Model X Falcon Door Leak

[Oldrocky]

Hi,
Our 2018 Model X 100D leaks (drips heavily) whenever there is any water on the
top of the car and the falcon door is opened. Both sides - left side more than
right. I'm talking water coming in and puddling right on the seat/person sitting
there.
What is probably wrong and what is the fix?
- Jim in PNW where it rains a LOT

 

[kvs25]

fix is to keep a towel in the car, seriously.

 

[mxnym]

Mine doesn't do this. IIRC, other threads indicate service center used to fix this but then started calling it a characteristic of the doors. I vaguely remember someone coming up with a fix (or at least improvement) other than what the service center does and posting a thread somewhere in this forum, but I couldn't point you toward that thread.

 

[Oldrocky]

fix is to keep a towel in the car, seriously.

KVS25,

We are already doing that - but, at least to my way of thinking, the falcon door
car should not cascade a lot of water onto the passengers every time you open
them and it is either raining and/or there is water on top of the door/glass roof.
We live in the PNW (60 miles North of Seattle). It rains here - a lot. That's not a
surprise. The design of the seals for the falcon doors should handle this.

"Gee, NICE car, I love the way the rear doors open up like a bird taking flight.
Hold on, what is this towel here in the back seat?"

"Oh that - well you see Tesla is so interested in their customers that
they included a free shower."
- Jim

 

[Oldrocky]

Mine doesn't do this. IIRC, other threads indicate service center used to fix this but then started calling it a characteristic of the doors. I vaguely remember someone coming up with a fix (or at least improvement) other than what the service center does and posting a thread somewhere in this forum, but I couldn't point you toward that thread.

mznym - where do you live? Or are you saying that your MX doesn't drip/flood when you open the falcon wing doors?
- Jim in the PNW

 

[mxnym]

mznym - where do you live? Or are you saying that your MX doesn't drip/flood when you open the falcon wing doors?
- Jim in the PNW

I'm in Indiana, and I may have seen water on the middle row one time. In that case, it was torrential rain and there was literally a constant layer of water trying to flow off of the roof when I opened them. Even still, that was long enough ago that I couldn't tell you for sure it wasn't a loaner. I have opened both FWD in rain with no water on the middle row plenty of times before and since then.

 

[TJPDX]

KVS25,

We are already doing that - but, at least to my way of thinking, the falcon door
car should not cascade a lot of water onto the passengers every time you open
them and it is either raining and/or there is water on top of the door/glass roof.
We live in the PNW (60 miles North of Seattle). It rains here - a lot. That's not a
surprise. The design of the seals for the falcon doors should handle this.

"Gee, NICE car, I love the way the rear doors open up like a bird taking flight.
Hold on, what is this towel here in the back seat?"

"Oh that - well you see Tesla is so interested in their customers that
they included a free shower."
- Jim

Yep, happens all the time with ours. Im in PDX and like others have said there is no fix for this other then a towel. What Ive found helps a little is to open the doors just a little bit first, just enough to get a slight angle on the top part of the door and the water starts running off, then open fully.

What they could have done is add a little lip across the top where the door opens up, or extending the rubber seal thats against the top of the car when doors are opened. Having the rubber push slightly against the top of the car would create a barrier for the rain to slide down to the back of the car instead.

I took my car to the SC once to get it "fixed", they only pulled a little on the gaskets around the door opening to make it sit slightly higher, but it did nothing

 

[ngng]

because your car was designed in CA lol

you can buy some of this trim and stick it to your roof to help channel the water:

1/4'' X 10 ft HALF ROUND BLACK TRIM ACCENT BLACK MOLDING UNIVERSAL 0.25" Wide | eBay

10 foot roll of 1/4" wide flexible interior/exterior automotive grade black trim molding with a half round profile. This small 1/4" trim is a great way to accent and add style to many areas of your vehicles surface.

www.ebay.com

 

[mbp11]

because your car was designed in CA lol

you can buy some of this trim and stick it to your roof to help channel the water:

1/4'' X 10 ft HALF ROUND BLACK TRIM ACCENT BLACK MOLDING UNIVERSAL 0.25" Wide | eBay

10 foot roll of 1/4" wide flexible interior/exterior automotive grade black trim molding with a half round profile. This small 1/4" trim is a great way to accent and add style to many areas of your vehicles surface.

www.ebay.com

Thanks for posting this link, ngng, I did this to my car and I have had no leaks of water into the car at all from the FWDs. I will see if I can find the link, it was originally posted by Mr Ed, but the solution works great. The service center marvels at this clever solution.

 

[mbp11]

Taah, Daah! Here it is:

How bad are Falcon Wing doors?

Forum posts from complainers can give a totally false representation of these amazing doors. They open and close in under 5 seconds, operate silently, don't leak for me, make an amazing presentation and make Model X a unique ownership experience. Kids and adults have been slamming their...

teslamotorsclub.com

 

[Batt Car]

Had a leak early when I bought it(2017). Service center replaced the gaskets and to this day never have water drip in, even when I open the doors in a downpour. See if they can replace your gaskets.

 

[Unclepaul]

Tesla has an updated weather stripping that is supposed to address this issue.

 

[Oldrocky]

Hi all,

I have a possible solution to the way the falcon doors leak water - heavily - into the interior when
you open them. Does anyone know how I should go about getting this proposal to the person(s)
who will listen to it and investigate it? My solution does not involve any physical changes to the
car (Model X) but rather only software.
- Jim in the PNW

 

[Oldrocky]

... I've been told that Tesla 'monitors' these forums. I don't have a lot of faith that they will see
this (my suggestion for a software only fix) but just in case ...

My idea is to have the FWD open just slightly and then pause for a bit and -then- open fully.
My observation is that the reason for the water flowing into the passenger compartment is
that the water on top of the door runs down the door and the sheer quantity of it overwhelms
the capacity of the existing water channel .... so it overflows and runs into the car.

I don't know how long that pause should be - that's for some engineer to test and determine.
I also don't know how far the door should open before it pauses. Other potential 'options'
-might- be to have it "just know" when to pause and when not to ... such as "if the wipers
have been on in the past half hour" or "if the windshield is wet (wiper sensor)" or what ever.
I don't even know if it will work best if the driver is tasked with telling the car to pause when
necessary.
One of the beauties of this proposal is that it is "software only".

I have heard that there are replacement seals that supposedly fix this. I'm skeptical about
that since the real problem is the amount of water streaming down off the top of the door
when you open it and I just don't believe that any change to the seals themselves would
fix the amount of over flow I'm seeing. I'm willing to try them and will contact service
about them.

Another possible factor is that I have had my car "ceramiced" and it is possible that the
beaded up water standing on my car is more than the engineers understand will be there.

I will try the new seals - and report back. And I'll try to figure out how to "get to" someone
from Tesla to hear my suggestion.

TESLA - if you are listening and have heard this ... please let me know!
- Jim in the PNW

 

[JoRoBa]

Hello!

This is my first post on this forum, but during my search for a solution to the falcon door water dump I stumbled on this thread.

After struggling with opening the doors half way during rain, and trying water repellent on the seals, and getting a proce quote from Tesla at 9 000 swedish crowns (cirka 1000 dollars) for a double replacement to the newer weather resistant seals, I came up with a solution inspired by Mr Ed. I wanted to share my solution with you guys.

The main issue I had with Mr Eds solution was the esthetics with 2 visible seals on the roof. I therefore placed them on top of the original seals from piston to piston. Since then no water dump into the car
Also no problems with the double seals, both original and extra are very soft and easily compressable.

//RB

 

[mbp11]

Very clever!