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Question about door handles

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Takes up to an hour?!?! You are kidding.

The first time just R&I a door handle is 2 hours with decent skill level. I have replaced engine heads/dropped trannies for clutches/changed engines - as well as tons of smaller interior stuff - and I had to remove door panels a second time because alignment wasn't right. In fact, right now, my door handle is not quite flush on the second one I did. Because rear isn't quite the same as front. And I dread getting in there again.

Experience may differ :)
Took me about 45 min to do my first one. I watched a few videos beforehand and I went to work, it all came apart easily and quickly. hardest part was getting it back in there, had to maneuver it all which what ways to at it to slide in the tiny space it yeah easy and simple job. :cool:
 
Takes up to an hour?!?! You are kidding.

The first time just R&I a door handle is 2 hours with decent skill level. I have replaced engine heads/dropped trannies for clutches/changed engines - as well as tons of smaller interior stuff - and I had to remove door panels a second time because alignment wasn't right. In fact, right now, my door handle is not quite flush on the second one I did. Because rear isn't quite the same as front. And I dread getting in there again.

When Tesla will install a new gen for $400, who really wants to go through that for $180. I would argue that less than 10% of owners probably have the skill set to be able to do it at all.

The other issue is that Tesla jacked up the parts prices - like $20 for wiring harness to like $120. The gear paddle was $5 but I think it is more like $50 now - which isn't nothing..... Sounds like their pricing is encouraging going to the Gen 3 handles (or buying a new car)

But that Teslarati price of $180 for a rebuild kit is just as absurd. It is replacing what was $25 in Tesla parts just a few months ago. Sure - they are better but the MTBF of a Gen 2 door handle is about 4 years. And since anyone can do it in under an hour - why spend so much on parts?/s

Just did this tonight; service centre sold me the updated paddle gear, which appears to be stainless, for $8 CDN. Took me about 2 hours start to finish. that includes finding my heat gun and heating up the sealer to re-adhere it to the gasket. That top rear bolt is the bitch; Loosening it and tightening it was not too bad, but hard to get the door unit off of it due to lack of clearance, and hard to put it back on it.

I agree with you though: The ev tuning rebuild kit is on sale for $140. With $40 shipping for me that is $180. Not worth it IMO. I might as well pay $150 more or so for the gen3 version with the hall sensor instead of microswitches. But for $8 mine should be good for another 5 years, as the wires were fine.
 
Any insight by members as to what a handle issue may be if the handle extends and retracts fine with puddle light fine too yet the handle pulls limp and does not open the door and when it extends fully it extends even more so than usual and pulsates at the more than fully extended position?
 
I had my handle replaced under warranty sometime this year I’m out of warranty now but can you please explain is there on mileage or year warranty on the new handle replacement because I know I’m under a year but I don’t know how many miles I drove this year which could have a go above warranty[/
Iirc it’s a flat year. If you can find your invoice that’s a good place to start and will show your mileage as well.
 
This happened to my passenger front door handle when a friend was leaning on the door handle while it was coming out. The door handle stopped working. However, I believe when I reseated the fuse for the door handles, it reset. Maybe try that. I believe I also tried a factory reset but not sure if that one worked. I believe reseating the door handle fuse helped me.
 
Just did this tonight; service centre sold me the updated paddle gear, which appears to be stainless, for $8 CDN. Took me about 2 hours start to finish. that includes finding my heat gun and heating up the sealer to re-adhere it to the gasket. That top rear bolt is the bitch; Loosening it and tightening it was not too bad, but hard to get the door unit off of it due to lack of clearance, and hard to put it back on it.

There is a trick to get a bit more room. When door is opened, window retracts a bit. If you twiddle a bit with the door lock mechanism, you can trick the car into thinking the door is closed and it will push the window fully up. This gives more room..

Just be sure the window is back to normal position before closing the door, or you might break the window. :)
 
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@besnova thanks yeah I went into both fuse boxes in the frunk near the bottom of the windshield and all the fuses felt inserted firmly and fine. I took out the fuses for door controls(maybe #41) and rear door handles(maybe #30) and it didn't resolve the passenger front door handle issue. I did a reboot holding the scrolls also last week before trying the fuses.

What steps did you follow for the factory reset and how does this affect the vehicle settings and all?
 
I looked back and apparently instead of replacing the handle it looks like they just reassembled it, which is probably why this problem came about now instead of being prevented:
View attachment 611493

I just can't wait for my other door handles to fail...
It's a wonderful "parlor trick" much like the X falcon wing doors, and Tesla no doubt has paid a fortune constantly repairing them which leads me to believe any future models won't see them returning.
 
There is a trick to get a bit more room. When door is opened, window retracts a bit. If you twiddle a bit with the door lock mechanism, you can trick the car into thinking the door is closed and it will push the window fully up. This gives more room..

Just be sure the window is back to normal position before closing the door, or you might break the window. :)

I used that trick to tint the windows.

When looking down at the bolt, I think it might have been better if the window was down, not up, as the bottom of the window track where it clamps the bottom of the glass was a little thicker reducing space. I could have reattached the power and lowered it but didn't bother; just took an extra few minutes. It’s done now!
 
After my appointment finished this morning, the service technician said he replaced the handle with a new V3 handle and that it comes with a warranty. He also said it only has something like 2 connections/wires instead of 17 in the old version. A software update had to be installed and was continuing to run when the appointment was finished. I'll post the WO once I get it.
 
@Pluto Nice and congrats on the fix. Did the tech share what the problem was with that particular handle? Any chance it was a goodwill repair?
I didn't ask what the problem was but I assume it's this:
The paddle gear is broken. It’s about $280 for newest gen handle. the paddle on the new ones is supposed to be stronger than the original ones.
It looks like the labor was goodwill and parts were not. It ended up being $268 for parts and another $25 for taxes, for a total of $293. I don't know if the parts include the cost of labor already or if this was a goodwill repair (and whether it's specific to me/my situation or all door handle replacements). I hadn't asked any questions about the cost before they posted the invoice and my situation seemed like a routine thing (outside of the previous door handle repair). Overall I'm satisfied with the outcome.
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