Tesla door handle failure - pivot gear (anyone have one I can buy?)

[NuclearPowered]

-B rev of this part is now in stock at Tesla.

Driver door handle failed 4 days ago, Tesla Scottsdale ordered it Monday morning, got the part plus 3 extras today. Cost was 5 bucks. 1 hour fix following the Rich Rebuilds YouTube video for removal and reinstall of door handle, with one exception.

There is no need to mess with the microswitch screws, the broken pivot gear slips out with the handle pushed into full extended position. .

 

[brkaus]

Are people with failed padels closing the door by pushing on the open/extended handle?

Or is the motor over extending?

I don’t see why these break.

 

[Marc_GA]

After about an hour of playing with the car for my first time replacing the pivot gear I was successful. It was the passenger rear. If I had to do it again it's easily 30 minutes or less.

Unfortunately I had to do an executive escalation to get them to sell me the part. The line from the SC was that it wasn't sold individually and you had to buy the whole assembly.

End of the day I paid a little over a dollar for the gear and spent an hour of my time replacing it. I'm actually surprised at how easy this was to replace and there were a number of references in this thread I used. Good luck to anyone else with this issue.

 

[Marc_GA]

Are people with failed padels closing the door by pushing on the open/extended handle?

Or is the motor over extending?

I've had 2 fail now, drivers side (used all the time) and passenger rear (which my kids use to get into the car most of the times we drive it). I don't push on the handle, only on the edge of the door so I think it just fails with use.

The limit switch stops the motor prior to full extension.

 

[EVTuning]

-B rev of this part is now in stock at Tesla.

Driver door handle failed 4 days ago, Tesla Scottsdale ordered it Monday morning, got the part plus 3 extras today. Cost was 5 bucks. 1 hour fix following the Rich Rebuilds YouTube video for removal and reinstall of door handle, with one exception.

There is no need to mess with the microswitch screws, the broken pivot gear slips out with the handle pushed into full extended position. .

Ha cool that you saw that video. I'm amazed at how many views it got. I was one of the "hand models/heavy breathing camera guy" he refers to in the video and that was my garage we shot it in lol.

Starting next week I will have a complete rebuild kit including a stainless steel machined gear, both microswitches, new e-clip for the shaft the gear rides on, new door panel clips, and the push nuts to keep the vapor barrier from falling off the door handle and causing butyl to run on the window glass. Price is going to be $149.95 with introductory price of 129.95 for everything per handle. We are also going to offer a $350.00 rebuild service where you can send us your handle and we will rebuild it for you and send it back. (no firmware required since it's your original door handle vs. buying used online and then having firmware errors.)

 

[jwinskowski]

Anyone have two extra paddle gears they'd like to sell me? Tried to go directly through CS and the local shop and was told they couldn't sell me the individual part. Major bummer...

 

[EVTuning]

Tesla Model S Stainless Steel "Paddle Gear" Replacement for 1042845-00-A

 

[Marc_GA]

Anyone have two extra paddle gears they'd like to sell me? Tried to go directly through CS and the local shop and was told they couldn't sell me the individual part. Major bummer...

Executive review under support on your Tesla account works. Too bad you have to resort to this.

 

[EVTuning]

So one of the main issues besides the paddle gear breaking one or both of the mounting ears is the microswitch harness.

Tesla is no longer offering the microswitch harness separately and instead they make you retrofit to a handle with a hall effect sensor, a new module, plastic vapor barrier and adapter harness.

Sometimes the harness breaks right at the switch and you can redo the solder for the wire to the switch. Other times it breaks somewhere else and either water gets in and it corrodes or it just snaps in half. I have redesigned the harness with a much more flexible wire. The area where the wire solders to the switches is weatherproofed with a resin and factory switches, terminals and connector are used to make it 100% plug and play. I also updated the routing of the wiring harness to ensure that it isn't stressed and has flexibility for movement with the handle linkage. See photo's below or click the link.

Next step is going to be a new handle "chassis" where the switches will be fixed mounted and the linkage will actuate the switch. It will be a complete solution for people looking to upgrade in the future.

