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Fix your door that won't open

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Service did email me this morning and offered to send up a ranger next week. Was told scope of fix would depend on what they found i.e. repair vs replace.

Sounds like you have a door motor and a microswitch wire broke. I'd be prepared for a replacement. I got lucky when they replaced my motor. Service tech said they normally don't carry that part. Let us know how it goes. I still wish these handles weren't so faulty. I'd gladly trade the Model E's handles for these any day.
 
  • Informative
Reactions: Bighorn
Ranger just fixed my door handle. The initial break was the piece that connects the motor to the door handle and is stressed by door closures. The latter failure was the classic wire break of the microswitch. He replaced those parts as well as the two other microswitches and the pressure sensor. He said a new unit is only needed in the case of the module failing, which it rarely does.

tesladoor.JPG
 
..good to know about the success rate of the electronic module on the door handles.

Thanks for posting the found fault with the gear driven piece.

Don't know what you mean by "stressed by door closure" how so?
 
He said the failure wasn't happening because of presentations, but in doors that are physically closed. He said there were opposing forces that stressed out that area of the piece when the door slams, as opposed to any pulling stress. He showed me ahead of time what would be broken and was correct. Without a diagram, I couldn't quite picture the two opposing vectors he was describing. It sounded like the decelerative action of the door slamming was exacerbated by an opposing force exerted by the motor on the failed connecting piece.
 
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Reactions: rpc364
Early gen 1 handles had this problem, they trigger their own "pull handle" switch when presenting, if the handle gets out of calibration (really narrow tolerances). These handles are wired differently but still use micro switches.. I don't think it's a broken wire. It's calibration. If this is in warranty press for newer gen handle replacement. Even if out of warranty, doors popping themselves open is a safety item so you've got a strong case for getting a goodwill fix on that door... possibly, all around the car.

Thanks for the tip. Unfortunately the car is over 3.5 years old and has over 240,000km on the clock so I doubt this will be taken under warranty. I was just hoping that it would be a broken switch rather than such out-of-calibration problem which I don't know how to tackle.
 
Here's the description on the invoice:

found the paddle gear broken at the pivot point, the micro switch loose connection.

performed a rebuild as needed.


Data point: I am well out of warranty at 123k miles and I live over 400 miles from the service center. The ranger came solely for my fix as there weren't any local cars needing attention. They did not charge me for the ranger miles, service time or parts--entire job was goodwill. Love this company.
 
Here's the description on the invoice:

found the paddle gear broken at the pivot point, the micro switch loose connection.

performed a rebuild as needed.


Data point: I am well out of warranty at 123k miles and I live over 400 miles from the service center. The ranger came solely for my fix as there weren't any local cars needing attention. They did not charge me for the ranger miles, service time or parts--entire job was goodwill. Love this company.

They don't do that here. The closest Ranger to us is 140 miles away and the closest Service Center is ~300 miles away. If we ever want ranger service for no fee we have to take it to them. Major inconvenience. Glad they did this for you but this is not the norm.
 
Had an issue where the drivers door handle would not present. In working with @scottm it was clear there wasn't a quick DIY fix like for the micro switch thing. All I did was remove the trim piece to disconnect the control unit so the motor would not run 24/7. Note that the handles are daisy chained on each side so the rear drivers-side handle no longer presented.

Tesla Van Nuys squeezed me in on short notice and performed a quick repair (no need to replace the entire unit). Great experience overall! Hopefully @JonMc will take note of my positive experience.
 
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So I had the issue of the drivers door handle presenting but not opening the door.

Went to the Milford Tesla Service Center and asked to buy the pressure sensor. I was initially told that they don't sell that part as it was restricted but they could do the service for about $350. I told the service advisor to go check with his parts guy and sure enough they sold the part - $35.

It took me about 2 hours to get the repair done with most of the time spent figuring out how to remove the top bolt on the handle drive unit at there wasn't an access hole in the door and the window blocked easy access.

After completion and reinstallation, I needed a minor realignment of the window as I loosened the window bolt earlier to gain access.

A bit more involved than I expected but a satisfying job once compete. Thank you for this thread and guidance. It was very helpful.
 
Succeeded! Thanks for all the tips!

In my case (rear left door), there was no broken wire, it was juste like the switch stopped woking gradually as we were able to open the door by applying more and more force until it would not open anymore.

This is the 8th handle replaced on my 2013 MS 85. Six were on warranty, I payed the SC 1300 $CAN for replacing the 7th. This one costed 4.18$ for the switch, ~5$ for a set of Torx bits, and 2-3h of my time!! I bought an unwired switch but I covered the new switch soldered pins with hot glue. I will tell you if ever I get trouble with that.

Now a couple of remarks regarding some of the tips in this post (that gives very useful tips):

Rear door handle extraction ...

I DID NOT needed to do the following things:
- "Remove the exterior door trim chrome strip running along the window glass..."
- "Undo the top bolt holding the vertically oriented window guide rail... ", I was able to slide the handle mechanism with the rail untouched. Takes a couple of minutes to find the right twist.
- "The handle mechanism is held by 4 bolts all of the same size, you'll have to go by feel to get at the uppermost rearmost bolt." Actually, at least on my version of the car, there is a piece of rubber that can be removed to get access to that screw with a screwdriver with the 10 mm socket at the tip. For me, the most cumbersome part was the top frontmost screw, but holding a small ordinary wrench, and my fingers guiding it, it was not too difficult.

Thanks again for posting these very valuable tips!
 
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Try this one... $3.82

ASQ10410 Panasonic Electric Works | Switches | DigiKey


Again, odds are the switches you have are still very fine. It's the wire connections to the switch, the wires have flexed and broken.

So resolder the wires to the switches you have. When you buy single switches from digikey like this, you'll have to be soldering anyway.

There's a couple pictures in this thread that show pulling the wires and rubber boot off an existing switch. You'll see what I mean.
 
Thanks for your replies. I will get to that. This is th second time I have to deal with the door not presenting. The first time it was covered, This time they asked $800.00 for the fix!!! ( one door)

The fix discussed in this thread is for door presents handle but does not pull open.

Door not presenting handle is some other issue. ... broken gear?