Door needs to be slammed to shut?

[omar]

hello all,

Just picked up my M3 today. So worth the wait!!

Just wondering if anyone had problems closing some of their doors? It seems the driver’s door requires more force to shut than the other 3 doors. I have to slam it shut.

Anyone else have similar issues? If so, did the service center take care of you?

 

[gg_got_a_tesla]

In general, the 3’s doors need a bit more force than those of the S. However, you are suggesting that one of your doors needs even more force than the other 3; you can definitely have Service try to adjust this (I had such an issue with the driver’s door with my S when it was new and Service was able to make good adjustments).

 

[relagustin]

My driver door loosened up after 2 weeks. Trunk still takes a bit of force to close.

 

[Sandiegodoug]

My drivers door was harder to close than the rest, delivery team told me would loosen up.
After 2 months, seems a little better.

 

[omar]

Thank you all for the info! Great insight. I appreciate it!

 

[privater]

All my doors and trunk need force to close when picked up, but after a week or two it’s back to normal, I don’t need to pay any attention or force on close it.

Btw, the suspension also need 2-3k miles to adjust, it used to be unbearable. I used to read all the ride quality threads on the fourm. And now it’s butter smooth, my wife and I think it’s even better than our Model S.

 

[Sportstick]

Any chance you're trying to close the driver's door last? If so, try two things...with the driver's/rear doors closed, try closing the passenger door last. Also, try to close the door with the window open just a bit. If the passenger door now requires more force or if opening the windows helps, what you perceive as a problem may actually be an indication that Tesla is doing a better job building bodies, so the door seals are meeting properly. The last door to slam has to overcome the air pressure inside the well-sealed cabin and will seem harder to close, and you don't want to adjust it from this spec. I learned this trick from a body engineer at our company many years ago.

 

[alset92977]

Any chance you're trying to close the driver's door last? If so, try two things...with the driver's/rear doors closed, try closing the passenger door last. Also, try to close the door with the window open just a bit. If the passenger door now requires more force or if opening the windows helps, what you perceive as a problem may actually be an indication that Tesla is doing a better job building bodies, so the door seals are meeting properly. The last door to slam has to overcome the air pressure inside the well-sealed cabin and will seem harder to close, and you don't want to adjust it from this spec. I learned this trick from a body engineer at our company many years ago.

Yes, I remember the VW Beetle. The pressure when shutting the door was amazing. An air tite car for sure.

 

[Bodefett]

I've had mine 2 weeks, and I still need to slam it with some force... Truck has improved, so I expect the doors too also.

I mentioned it when I went to get the latest OTA update (as homelink wasn't working), and the tech said the same about air pressure. I call bogus on that one. the extra pressure of the door making a seal and latching, can't be much extra pressure.

I think everything will loosen up in a couple weeks of further use

 

[Fusion]

All my doors and trunk need force to close when picked up, but after a week or two it’s back to normal, I don’t need to pay any attention or force on close it.

Btw, the suspension also need 2-3k miles to adjust, it used to be unbearable. I used to read all the ride quality threads on the fourm. And now it’s butter smooth, my wife and I think it’s even better than our Model S.

Did you have air suspension on the S?

 

[privater]

Did you have air suspension on the S?

No, it's spring suspension.

 

[daniel]

I would not say that I have to slam the door. I do have to use a bit more force than I have had to use on other cars. I have not compared the other doors.

 

[dhrivnak]

I agree slam is a strong word. But you do need some force. They do not close on a slight push.

 

[seattlite2004]

Here is a video showing the feature with the door:

 

[Bodefett]

ok slam may be a little strong as a phrase, but it needs more than the expected amount of force to close.

 

[daniel]

My father had a car that if you closed the door part way it would close itself the rest of the way. He referred to it as "an old man's car." I think my sister's car does this also. (But both of those cars dump a *sugar*-ton of crap into the air, and neither has the passing torque my Model 3 has.)

 

[Nurkbonis]

I saw chatter a while back from people complaining about the force needed to close the doors on a Model 3. I've had mine since Friday and don't think it's hard at all to close the doors... I don't normally slam car doors or anything. In my opinion, the issue is exaggerated.

 

[Carotene]

My Turo rental had no issues with door closing with "normal" force. I was expecting a need to slam the doors shut based on comments, but all 4 doors and trunk seemed perfectly fine to me.

 

[cwerdna]

As I posted the below in another thread at Model 3 Trunk Issues

Yeah, it definitely takes a very hard slam to close it currently on mine.

Regarding the issues you, the OP and the videographer reported, I wonder if the force required to close the doors and trunk are actually within intended spec at the factory. Or, if it's a case of some actual production issue.

I watched a copy of this video AGES ago and as I posted elsewhere, I initially thought it was dumb to bother with this:

.
But then it occurred to me that if they didn't measure this and apply the same principles to other parts of manufacturing and quality control, an automaker could have many annoyed customers and potentially incur huge warranty costs, blowing the profit for a vehicle and/or the company. (And just as a reminder, Tesla has yet to have a single profitable year. For 2017, they lost over $2 billion and for Q4 2017 alone, it was over $670 million. This doesn't include cash burn for items such as capital expenditures.)

And those annoyances can add up and could spread by worth of mouth, social media, traditional media, etc. and lead to low customer satisfaction.

Also, note how much force the worker is using to close the door.

If you want to watch less of the video, watch about 1:20 to ~3:11 and 4:40 to 6:15. Optional: 3:11 to 4:03. And, for those watching on computers, you can always click the gear icon to adjust the playback speed.

 

[KGHague]

hello all,

Just picked up my M3 today. So worth the wait!!

Just wondering if anyone had problems closing some of their doors? It seems the driver’s door requires more force to shut than the other 3 doors. I have to slam it shut.

Anyone else have similar issues? If so, did the service center take care of you?

Same issue. Driver's door takes more effort than the others. Haven't talked to service yet. I've only had this car for a few days. VIN 156xx