Cybertruck owner took advantage of and cashed in on a Tesla $1,000 mistake

Published on Oct 10, 2025 at 5:17 AM (UTC+4)
by Daisy Edwards

Last updated on Oct 09, 2025 at 7:18 PM (UTC+4)
Edited by Emma Matthews

This Cybertruck owner took advantage of and cashed in on a $1,000 mistake from Tesla – was it a smart move, or was it secretly sneaky?

You don’t expect Tesla to mess up on a tire sensor, especially not on its flagship Cybertruck.

But one owner just proved that even billion-dollar tech companies can fumble the basics, and instead of letting it go, this EV owner decided to cash in.

Replacing the TPMS sensor should be an easy fix, but whether it was a missing or wrong part, or laziness on behalf of Tesla, it ended up costing them a lot of unnecessary cash…

EXPLORE SBX CARS – Supercar auctions starting soon powered by Supercar Blondie

Cybertruck owner took advantage of a $1,000 mistake by Tesla

A Cybertruck EV owner took his electric beast in for what should’ve been a simple fix, replacing the TPMS sensor.

It’s a small but crucial part, basically the system that keeps track of your tire pressure and warns you before something goes disastrously wrong.

Even in the service manual for the Cybertruck, when it comes to replacing the sensor, it reads:

“Remove the nut. Remove the sensor. Replace with the new one. Torque to 8 Nm (that’s 5.9 lb-ft).”

Somewhere in the process, Tesla’s service team made a costly either by mixing the wrong parts, failing to torque the sensor correctly, or using incompatible hardware, which ended up costing more than it bargained for.

Why did it cost so much?

The mistake ended up costing $1,000, but not for the part itself – Tesla sells Cybertruck TPMS sensors for around $60 each.

The cost was for the labor, time, and back-and-forth it took to fix what shouldn’t have gone wrong in the first place.

Tesla eventually admitted the issue, refunded the owner, and replaced the affected parts under warranty.

That’s where the story gets interesting, because, instead of losing out, the owner walked away better off than before, because he’d caught the company’s mistake, proved it, and made Tesla pay up.

Tesla has issued a TPMS sensor recall for some Cybertruck models because the tire pressure warning light wasn’t staying on long enough, which is a violation of federal safety standards.

Things aren’t looking good for the EV that was once America’s favorite.

DISCOVER SBX CARS: The global premium car auction platform powered by Supercar Blondie

user

Daisy Edwards is a Content Writer at supercarblondie.com. Daisy has more than five years’ experience as a qualified journalist, having graduated with a History and Journalism degree from Goldsmiths, University of London and a dissertation in vintage electric vehicles. Daisy specializes in writing about cars, EVs, tech and luxury lifestyle. When she's not writing, she's at a country music concert or working on one of her many unfinished craft projects.