Totally non-responsice FWD

[Muzzman1]

Hi Everyone, *responsive (can't edit titles, sorry)
We've had my Wife's X for about a week now, other than minor things, we have had no issues. Today, after 2.15.50, my wife took the X on her 1st long trip. She took the babies and her sister to Disneyland. (100 miles round trip)
When their day was done, the passenger FWD would not open. (I figured she was doing something wrong)
Once she arrived home I checked it out, and sure enough, holding the top of the key while doube-clicking the door (by passing sensors), holding the b-pillar actuator up/down for 30 secs at a time, resetting IC & MCU, pressing the door handle and still NOTHING. No beeps, no movement no nothing.
Has anyone had this and was able to resolve it w/o a service center visit?
I called TMC, and they left the service center a message to call me in the morning.
Problem is now, this is my wife's only car, and she has a million things she has to do all day with the kids, so it's going to SUCK (for me) because of the whole "happy wife, happy life" thing. She's going to have to get a trip into the SC on her schedule somehow.
Any advice is more than welcome here.

 

[ModelXBoy]

Hi Everyone, *responsive (can't edit titles, sorry)
We've had my Wife's X for about a week now, other than minor things, we have had no issues. Today, after 2.15.50, my wife took the X on her 1st long trip. She took the babies and her sister to Disneyland. (100 miles round trip)
When their day was done, the passenger FWD would not open. (I figured she was doing something wrong)
Once she arrived home I checked it out, and sure enough, holding the top of the key while doube-clicking the door (by passing sensors), holding the b-pillar actuator up/down for 30 secs at a time, resetting IC & MCU, pressing the door handle and still NOTHING. No beeps, no movement no nothing.
Has anyone had this and was able to resolve it w/o a service center visit?
I called TMC, and they left the service center a message to call me in the morning.
Problem is now, this is my wife's only car, and she has a million things she has to do all day with the kids, so it's going to SUCK (for me) because of the whole "happy wife, happy life" thing. She's going to have to get a trip into the SC on her schedule somehow.
Any advice is more than welcome here.

Sorry to hear your problem, first of all if you browse the forum, many many people including myself are having problems with the doors. In my case it's the front and passenger doors. In regarding to FWD, i did not even have time to play around with it before it entered the SC for fixes. Maybe if you page @Mark Z, he might be able to try to help you since he has the early sig x and has so many experiences with the car. Unfortunately this is a known issue and I have not found a way to fix it without involving Tesla SC. I hope you can get this issue fixed asap. Good luck!

 

[Mark Z]

...Any advice is more than welcome here.

Unfortunately, I had the exact same situation in the first month. The falcon wing door was unpowered, except for the electric pull-in at the close. The loss of the electric door assist gave me the opportunity to try the manual method of pulling the wire behind the speaker grill to unlatch and then lift the heavy door manually. Manual closing takes time and effort as well. It is MUCH better to use the remaining working falcon wing door.

Only a visit to a Service Center was the solution. That FWD has never failed again as it did back then.

Now my front passenger door is experiencing a worse problem. I left the vehicle at the Service Center last week. No manual method is available to latch the door fully. The vehicle was deemed unsafe to operate by the service manager at the Service Center. I understand. Who wants to drive a car that triple beeps continuously with a door that is partially latched. The cruise control and AP don't work with a door ajar and the vehicle could only be locked by pressing the lock icon on the touchscreen.

 

[Muzzman1]

Unfortunately, I had the exact same situation in the first month. The falcon wing door was unpowered, except for the electric pull-in at the close. The loss of the electric door assist gave me the opportunity to try the manual method of pulling the wire behind the speaker grill to unlatch and then lift the heavy door manually. Manual closing takes time and effort as well. It is MUCH better to use the remaining working falcon wing door.

Only a visit to a Service Center was the solution. That FWD has never failed again as it did back then.

