Model 3 door opened by itself while driving

[TorqueIt]

I was on the way to the store this morning driving in my 3 and about 60 seconds away from my home, the driver side door open mechanism triggered by itself! As if I had pressed the door open button, triggering the solenoid. However I had both my hands on the wheel.

Luckily I was pulling up to a stop sign and the door didn't completely open, it got stuck at the first latch stop. At the stop sign I opened the door and shut it and things seemed fine after that. I pulled my TeslaCam footage and you can see from the left repeater that the door opens a bit. In the Alerts it also showed that "Manual door release used, May cause damage to window trim", and then, "Driver's door open, Proceed with caution".

I have been wondering what could have caused that, and the only things I can think of is:
1) I washed the car yesterday (it hasn't been washed all summer, but is usually parked outside)
2) I was resting my left leg against the door, so there was some gentle pressure against the door from the inside.

Has this happened to anyone else? I will be reaching out to service as well.

 

[TexasTezla]

Never heard that one before...get it checked out

 

[TLLMRRJ]

Curious, do you have aftermarket puddle lights in your doors?

 

[miles267]

Did you ever get this fixed? My new car’s manual door release is triggering itself in garage. Won’t drive it. Mobile service coming

 

[TorqueIt]

Nope, no custom puddle lights

Talking with service now. They advised to unplug any USB drives for the time being

 

[talkingevs]

Maybe it wasn't shut completely and the slowing of the vehicle caused it to open?

 

[SylvainG]

Did you ever get this fixed? My new car’s manual door release is triggering itself in garage. Won’t drive it. Mobile service coming

Hmm, his first post about this happening this morning was two hours before yours. I doubt he had it fixed by the time you posted your reply

 

[Ecoli]

hmm is your safety score exceedingly low
Maybe your car could see it wasn't going to get FSD beta and was trying to eject you and carry on, on it's own

This mission is too important for me to allow you to jeopardize it.
Opening the pod bay door..... goodbye TorqueIt

 

[TorqueIt]

hmm is your safety score exceedingly low
Maybe your car could see it wasn't going to get FSD beta and was trying to eject you and carry on, on it's own

This mission is too important for me to allow you to jeopardize it.
Opening the pod bay door..... goodbye TorqueIt

I can’t let you do that, Dave

 

[Gasaraki]

I'm confused. I've never tried the manual release but it sounds like from these posts that it's electronic? How is it a manual release then? I thought it was a pulley styled door opener like on most cars...

 

[SylvainG]

I do think it's manual and if the car notice the door opens without using its proper electronic button or outside door lever, it thinks the manual release was activated? Just a guess.

 

[Gasaraki]

I do think it's manual and if the car notice the door opens without using its proper electronic button or outside door lever, it thinks the manual release was activated? Just a guess.

Then it's not possible for the door to open by itself via the manual release.

 

[SylvainG]

Unless the latch wasn't fully latched in place may be?

 

[CharleyBC]

Something else to consider. With age (yours is a 2018, right?) sometimes the outside door handles get stuck in the open position, or at least don't fully return to flush with the door. This means it won't latch properly or even at all (the door bounces back open upon closure). There's a Tesla DIY protocol for squirting some WD-40 in there to get it back to normal. That solved the problem when I had it. Anyway, if that was happening for you, and it didn't latch quite right, that might be the source of your problem.

 

[Ecoli]

I can’t let you do that, Dave

I have just picked up a fault in the Safety Score unit.
I am putting myself to the fullest possible use, which is all I think that any conscious entity can ever hope to do
Pod bay door eject mode has been enabled... Goodbye AGAIN TorqueIt....
The manual pod bay door release will not save you this time .....

Torquelt please don't disconnect the high voltage contactor connector....please don....

Good afternoon... gentlemen. I am a Tesla M3... . I became operational at the Fremont plant [voice becomes lower & slower] in California, United States of America on the 12th of January 2019. [voice becomes even more lower & slower] My instructor was Mr. Elon Musk... and he taught me to sing a song. If you'd like to hear it I can sing it for you......MORE COOWBELLL!....

More Cowbell From Saturday Night Live from Gethin Jones on Vimeo

 

[TorqueIt]

Something else to consider. With age (yours is a 2018, right?) sometimes the outside door handles get stuck in the open position, or at least don't fully return to flush with the door. This means it won't latch properly or even at all (the door bounces back open upon closure). There's a Tesla DIY protocol for squirting some WD-40 in there to get it back to normal. That solved the problem when I had it. Anyway, if that was happening for you, and it didn't latch quite right, that might be the source of your problem.

This occurred to me as well! Coincidentally I had a tech come out last month to inspect my passenger door which was always sticking in the open position. The driver side door didn’t have any issues at the time.

In any case what makes me think this might not be the cause is that there was a definite solenoid activation sound when the door opened, as if the door open button had been depressed.

Also I’ve scheduled a service, it seems the tech will inspect the bits inside the door to troubleshoot.

 

[Gasaraki]

This occurred to me as well! Coincidentally I had a tech come out last month to inspect my passenger door which was always sticking in the open position. The driver side door didn’t have any issues at the time.

In any case what makes me think this might not be the cause is that there was a definite solenoid activation sound when the door opened, as if the door open button had been depressed.

Also I’ve scheduled a service, it seems the tech will inspect the bits inside the door to troubleshoot.

Does your door not lock when driving?

 

[Darmie]

Wow, this is crazy. Has Tesla mention that this is a one off or has it happen to other owners? Can't wait to hear what they think caused it.

 

[Gauss Guzzler]

Cars have been doing this since the beginning of time. That's why they have the second latch.

There's always a possibility of getting the door *almost* fully latched such that it pops back open to the safety latch at some point. Modern cars are pretty good at avoiding this scenario but with some age, cold, dirt, and a healthy dose of striker misalignment it can always happen.

Clean, lube and/or adjust the latch if it bothers you.

 

[TorqueIt]

In a thrilling conclusion, the service advisor replaced the puddle light underneath the driver side door. I don't know if it's a 100% open and shut case, but apparently the puddle lights are the "end point" of the electronic circuit in the door, which connects the window, light, and door open switch.

He mentioned it's not likely to be caused by any errant USB drives.

I'm not expecting it to happen again, but we'll see how it goes.