Heads-up on front door latches

[Marcos]

This past Friday, the latch on my driver's side door died, leaving me away from home with a door that refused to latch shut. Luckily, I wasn't too far from home, and the danger was minimized, but even that two-mile drive was disconcerting, with the door wanting to swing out on every right-hand turn. (Damn you centrifugal motion!) This was the second time that latch failed, and a supposedly redesigned latch had been installed on both front doors.

Given the safety issues, Tesla had the car towed to its SF service center. (I didn't even know that existed, been open a month they told me.) The service rep told me that mine was the second X that weekend with that problem, and that Tesla had issued a service bulletin on it with an even newer latch design. They went ahead and swapped out both the broken one, as well as the passenger-door latch. Hopefully, this is the last I ever have to worry about this. I had the car back early Saturday afternoon.

I write this not to complain (I'm an avid early adopter, this stuff doesn't bother me), but to warn. Depending on how old your X is, you may have an old-model latch, and having it die when away from home is incredibly dangerous. It should be a recall item, to be honest. So you might want to check in with your service center about getting your latches replaced, or if your car is in for other reasons, see if they'll swap out then. Like I said, the service rep told me there is a service bulletin out to service centers about the problem, so it shouldn't take much convincing on your part to get it fixed.

 

[DuplexDianne]

This past Friday, the latch on my driver's side door died, leaving me away from home with a door that refused to latch shut. Luckily, I wasn't too far from home, and the danger was minimized, but even that two-mile drive was disconcerting, with the door wanting to swing out on every right-hand turn. (Damn you centrifugal motion!) This was the second time that latch failed, and a supposedly redesigned latch had been installed on both front doors.

Given the safety issues, Tesla had the car towed to its SF service center. (I didn't even know that existed, been open a month they told me.) The service rep told me that mine was the second X that weekend with that problem, and that Tesla had issued a service bulletin on it with an even newer latch design. They went ahead and swapped out both the broken one, as well as the passenger-door latch. Hopefully, this is the last I ever have to worry about this. I had the car back early Saturday afternoon.

I write this not to complain (I'm an avid early adopter, this stuff doesn't bother me), but to warn. Depending on how old your X is, you may have an old-model latch, and having it die when away from home is incredibly dangerous. It should be a recall item, to be honest. So you might want to check in with your service center about getting your latches replaced, or if your car is in for other reasons, see if they'll swap out then. Like I said, the service rep told me there is a service bulletin out to service centers about the problem, so it shouldn't take much convincing on your part to get it fixed.

Does anyone know when the new latch design was implemented?

 

[Roentgen]

would also like to know as my X is relatively "early"

 

[engle]

I'm headed to Fremont Service Center with a similar issue right now. This morning, my X driver's door failed to open at all, either from the outside, key fob, or the control panel inside. Climbed in from the passenger door. It doesn't close, either. It does open mechanically using the handle inside, and latches enough to drive with a small window gap. Thanks for your post -- I'll make sure they replace my passenger front door latch, too, since I'm a very early production build 00041X from 3/22/2016. This is the first mechanical issue I've had in 11K miles.

I didn't mind being an early adopter since I only live about 6 miles from the factory (and I leased it).

This past Friday, the latch on my driver's side door died, leaving me away from home with a door that refused to latch shut. Luckily, I wasn't too far from home, and the danger was minimized, but even that two-mile drive was disconcerting, with the door wanting to swing out on every right-hand turn. (Damn you centrifugal motion!) This was the second time that latch failed, and a supposedly redesigned latch had been installed on both front doors.

Given the safety issues, Tesla had the car towed to its SF service center. (I didn't even know that existed, been open a month they told me.) The service rep told me that mine was the second X that weekend with that problem, and that Tesla had issued a service bulletin on it with an even newer latch design. They went ahead and swapped out both the broken one, as well as the passenger-door latch. Hopefully, this is the last I ever have to worry about this. I had the car back early Saturday afternoon.

