Curious about dent in driver's side door

[fredjan]

I have this dent on my driver's side door that's been bugging me for the past couple of weeks. I don't know if this was dented by someone else. Would it be possible for me to dent that part of the door by myself just by being careless and pressing ok the door too much when I open it? Or is this what an actual "door ding" looks like?

I've already reached out to a local paintless dent repair guy who will charge me $125-150 to pop this debt, which seems like the standard price for a dent this size.

 

[fredjan]

Not debt, but dent (duh). I'm going to pay for it out of pocket. Just wondering if this is likely something I did, or if my car was actually hit. I don't know when the "hit" actually happened, and I did not see anything on sentry.

 

[fredjan]

So this post never got any traction because.. I don't know... maybe it's kind of a dumb question. But the PDR person couldn't actually repair the dent. It's actually kind of the opposite of a dent in that the piece is actually sticking out, and it would involve removing part of the seam of the door. The only place that could do this is a Tesla-approved body shop :/ sounds like it will be VERY expensive to fix...

 

[ColoradoMike]

So this post never got any traction because.. I don't know... maybe it's kind of a dumb question. But the PDR person couldn't actually repair the dent. It's actually kind of the opposite of a dent in that the piece is actually sticking out, and it would involve removing part of the seam of the door. The only place that could do this is a Tesla-approved body shop :/ sounds like it will be VERY expensive to fix...

Absolutely not a "kind of dumb question" at all! From your initial pic it was hard for me to see what actually happened. I am still not clear on where the issue is.
It appears that the upper part of the door is perhaps "moved in" rather than a dent.

 

[fredjan]

Some clearer pictures of the ding/dent.

PDR couldn't fix because this seam needs to be removed:

 

[fredjan]

Absolutely not a "kind of dumb question" at all! From your initial pic it was hard for me to see what actually happened. I am still not clear on where the issue is.
It appears that the upper part of the door is perhaps "moved in" rather than a dent.

I just posted new pictures, had to take them to get a quote from a Tesla Collision Center. They won't get back to me until the next couple of weeks.

 

[ColoradoMike]

I just posted new pictures, had to take them to get a quote from a Tesla Collision Center. They won't get back to me until the next couple of weeks.

Ahhh now I get it! In my opinion only (aka grain of salt). I see a depression without paint damage. A reputable PDR place could potentially go down from the window and put a "push" on it and take out the indentation. Just based on what I see. I have had the unfortunate experience of dropping a meta ladder on my Porsche 996TT and the collision center said they had to remove the rear quarter panel off which is a MEGA job with the intakes. I have SOME experience with doing PDR and what I did was on my own. Not saying you should do that but ask another PDR place if they cant fix it. I believe that "depression" can be either PULLED or PUSHED from the door.

From your second pictures I could not see where the seam was compromised. Can you highlight it or show?

If the door seam is compromised then there is a larger issue. I hope that helps.

 

[fredjan]

Ahhh now I get it! In my opinion only (aka grain of salt). I see a depression without paint damage. A reputable PDR place could potentially go down from the window and put a "push" on it and take out the indentation. Just based on what I see. I have had the unfortunate experience of dropping a meta ladder on my Porsche 996TT and the collision center said they had to remove the rear quarter panel off which is a MEGA job with the intakes. I have SOME experience with doing PDR and what I did was on my own. Not saying you should do that but ask another PDR place if they cant fix it. I believe that "depression" can be either PULLED or PUSHED from the door.

From your second pictures I could not see where the seam was compromised. Can you highlight it or show?

If the door seam is compromised then there is a larger issue. I hope that helps.

How expensive was that collision center job?

I don't think there are any issues with my door seam, which is fortunate, but that might need to be removed to perform the actual PDR work. That was too much for the local PDR guy to deal with, so he recommended that I reach out to Tesla body shops instead.
edit: yeah, there is no paint damage. I'm thinking I did this on my own without noticing... then suddenly I noticed something weird with the door

 

[ColoradoMike]

How expensive was that collision center job?

I don't think there are any issues with my door seam, which is fortunate, but that might need to be removed to perform the actual PDR work. That was too much for the local PDR guy to deal with, so he recommended that I reach out to Tesla body shops instead.
edit: yeah, there is no paint damage. I'm thinking I did this on my own without noticing... then suddenly I noticed something weird with the door

Collision center job was in over $1500.00 and that was on a collision center and not a Porsche place. I fortunately did not have paint damage but a SEVERE crease! Your situation from the pics has zero paint damage! GOOD THING! Try another PDR place that works with a dealer. Most likely, IMO, this is a simple fix that should cost you less that $200 at best but not seeing it in person I am not certain.

