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M3 windows frozen and will not drop when opening car door

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I use this in Chicago,,,on all weather seals. No problems.

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https://www.walmart.com/ip/Silicone...biXhYOkyT3gU2HsoTVnKwo-EkN_WDZqhoC3QMQAvD_BwE
 
We received a good amount of rain on Tuesday during the day. Overnight Tuesday into Wednesday, temps dropped into the teens. After about 10-15 minutes of pre-heating the cabin in the morning NONE of the doors would open. There was no visible ice or frost on the car. All handles were frozen, but lightly pounding on them freed them. The problem is certainly inside the door itself, where one or more of the window mechanisms are freezing. Once you manage to get a door to open you can't get it to close, as the window is still inoperable. I entered the vehicle on the passenger's side, and wasn't able to get the driver's side window to go down until the end of my 30-minute commute. My wife and I carpool. She is definitely not an early-adopter fanboy like I am. She was pissed that she was late to work because we could not get inside the car. I am more forgiving, but this feels like a recall-worthy issue.
 
We received a good amount of rain on Tuesday during the day. Overnight Tuesday into Wednesday, temps dropped into the teens. After about 10-15 minutes of pre-heating the cabin in the morning NONE of the doors would open. There was no visible ice or frost on the car. All handles were frozen, but lightly pounding on them freed them. The problem is certainly inside the door itself, where one or more of the window mechanisms are freezing. Once you manage to get a door to open you can't get it to close, as the window is still inoperable. I entered the vehicle on the passenger's side, and wasn't able to get the driver's side window to go down until the end of my 30-minute commute. My wife and I carpool. She is definitely not an early-adopter fanboy like I am. She was pissed that she was late to work because we could not get inside the car. I am more forgiving, but this feels like a recall-worthy issue.

It was commented earlier in this thread that Tesla has boasted that they have tested the car in cold climates and should know about these problems.

I would counter that Tesla knows about the problem but either didn't want to delay introducing the product to resolve them or hasn't gotten them fully figured out yet. Frameless windows are notorious for having issues in winter weather and Tesla surely knew this and just didn't come up with a mitigation strategy that actually works. Pre-heating the car for half an hour doesn't seem practical.

I like my Model-3 but they clearly don't know much about operating cars in colder temperatures or they would do things a bit differently. The car has an enormous battery and it should be possible in really cold temperatures to have heating elements in critical areas like the upper door frames and window mechanisms that prevent them from freezing solid.
 
Well this isn't good.
It gets cold here, like -35 cold. My wife will lose her mind if she can't get into the car after a grocery run.
This is the only Telsa I am interested in. Did they not bring it to Canada for it's winter testing? Thompson Manitoba is the home to all cold weather testing in North America.
I am no fan of the handle as it is. Can it be opened wearing a mitt?
Perhaps there is a Model 3 redesign in the near future as far as this issue is concerned?
 
We received a good amount of rain on Tuesday during the day. Overnight Tuesday into Wednesday, temps dropped into the teens. After about 10-15 minutes of pre-heating the cabin in the morning NONE of the doors would open. There was no visible ice or frost on the car. All handles were frozen, but lightly pounding on them freed them. The problem is certainly inside the door itself, where one or more of the window mechanisms are freezing. Once you manage to get a door to open you can't get it to close, as the window is still inoperable. I entered the vehicle on the passenger's side, and wasn't able to get the driver's side window to go down until the end of my 30-minute commute. My wife and I carpool. She is definitely not an early-adopter fanboy like I am. She was pissed that she was late to work because we could not get inside the car. I am more forgiving, but this feels like a recall-worthy issue.

Wait...you said that the doors wouldn't open? When it was below zero? After raining?

So all of that water turned to ICE? And the doors wouldn't open?


You know....that happened to my ICE ( no pun intended ) car in Chicago - year after year. My cars froze.....because of the ICE.....

I wonder what ICE car drivers do when their cars freeze. Or - do only Tesla's freeze?

I was late to work many-a-day because my ICE cars were frozen.... My neighbors Tesla froze a month ago - and I did the same thing I did with my ICE car when it would freeze.
5 gallon bucket of cold water poured on the door. It opened right up.

THEN I told him that I put the dry RV anti-freeze window track stuff on all of the seals of my P3D+ a month ago and have never had a problem.

https://www.walmart.com/ip/3-IN-ONE...z-And-RV-Care-Window-Track-Dry-Lube/207368753

Frozen doors and windows have and will always happen. I'm not sure how owning a Tesla would change anything.
 
