Tesla and SUV VS Garage Door Frame

Stout mirror!
That's the roller track, not the door frame; regardless, an impressive showing by Tesla. Do you need advice how to repair or are you good?

That's one hellofa strong mirror! I can't believe it bent the track that much.

pox said:

I just got my Tesla back two weeks ago from hail damage repair. Then This morning I go and back my side mirror in to my garage door frame. My wife did the same think in her SUV and it broke the frame of the mirror didn't scratch the garage frame. I was revealed to see the opposite this time. My Tesla wasn't scratched but it bent the Garage door frame.

Click to expand...

Sorry about the damage to your garage roller track.

This does highlight the need for Tesla to improve the software that controls the auto-fold mirror options. Tesla could make it GPS based, or even do something as simple as changing things such that manually folded mirrors never unfold on their own unless a certain speed is reached or something. Until Tesla does something to improve things in this area, I'm going to keep worrying that my roller track or mirror will have a similar encounter. I manually fold before entering my garage, but then after starting the car, have to remember to manually fold again, and then after leaving my garage have to remember to manually unfold. I often find myself trying to check my side mirror several minutes into a trip, only to realize that I never unfolded it.

Tesla has figured out how to make a 5000 pound car go 0-60 MPH in under three seconds (with roll out) on battery power, but can't improve on really lousy logic surrounding mirror-folding that is causing people to damage their cars, damage their property, or, in the best cases, just worry about the possibility of damage. It defies logic.

Andyw2100 said:

Sorry about the damage to your garage roller track.

This does highlight the need for Tesla to improve the software that controls the auto-fold mirror options. Tesla could make it GPS based, or even do something as simple as changing things such that manually folded mirrors never unfold on their own unless a certain speed is reached or something. Until Tesla does something to improve things in this area, I'm going to keep worrying that my roller track or mirror will have a similar encounter. I manually fold before entering my garage, but then after starting the car, have to remember to manually fold again, and then after leaving my garage have to remember to manually unfold. I often find myself trying to check my side mirror several minutes into a trip, only to realize that I never unfolded it.

Tesla has figured out how to make a 5000 pound car go 0-60 MPH in under three seconds (with roll out) on battery power, but can't improve on really lousy logic surrounding mirror-folding that is causing people to damage their cars, damage their property, or, in the best cases, just worry about the possibility of damage. It defies logic.

Click to expand...

hold on. He was backing out, right? Mirror should be extended for backing.

I would imagine this will all be sorted out when or before Tesla releases the self-park and retrieval software update.

I just fold my mirrors when going in and out of my garage, then use the backup camera to see where I'm going. It would be cool if I could get auto-folding via GPS.

pox said:

I could use some advice on repairing the roller track.

Click to expand...

Preamble:
That track looks tough, but its strength is a function of having been formed into a C-channel. Mild steel is used to make it, and it's not horribly difficult to shape. Also, the damage is in the non-critical vertical portion of the track. The upper, horizontal fraction eventually bears all the door's weight and thus needs more careful attention; the transitional curved part is where the door's roller-bearing wheels test the track's trueness and will jump track and cause all kinds of headaches if the track is misshapen. But in the vertical element, the track's job is minimal: it does little more than keep the door snug against the frame's weatherstripping.

Repair:
You need only one tool to effect the repair: a pair of good quality vise-grip pliers. You cannot go wrong with the original brand, which is "Vise Grip"; if you go to Harbor Freight and pick up the cheapest Chinese knock off you run the risk of throwing away a broken tool after the first action*. If you need purchase the tool, get the one with the "normal"-sized jaws - about 3/4" wide. Needle-nosed grips will impart their action to too narrow a stretch of the metal and deform it too much; also, don't look at the welder's favorite with its 4" jaw, thinking you can cover the entire spread with a single tool - this one will disappoint as well.

Alternate working the center of the deformed area and its ends. Begin by pre-closing the jaws to perhaps 75% of the deformational width. That is, if the metal has been bowed out 6mm, pre-close the jaws to 4mm or so. Do this by lock-closing the jaws around the greatest deformation, turning the end-screw to the maximum that you can, then open the jaws and move away from the metal, then turn that screw the required 2 or so more millimeters. Return to the track, apply the lock; release.

Now go to each end and repeat the procedure; then return to the center, etc. It should take four or five cycles until you should be very close to the original shape.

That's an interesting bullet-hole shape your photo shows at the very center of the deformation. I am perplexed as to what part of the Tesla mirror possibly could have created it. Regardless, by the end of the procedure that, too, should likely have all but disappeared - at least to the point that you are the only one who ever will see it.

* As jrp3 says, good tools always end up cheaper than junk.

tomas said:

hold on. He was backing out, right? Mirror should be extended for backing.

Click to expand...

Why?

The mirror should be where the driver wants it, and where it will make backing easiest and safest.

In this case the driver was backing out of his presumably fairly tight garage, just as I regularly do. Having the side mirrors unfolded in this situation is a liability. They don't help you see the door frame (or rollers) as you would hit them. It's much safer and easier to have them folded, making the car significantly narrower, and to use the rear-view mirror or the backup camera to ensure that the car clears any obstructions.

The bottom line is that if Tesla were to give us a little more control, in a way that made sense, we could more easily make the decisions ourselves.

If we manually fold the mirrors, they should just stay folded until we unfold them, or reach a speed of say 20 MPH.

A GPS based system would be better, but I understand that would be much more difficult for Tesla to program. It can remain on the wish list. What I'm proposing, and have proposed in the past, should be a pretty simple programming change to something that works more like people expect it to work anyway.

What if you have folded your mirrors because there is very little room around the car, due to other parked cars, or worse yet, walls. You safely maneuver into the spot, but forget to change your autofold setting, and as soon as you return to the car and turn it on, the mirrors unfold and hit the walls or the other cars. Where's the logic in that? The smarter logic is clearly to only unfold manually folded mirrors manually, or when a given speed is reached.

As I said, I have written to Tesla about this before. I think I will do so again, instead of just complaining about it, and will also reference this thread as evidence that this is a problem. If others agree that what I'm suggesting is a good and simple solution to this problem, feel free to write as well. The address is [email protected].

Edit: I have started a poll on my suggestion here-- Suggestion For Change To Auto-Folding Mirror Operation

Andyw2100 said:

The mirror should be where the driver wants it, and where it will make backing easiest and safest.

Click to expand...

Mine don't auto fold, but if they did, they still wouldn't make it