Driver door won't latch

[jesusbowls]

Driver door won't latch since last night. This happened once before, but it corrected itself quickly.

Car had been sitting in garage for the past few days. Other perhaps unrelated symptom is that the front left steering mechanism is making very squeaky noises for the past week.

I made a service appointment through the mobile app, but next available is 6 days away. Suggestions on what to do in the meantime? As far as I know, I can't call the local service center (when I try, it just throws me into the main phone system and directs me to use the app for service issues).

Thanks!

 

[PauliePucks]

Is it an issue with the electrical open/close function, or is the door not catching?

You can adjust the door catch slightly by loosening the two torx bolts and tapping it slightly with a rubber mallet either up or down, if you’re able to tell if it’s out of alignment. I had to do this on my vehicle and my door closes much smoother now.

If it’s an issue with the door latch release mechanism on the door itself (what actuates when you press the door button or pull handle), then that requires a takedown of the door panel to investigate. That’s not exactly a walk in the park!

 

[jesusbowls]

Is it an issue with the electrical open/close function, or is the door not catching?

You can adjust the door catch slightly by loosening the two torx bolts and tapping it slightly with a rubber mallet either up or down, if you’re able to tell if it’s out of alignment. I had to do this on my vehicle and my door closes much smoother now.

If it’s an issue with the door latch release mechanism on the door itself (what actuates when you press the door button or pull handle), then that requires a takedown of the door panel to investigate. That’s not exactly a walk in the park!

The door latch release mechanism seems to work fine, and the electrical components seem to work fine. The door latch just doesn't catch.

If I pull the door to a fully closed position, the car thinks the door is closed and the window goes up all the way.

Since my original post on this, the door latch catches most of the time now, but still occasionally won't catch so I have to drive by holding the door in a closed position with my arm, or have a bungee cord hold it closed from the inside. Eventually it starts working again, but then it stops. Fun time. Service scheduled for May 17, also to fix the squeaky control arm issue.

 

[Non Sequitur]

What happened during the May service appointment?

I’m having a similar issue: when I open the driver door, about 20% of the time the metal latch doesn’t “arm” (meaning it doesn’t move into a “getting ready to clamp” position), so that when the door is pulled shut, it doesn’t latch and has to be pulled again which usually works. Tried some silicon line but that’s not helping.

 

[flyr4096]

I'm having the same issue with my 2019 Model 3 Performance. Passenger front door just stopped latching. The latch can be moved up and down easily with your fingers. The other doors latches don't move like that. IMO (as an engineer) the car isn't structurally safe to drive with the door bungeed shut if it got in an accident, so it's been sitting in my driveway for over a month. Had a Mobile Service appointment that was 2 weeks out, then that got canceled because the tech called in sick. It got rescheduled for 3 weeks later (tomorrow). Now I got a message from Tesla that due to inclement weather they have to reschedule for another 3 weeks from today. It's going to be 40 degrees and 40% chance of snow for cripes sake...

And to top it all off my car is just out of warrantee and they estimate the repair to be $438... It seems like this could really be a design defect and should be covered by Tesla. Anybody else having this problem? I used to be Tesla's biggest fan, but now I'm losing faith fast. If it happened to one door it could happen to all of them.

 

[flyr4096]

To follow up...Tesla Service came to their senses, realized the "huge Nor'easter" wasn't really coming to upstate NY, and sent the Mobile tech out today as originally planned. They caused a whole lot of heartburn for nothing. Anyway, the tech was great, replaced the door latch assembly very quickly, and gave me a significant discount. I also got to keep the "defective latch assembly" which now works fine btw... He said he'd only changed a couple like this in his two years working for Tesla and it seems to be something in the latch that gets corroded and sticks. I'll know more after a forensic disassembly of the faulty latch.
IMO, every Tesla engineer needs to be sent to Northern NY (or other state with lots of snow) for a cold dirty salty winter to learn how to design for climates other than CA and TX.