Calibrating door handles using new tool

[Rene-S]

I have a Model S from 2018, and my passenger door handle this morning was yelling for a bit, and wouldn't open the door, although it does fully extend. When locking, it stayed out by like 20%.

It seems its target for in/out are offset. It tries to go like 20% further than it can, and retracts 20% too little.
So I checked service and saw I have the door handle calibration tool, with an appropriate warning:

Has anyone used this tool before? Because what I'm hoping for is the following:

1. I unlock the door, it extends all the way (as it does)
2. I hit calibrate, it asks to move it to 100%
3. I hit next, as it's already in the right position
4. It asks for 0%
5. I push the handle in manually
6. World hunger is solved and my handle is fixed.

I can't find anyone online who's used this tool before, and I want to be sure it won't get stuck at some step that absolutely requires me to disassemble the panel.

Thanks!

 

[richrootes]

No, but worth a try, surely?

Worst case you’ll need to take the door card off - which you might have to do anyway

Good luck

 

[Rene-S]

No, but worth a try, surely?

Worst case you’ll need to take the door card off - which you might have to do anyway

Good luck

I can think of worse things that could happen and it's -5 to -10 out and don't have a garage to take the panel off in. I'd just like to see someone step through the process to be sure. I asked service as well, waiting for a reply. Otherwise I'll document it here.

 

[DerbyDave]

I'd hit the Calibrate button to see if that fixes anything.

 

[aerodyne]

I'd hit the Calibrate button to see if that fixes anything.

Please report back. My handles have never been quite flush.

 

[Rene-S]

I should have mentioned, I did hit the button, which prompted the following dialog:

The message still doesn't 100% clearly indicate if it'll just move by itself, or that a you have to physically move "the fork" and tell it what min and max is. I'll wait for the reply of service tomorrow. If they tell me to go ahead I definitely will, if not, I might anyway, just to see what happens. Will report back and video it.

 

[Rene-S]

Please report back. My handles have never been quite flush.

The calibrate feature does not fix not-flush handles. If anything, it might fix my particular issue, and as far as I can tell, it's mainly meant for when a door handle has been replaced for an entirely new one.

Getting the door handles flush requires removing the panel and adjusting and or shimmy-ing bolts.

 

[GWord]

It will move by itself through an automated routine. I recently had a similar issue with my 2017. Just hitting calibrate didn't solve it and I had to manually push the handle to be all the way in and then rerun the calibration and all normal operation was restored. Initially I thought the paddle gear was broken and disassembled the whole shooting match only to find my blood, sweat, and cursing were to no avail; all was mechanically fine. Just a little push and calibration. Grrr.

 

[Rene-S]

Ok, I just found it in the online service manual that Tesla very nicely updated. It talks about the procedure as if it's an automatic routine, it even mentions that PROC_DHFP_FRONT-PAS_DOOR-HANDLE-CALIBRATION message that I see in my last screenshot as a thing that their toolbox software uses, so it's probably the same command, just through the user accessible service menu.

Still going to wait for the reply from service (don't need my car tomorrow, so they'll probably reply before I need it anyway).

 

[Rene-S]

It will move by itself through an automated routine. I recently had a similar issue with my 2017. Just hitting calibrate didn't solve it and I had to manually push the handle to be all the way in and then rerun the calibration and all normal operation was restored. Initially I thought the paddle gear was broken and disassembled the whole shooting match only to find my blood, sweat, and cursing were to no avail; all was mechanically fine. Just a little push and calibration. Grrr.

Oh that's great info, thanks!

According to this table you might have a gen 2.0 or 2.5 handle, which can't be calibrated, unless it was after July 2017, or it's been updated along the way:

The UI in the car states only 2.1 and 3.0 can be calibrated. Mine is from April 2018, so it should have 3.0 which can be.

 

[GWord]

Oh that's great info, thanks!

According to this table you might have a gen 2.0 or 2.5 handle, which can't be calibrated, unless it was after July 2017, or it's been updated along the way:
View attachment 1007732

The UI in the car states only 2.1 and 3.0 can be calibrated. Mine is from April 2018, so it should have 3.0 which can be.

My 2017 was late enough into the production cycle to have V3 actually. So much simpler maintenance and the calibration tool works on it, seemingly as long as it starts from zero.