I write this not to complain (I'm an avid early adopter, this stuff doesn't bother me), but to warn. Depending on how old your X is, you may have an old-model latch, and having it die when away from home is incredibly dangerous. It should be a recall item, to be honest. So you might want to check in with your service center about getting your latches replaced, or if your car is in for other reasons, see if they'll swap out then. Like I said, the service rep told me there is a service bulletin out to service centers about the problem, so it shouldn't take much convincing on your part to get it fixed.

 

[Xminus6]

Wait, there's a service center in San Francisco now?

 

[qadaemon]

We should start a door latch failure club. What a weird way to be randomly stranded, honestly.

 

[LuckyX]

I'm having a similar issues ever since 8.0. My passenger and both FWD won't open by manually press the handles. Will only open if I touch the touchscreen icons twice. The keyfob will work 50% of the time. Doesn't matter if there obstacles or in a completely open area.

 

[Marcos]

Wait, there's a service center in San Francisco now?

Yup. One month old, on Van Ness where ... some upscale car dealership used to be. Bentley maybe?

It's gorgeous and HUGE. Must cost a mint.

 

[cwerdna]

This past Friday, the latch on my driver's side door died, leaving me away from home with a door that refused to latch shut. Luckily, I wasn't too far from home, and the danger was minimized, but even that two-mile drive was disconcerting, with the door wanting to swing out on every right-hand turn. (Damn you centrifugal motion!) This was the second time that latch failed, and a supposedly redesigned latch had been installed on both front doors.
...
Depending on how old your X is, you may have an old-model latch, and having it die when away from home is incredibly dangerous. It should be a recall item, to be honest.

Since you feel that this is a dangerous condition (as do I) and use the state that it should be a recall item, you should file a safety complaint w/NHTSA at Home | Safercar -- National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).

If you wish, you can formally contact Tesla as directed via the verbiage in the manual re: safety defects, but the repair work means that all/virtually of all of this is in their system and would be redundant, IMHO.

 

[HookBill]

Here is a video showing what I think is the same problem.

 

[napabill]

Had my driver side latch fail last August. TM replaced and it has worked fine since. Then last week the passenger side door latch failed. Was told the the latch is being replaced with a newly designed one. Problem is, the latches in the SF Bay Area are on back order. They were able to adjust the latch so that if now works, but will have to wait for replacement. Interesting that I contacted my SC in Tucson, where I'm headed after XMAS and scheduled for it to be replaced at my home there (the closest SC is in Tempe.) And he said he has already set aside a new latch for me. Hopefully it's not just an extra old one.

 

[neverdone]

I am schedule to have both driver and passenger door latches replaced next Monday. Driver door latch will not close about 25% of the time. I then have to open and close numerous times until it finally closes. I have an early X, #274.

 

[BayArea_David]

I had the similar experience as the OP. The drive side had issue open or close and contacted Fremont SC.
I was told there were service bulletin on the front doors. They replaced both front door latches on 11/29.
I was lucky that they had parts in stock.

 

[vangogh]

I've not had the issue but was scheduled to get them replaced tomorrow...but then they canceled saying they don't have the parts...
I'm an early Signature 27X....

 

[gabeincal]

Slightly unrelated but in a right hand corner, my Model S' driver's door opened up 1 latch. So it did not swing open but it did scare the crap out of me. Of course this kind of stuff hasn't happened to me since i'm not driving 30 year old cars any more........

 

[K-MTG]

Never had door issues, may delivery 57xx

 

[travwill]

VIN 81## and driver's door latch just failed. Just sits there repeating itself trying to latch over and over and never latches. Fortunately can time it right and kinda slam the door closed, so can take it to service center for a new one this week...

 

[proven]

I understand they have gone through several iterations on the front door latches. They replaced both of ours on December 6th with the newest versions while we were there for a different issue.

 

[Epymian]

I got my car in June and the latch failed in November. Had to fly a tech out to my city but they replaced both for free.