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How bad are Falcon Wing doors?
- Thread starter Flekoun
- Start date
I’ve had no serious issues with them.
Occasionally in new wide open space they decide to not open fully. Not a big deal just hold the up button. Often it’s still opened enough. Occasionally they have phantom obstacles when closing. I just close again and it’s fine. This is more prone if on a hill. Not show stoppers and overall I like them.
I’ve gone through 2 winters. In NewEngland. But I have a garage and one Winter was WFH due to Covid.
My favorite thing about them is when it’s raining or snowing and I’m packing the car they act as a canopy.
Occasionally in new wide open space they decide to not open fully. Not a big deal just hold the up button. Often it’s still opened enough. Occasionally they have phantom obstacles when closing. I just close again and it’s fine. This is more prone if on a hill. Not show stoppers and overall I like them.
I’ve gone through 2 winters. In NewEngland. But I have a garage and one Winter was WFH due to Covid.
My favorite thing about them is when it’s raining or snowing and I’m packing the car they act as a canopy.
Tam
Well-Known Member
The reason for my Model X is the Falcon Wing Doors. They are very convenient and they have been reliable for me since 2017 or the past 4 years and some months.
I don't experience snow so I can't tell you that.
The doors hitting people are the result of complacency with technology rather than common sense. The manual says very clearly that the driver still needs to monitor the doors. There's enough sonar to avoid hitting the car parking in an adjacent space (the adjacent car is long so the sensor only needs to pick up 1 small portion of the length of that car) but there are not enough sensors to detect the whole width of the door for people (human is not as big nor as long as a car).
I don't see why if it's a Tesla door then people assume that it's safe for kids to let the doors close on their fingers. It just doesn't make sense! When I drive the kids, before closing the doors, I gave them the command that their arms should be folded in front for me to see then I close the doors. After a while, they got the message to avoid resting their fingers near the door frame and they can also help to close the doors by themselves. It's not hard to avoid injuries. It just takes some training for the kids.
I like the FWD on our X. They work fine and we have had none of these issues you mention in the last 3 years.
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Not bad at all. Clearing off snow before opening the door was a habit I gained when I moved from Honda to VW in the time before Tesla. Newer models than mine have more door sensors but I‘ve not had a problem (except sometimes not opening all the way under clear skies since some “safety“ update, as noted above). They are slower than regular doors but seem even more so because you wait for them to do their thing instead of handling them manually. No slower than the trunk lid. People don’t expect a door at forehead height so walking into a door edge can be an issue, but who’s fault is that?
Falcon wing doors sounds like a great idea. But it’s one more thing to go wrong with the car. I love my model 3 because there are very few things to go wrong. Less moving par means alot less to go wrong. Just my 2 cents.
Bigriver
Member
Another “no problems” here. Like most things in life, they have their positives and negatives. Strongly positive is when using the Model X to transport large items. It is like having 3 hatchbacks and loading/unloading couldn’t be easier. Only 1 time did I feel like the doors were too slow and that’s when I tried to do a quick drop off of a teenager on a busy street. It wasn’t a good idea, and probably wouldn’t have been a good idea even without the FWDs.
For the record the Model 3 felt like (and sounded like) a tin can ready to fall apart. Which is why I traded before it did. There is no comparison. Just my 2 cents
The X is a beast of a machine. And I do everything I used to do with my Jeep. Towing 4000lbs. It’s way better in the snow than model 3. There was huge mud trenches on a road I had to pass the other day. The Model 3 would have bottomed out. No problem fir the X. Put suspension on high and crused through. I know friends will full size Chevy that was a afraid to get stuck in that spot.Less moving parts are the reasons EVs are better than ICE vehicles.
But, as someone that owns both an X and a 3, there are limits. Having to dig into a menu to adjust the A/C blowing in my face is a bridge too far IMHO.
Bigriver
Member
I have had many more issues with my Model X than my Model 3. FWDs isn’t one of them, tho. They both have a place in my garage; I like them both for their own strengths.
No issues at all with out FWDs, its one of the defining features of our X.
The water ingress issues seems strange to me, living in England we get ALOT of rain, never had any issue with water getting into the cabin.
The water ingress issues seems strange to me, living in England we get ALOT of rain, never had any issue with water getting into the cabin.
KentuckyX
Member
Other than my wife getting hit a couple of times because she wasn’t paying attention when others were closing the FWD, I‘ve had no issues with mine.
Can someone explain? Did they changed something? Because I saw a lot of videos where just morning dew was pouring into the cabin and you have none in fcking rain?
I've NEVER had any water ingress in any X here in England, that includes loaners and the two Xs we've had, the first one had a Dec 2016 build date, so pretty old.
ChadS
Last tank of gas: March 2009
Sure, that's easy to explain. The doors lift up and stay overhead, so they block the rain as long as it's not too windy (but if it's really windy, no door design is going to keep water out of the car). Some rain could come off the roof and drip in around the edges of the door...but like every car, there are rain channels that route the water away. That's the design and how it works on most Model X. It works just great for us.
Of course, every now and then someone will have a pinched or not-fully-attached rain channel. (This obviously can happen with any car, although I wouldn't be surprised if it's more frequent with the X). Then water will come in when they open the doors. These people are - understandably! - far more likely to post videos than the first set. When ours was new, we had a pinched seal on one side and got some water in the car once when we opened a falcon wing door and the rear hatch at the same time just after a really heavy rain. Mobile service came out and put on a new seal, and in the 3+ years since, it has not happened again.
Of course, every now and then someone will have a pinched or not-fully-attached rain channel. (This obviously can happen with any car, although I wouldn't be surprised if it's more frequent with the X). Then water will come in when they open the doors. These people are - understandably! - far more likely to post videos than the first set. When ours was new, we had a pinched seal on one side and got some water in the car once when we opened a falcon wing door and the rear hatch at the same time just after a really heavy rain. Mobile service came out and put on a new seal, and in the 3+ years since, it has not happened again.
Ofcourse for us in England where we have small driveways/parking spaces the FWDs make managing kids so much easier. Personally I cannot see us NOT owning a car with FWDs.
No I cannot, all I can do is share my experiences. 4 years and 50k+ of X ownership I've NEVER come across water ingress due to FWD on 4 different Xs I've driven - 2 owned, 2 loaners.
Maybe for England the service centers do something different? But there is no reason to think there is anything special about Xs in England versus US??
