Falcon Wing Door Alignment Issue

[daapower]

So my falcon wing door has been misaligned since delivery. I took it to 2 separate service centers and they said they adjusted it and it is within their acceptable specs. But it is clearly not aligned, it makes a popping noise when it opens and closes..and now the paint on the body of the car where the door touches the main chasis is totally scraped off from the friction of the door closing too hard on it.

So when the FWD is open, there is about a 3 inch diameter circle of paint missing from the door jam where it keeps closing on it too hard.

I have a list of things that need to be done next time I go in, but does anyone else have this issue? If they say the door is within specs, what can I do? Is it reasonable to have them repaint the door jamb?

 

[dmd2005]

I am bringing in my X to get the doors aligned in 2 weeks because I have the same issue with the plastic panel on both doors rubbing off paint, 2 peeling door seals, and drivers side door groan. I just placed some 3M velcro (the soft side) on the part of the panels rubbing off the paint and it has helped so far. The velcro isn't noticeable unless you look for it, but it will prevent further paint damage until the doors are adjusted.

If they aren't going to align or adjust the doors properly so that paint doesn't rub off, i think it is fair for you to ask them to keep painting the door jam until they fix it.

 

[cwerdna]

Is your popping noise like some of the ones at Driver side Falcon wing door hinge snapping when opening

 

[daapower]

Is your popping noise like some of the ones at Driver side Falcon wing door hinge snapping when opening

Yes, it sounds like that just not as bad as the first video, more like some of the other videos in the message. Thing is it wasn't always like that so I am thinking that as the doors have opened and closed they slowly get more misaligned. Doesn't give me confidence that this will be a one time fix.

 

[daapower]

I am bringing in my X to get the doors aligned in 2 weeks because I have the same issue with the plastic panel on both doors rubbing off paint, 2 peeling door seals, and drivers side door groan. I just placed some 3M velcro (the soft side) on the part of the panels rubbing off the paint and it has helped so far. The velcro isn't noticeable unless you look for it, but it will prevent further paint damage until the doors are adjusted.

If they aren't going to align or adjust the doors properly so that paint doesn't rub off, i think it is fair for you to ask them to keep painting the door jam until they fix it.

I will ask for them to paint it, as I've took it in twice for the specific issue of the door being misaligned. I mean if the door is scraping off paint, I would hope that is evidence enough that it is not fitting right.

Also the driver side seat bolster has a lot of wrinkle/wear for a car with 15k miles.

 

[Gwgan]

I have that paint wear point as well and my SC said they do not have a good fix for it. After a couple of adjustments one FWD closes with the lower forward edge proud of the trailing front door edge so it gets abraided by road dirt. I wonder if having one latch point is enough for this kind of door.

 

[Lbkmxp100d]

I can't speak for the misalignment but I will tell you that every X I have ever seen has had the inner door running w paint missing. I had a small 3x3" xpel paint protection installed were it rubs and It has prevented the paint chipping/rubbing issue.

Also, I have heard many fwd squeak when not misaligned. I believe it has something to do with the hinges needing to be greased.

 

[daapower]

that is not very encouraging that they didn't have a fix...

the paint is exposed, does it have a higher likelihood of rusting in that spot

 

[mal_tsla]

that is not very encouraging that they didn't have a fix...

the paint is exposed, does it have a higher likelihood of rusting in that spot

Its aluminum. It will not "rust."

It will form an aluminum oxide layer which will stop further corrosion.

 

[Seattle Tom]

I can't speak for the misalignment but I will tell you that every X I have ever seen has had the inner door running w paint missing. I had a small 3x3" xpel paint protection installed were it rubs and It has prevented the paint chipping/rubbing issue.

Also, I have heard many fwd squeak when not misaligned. I believe it has something to do with the hinges needing to be greased.

Can you show where you had the Xpel installed on your door? Was it on the bottom?

 

[Mike M]

My doors were a little misaligned at delivery, however, the Denver SC got them aligned perfectly afterward. The SC also fixed a small groan I developed after delivery as well and it has not (knock on wood) returned.

I also have the same paint rub we all do. Its a rubber grommet on the door that rubs the pain. My detailer put small pieces of clear llumar platinum wrap (what we had the front of our X wrapped in) over the spots which has prevented any further rubbing. Unfortunately it is a known MX issue virtually all of us have, but thankfully as @mal_tsla noted, the beauty of an aluminum body is the spot will not rust.

 

[3s-a-charm]

Same issue with paint rubbing off. I saw a friends Model X Founders edition and he had an Xpel patch on that spot but it has worn right through past the paint to the aluminum (on a black vehicle so it shows the silver aluminum below!). Looks pretty bad. I put a patch too and may have to just remember to reapply the patch every few months to prevent this issue. Not even sure it is an alignment fix??

 

[Forty Creek]

Would it be possible to post some pictures of this issue? Thanks.