 

[markb1]

Tesla Model S Stainless Steel "Paddle Gear" Replacement for 1042845-00-A

$70?!

 

[EVTuning]

$70?!

Yes $70.00 each. The price does includes shipping in the US. It's made of machined stainless steel not cast like the factory piece. They're not cheap to make or to design. I'm not making thousands at a time the way Tesla's supplier does and machining it takes a lot more time per unit.

 

[EVTuning]

Starting seeing the gear on the motor cracking and breaking so now I have a separate replacement for that as well. Replacement door handle motor gear

 

[brkaus]

@EVTuning Does the higher strength paddle & gear just transfer the problem to the next weak link? And what would that be?

I'm still speculating that the cracked paddles are coming from people pushing their doors closed using the door handle. That's the only way I see high stress on those parts. Of course repetitive motion breaks things too...

BTW - pretty cool that people are making replacement parts that improve on the original! Have to consider this once I'm past warranty.

 

[EVTuning]

@EVTuning Does the higher strength paddle & gear just transfer the problem to the next weak link? And what would that be?

I'm still speculating that the cracked paddles are coming from people pushing their doors closed using the door handle. That's the only way I see high stress on those parts. Of course repetitive motion breaks things too...

Typically the micro switches fail so the handle doesn’t know it’s position so the handle over extends. Also just the shear number of times in and out especially if you have it set so all 4 handles present all the time if you’re the only one getting in puts unnecessary wear on components. The rest of the handle linkage is seriously beefy. There isn’t anything aside from the motor or module itself to fail at that point. Tesla has the proprietary upper hand on both those components..... for now anyways.

 

[Barry]

I'm still speculating that the cracked paddles are coming from people pushing their doors closed using the door handle

I had one replaced. I've NEVER touch the handle when closing the door.

 

[Rockster]

Now that I'm out of warranty I've disabled auto present. It saves wear and tear every time I walk past the car in the garage and now that only the driver's handle extends, and must be pressed to do so, the other three handles don't extend if only the driver is getting in the car, which is probably more than half the time.

And I can vouch for the EVTuning Solution's $149 kit. I've repaired two handles this way and knowing that the door handles now feature a stainless steel gear and improved microswitches is great peace of mind.

 

[REDFIVE48]

Had my 4th one break on me just the other day (2015 with 78K mi). Handle presented, I opened the door and released the handle. It slammed itself back into the closed position and I knew the handle was broken. Very frustrating, but am not paying Tesla for a new assembly this time thanks to this thread and YouTube.

 

[Rockster]

Had my 4th one break on me just the other day (2015 with 78K mi). Handle presented, I opened the door and released the handle. It slammed itself back into the closed position and I knew the handle was broken. Very frustrating, but am not paying Tesla for a new assembly this time thanks to this thread and YouTube.

To supplement the various videos out there, I made some detailed notes on replacing the handles and posted them on Scribd. I talk about it on this thread.

 

[Max*]

So for people who ordered the Paddle/Pivot gear 1042845-00-A or 1042845-00-B from Tesla, how did you do it?

I called my local service center, their parts department has a voicemail which cuts me off (so I can't leave a message) and the regular service number has a long wait time. I emailed customerservice@tesla waiting for a response, but is there a better approach/email for this?


Also, does anyone have a part number for the actual little gear that the paddle connects with? I might as well order both just in case.

 

[EVTuning]

So for people who ordered the Paddle/Pivot gear 1042845-00-A or 1042845-00-B from Tesla, how did you do it?

I called my local service center, their parts department has a voicemail which cuts me off (so I can't leave a message) and the regular service number has a long wait time. I emailed customerservice@tesla waiting for a response, but is there a better approach/email for this?


Also, does anyone have a part number for the actual little gear that the paddle connects with? I might as well order both just in case.

Look up rich Rebuilds I did a complete door handle replacement video with him. You’d be better served to buy the entire kit from me with upgraded components. We now make an upgraded gear for the motor too, which you won’t find in the Tesla parts catalog. We have over 1k kits sold and zero failures. Door Handle