Garage door damage... what’s the damage?

[Brave Ulysses]

im a bit besides myself right now. Without getting into the details and responsibility, “someone”... cough my wife... cough.... backed in to the garage to let someone pass in our alley (we live in Denver where alleys are common) and the garage door somehow closed on the rear end of our X. She swears the door auto-closed without her knowing despite us intentionally having that turned off. Could never prove that but with the flakeyness of Tesla homelink I don’t completely doubt her.

1. We are lucky... could definitely be worse. Could have hit glass.
2. I’m very pissed at my garage door motor Following this incident I tried to adjust the “downward pressure” but found that my model has automatically adjusted downward pressure... which apparently means it’s a guillotine. It will basically attempt to slice through anything. Not happy about that and willing to replace it just for that reason after this. It literally hit the spoiler... kept going... hit the hatchback panel... kept going....



The photos don’t really do it justice but what do you think we are looking at here in terms of cost? Best case scenario the spoiler and hatchback panel need to be repainted. Worse case scenario the hatchback panel needs to be replaced and maybe the rear right tail light as well. Hard to tell right now. The spoiler has multiple big gashes in the paint down to metal but as far as I can tell no deformity of the spoiler itself. The “rash” on the hatch panel is surprisingly deep and wide, especially considering it is recessed from the spoiler. The garage door really just ground it’s way down until it finally decided the resistance was enough.


Really Hard not to be frustrated with the “someone” especially since to someone’s credit, the garage door motor is borderline dangerous.

 

[Akikiki]

Let's talk about Homelink for a minute. You do know, right?; that Homelink triggers the opening or closing of the door with Auto-close and auto-open? Homelink doesn't know the status of the door. All Homelink does is send a signal when its told to send a signal. That signal will open the door if its closed and close the door if its open. So, if you door was already open and your wife was far enough away and then started backing backup to the garage, the opened door now gets a signal to close, so it closed as she was backing in.

That's not the only issue you have. I've seen this next part. The door opening sensors on your garage rails are too low. Measure the distance from the ground, then measure the distance from the lowest place on the back rear quarter panel of your X. I think you are going to see that the sensor did not see the bottom of the X until the wheels broke the beam of light - but by then it was too late, the door had already hit the car. Raise your sensors so they are at least the height of the body panels on your X. In other words, you want the nose or rear of the X to break the beam immediately and soon as possible, not just when the wheels/tires break the beam.

You got off lucky. A while back there was a picture on TMC where someone backing in to their garage when their door came down and broke the back window in the liftgate of their S.

 

[ewoodrick]

Due to a similar incident, I raised the safety sensors to a level that they see the car, which should hopefully help with this issue.

 

[Bogobec]

I don't understand why all those homelink system don't have a different signal for open and close. This would make so much more sense and avoid some of those accidents

 

[ahmarm]

I don't understand why all those homelink system don't have a different signal for open and close. This would make so much more sense and avoid some of those accidents

It’s not homelink... it’s the garage door openers that only have one I/O signal to either open and close... so the garage doors remote also has a single button for both operations... hence the homelink systems just mimic your garage door opener remote.
I do agree that it’s time to improve the tech, hasn’t changed much in 20+ yrs (except on the security front).

 

[Akikiki]

I don't understand why all those homelink system don't have a different signal for open and close. This would make so much more sense and avoid some of those accidents

I understand why - at least one reason. Technology. The receiving unit has to also be capable. If there's no demand from manufacturers or the public leaning on manufacturers why do it.

I read a few months ago that the new version being provided by Homelink does distinguish between the signals it sends. But that's going forward. Its not going to help the - how many would you guess GDO's already in use and cars with Homelink in use.

For most people arriving home and pushing a button to open their garage, how many would be pissed off and frustrated because now they have to remember which of two buttons to push. The one that opens and not the one that signals a close. How many times are we going to hear? "Why did they change this? All I want is the old way of pushing a button and it opens, and pushing a button to close".

 

[Bogobec]

For most people arriving home and pushing a button to open their garage, how many would be pissed off and frustrated because now they have to remember which of two buttons to push. The one that opens and not the one that signals a close. How many times are we going to hear? "Why did they change this? All I want is the old way of pushing a button and it opens, and pushing a button to close".

That the kind of reasoning from people that slows down innovation. The same way why ICE cars are stuck in the same small iteration on the same model each and every year because it is more comfortable and profitable to not hurt people who are averse to change, which is a self defense mechanism.

 

[Akikiki]

That the kind of reasoning from people that slows down innovation. The same way why ICE cars are stuck in the same small iteration on the same model each and every year because it is more comfortable and profitable to not hurt people who are averse to change, which is a self defense mechanism.

I don't disagree with you.

 

[Aljohn]

TURN OFF auto open and close feature. This was discussed two years ago, and again last year. It is where you enable the feature that causes the "reverse" signal to be issued, and it appears the measure is from the front of the Tesla. So anytime the vehicle crosses the threshold where you enabled open/close, it sends a signal whether you intend it or not.

I had a similar issue two and half years ago on my 2016 P90D. I turned off because If I used the beginning of the driveway to trigger, I would drive out of site of the garage door when leaving and not be able to ensure the door closed. Just not worth the issues.

 

[fancyMX]

It looks like the damage went past the paint...have you looked into how much it cost to fix this? Would they have to replace the bumper or is this something they can fix?