Tesla Model S, Tesla Model X, model years 2021 to 2025. Filed by Tesla, Inc. and reported to NHTSA on 19 March 2025. 91 vehicles potentially affected.
What the notice says Tesla, Inc. (Tesla) is recalling certain 2021-2024 Model S and 2021-2025 Model X vehicles. An air bag with the incorrect horn pad may have been installed, preventing the horn from sounding.
Is your vehicle included? Check with your VIN at NHTSA, or ask a dealer. This page is an independent copy of the notice, kept so you can see what changed after it was published. It is not the authority, and the authority’s own text is the one to act on.
Tesla's own number for this recall: SB-25-20-001. That is the number on the owner letter and on the dealer paperwork. 25V172 is the number NHTSA gave the same campaign, and the number this page is filed under. They are one recall, written two ways.
What owners ask about this recall
- Which vehicles does recall 25V172 cover?
- Tesla Model S, Tesla Model X, model years 2021-2025.
- What is wrong with them?
- Tesla, Inc. (Tesla) is recalling certain 2021-2024 Model S and 2021-2025 Model X vehicles. An air bag with the incorrect horn pad may have been installed, preventing the horn from sounding.
- What can happen if it is not put right?
- An inoperative horn may prevent the driver from alerting other drivers, increasing the risk of a crash.
- Is there a fix yet?
- Yes, and it is free. Tesla service will inspect and install an air bag with the correct horn pad as necessary, free of charge. Owner notification letters were mailed May 20, 2025. Owners may contact Tesla customer service at 1-877-798-3752. Tesla's number for this recall is SB-25-20-001.
- What should I do now?
- Check your own vehicle by its VIN with NHTSA, which is the record to act on. Tesla calls this recall SB-25-20-001, which is the number on the owner letter and the dealer paperwork.
Answered from the register this site holds. NHTSA is the record to act on.
What the authority says can happen if this is not fixed: “An inoperative horn may prevent the driver from alerting other drivers, increasing the risk of a crash.”
affected
in the notice
caught
| Campaign | 25V172 |
|---|---|
| Filed by | Tesla, Inc. |
| System at fault | Air Bags |
| Reported to NHTSA | 19 March 2025 |
| Model years | 2021-2025 |
| Vehicles named | TESLA MODEL S, TESLA MODEL X |
What the notice says today
The defect
Tesla, Inc. (Tesla) is recalling certain 2021-2024 Model S and 2021-2025 Model X vehicles. An air bag with the incorrect horn pad may have been installed, preventing the horn from sounding.
The consequence
An inoperative horn may prevent the driver from alerting other drivers, increasing the risk of a crash.
The remedy
Tesla service will inspect and install an air bag with the correct horn pad as necessary, free of charge. Owner notification letters were mailed May 20, 2025. Owners may contact Tesla customer service at 1-877-798-3752. Tesla's number for this recall is SB-25-20-001.
What it said before
Nothing has changed while we have been watching. We last read the wording of this campaign on 17 September 2026, and it matched the copy we already held.
That copy hashes to 815aac5a0b2b0f3a1e9f3e99379a3893…, so if it is ever edited the change is provable rather than a matter of memory.
This is one of 846 notices in the record whose component field names air bags. Across that group the median wait before owners were written to was 46 days.
Last checked . No change has been recorded in the wording.
The models named here, across their whole recall history
How to cite this record
Quoting the wording on this page means quoting a version, so the date belongs in the citation:
CarsMultiverse, recall 25V172, wording as read on 17 September 2026. https://carsmultiverse.com/recall/25v172/
The copy quoted above hashes to 815aac5a0b2b0f3a1e9f3e99379a3893…. If the notice is reworded later, that fingerprint will not match, which is how a reader checks that the quotation was of the version we say it was.
The cross-border matches used on this site are deposited as a citable dataset: doi:10.5281/zenodo.22087136. The recall wording itself is published by the national authority named above and is theirs, not ours.
The recall record and its wording are published by the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and are US Government public domain. The dated archive, the comparison and any before-and-after above are CarsMultiverse. How fresh every engine behind this page is, is public on the status page. To check a specific vehicle, use NHTSA’s own VIN lookup.
Other Tesla notices we hold
- 26V558: 2026 Model Y
- 26V507: 2017-2023 Model 3 and 2020-2023 Model Y
- 26V445: 2026 Model Y and 2024 Model 3
- 26V315: 2025-2026 Model Y
- 26V283: 2017, 2021-2023 Model 3, 2020-2023 Model Y, 2021-2023 Model S, and Model X
- 26V255: 2024-2026 Cybertruck
- 25V735: 2024 Cybertruck
- 25V699: 2024-2026 Cybertruck
All 94 Tesla campaigns we hold · Every manufacturer in the record
The fingerprint of this notice
We take a SHA-256 of each of the three blocks of text the authority publishes and keep the first eight characters. As we last read campaign 25V172 on 23 August 2026, they were:
- Defect summary
0c46db68 - Consequence
a5af1dc5 - Remedy
ffbc36e8
We first read this notice on 21 August 2026. It has not moved since. If it ever does, these characters will not match, and the change will be dated here.
The wording we hold for 25V172 · how the whole register is watched
This notice names one vehicle among several registers that have written about it. Every notice this site holds for the Tesla Model X, in all seven, is kept on that vehicle's own page, with the newest in each.
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Owners of these cars
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