Now my front passenger door is experiencing a worse problem. I left the vehicle at the Service Center last week. No manual method is available to latch the door fully. The vehicle was deemed unsafe to operate by the service manager at the Service Center. I understand. Who wants to drive a car that triple beeps continuously with a door that is partially latched. The cruise control and AP don't work with a door ajar and the vehicle could only be locked by pressing the lock icon on the touchscreen.

Thanks for the info. Do you happen to know what the SC had to do to fix it? Hopefully no parts were needed?

 

[digicool]

@Muzzman1, looks like your is one of the recent builds. Do you mind sharing what your approx. VIN is?

 

[Muzzman1]

@Muzzman1, looks like your is one of the recent builds. Do you mind sharing what your approx. VIN is?

Don't mind at all. It's 001985. I actually was thinking is wasn't one of the early builds!

 

[MileHighMotoring]

I thought you were talking about front wheel drive. I really detest that people are calling the doors FWD (nothing personal against OP, it's becoming more widespread). It's such a commonly used abbreviation in the automotive world (and has been for 100 years)

 

[Muzzman1]

I thought you were talking about front wheel drive. I really detest that people are calling the doors FWD (nothing personal against OP, it's becoming more widespread). It's such a commonly used abbreviation in the automotive world (and has been for 100 years)

I'm a total car guy and I have to agree. My apologies. If I could change the title. I would.
The title is totally misleading. That wasn't my intention.

 

[Mark Z]

I thought you were talking about front wheel drive. I really detest that people are calling the doors FWD (nothing personal against OP, it's becoming more widespread). It's such a commonly used abbreviation in the automotive world (and has been for 100 years)

I type out falcon wing doors much of the time. It makes it faster and easier to leave it in lower case. With all the defects, they don't deserve to be called Falcon Wing Doors. I still use the abbreviation at times after writing out the words, but I don't mind spelling it out. It's not as if we have to pay for each character typed on the forum and this is not Twitter.

 

[Mark Z]

Thanks for the info. Do you happen to know what the SC had to do to fix it? Hopefully no parts were needed?

As of this post, the Model X continues to be parked at the same SC location. They are waiting for parts that should be arrive in the next day or two! Progress is occurring.

Remember there was a push to get product delivered before the end of the first quarter. IMHO, those vehicles got the priority of available replacement parts. One advantage of the wait is hopefully to get the latest and greatest version of a part. The goal is to eventually to drive a vehicle that only needs a visit to the service center once a year or every 12,000 miles.

 

[Muzzman1]

So my wife took it into the service center. I asked her to ask them what they did to fix it, and she said they pulled the speaker cover and did a manual release.
Apparently that fixed it. Sorry I don't have any other specifics.

 

[vjlvjl]

Sadly I am experiencing somewhat of the same problem - the driver-side FaWD won't close. Tesla sent a technician home. He couldn't fix the problem but was able to close the door so that the car is driveable. Left his car as a loaner and took my Bluebird to the SC. He indicated that the struts might be the problem. ETA for fix: 1 week.

 

[Buddyroe]

Wow. As I predicted, those doors are a complete disaster. I'll never understand why Musk insisted on them. Big mistake. For the cost of those doors, and subsequent repairs, the entire supercharging network around the world could have been built. The whole damn thing.

Were the FaWD's required for the X to be a success? Well, answer this, how successful was the Model 3 last weekend? Does it have FaWDs?

 

[cwerdna]

Wow. As I predicted, those doors are a complete disaster. I'll never understand why Musk insisted on them. Big mistake..

Not only that, I wonder really about Tesla's durability and reliability testing, as I re-emphasized again at automotive reliability and durability testing, I pointed to:
Testing | Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers

It takes 84,000 open-and-close cycles to simulate 10 years of customer use of a car door. This testing happens in a wide range of temperatures, just like real life.

Did they actually pass this test on more than Model X prototype on all the doors? And, if there was a failure, did they take steps to fix it and then start the count from 0 for that vehicle?

Can production units rolling off the line now reliably pass the above test, if they picked a random sample?

