Door Handles Failed

[ecarfan]

fancy door handles, fancy falcon wing doors - self inflicted wounds. Tesla deserves all the negative press it gets on these two mistakes. Only hope they don't end up being colossal mistakes - especially the FWD - that will end up as a Wikipedia entry and used as a case study for future MBAs.

Yes, after producing over 100,000 cars with those "fancy" door handles it is clear that...they work. And are pretty cool.
It's too early to conclude if the Falcon Wings are a mistake, but so far I would say that they have been generally positively received and provide definite advantages compared to conventional doors.

 

[mknox]

Yes, after producing over 100,000 cars with those "fancy" door handles it is clear that...they work. And are pretty cool.

To me, they're not cool at all. Maybe for the first day or so, but it got old fast. Every time I use the car I wonder to myself how many more of these motorized cycles are left before they fail again. I've had all 4 replaced and had the newer ones serviced/replaced as well. I give credit to Tesla for going with the fancy "prototype car" stuff, but do worry that they could be taking a real hit in warranty claims when as a new company the really do have to be thinking about profitability.

 

[Steph_S]

I'm at Tesla Montreal getting this issue fixed right now. In fact - it seems my car has a mind of its own.

- The driver door window does not auto-close and auto-open when using the window up/down button.
- The window will move when using the buttons - but the auto-up/down function does not work.
- The driver door window does not close/seal when closing the door.
- The driver door window moves down 1 inch every time the door is open.
- Erratic driver door handle behaviour. (sometimes it won't open the door, and sometimes I have to pull on the handle hard to engage the mechanical release.)

The car also didn't power down or lock when I exited - blasting heat in the cabin for an hour while I was away from the car with the key with me.

 

[Doug_G]

A Ranger came by today to fix my car. (Wow, haven't had a Ranger in a while!)

So it seems that the covering on the back of the mechanism basically fell off into the door, leaving it more open to the elements, and there was some corrosion on the motors and gears. Apparently the newer covers have better adhesive, so hopefully they will stay put. I can't imagine these things are sealed or anything... but maybe being open at the back allowed a lot more crap to come in. In any case, the mechanisms were not operating smoothly, so he replaced them. Hopefully my doors will now behave!

Also installed new firmware. There was an update this morning apparently.

The fellow also mentioned that there will soon be a dedicated Ottawa-based Ranger here. He's in training right now.

 

[Trev Page]

To me, they're not cool at all. Maybe for the first day or so, but it got old fast. Every time I use the car I wonder to myself how many more of these motorized cycles are left before they fail again. I've had all 4 replaced and had the newer ones serviced/replaced as well. I give credit to Tesla for going with the fancy "prototype car" stuff, but do worry that they could be taking a real hit in warranty claims when as a new company the really do have to be thinking about profitability.

I can imagine they've been a source of warranty frustrations for them. Model X design didn't call for the retractable handles (not even the prototype had them) but perhaps they'll go with Model X type buttons on Model 3 for simplicity's sake.

 

[FequalsMA]

I'm surprised this happened while parked inside a garage. It doesn't look like ice was an issue. Maybe due to cold contraction of some kind?

I can imagine they've been a source of warranty frustrations for them. Model X design didn't call for the retractable handles (not even the prototype had them) but perhaps they'll go with Model X type buttons on Model 3 for simplicity's sake.

Seems many believe that anything outside of a traditional door handle design will have failure issues.

I'd be satisfied with a non-actuated door handle with a flush recessed design (a la GT-R/ F-Type).
The design and execution is basic enough not to warrant too much additional cost/ failure risk yet distinctive enough to differentiate beyond comparable competitors to the model 3.

 

[Lon12]

My front passenger door handle just quit yesterday. Extends but will not open. Same happened to my driver door two months ago. Always seems to happen on the weekend.

 

[Cyclone]

After i started having this issue i was getting int he car from passenger side, but luckily found a trick to open it.

