My liftgate was badly misaligned from the factory in every possible direction, and my Service Center refused to fix the issue, along with most other build quality issues with my car. I am going to have to accept that this $100K car just does not come with a bumper to bumper factory warranty.
So I decided to fix the liftgate myself, as I have done with most of the build issues, and I am happy to share what I learned, which is a lot. Since most people on this forum don't seem like the type that would take on such a daunting task, I won't go to the effort to make a big DIY, but I'll share some bullet points and be happy to answer any questions that come up.
Here are key bullet points:
- The factory service manual that you can download from Tesla has not been updated completely for the refresh model, but it's still somewhat useful to review
- The hinge bolts into the liftgate control the height, the hinge bolts into the body control left/right alignment and forward and backward.
- The manual shows removing the back glass to be able to access the bolts for the hinge. The headliner near the back of the car needs to be pulled down to access those nuts.
- I was able to loosen and tighten the bolts without removing the glass by using a torx socket held by a small vice grip to grab the exposed portion of the bolts. Only a 1/2 turn is enough to loosen the bolts to adjust that part of the hinge.
- I was able to remove a minimum of the interior to be able to pull down the headliner enough to get a power ratchet to loosen and tighten those nuts. You need to remove the side seat bolsters, the side panels, and the panel around the seat belt. There are 10mm bolts holding the headliner in along with the normal push pins.
- Most important: You must remove the struts on the left and right to have any hope to adjust the hinges. Those struts put too much force on the liftgate to be able to force the hinges into place. Fine hinge adjustment becomes easy when the struts are removed.
- I used a sturdy wooden stick, cut to size, to hold up the liftgate while doing the work. I put a microfiber towel on top of the stick to protect the decklid I did it all by myself, so it can be done with one person even though it's really a 3 person job.
- Unless you take the glass off and really remove the headliner, the adjustment process is iterative where you move the hinges and check and then adjust again. This job would have been incredibly simple to get right in the factory with the back glass off and before the interior is added. Amazing disregard for quality that they don't bother to make sure the liftgate is correct at that stage.
- Start with getting the height correct before doing the left and right and forward and backward adjustments. The left and right height also slightly affects the forward and backward adjustment.
- In my case, there is no way to get the liftgate to fit 100% correctly m because of the poor build quality of the body and the liftgate itself. Clearly some of their robots need to be fired. But if that is the case with your car, there are compromises that can be made to make it fit well enough where no one will notice.
- While adjusting the forward and backward of the hinge, be very careful that the back glass and the pano glass do not hit each other and you end up with both broken.
- I needed to also adjust the latch striker position to fine tune the fit, which is very easy to do. Take care to check the clearance around the bottom of the liftgate and the bumper. In my case, lining up perfectly with the fenders caused interference with the bumper and body near the taillights.
No doubt it's an intimidating task for a DIY'er, which is clearly why my lazy Service Center squirmed out of standing behind their product. The job is definitely one of those that most will tell you to leave to a professional, but if you are handy and super meticulous and careful, you can do it too. I am sure if I took it to a body shop, they would insist to remove the back glass and more of the interior, and it would become a very large bill with probably more problems created than fixed.
"Tesla Model S" by cdorobek is licensed under CC BY 2.0.
Admin note: Image added for Blog Feed thumbnail
So I decided to fix the liftgate myself, as I have done with most of the build issues, and I am happy to share what I learned, which is a lot. Since most people on this forum don't seem like the type that would take on such a daunting task, I won't go to the effort to make a big DIY, but I'll share some bullet points and be happy to answer any questions that come up.
Here are key bullet points:
- The factory service manual that you can download from Tesla has not been updated completely for the refresh model, but it's still somewhat useful to review
- The hinge bolts into the liftgate control the height, the hinge bolts into the body control left/right alignment and forward and backward.
- The manual shows removing the back glass to be able to access the bolts for the hinge. The headliner near the back of the car needs to be pulled down to access those nuts.
- I was able to loosen and tighten the bolts without removing the glass by using a torx socket held by a small vice grip to grab the exposed portion of the bolts. Only a 1/2 turn is enough to loosen the bolts to adjust that part of the hinge.
- I was able to remove a minimum of the interior to be able to pull down the headliner enough to get a power ratchet to loosen and tighten those nuts. You need to remove the side seat bolsters, the side panels, and the panel around the seat belt. There are 10mm bolts holding the headliner in along with the normal push pins.
- Most important: You must remove the struts on the left and right to have any hope to adjust the hinges. Those struts put too much force on the liftgate to be able to force the hinges into place. Fine hinge adjustment becomes easy when the struts are removed.
- I used a sturdy wooden stick, cut to size, to hold up the liftgate while doing the work. I put a microfiber towel on top of the stick to protect the decklid I did it all by myself, so it can be done with one person even though it's really a 3 person job.
- Unless you take the glass off and really remove the headliner, the adjustment process is iterative where you move the hinges and check and then adjust again. This job would have been incredibly simple to get right in the factory with the back glass off and before the interior is added. Amazing disregard for quality that they don't bother to make sure the liftgate is correct at that stage.
- Start with getting the height correct before doing the left and right and forward and backward adjustments. The left and right height also slightly affects the forward and backward adjustment.
- In my case, there is no way to get the liftgate to fit 100% correctly m because of the poor build quality of the body and the liftgate itself. Clearly some of their robots need to be fired. But if that is the case with your car, there are compromises that can be made to make it fit well enough where no one will notice.
- While adjusting the forward and backward of the hinge, be very careful that the back glass and the pano glass do not hit each other and you end up with both broken.
- I needed to also adjust the latch striker position to fine tune the fit, which is very easy to do. Take care to check the clearance around the bottom of the liftgate and the bumper. In my case, lining up perfectly with the fenders caused interference with the bumper and body near the taillights.
No doubt it's an intimidating task for a DIY'er, which is clearly why my lazy Service Center squirmed out of standing behind their product. The job is definitely one of those that most will tell you to leave to a professional, but if you are handy and super meticulous and careful, you can do it too. I am sure if I took it to a body shop, they would insist to remove the back glass and more of the interior, and it would become a very large bill with probably more problems created than fixed.
"Tesla Model S" by cdorobek is licensed under CC BY 2.0.
Admin note: Image added for Blog Feed thumbnail
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