My fourth, and final, door handle has died

[wayner]

My car is now 8 years old - Model S P85D. I had two door handles stop presenting in the first four years while still under warranty. Another handle died a couple of years ago. Just in the last week or so the passenger rear died.

This seems to happen more in the winter - do Canadians have more issues with this than Americans due to the motors having to work harder when you have some icing on the door?

Do other Canadians with > 5 year old Model Ss have similar experiences to me?

 

[Bitjockey]

I had 2 failures on my S85D, both replaced under warranty. Good idea not to auto present, less wear and tear. Doubt it's an icing issue, probably just wire breaking from the microswitch.

 

[Lon12]

I had all four replaced within three years on my 2014 S. So not even >5 years old when it happened.

 

[Tony_YYZ]

They still haven’t solved the door handle issue on the S’. Anecdotally, I’ve seen a few vids of 2021 S handles giving up as well.

 

[Category5]

yep same here replaced all four on my 2015 S 70D. two under warranty and two others on my own dime. hoping they hold up for a while now...

 

[mrElbe]

Currently my passenger rear Gen3 door handle does not present. It's a Gen3 because the 2019 accident door replacement body shop installed that. I suspect a broken paddle gear. I have 2 new ones in stock. Also driver side rear door handle refuses to retract intermittently. A car wash resurrects its function. It's too cold these days to tackle them.

 

[gavinli2007123]

You can do a rebuild on the door handles. Its actually a relatively simple procedure, and parts are pretty cheap. I did this job for a couple of my friends, and its really easy. Hit me up if you want me to do it for ya.

 

[mrElbe]

You can do a rebuild on the door handles. Its actually a relatively simple procedure, and parts are pretty cheap. I did this job for a couple of my friends, and its really easy. Hit me up if you want me to do it for ya.

Thanks for the offer, I have rebuilt my other ones also. Just waiting for nicer weather to do it in the driveway.

 

[TrevTremaine]

I managed to get 5 years on a 2017 S without any issues before trade-in. To be honest, I always cringed when they presented after breaking through the ice. That said, there weren't that many days where there was ice and sometimes I was smart enough to get a pitcher of warm water to pour over it before bringing keys toward it.

 

[wayner]

Wouldn't you know that on the weekend I had the driver's door handle die. That makes five of them - this is the second time for the driver's door handle. It wasn't icey when it died this time - it seemed to die after I stopped at the Belleville SC on my way to Ottawa.

 

[a10ha10ha7]

the oem paddle gears use a plastic bushings and zinc for the paddle gear. after my 2nd handle broke i decided to make some out of marine stainless steel and copper bushings. i've got still got a bunch of them if anyone is interested