Front door openers problem

[AudubonB]

The problem that showed up on our 2017 Model X has, via a search through this "Interior/Exterior" forum, occurred with a handful of others.

A few months ago, the driver's door stopped opening properly. When attempting to open either via key fob, exterior latch or interior screen, it would first fail, and then, by using the door's "Push Opener", which is in fact, their clever Ice Deblocker, it would open, noisily and only partly. I can open the door successfully and without issue by using the manual interior door handle.

A trip to the SvC made clear that the latch had failed (my guess is it's an actuator), and, in that the vehicle is now out of warranty, it's a spendy repair. Made almost DOUBLE because....oh, great....SvC says the front doors are linked so they cannot replace only one.

Reading through esp. THIS thread: Road Trip: Door Drama Galore , and most especially @RedXowner's post #5, this has been a Known Issue with a ready solution. My take on this is that Tesla dragged its feet, staying mum, until such time as a vehicle's warranty expired, thus not ahving to fix a Known Issue on its own nickel. That they claim one has to repair both doors is further evidence or, at least, strongly suggests, this is the case.

Have others had this specific problem, in or out of warranty?

 

[mxnym]

I had this issue with my driver door less than 2 years into ownership from new, only I couldn't open the door at all because the mechanical backup connection apparently wasn't working at all in my X (the invoice says I Could open it from the inside even though that wasn't true, so I only hope it is fixed now, but that's not exactly easy to test out when the electronics are working since the same lever activates them first). Based on my invoice, only the driver latch was replaced...

During inspection, found that the drivers side front door release actuator is internally failed requiring replacement.
Replace release actuator and 10 door clips. Confirmed operation of drivers front door is as like vehicles.
Correction: Handle - Exterior Release - Door - Front - LH (Remove & Replace)
Parts Replaced or Added
MX, FR DR E RELEASE ACTUATOR, LH(1115332-00-B) 1.0
CLIP, HEART FLEX W WSHR 70 LBS RETENTION 10.0
(1025401-00-A)
Pay Type: Basic Vehicle Limited Warranty

In any case, I don't think it's normal for non-safety things to be fixed just because a potential issue is known to exist (and re: "non-safety" I mean not considered a safety defect by a relevant regulation authority). Generally, you have "voluntary recalls" for safety items (quotes because my impression is that the word voluntary in that context means the manufacturer chooses to take responsibility ahead of being forced to with the full understanding that they'll be doing it either way), and in some cases, the warranty gets extended for other known issues (generally this will be an extended time/mileage coverage for a specific component and only that component, presumably due to pressure from somewhere based on how widespread the issue is). As for actual free repair outside of "voluntary recalls," AFAIK, the failure has to occur within the original (or in some cases extended specific component) warranty to be covered by said warranty. This is arguably reasonable since the part clearly worked for longer than it was warranted to if it fails outside of that warranty.

 

[AudubonB]

Thank you for that response. It's good to hear that it might be possible to replace solely the driver's door release, and I appreciate your reasoning for Tesla to avoid out-of-warranty gratis replacements.

 

[geordi]

I'm having much the same situation with my 2016 X right now, and got the same answer that both have to be replaced... BUT they want to charge me $900 in labor!!!

According to the service writer there is an "updated popper" that opens the door - and that isn't the ice ejector - and that's what will be replaced. I smell BS here, b/c he says it ALSO has to be configured via toolbox, which I don't necessarily believe.

See also: Driver's door latch broken - no parts available

That thread seems to agree that this is the new methodology of constantly getting money from the customer for poor designs that they fix over time.