 

[Rene-S]

Damn, didn't help. It simply won't retract all the way by itself, so will need to schedule service. And yes, I manually pushed it into the door before I ran the calibration. It then extended, still tries to extend further than it should (motor buzzing due to physical limit), then tries to retract and simply seems to stop before it's fully retracted.

For anyone that wants to give the tool a shot, it will indeed (attempt to) move the handle by itself. If it fails, it will however NO LONGER show the handle AT ALL. In my situation, this is a win. I'd rather it not move at all when it won't actuate the latch when pulled anyway, than it attempt to retract and I have to drive with it sticking out.
When this happens, it shows the following:

You can still re-run the calibration, but it won't go back to trying to push it out when you unlock until the calibration succeeds. So for anyone who has a similar issue but can still actuate the door latch, I suggest you don't run the calibration.

 

[stalks]

Hi @Rene-S,
I am in your exact situation after freezing rain. Did you end up just replacing the handle, or did you attempt a repair?

After reviewing the Gen3 design, I suspect this might be due to a displaced magnet (or due to the rod having somehow moved relative to the handle mechanism), causing the angle read by the sensor to be misaligned relative to the real handle position, beyond what the calibration procedure can adjust. From what I've seen the rod has a flat edge at the end that should prevent the magnet to slip, but who knows, maybe the ice broke the magnet cap.

If that's the case, it may be fixable by readjusting the magnet/rod without replacing any part (unless the sensor itself is faulty or the magnet assembly is completely broken).

I haven't decided whether to go down the rabbit hole of taking the door apart or just file a mobile service request; if I'll replace it, I'll keep the old one to check whether this theory is correct (and to keep spare parts when the others will fail ).

 

[Rene-S]

I have a service appointment planned for tomorrow. Will report back to let you know. I think they usually take whatever they replace though, but I'll see if I can keep my hands on it and take it apart myself.

 

[stalks]

I see - FYI, I retried the calibration today after letting it sit for ~24h and it worked fine It has been operating normally since then.

This seems to confirm the hypothesis that nothing was physically broken; either the calibration was able to restore the functionality after the magnet/rod displacement or simply there was some moisture interfering with the signals.

I'm glad that it 'fixed itself', but it is definitely concerning to have such erratic behavior on a safety critical component.

Good luck with the service - looking forward to see if you discover something more!

 

[Rene-S]

Welp, there she is. They replaced the entire unit. The handle has been sitting for over a week, doing another calibration did not fix it for me. €460 total. They said there's probably a sensor inside the motor unit that's no longer functioning. There's very little mechanical to see that could be broken, this Gen 3 model looks very robust, but obviously something internal broke.

Here's the full bill for anyone interested:

After the fix I drove away and heard terribly loud wind noise from that same door its window. They have to remove the window in order to replace it, so I drove back, they apologized and said they messed up the alignment of the window to the small triangle window causing a gap. That was correct (for free, ofc.).

 

[stalks]

Thanks for reporting back!

So probably my theory doesn't stand: possibly the absolute position of the magnet doesn't really matter, and the relative position can be 'learnt' during calibration (where the motor sweeps between the two ends where it stops when detecting it cannot move further forward/backwards).

During my research I heard about the official procedure requiring the removal of the window, and that it could cause wind noise/water ingress; if I were to do it myself, I would have used this trick to avoid it

 

[FrancT]

Fantastic video! My 2015 S 85 drivers-side (rear) passenger handle is misaligned and squeaks nastily whilst going in/out, so now I have to look for the video for the rear door, but atleast it means I don't have to remove it at all, just loosen the bolts and hopefully correct the misalignment... again great video, thanks for sharing.

 

[Rene-S]

Fantastic video! My 2015 S 85 drivers-side (rear) passenger handle is misaligned and squeaks nastily whilst going in/out, so now I have to look for the video for the rear door, but atleast it means I don't have to remove it at all, just loosen the bolts and hopefully correct the misalignment... again great video, thanks for sharing.

Ha, I have that *exact* issue. Gonna try fixing it myself as well.

 

[FrancT]

Oké, I have to wait for nice weather and a moment that the car won't be being used for a couple of days ... to Rene-S ... have you found a video for the rear doors or are you going to go for it without? Let me know how you get on and I'll do the same here