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Faulty Door Handles

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I have been an owner of a 2016 Model S 70D for coming up on 4 years now. First, I love the way the car drives, I love I don’t pay for gas and I love that I play a small part of not driving a gas car. I’ve managed to put 131,000 miles on the car since I bought it, I’m pretty proud of that and Tesla should be too. All this said, I have also had to replace the door handles 5 TIMES in 4 years. Obviously I am well past my warranty, but they are door handles. They don’t drive and they don’t function while the car is being driven. The correlation does not work as I don’t “present” the handles every mile I drive. I also don’t come close to opening and closing the door 90 times a day which is what that math would be over this time period. And if it was truly about use, the driver’s handle would have/should have failed first, not last.

Tesla replaced the first one while I was still in warranty. They replaced the second one (which was the same one) about 6 months later after I moaned and groaned because I was already out of warranty and it failed twice within 6 months. The third one I paid for 4 months ago as I was tired of fighting with your service personnel. Then 2 (one of them being the driver side – so nothing like climbing through the passenger side of your $100k car because you can’t open the door) failed within 2 days of each other this week. Two of service agents told me when I brought it in that they have to replace these door handles “all the time”. There are tens of thousands of posts in this Forum of faulty door handles. I feel like Tesla should fix and pay for these faulty door handles. Has anyone else been successful in getting Tesla to take responsibility for faulty parts?
 
I have been an owner of a 2016 Model S 70D for coming up on 4 years now. First, I love the way the car drives, I love I don’t pay for gas and I love that I play a small part of not driving a gas car. I’ve managed to put 131,000 miles on the car since I bought it, I’m pretty proud of that and Tesla should be too. All this said, I have also had to replace the door handles 5 TIMES in 4 years. Obviously I am well past my warranty, but they are door handles. They don’t drive and they don’t function while the car is being driven. The correlation does not work as I don’t “present” the handles every mile I drive. I also don’t come close to opening and closing the door 90 times a day which is what that math would be over this time period. And if it was truly about use, the driver’s handle would have/should have failed first, not last.

Tesla replaced the first one while I was still in warranty. They replaced the second one (which was the same one) about 6 months later after I moaned and groaned because I was already out of warranty and it failed twice within 6 months. The third one I paid for 4 months ago as I was tired of fighting with your service personnel. Then 2 (one of them being the driver side – so nothing like climbing through the passenger side of your $100k car because you can’t open the door) failed within 2 days of each other this week. Two of service agents told me when I brought it in that they have to replace these door handles “all the time”. There are tens of thousands of posts in this Forum of faulty door handles. I feel like Tesla should fix and pay for these faulty door handles. Has anyone else been successful in getting Tesla to take responsibility for faulty parts?

EVTuning solutions makes a door handle rebuild kit that is much less likely to fail. Might be something to consider if you are out of warranty
 
I have been an owner of a 2016 Model S 70D for coming up on 4 years now. First, I love the way the car drives, I love I don’t pay for gas and I love that I play a small part of not driving a gas car. I’ve managed to put 131,000 miles on the car since I bought it, I’m pretty proud of that and Tesla should be too. All this said, I have also had to replace the door handles 5 TIMES in 4 years. Obviously I am well past my warranty, but they are door handles. They don’t drive and they don’t function while the car is being driven. The correlation does not work as I don’t “present” the handles every mile I drive. I also don’t come close to opening and closing the door 90 times a day which is what that math would be over this time period. And if it was truly about use, the driver’s handle would have/should have failed first, not last.

Tesla replaced the first one while I was still in warranty. They replaced the second one (which was the same one) about 6 months later after I moaned and groaned because I was already out of warranty and it failed twice within 6 months. The third one I paid for 4 months ago as I was tired of fighting with your service personnel. Then 2 (one of them being the driver side – so nothing like climbing through the passenger side of your $100k car because you can’t open the door) failed within 2 days of each other this week. Two of service agents told me when I brought it in that they have to replace these door handles “all the time”. There are tens of thousands of posts in this Forum of faulty door handles. I feel like Tesla should fix and pay for these faulty door handles. Has anyone else been successful in getting Tesla to take responsibility for faulty parts?

