Door Won't Open!

happend to me multiple times with the front passenger side. In my case right now and once previously if i pull on the handle and dont let go for 10-15 sec the door will open. I have a service appt on monday for the front passenger door handle this would be the 3rd replacement (in 2 years 33000 miles)and driver front has been replaced once already.

Suprisingly the passenger doors get used a lot as well but no prbs there. The front driver get used the most. I think the seals are the problem water gets in and does its thing. Not even a month ago i got the passenger front door handle replaced.

I had a left rear handle fail too, but in my case it popped open on its own and the LED failed. They sent a ranger from Montreal (2 hrs) to fix it in my garage. The Service Centre should either send a ranger or come and get your car and leave you a loaner - just ask for that. In my case, they changed the door handle to fix it. There is also a door handle controller for the two left doors in the front left door; they might need to reboot or replace that.

I assume you've tried rebooting the centre screen?

SabrToothSqrl said:

The door opens fine from the inside, but it's kind of a PITA.. and ohh yea... I SHOULDN'T HAVE TO DO THAT.

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That's the most unusual part. The rear doors open and close via actuators from both the inside and outside. If you can open the rear doors using the interior handle, the actuator is working. There's something wrong with your external handle module and/or the sensor that determines if you've pulled the handle, it seems.

(In case anyone was wondering: there's a manual release for the rears in the seat bottom. The front doors are opened via actuator if you just slightly pull the handle, but if you pull all the way a manual release is triggered.)

SabrToothSqrl said:

Got home last night, went to get some stuff from the back seat - Driver's Rear door... won't open..

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Contact Tesla and they will replace the handle. It's basically a broken microswitch.

I recall that they did a large replacement of doors handles a while ago and did a redesign. I don't know what years they replaced. But you may be in that group.

Just had my driver side handle fail in the same manner. Pulled a couple different door fuses from box #2 with no luck. Looking like an 80 mile round trip back to the SC.

SabrToothSqrl said:

Got home last night, went to get some stuff from the back seat - Driver's Rear door... won't open.

Door handle pops out. Give it a tug. Nothing.

All other doors work fine.

Door worked Tuesday night, did not Wednesday night.

I called the Service Center... have to drive it 2 hours there to get it fixed. Also the light on the door handle doesn't light up.

Are we sure this isn't just a fuse?

Anyone else have this happen?

The door opens fine from the inside, but it's kind of a PITA.. and ohh yea... I SHOULDN'T HAVE TO DO THAT.

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If your car was delivered in the first quarter of 2013, you likely have Gen 1 door handles. You can tell if you have Gen 2 handles if the handles have about 4mm of play when you pull on them. The handles use a hall-effect proximity switch to activate the latch, and the tolerances on these switches are very small. The switches consist of two halves, one of which is a magnet. When brought together, the switch activates. The Gen 1 handle has these two halves located about 1-2mm apart, which has led to false triggers and other issues in some cars. Later versions of the handle increased this gap for greater reliability. Tesla has updated the handles on many early vehicles. If you've had more than one issue with your Gen 1 handles, you might be a candidate for an upgrade.

I would expect if Tesla replaces one gen 1 handle that is acting up, that they would proactively replace all of them. It would not be ok to have one handle which operates differently then the rest. For others that have had this issue, has that been Tesla's policy?

I had all my handles replaced with Gen2 versions at my 2 year service. Tesla noticed the passenger front door was acting up (I had never noticed it) so they replaced them all, as policy.

NuclearPowered said:

I would expect if Tesla replaces one gen 1 handle that is acting up, that they would proactively replace all of them. It would not be ok to have one handle which operates differently then the rest. For others that have had this issue, has that been Tesla's policy?

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That wasn't the case for me over a year ago when I got a door handle replaced. They only replaced the door handle with an issue. I called them a few hundred miles before I crossed over to the 50,000 mile for them to replace all old handles. My rear passenger handle is no longer working.

Is this a version issue?

SabrToothSqrl said:

I'm under bumper to bumper until 2019/ 100,000 miles, and plan to trade it in on the X, so I'm not too worried, but it does aggravate me to have to drive 90 miles EACH WAY to get things like this fixed...

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Have you asked the service center of there is a ranger around you that can change this without you driving in? Perhaps they would be willing to goodwill the typical ranger fee b/c you've already brought the car in twice for warranty work.

Picked up my car on 6/7/18 and the next day I had someone with me and the exact same thing happened with my front passenger door. Handle presents itself but doesn't open the door. I had to get in the driver's side and open it from inside. Guess I'll take it in this week to get it fixed.