Wait...you said that the doors wouldn't open? When it was below zero? After raining?

So all of that water turned to ICE? And the doors wouldn't open?


You know....that happened to my ICE ( no pun intended ) car in Chicago - year after year. My cars froze.....because of the ICE.....

I wonder what ICE car drivers do when their cars freeze. Or - do only Tesla's freeze?

I was late to work many-a-day because my ICE cars were frozen.... My neighbors Tesla froze a month ago - and I did the same thing I did with my ICE car when it would freeze.
5 gallon bucket of cold water poured on the door. It opened right up.

THEN I told him that I put the dry RV anti-freeze window track stuff on all of the seals of my P3D+ a month ago and have never had a problem.

https://www.walmart.com/ip/3-IN-ONE...z-And-RV-Care-Window-Track-Dry-Lube/207368753

Frozen doors and windows have and will always happen. I'm not sure how owning a Tesla would change anything.

Nice sarcastic reply.

I have a suspicion that the people complaining about these problems have not had them, or at least not to the same degree with their other vehicles.
 
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I thought Tesla had a software update that lowered the windows a few mm so they cleared the trim if they were stuck?

https://electrek.co/2018/11/22/tesla-model-3-software-update-cold-weather-issues/

Looks like if the car determines it's "cold" it just doesn't roll the windows up quite all the day when the door is opened or closed. This might improve the likeliness of the doors sticking inside of the seals but introduces other problems. Even with the tweak Tesla did it is still entirely possible for the doors to be frozen shut due to the frameless design.

Standard doors can freeze shut in serious conditions like freezing rain but shouldn't ever really freeze shut in normal winter conditions. This is because the door seals are protected against poor weather by the door frame.

Frameless doors like in the Model 3/S/X are kind of notorious for this problem but other manufacturers seem to have found solutions. My wife's Mini Cooper has, I believe, frameless windows and has never had any issues when she used to park it outside.
 
We received a good amount of rain on Tuesday during the day. Overnight Tuesday into Wednesday, temps dropped into the teens. After about 10-15 minutes of pre-heating the cabin in the morning NONE of the doors would open. There was no visible ice or frost on the car. All handles were frozen, but lightly pounding on them freed them. The problem is certainly inside the door itself, where one or more of the window mechanisms are freezing. Once you manage to get a door to open you can't get it to close, as the window is still inoperable. I entered the vehicle on the passenger's side, and wasn't able to get the driver's side window to go down until the end of my 30-minute commute. My wife and I carpool. She is definitely not an early-adopter fanboy like I am. She was pissed that she was late to work because we could not get inside the car. I am more forgiving, but this feels like a recall-worthy issue.

Exact same experience and I preheated for 35 minutes.
 
Wait...you said that the doors wouldn't open? When it was below zero? After raining?

So all of that water turned to ICE? And the doors wouldn't open?


You know....that happened to my ICE ( no pun intended ) car in Chicago - year after year. My cars froze.....because of the ICE.....

I wonder what ICE car drivers do when their cars freeze. Or - do only Tesla's freeze?

I was late to work many-a-day because my ICE cars were frozen.... My neighbors Tesla froze a month ago - and I did the same thing I did with my ICE car when it would freeze.
5 gallon bucket of cold water poured on the door. It opened right up.

THEN I told him that I put the dry RV anti-freeze window track stuff on all of the seals of my P3D+ a month ago and have never had a problem.

https://www.walmart.com/ip/3-IN-ONE...z-And-RV-Care-Window-Track-Dry-Lube/207368753

Frozen doors and windows have and will always happen. I'm not sure how owning a Tesla would change anything.

I've lived in the Midwest for 7 winters, parking outside exclusively. On one occasion did I have trouble opening an ICE door... when the car itself was covered in ice. This is the second time I've had this problem with my Model 3 in 2 months of ownership, and in relatively mild winter conditions. The undeniable flaw is that the windows must recede for the door to open. Furthermore, the window is not freezing at the top of the door, it's freezing inside the door (or a mechanism responsible for lowering the window is frozen). If applying lube to the windows is the solution, that should be done prior to delivery and included in the Owner's Manual. I was hoping the software update would've resolved the issue, but this morning's episode proved that it is inadequate.
 