Known issue, Tesla will only replace them so long. The wires are not exterior grade (are very thin), and basically corrode and eventually sever... thus no connection to be made for the contactor to open the door. There are replacement "kits" which are just thicker wires, being sold for a crazy amount of money considering what they are... but its the only other solution. Easy to do once you figure it out the first time.
 
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I have been an owner of a 2016 Model S 70D for coming up on 4 years now. First, I love the way the car drives, I love I don’t pay for gas and I love that I play a small part of not driving a gas car. I’ve managed to put 131,000 miles on the car since I bought it, I’m pretty proud of that and Tesla should be too. All this said, I have also had to replace the door handles 5 TIMES in 4 years. Obviously I am well past my warranty, but they are door handles. They don’t drive and they don’t function while the car is being driven. The correlation does not work as I don’t “present” the handles every mile I drive. I also don’t come close to opening and closing the door 90 times a day which is what that math would be over this time period. And if it was truly about use, the driver’s handle would have/should have failed first, not last.

Tesla replaced the first one while I was still in warranty. They replaced the second one (which was the same one) about 6 months later after I moaned and groaned because I was already out of warranty and it failed twice within 6 months. The third one I paid for 4 months ago as I was tired of fighting with your service personnel. Then 2 (one of them being the driver side – so nothing like climbing through the passenger side of your $100k car because you can’t open the door) failed within 2 days of each other this week. Two of service agents told me when I brought it in that they have to replace these door handles “all the time”. There are tens of thousands of posts in this Forum of faulty door handles. I feel like Tesla should fix and pay for these faulty door handles. Has anyone else been successful in getting Tesla to take responsibility for faulty parts?
They should be noting your account as "goodwill repair" or even offer a significant discount considering it is a KNOWN ISSUE, and because said issue is always a result of wiring INSIDE the door of which you can't willingly break yourself! Christ, a 3 year old car should NEVER see that much of the same issue.
 
Car garaged or out doors at night? North, mid or southern US? Not saying Tesla doesn't have a problem with the door handles, just trying to understand the environment the car lives in.

My Jun2015 delivery has had two paddle gears and two wiring failures despite 100% nightly garaging (majority of the ownership in TX).

Crazy. I'm nearing 100,000 miles on my 2016 S75 and have replaced zero. Luck of the draw I guess? Is your car pre-refresh?

I've had multiple with a pre-refresh 2015, a coworker has had all four doors fail at separate times with his 2014. I can fully believe the OPs five failures.
 
Per attached image, I have lost 2 of these in 1 week. Happily I have learned to fix on my own. paddlegear.jpg
 
I had the entire unit replaced using the Ranger service the other week and it only cost $300. I have an AP1 era Model S and the redesign of the car handles shows how much improvement that there has been over the last 4.5 years. That's the first out of pocket cost for something broken, so I'm not too upset.
 
I ended up replacing all 4 of mine, over a 6 week span. Happy to assist anyone in DC are who has same issue, though $300 doesn't sound so bad.
Hi,

I have just replaced my paddle gear however the door handle presents too far and opens door: see video below


Do you happen to know what the problem might be, please?

Tesla won't replace as I'm out of warranty. Part only cost £6.
 
Hi,

I have just replaced my paddle gear however the door handle presents too far and opens door: see video below


Do you happen to know what the problem might be, please?

Tesla won't replace as I'm out of warranty. Part only cost £6.

Hey it's automatic, better than original! :)

I guess that in addition to the paddle gear, there is some microswitch or wiring failure. The handle has a microswitch that sends a signal when you pull it. It is apparently now sending the signal right away when the handle is presented.

Or perhaps it's possible that the paddle gear is somehow incorrectly installed, causing the handle to present too far. But I don't think that's easily possible..
 
Hi,

Thanks for your reply.

I read somewhere else, on this forum, that someone had a similar issue, but didn't really elaborate on how they got over it. Something to do with the paddle gear and cog issue.

I know it isn't a microswitch because the handle opens the door automatically on presentation. It clearly extends too far, beyond the stop point, normally where you pull the door manually to open.

Any ideas as to what the issue might be?

Ilya