First day of delivery. Falcon wing door fails to close on slope. What shall I do?

[yanling]

Hi all,

I just took the delivery today for Model X. Everything was smooth until I drove it home and found the issue of falcon wing door: it fails to close on slope (i.e., my home's drive way). It will sound alarms and says obstacle detected. I will have to press the close button twice additionally to force it to close. On flat roads or slight slope, the door works fine. This happens only on the right falcon wing door though. Tesla scheduled an appointment next Monday and said they will fix it. But I still have questions:

- Has anyone encountered before? What is the possible root cause?
- Is this a big issue? Will it needs to return to factory?
- Shall I ask for a new replacement? Tesla service center said it is possible but not recommended as it is minor and they will take care of it.

This is really frustrating for me, as for the first day of the car delivery, it is scheduled to be repaired within days. I heard that there were a few falcon wing door issues in 2016/2017, but not recently. I just do not want to spend a lot of time going to the service center frequently for an issue in such an expensive car...

Thanks. Any comments/suggestions would be appreciated!

Yanling

 

[yanling]

I mean, the falcon door fails to close when the car is parked on a slope, like driveway.

 

[Jetwash08]

This happened to me. It was fine when we picked the car up but as soon as I got home in my driveway it wouldn’t close. I found that the falcon wing door was actually clipping a piece of chrome every time it tried to close. I called the service center ASAP. They scheduled an appointment and told me they’d have to remove a piece of the glass because it wasn’t aligned properly. They asked if I could bring it in the next day to have them look at it and try a quick fix since I just picked it up. I brought it in and they couldn’t fix it but found out what the problem was. A week later I brought it back in. They gave me a loaner and 4 hours later it was fixed.

 

[yanling]

This happened to me. It was fine when we picked the car up but as soon as I got home in my driveway it wouldn’t close. I found that the falcon wing door was actually clipping a piece of chrome every time it tried to close. I called the service center ASAP. They scheduled an appointment and told me they’d have to remove a piece of the glass because it wasn’t aligned properly. They asked if I could bring it in the next day to have them look at it and try a quick fix since I just picked it up. I brought it in and they couldn’t fix it but found out what the problem was. A week later I brought it back in. They gave me a loaner and 4 hours later it was fixed.

Thanks a lot, Jetwash08, for sharing your experience. Seems that it is not a big or long-lasting issue and does not have to return the car to factory. This relieves me a lot. Hopefully mine will be fixed quickly as well. Thanks again.

 

[animorph]

If it won't close because of an obstacle being detected you can override that with a continuous press of the FWD close button on the screen or in the car. That would likely be a faulty sensor. Maybe aggravated by a slope if the sensor is loose?

 

[hill]

Our FWD's didn't close on a few occasions because the latch mechanism was defective. As a side note, the op ought to read the manual that describes how to manually close (and ESPECIALLY open) the door. You get T-boned on one side, lose power, door won't open, start smelling smoke, you might want to know how. Just saying.
.

 

[compnd]

I have the same issue - my door is slightly misaligned and the pinch sensor sometimes bumps the chrome trim as it tries to close. Seems to be worse when at angles and when it's hot out. I have a service appointment in a couple week to get it fixed. My other FWD operates just fine. As it closes look at the edge of the door by the trim and see if it's coming down a little too close. If that's the issue service should be able to realign it.

 

[yanling]

Our FWD's didn't close on a few occasions because the latch mechanism was defective. As a side note, the op ought to read the manual that describes how to manually close (and ESPECIALLY open) the door. You get T-boned on one side, lose power, door won't open, start smelling smoke, you might want to know how. Just saying.
.

Thanks for calling out, and appreciate. Will read the manual and learn how to manually operate the door.

Regarding my specific case, I think it is a little different from yours. I could accept occasional failures, just like other regular car doors, but if it constantly fails, it needs to be fixed.

 

[yanling]

I have the same issue - my door is slightly misaligned and the pinch sensor sometimes bumps the chrome trim as it tries to close. Seems to be worse when at angles and when it's hot out. I have a service appointment in a couple week to get it fixed. My other FWD operates just fine. As it closes look at the edge of the door by the trim and see if it's coming down a little too close. If that's the issue service should be able to realign it.

Yeah. I believe we are having the same issue (and Jetwash08 as well). Hopefully Tesla service could fix by realigning it.

