla news.