 

[outie]

Wait you are saying the door is misaligned because it's scraping off the paint on that one spot? We all have that's issue!

 

[Mike M]

Same issue with paint rubbing off. I saw a friends Model X Founders edition and he had an Xpel patch on that spot but it has worn right through past the paint to the aluminum (on a black vehicle so it shows the silver aluminum below!). Looks pretty bad. I put a patch too and may have to just remember to reapply the patch every few months to prevent this issue. Not even sure it is an alignment fix??

Don't think it has anything to do with alignment, just how the FWD's operate and unfortunately its a pretty hard rub, even if its just rubber on metal. Perhaps a future fix for Tesla would be something a bit squishier than the hard rubber piece currently mounted.

 

[3s-a-charm]

Don't think it has anything to do with alignment, just how the FWD's operate and unfortunately its a pretty hard rub, even if its just rubber on metal. Perhaps a future fix for Tesla would be something a bit squishier than the hard rubber piece currently mounted.

Or revised bodywork with a slight indent in that spot?

 

[rallykeeper]

Don't think it has anything to do with alignment, just how the FWD's operate and unfortunately its a pretty hard rub, even if its just rubber on metal. Perhaps a future fix for Tesla would be something a bit squishier than the hard rubber piece currently mounted.

Unfortunately, no.

This is a problem that arose when Tesla tried to solve another problem.

Model X didn't initially have the paint-rubbing. My rough sense is that it started to occur with software updates in mid-to-late Fall. I didn't notice our rubbing until January this year.

Prior to that, many, but not all, Model X's would have more frequent door closing failures (false obstacle detections or simply failures to close).

It appears that Tesla did 2 things (one software and one hardware) to deal with these rampant issues:

- weaken the resistance sensors upon closing (it now takes a lot force to manually close the door than it did last Spring or Summer, which is slightly alarming from a safety perspective).

- adjust/redesign the door latches to more forcefully close the door shut.

My own guess -- completely unfounded other than living through ownership for more than a year -- is that the design of the FWD has very little room for alignment defects. If the door wasn't installed nearly perfectly and the frame wasn't nearly flawless, these fixes reveal where the misalignment was. If it was installed correctly, the door closes evenly against the frame and there's no paint-rubbing.

 

[jgrgnt]

Our X also has the rubbed off paint on both sides. But from what I could tell, it wasn't the rubber stopper that was making contact. It was instead the inner black plastic trim, which protrudes outward just below the rubber stopper. I could tell because the plastic trim had small paint/metal shavings concentrated on the exact spot it was making contact. SC tech said the same thing: "they all have that issue." (would take pics, but car is in the shop)

Our passenger FWD was so misaligned that it would fail to close 50% of the time. That's now being fixed, but the paint rubbing appeared to be of equal severity on both sides of the car, so the misalignment was not exacerbating the issue.

 

[rallykeeper]

Our X also has the rubbed off paint on both sides. But from what I could tell, it wasn't the rubber stopper that was making contact. It was instead the inner black plastic trim, which protrudes outward just below the rubber stopper. I could tell because the plastic trim had small paint/metal shavings concentrated on the exact spot it was making contact. SC tech said the same thing: "they all have that issue." (would take pics, but car is in the shop)

Our passenger FWD was so misaligned that it would fail to close 50% of the time. That's now being fixed, but the paint rubbing appeared to be of equal severity on both sides of the car, so the misalignment was not exacerbating the issue.

Unfortunately, that doesn't explain why the rubbing didn't always happen. At least for me, I went at least 6-9 months before the rubbing started.

Tesla had to have changed something to cause the door to close more violently or more forcefully.

I agree that in that it isn't directly related to misalignment -- my hypothesis is simply that misalignment/poor installation/bad sensors on some cars caused Tesla to redesign the door latch and reprogram the software to brute force close the door.

That's what's now causing the rubbing.

 

[jgrgnt]

Unfortunately, that doesn't explain why the rubbing didn't always happen. At least for me, I went at least 6-9 months before the rubbing started.

Tesla had to have changed something to cause the door to close more violently or more forcefully.

I agree that in that it isn't directly related to misalignment -- my hypothesis is simply that misalignment/poor installation/bad sensors on some cars caused Tesla to redesign the door latch and reprogram the software to brute force close the door.

That's what's now causing the rubbing.

I don't disagree. I was just sharing my observations on which part of the door is making contact, and in my case it is the plastic trim that surrounds the rubber stopper, not the rubber itself. It seems that the point of contact varies from vehicle to vehicle.

I've only had my X for a month, so I have not been witness to rolling changes in how forcefully the door closes, but I have observed what you describe. The movement through the last part of travel when closing--when it moves inward towards the latch--does seem to be quite strong. It's enough to shake the car, and a few passengers have asked whether something was wrong. That our misaligned FWD made no difference to the severity of the rubbing gives credence to your hypothesis.