Door handle stuck fully extended

[Marc_GA]

My left rear handle extended past where it normally does and won’t move. It’s at the point which usually triggers the door to open. I can’t push/pull it at all. The door does not get triggered to open, thank goodness or driving would be pretty unsafe.

I couldn’t find any posts with this behavior. Has anyone had this happen to them and what was the cause.

On vacation so it’s quite annoying. Guess I’ll tear another door apart when I’m home.

 

[JPP]

Model S--what year? The door handles have been problematic for years. Bad pivot gear, broken microswitch wire, misaligned microswitch. I have not heard if the motors themselves actually fail. Could be any one. I would not focus on the root cause--just call Tesla Service to repair it. This is an easy fix for the Mobile Ranger.

 

[Lasttoy]

My left rear broke today. Extends, but does not un latch.
I repaired right rear last month, gear broke.
I have 3 extra ones .

 

[N..8]

My left rear handle extended past where it normally does and won’t move. It’s at the point which usually triggers the door to open. I can’t push/pull it at all. The door does not get triggered to open, thank goodness or driving would be pretty unsafe.

I couldn’t find any posts with this behavior. Has anyone had this happen to them and what was the cause.

On vacation so it’s quite annoying. Guess I’ll tear another door apart when I’m home.

Marc, mine did this same thing. It would cause the door to open every time the other door handles came out. Before I was able to get it into the SC I just did a more than light tap on it to get it to pop back into the normal extend location. As long as I didn't open the door it would act normal. Took about two weeks before I was able to make it to the SC. If I used the door I just remembered after shutting it that i would need to pop it back into the normal extended location. This enabled it to retract as is should.

 

[Bet TSLA]

My left rear handle extended past where it normally does and won’t move. It’s at the point which usually triggers the door to open. I can’t push/pull it at all. The door does not get triggered to open, thank goodness or driving would be pretty unsafe.

I couldn’t find any posts with this behavior. Has anyone had this happen to them and what was the cause.

On vacation so it’s quite annoying. Guess I’ll tear another door apart when I’m home.

Happened to me, same door, also while on vacation. They fixed it at a service center a couple of days later. Got it realigned rather than replacing. Failed again more recently (although worse in that the motor kept going) and it was fixed again. My impression is that there's some kind of self-aligning hardware there that needs a special tool to get it to redo its alignment. But that's just from talking to service techs.

 

[Marc_GA]

Thanks for all the responses. Luckily two days after the handle got stuck, it just started working again. I didn't touch it so no clue as to why.

I did try pushing, jiggling, pulling and everything else a day or two prior to it fixing itself and nothing changed.

I have already taken apart and fixed the pivot gear in the rear right so I'm familiar with how mechanically the door handles work. This was easier to diagnose because the handle would not extend but you could hear the motor running constantly. I'm out of warranty so I'm not ready to go have Tesla fix things like this. I was quoted $750 to fix it last time and was able to fix it with a $1.50 part (1042845-00-B) and about an hour (30 minutes if I had to do it again) of my time.

 

[Little_Sorrel]

On August 21, 2019 my driver door handle had the same problem. A couple of days later a software update downloaded and for some reason the problem was fixed. Then a week or so after I parked to go to a Chipotle but forgot something inside the car and went to open the car door just as the handles were retracting apparently causing the driver's side handle to lock up again. I set up an appointment for the 10th of September but another software update downloaded the first week of September and the next morning the handle was working fine again. I kept my appointment with the mobile service on the 10th and my great service guy also told me it was a microswitch but could not explain why the software updates my clear the issue. He did mention it was a known problem. I know it's a kind of weird experience and just wanted to share. Cheers.

 

[Blu Zap]

Same thing here. Stuck extended handle. I used the rear driver side door for about a week with the inside handle. Then on Saturday, my girlfriend just pulled on the handle to open the door as usual ... and it worked! I talked to a Tesla technician today at the San Rafael SC. As it turns out, it is an alignment thing. The upper edge will catch, preventing the handle retraction. He suggested moving the handle up and down to get it to realign. Carefully of course!!

 

[Byzantium77]

Same thing here. I gently tapped it with a rubber mallet at all angles and then lightly slammed door a few times and working fine again.

 

[timvracer]

Me too... I had leaned back on it and it "clicked", and then was stuck. I just played around with it gently, and it finally found it's alignment and retracted. Whew... been fine ever since.

 

[Richg]

Love this forum! It happened to me today and I scheduled a service call. After reading these posts, I wiggled it and then pushed it in with my rear end and now it works perfectly. P85 PLD 2014.

 

[Lasttoy]

I changed my LR and now it works and it fixed the RF . These old cars are a pain. We r on Gen 1 door mechanical I think they up to gen4. But, my left rear now doesn't retract unless it feels like it. But does about 60% of the time. We just have to replace forever.