Paper card falls inside the drivers door. What should I do?

MrBravo · Feb 8, 2016

I am good at having interesting situations... Yesterday as I came back to my car someone had stuck an advertising card on my door like this. I took a photo with another one of these laminated paper advertisement cards.

I did not notice it, because the parking spot was narrow (as they always are here in Belgium), and I opened the door and got in. When inside the car, I saw it had been pulled halfway inside by the movement of glass. Then I opened the door and the glass went down again and this time the card became unreachable. I tried getting it out, but without success and finally it fell inside.

What should I do? Ask service center to get it out or forget about it? Could it scratch the window or damage something inside?

Spyder14 · Feb 8, 2016

It sounds like it's all the way inside the door panel and on the other side of the window glass. The door panel will need to be removed to get access to the inside of the door panel. Even then, the paper will be on the other side of the window glass so remove the door panel (if you do it yourself) with the window up. Through one of the door frame openings, you should be able to grab the paper to gently remove it. After you remove the paper, call the number on the advertisement & tell them you will never do business with them!! If you don't want to try this, your SC should be able to handle it with no problem but they will charge you for it. :crying:

bhzmark · Feb 8, 2016

Service people more likely to damage something taking apart the door than the card is likely to cause any damage.

Forget about it.

If someone ever steals your car and switches out the VIN plates you can still identify the car by the card hidden in the door.

Spyder14 · Feb 8, 2016

That works too!

PaulR · Feb 8, 2016

If you are handy (though, personally, unless it was the winning lottery ticket I would just forget about it) you could try this...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4M6Zw6jWpA

It's a video of how to remove the door panel in order to install a speaker, but the procedure is the same.

Good luck

MrBravo · Feb 8, 2016

I called Tesla about this. The employee said that this is "one of the strangest problems" he has been asked about. :smile: The local service center sent me a quote of 110 eur for the work. Does not seem that much for the hassle, but I am not sure it is worth doing it at all and could just go with suggestion of bhzmark.

The video posted by PaulR is very good. But I would be scared to do it. Also, I do not see how to get to the other side of the window from there...

brec · Feb 8, 2016

When I had the car that I traded in for my Model S, I had a discount card for entry into U.S. National Parks. That card is now very likely in the possession of whoever bought my old car, safely hidden in the driver's door.

AudubonB · Feb 8, 2016

Gives you the opportunity to create your own card, viz:

If you steal this car, it will cost you €110 to have the secret "STOLEN" marker removed.

FlasherZ · Feb 8, 2016

We have had this problem in the past. For the St. Louis Auto Show, we have a number of placards that describe the car, explain "private owner - please ask first", list that it's "made in the US", etc. A few years ago, we placed them between the seal and the window, and repeated door open-close cycles slowly pulled them into the doors. To avoid damage to window regulators and the like, we had to get the service center to pull them out.

I doubt a small paper card would create a problem - but in my case they were double-laminated letter (A4-ish) sized cards.

We no longer place them in that position.

dpodoll · Feb 8, 2016

If it were a winning lotto ticket I would go after it. Don' think I try to retrieve an advertising card.

Blue_Model_S · Feb 8, 2016

If you were here in US, I would suggest to pay to get the card out and then sue the advertising company for the cost, pain, and suffering.:smile:

MrBravo · Feb 12, 2016

Blue_Model_S said:
If you were here in US, I would suggest to pay to get the card out and then sue the advertising company for the cost, pain, and suffering.:smile:

That for sure will not work in Belgium. Any court case in Belgium will take years and is very expensive for both sides. After all, the court building in Brussels (Palais de Justice, Brussels - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia) is the largest one in the world. :smile:

GoTslaGo · Feb 12, 2016

Thanks for posting this. I will definitely make sure I tell my wife to take any of those promo cards out of the door window before opening the door!

BTW you do have the telephone number of the company. You could give them a nasty call, and maybe demand that they pay the 110 eu for the SC to take it out. You can suggest that their card can go on to damage the internals of the car door/window. Maybe even cause a fire! One of the advantages/disadvantages of the litigiousness of the US, it would be cheaper for a company to pay 110 than to a pay a lawyer.:wink:

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Paper card falls inside the drivers door. What should I do?

MrBravo

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One can NOT induce accuracy via precision!

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