I have a similar issue, but am in the 40s (Fahrenheit) here.

 

[Cyclone]

Yeah I was really surprised; I haven't heard of (or experienced) an incident of the popping door phenomenon for a couple of years now. And yes I do have the revised 90/10 handles.

One of my friends with a December 2015 85D had that happen. Scary as he had a passenger in the car but they weren't pulling or playing with the handle. Just randomly opened on the interstate.

 

[Cyclone]

I'd be satisfied with a non-actuated door handle with a flush recessed design (a la GT-R/ F-Type).
The design and execution is basic enough not to warrant too much additional cost/ failure risk yet distinctive enough to differentiate beyond comparable competitors to the model 3.

I really hope they use door handles like my 4Runner (mind are body colored, not chrome) on the Model 3:

 

[TEUNTSLA]

My passenger one gave up on me a week ago, still extends and closes, just doesn't activate the locking mechanism when pulled. It's a bummer.

 

[Doug_G]

I'm a little surprised because I though this was all pretty much resolved. It appears that durability may be an issue.

Fortunately mine have all been replaced.

 

[Cyclone]

I'm a little surprised because I though this was all pretty much resolved. It appears that durability may be an issue.

Fortunately mine have all been replaced.

My door handles are one of my biggest pain points. The first repair was because I got trapped inside the car. I had to get out the passenger side. Then my passenger front door handle made a knocking sound and they adjusted that. Next the passenger front window wouldn't go all the up because it was hitting the handle's cable. Then both rear doors make knocking sounds when you stop pulling like something was loose and then hits the door when you stop moving. Now the rear driver door will intermittently not open and this week the front driver door squeaks when you pull it (or let go, not sure which). I wish they were simpler like in the Toyoyta 4Runner pic I posted above. No problems in 9 years of ownership there and they are recessed to minimize the impact to drag coefficient of the car. Hopefully the Model 3 will go with some simpler design.

 

[Doug_G]

Unbelievably my door handles just failed again. Hard failure. Both left-hand handles fail to present and you can't open the door except from inside.

This time the window and mirror controls on the left-hand side of the car are also dead, both front and back.

The passenger side is unaffected. Which is good because otherwise the car would be a complete brick. As it stands it's just massively inconvenient - you have to access the car from the passenger side.

Given that this affects more than one system, I guess it's probably an electrical issue. Maybe a localized CANBUS failure?

 

[scottm]

I did a DIY thread on how to fix your own handles, for the case when you pull from the outside and door does not open.

Over here Fix your door that won't open

...goes on at length with lots of detail so you have confidence in doing this yourself.

Knowing the cost when you're off warranty could be enough motivation right there to gain the needed confidence.

 

[agloutney]

Just curious if a hard reset did anything?

 

[Doug_G]

Reset did nothing.

Handles don't present. This is a controls problem, not a mechanical problem.

 

[Peter_M]

When a ranger was at my house in Feb 2015, he mentioned that there's a door handle controller in the driver door that controls both driver side door handles, and he said rebooting the 2 computers doesn't do a hard reset of this controller. The repair order says "Performed DDM hard reset, verified connectors" and he also replaced the left rear handle. My symptoms were different - the rear door was popping open on its own - but maybe you have a faulty DDM or connection to it.

 

[Doug_G]

They told me that they'll get a Ranger to fix it once a replacement part comes in. It could be the DDM you're talking about.

Meanwhile I'm having to crawl in from the passenger side, and reach for the inside handle. Can't even lower the window for access lol.

It's a good thing the service has always been excellent...

 

[patrick40363]

They told me that they'll get a Ranger to fix it once a replacement part comes in. It could be the DDM you're talking about.

Meanwhile I'm having to crawl in from the passenger side, and reach for the inside handle. Can't even lower the window for access lol.

It's a good thing the service has always been excellent...

You can pry open the driver handle and put a piece of string behind it. It will be able to retract and you can use the string to open the door/handle. This is what I did when my driver door handle failed.