 

[fredjan]

Update. I got a 2nd opinion from a different PDR specialist, and he thought my car's dent is too deep to be popped out with PDR. He recommended that I reach out to body shops which service Teslas. I'll see if I can get a quote from the shop where I'll be taking my car for (separate) insurance work, and see if I can work directly with them to get this dent fixed.

 

[ColoradoMike]

Update. I got a 2nd opinion from a different PDR specialist, and he thought my car's dent is too deep to be popped out with PDR. He recommended that I reach out to body shops which service Teslas. I'll see if I can get a quote from the shop where I'll be taking my car for (separate) insurance work, and see if I can work directly with them to get this dent fixed.

Dang! I was hoping they could take care of it for you via the PDR route. Hopefully you can get it fixed soon.

 

[fredjan]

I went to the body shop for some insurance work, and also asked about this dent. The body shop technician estimated ~$2000-3000 to fix this dent.
... I guess I will just live with this dent for now on. There are WAY better uses for $3000 lol

 

[PianoAl]

... I guess I will just live with this dent for now on. There are WAY better uses for $3000 lol

That is a very mature decision. I'll bet that after a while you won't even notice it. I have trouble seeing in your images.

 

[fredjan]

Following up on this. I finally found a PDR shop that would take me - they have extensive experience with Tesla PDRs (some of you on this forum might have used them already, since they're right next to a major metro area SC). Repairing this dent will cost $500 due to the size of the dent and the difficulty in fixing it. What's weird about it is that it extends outwards, instead of inwards. I must have hit the door with something from the inside while closing it.

Either way, $500 is not too bad. I think that will be fixed in like 15-20 minutes.

For comparison, I got a $250 quote from a different PDR person. But I didn't get the impression that this other tech was experienced with Teslas, and I fear that a lot of scuffs (from the PDR tool) will be left behind. I've seen the shops for both, and I felt like I want to do business with the more expensive shop instead of with the cheaper quote.

 

[Shikogi]

Following up on this. I finally found a PDR shop that would take me - they have extensive experience with Tesla PDRs (some of you on this forum might have used them already, since they're right next to a major metro area SC). Repairing this dent will cost $500 due to the size of the dent and the difficulty in fixing it. What's weird about it is that it extends outwards, instead of inwards. I must have hit the door with something from the inside while closing it.

Either way, $500 is not too bad. I think that will be fixed in like 15-20 minutes.

For comparison, I got a $250 quote from a different PDR person. But I didn't get the impression that this other tech was experienced with Teslas, and I fear that a lot of scuffs (from the PDR tool) will be left behind. I've seen the shops for both, and I felt like I want to do business with the more expensive shop instead of with the cheaper quote.

Would be great to see an after pic once its fixed!

 

[mlambert890]

Guarantee this is a manufacturing defect you never noticed. Teslas stamping process for the MY is absolutely horrible.

Just took delivery of a 2024 that has a very similar issue and am now waiting to start arguing with service.

The local body shop Tesla uses happens to be a place I know and told me in my case door will need to be replaced, and they see this kind of stamping problem a lot.

They advised me to not let it go and to keep pushing service. This is my third Tesla but theyre really on my last nerve. They never improve and their customer service gets worse.

In parallel with my Teslas I owned a Taycan for 3 years and now have an i4. Both cars were flawless from the factory and both experiences end to end were excellent because the dealers are solid.

People say Tesla is the "Apple of cars". That's not even close to true. Apple actually manufactures high quality products and their customer service is good.

 

[fredjan]

Nah, the doors were OK when I took delivery. I definitely hit the door with something.

 

[fredjan]

Post-PDR result:


Overall, pretty satisfied. Previously, the crease was visible to me every time I opened my driver's side door, but now I really have to be like a few inches away from the door to view the damaged area. They really couldn't fix parts of it, though, due to how dangerous it is to correct in this section - that area can get really messed up real fast.

Is it body shop perfect? No. Was it worth the $500 or so? Yeah, totally, now it's no longer bugging me hahaha