 

[jgrgnt]

Had the exact same issue at delivery. My door was contacting the upper chrome trim of the rear window. The SC realigned the glass. Hasn't been an issue since.

Watch for paint rubbing off in the door jamb, though. It may indicate that the door itself requires further re-alignment.

 

[outie]

I have the opposite issue. When parked on tilted and/or slope area, my driver side FWD doesn't open. I'd have to open the door and give it a gentle lift with my hand and it'll open. Probably not as big as the closing issue.

 

[yanling]

Had the exact same issue at delivery. My door was contacting the upper chrome trim of the rear window. The SC realigned the glass. Hasn't been an issue since.

Watch for paint rubbing off in the door jamb, though. It may indicate that the door itself requires further re-alignment.

Thanks for sharing, jgrgnt. Wondering how Tesla does the quality control or tests after production... Thanks for reminding. I will watch out for the pain on door jamb. As of now, there is no sign of it as the door has just been opened and closed less than 30 times.

 

[yanling]

I have the opposite issue. When parked on tilted and/or slope area, my driver side FWD doesn't open. I'd have to open the door and give it a gentle lift with my hand and it'll open. Probably not as big as the closing issue.

Interesting. And you have not talked to Tesla on this?

 

[GalaxySurfer]

The not closing is new to me, but the car is designed to be cautious OPENING the FWD on a slope. There is usually an option to "always fully open at this location" to overide that if your driveway/work parking is sloped.

 

[cwerdna]

Thanks for sharing, jgrgnt. Wondering how Tesla does the quality control or tests after production... Thanks for reminding. I will watch out for the pain on door jamb. As of now, there is no sign of it as the door has just been opened and closed less than 30 times.

I started automotive reliability and durability testing long ago and even posted some remarks related to this.

Oddly... the thread is crickets.

Re: rubbing of paint, I'd pointed to a couple threads on that before at Falcon wing door and paint damage.

 

[hill]

Thanks for calling out, and appreciate. Will read the manual and learn how to manually operate the door. ....snip....

hopefully the manual technique has been improved over the past couple years, as it was somewhat of a herculean feet of strength for my physically weaker/better ½.
.

 

[ValleyGeek]

I'd venture a guess that the OP's issue is a stiff joint or a spring that needs to be tightened. There is likely just enough resistance that when you're on the slope there is enough weight to trigger the safety cutoff. If this were the case it should be a very solvable issue.

I can't say the Falcon doors are without issue as I've had my fair share of alignment challenges but I've been very pleased with my service center's efforts to resolve them under warranty.

 

[yanling]

Re: rubbing of paint, I'd pointed to a couple threads on that before at Falcon wing door and paint damage.

Thanks for reminding. After a close look, there is rubbing of "pain" on the edge of the falcon wing door glass as well... Photo attached.

I have also recorded a video, which clearly shows that the door and the chrome are too close to each other even on flat floor in my garage. This has even introduced some scratch on the chrome (where I put some tape). Amazon Photos

 

[yanling]

I'd venture a guess that the OP's issue is a stiff joint or a spring that needs to be tightened. There is likely just enough resistance that when you're on the slope there is enough weight to trigger the safety cutoff. If this were the case it should be a very solvable issue.

I can't say the Falcon doors are without issue as I've had my fair share of alignment challenges but I've been very pleased with my service center's efforts to resolve them under warranty.

Yeah, hopefully this will be a minor issue easy to be resolved. From the photo/video I have shown, the door is too close to its right (the 3rd row seats side), even on flat road.

 

[Daisame]

I don't think I am adding anything new to this thread, but this is sort of a 'thing' with the falcon wing doors. They are a little tricky to get just right. Mine had a similar issue but it was just clipping the trim on the rear window with the glass on the door. The fact that it happens on inclines (you did not mention if this was an incline or decline) means that the weight of the door is shifting back and becomes more prominent. I could mitigate the issue by pressing my palm against the falcon wing's window and pressing the door forward. This would ensure that it did not clip the rear window trim. This has been documented by at least one YouTuber as well.

My fix was they moved the rear windows back a bit so there is ample clearance for the doors. It is much easier and safer than trying to realign the dozens of moving parts and hinges in the over-engineered falcon wing doors.