Brand New Model S - Door Handle Failure

[gdec]

Is it still common for door handles to fail on the newer MS's? I bought this car assuming (naively) a lot of these common issues had been ironed out by now.

I just took delivery of a new 75D 3 weeks ago. Fast forward to this morning: I unlock my car, it makes a very loud noise lasting a couple seconds, and does nothing. The screen behind the wheel shows charging status but that's it. I hit unlock again and this time the car behaves normally: unlocking, door handles present, car turns on screens/lights/climate. HOWEVER, the driver side door handle is totally unresponsive.

Now the car is behaving normally again but the driver side handle remains useless.

I've seen a lot of these stories mentioning a whirring noise from the door handle before/after it failing. The noise my car made was much louder than that. When I first heard it I thought it was a larger electrical failure.

Now waiting on Tesla to get back to me regarding a fix. Curious if anyone has had a similar experience, especially from newer vehicles.

 

[EliteFinish]

Is it still common for door handles to fail on the newer MS's? I bought this car assuming (naively) a lot of these common issues had been ironed out by now.

I just took delivery of a new 75D 3 weeks ago. Fast forward to this morning: I unlock my car, it makes a very loud noise lasting a couple seconds, and does nothing. The screen behind the wheel shows charging status but that's it. I hit unlock again and this time the car behaves normally: unlocking, door handles present, car turns on screens/lights/climate. HOWEVER, the driver side door handle is totally unresponsive.

Now the car is behaving normally again but the driver side handle remains useless.

I've seen a lot of these stories mentioning a whirring noise from the door handle before/after it failing. The noise my car made was much louder than that. When I first heard it I thought it was a larger electrical failure.

Now waiting on Tesla to get back to me regarding a fix. Curious if anyone has had a similar experience, especially from newer vehicles.

It's definitely still common, I think far less so than previously, but talking with customers and seeing cars come in, even if they have less than 10 miles on the vehicle I still see it. Good news is that every time I have heard of/seen it occur, Tesla has been quick to fix it and it doesn't seem to reoccur.

 

[gdec]

It's definitely still common, I think far less so than previously, but talking with customers and seeing cars come in, even if they have less than 10 miles on the vehicle I still see it. Good news is that every time I have heard of/seen it occur, Tesla has been quick to fix it and it doesn't seem to reoccur.

Thanks for the info. Somehow, the driver side door handle has started working again after being unresponsive for a full day. Guess I'll just see what happens.

 

[SabrToothSqrl]

I'm sorry for your loss. if you know any good lawyers, I'm more than willing to provide evidence to get a satisfactory solution. I'm all for a simple less complex door handle assembly. even one that sticks out is fine.

I think I'm up to 8 or maybe more. The second this thing is out of warranty, it's for sale Gonna drive my gas guzzler again!

 

[gdec]

The concept is fine. The lack of a manual backup for opening the door is perplexing. There should be some way to manually open the door/pull the handle if the motor fails.

 

[Drlev]

My driver door handle failed at 300 miles, less than a week into ownership. They fixed it the next day, no questions asked.

 

[SabrToothSqrl]

My driver door handle failed at 300 miles, less than a week into ownership. They fixed it the next day, no questions asked.

that's 1. Keep track

 

[mongo]

The concept is fine. The lack of a manual backup for opening the door is perplexing. There should be some way to manually open the door/pull the handle if the motor fails.

The root issue is that it is a frameless door, so the window glass needs to move down/up in coordination with opening/ closing the door. At least you can manually open the doors from the inside (not much help while waiting for service, I know).