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I've lived in the Midwest for 7 winters, parking outside exclusively. On one occasion did I have trouble opening an ICE door... when the car itself was covered in ice. This is the second time I've had this problem with my Model 3 in 2 months of ownership, and in relatively mild winter conditions. The undeniable flaw is that the windows must recede for the door to open. Furthermore, the window is not freezing at the top of the door, it's freezing inside the door (or a mechanism responsible for lowering the window is frozen). If applying lube to the windows is the solution, that should be done prior to delivery and included in the Owner's Manual. I was hoping the software update would've resolved the issue, but this morning's episode proved that it is inadequate.

I had a frameless car window EONS ago and experienced frozen windows. Tesla provided a software update that somewhat alleviates us of the issue, however, frameless windows have and will ALWAYS present challenges.

I have a kia amanti in my driveway right now here in Chicago and the windows won't go down due to the fact that it's frozen, but who cares because I don't need the window to move. All I need is for the door to open. This morning - it was kind of a struggle to get the door open. The passenger door opened as it wasn't facing the frozen rain coming down and I had to climb in and push the drivers door open.
I consider this - the nature of the beast. Its not a KIA problem.

I'm not yet confident that a frozen Tesla door in freezing weather is an abnormality. Now..I will say this because I'm totally perplexed as to how the window mechanism could get frozen as I'm intimately familiar with how the window motor is designed inside the door. I've had my door panel and interior panel of the door off many times as I've added a modification that I will divulge at a later time.

Lastly - I applied the dry lube to my windows tracks myself a while back and they haven't presented even a hint of an issue. Only took 10 minutes.
 
Nice sarcastic reply.

I have a suspicion that the people complaining about these problems have not had them, or at least not to the same degree with their other vehicles.

I would have to agree with you on many fronts. First of all...yes it was sarcastic. I just can't believe that frozen water ( ICE ) would be something that is considered as something exposing a defect in the car.

I am aware of the Tesla audience in that its fortunate that many of us haven't had to experience these problems ( for many reasons ). Just trying to alert folks that this ICE problem is much more common among those who haven't every owned a Tesla ( for various reasons I care not to get into ).

This is an extremely common issue where I grew up........Not so much where I live now - where Tesla's aren't really considered elite.
 
I would have to agree with you on many fronts. First of all...yes it was sarcastic. I just can't believe that frozen water ( ICE ) would be something that is considered as something exposing a defect in the car.

I am aware of the Tesla audience in that its fortunate that many of us haven't had to experience these problems ( for many reasons ). Just trying to alert folks that this ICE problem is much more common among those who haven't every owned a Tesla ( for various reasons I care not to get into ).

This is an extremely common issue where I grew up........Not so much where I live now - where Tesla's aren't really considered elite.

It comes down to what the problem is. We know that part of the problem for sure is the frameless window design that allows any moisture in the window seal to freeze around the window preventing the car from retracting it when opening or closing the door.

It also appears that some owners are having trouble with the latching or locking mechanism itself. There are photos of cars with door handles frozen open... as well as people who have thawed the area around the door but still can't open the door.

If Tesla has a flaw in their latch/lock design that is allowing it to either seize up in cold weather or it's allowing moisture in that is rendering it inoperable that is a serious issue that other cars don't have and Tesla needs to get it resolved.

Tesla has pretty much exhausted their supply of eager early adopter customers who will put up with this crap. Someone who buys a Tesla Model 3 because it drives better than a BMW 330i doesn't give a crap about Tesla's "mission" if the car doesn't perform well in cold climates.
 
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Tesla has pretty much exhausted their supply of eager early adopter customers who will put up with this crap. Someone who buys a Tesla Model 3 because it drives better than a BMW 330i doesn't give a crap about Tesla's "mission" if the car doesn't perform well in cold climates.

Link to proof?

Show us where all of these people are. I haven't seen one article anywhere yet. Not even from Canada. Not even this thread @ ONLY 5 pages deep and we are half way through winter. 90K Teslas sold last quarter with no huge numbers of winter issues. Where are the articles and such that you are quoting from concerning large numbers of people with winter issues?

Shouldn't people like this be having insane winter issues? Read the article. Watch the video.

Watch Tesla Model 3 drift around on snow track

Mine performs very well in cold climates so far. I live in Chicago. Its 19 right now with frozen rain coming down. and my P3D+ is doing just fine.

No frozen anything. I have no "problems" as you have stated above. My frameless window isn't a "problem" at all. My doors aren't frozen...etc.

FUD until proof/link.
 
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