It's kinda odd that my thread automotive reliability and durability testing has garnered basically crickets. Nobody cares?

I wrote these words in January 2013 in Model S Technical / Mechanical Issues:
-- begin --
I've never worked in manufacturing but have always had an interest in factories (and have toured 5 auto plants, including NUMMI when it was still NUMMI). One has to wonder how much statistical process control is going on at the plant, at how many of the steps and whether they're at the right steps? Seems like if Tesla did something similar to what Honda did in the video, many of the door closing problems would be caught.

When I first watched the video, I thought the test was dumb. But then I thought about it more and realized that a problem w/a door not closing right is something that a customer might complain to service about and end up costing the automaker in warranty costs.

Over time, a good automaker w/enough resources (and the desire to improve) will learn where the problems are, hopefully add in tests and make improvements so that they don't happen again. The big automakers have a LOT more experience in this than TSLA.
-- end --
The video is at

. It might be somewhat insightful to those who've never worked in manufacturing (raises hand).

 

[vandacca]

The history of Statistical Process Control is quite interesting. After years of trying to get the US Automotive industry to adopt this process (and failing), Edwards Deming went to a post-WWII Japan where they accepted his teachings and adhered to them religiously. He is quite the hero in Japan and there are multiple statues of him throughout the country. He is considered a major reason why Japan and their automotive industry did so well.

The irony is that his teachings were eventually accepted in his home country, when the Japanese Car companies opened up shops in North America.

 

[Cookie Monster]

Didn't bother to start a post on my FWD since it has been documented plenty, but I had Cookie (VIN 17xx) for 2 days and left him in the garage for the night. The next morning the Driver side FWD showed up as slightly open on the center console even though the FWD was closed and flush. No amount of button pushing changed anything (recalibration didn't work either). Called it in and then just took it into the SC Monday morning. They couldn't get it fixed; they were able to open the FWD manually through the release in the speaker and initial discussions were around the ultrasonic sensor as the driver door doesn't automagically open all the way either. Figure 1 week for parts and maybe another week for repair, driving a loaner now.
Just a few other minor items to add, which I called in as well but didn't consider taking Cookie in for were:
1. Rear climate doesn't work properly. Setting to manual and changing fan to 11 doesn't change anything
2. One time only, right after pickup in fact, put the car in neutral and couldn't get out. Had to power off and restart

Driving the S (even if it's a P90DL) makes us miss Cookie even more though I have noticed the instrument panel is perfectly situated with my driving position in the S, while I can barely see a thing on the X (and my major complaint, design-wise until... nm), the steering wheel is in the way with the seat so high with no way to sink lower. Miss the auto doors, center console, space to get the kids, so hopefully the reliability and durable do improve and we are hanging tight ... for now.

 

[Mark Z]

...Rear climate doesn't work properly. Setting to manual and changing fan to 11 doesn't change anything...

My rear climate was affected when the air intake channel under the rear hatch floor cover was not connected properly. When it's perfect, the air intake occurs near the 12 volt outlet in the hatch area.

 

[aesculus]

Driving the S (even if it's a P90DL) makes us miss Cookie even more though I have noticed the instrument panel is perfectly situated with my driving position in the S, while I can barely see a thing on the X (and my major complaint, design-wise until... nm), the steering wheel is in the way with the seat so high with no way to sink lower. Miss the auto doors, center console, space to get the kids, so hopefully the reliability and durable do improve and we are hanging tight ... for now.

So with both the seat controls and steering wheel controls you cannot find the ideal position?

 

[Cookie Monster]

My rear climate was affected when the air intake channel under the rear hatch floor cover was not connected properly. When it's perfect, the air intake occurs near the 12 volt outlet in the hatch area.

Was that a SC quick fix? My rep hadn't seen it before. I figured we could still drive with one flap down, but he said leave it so they could fix it as soon as a part came in... whenever that might be

So with both the seat controls and steering wheel controls you cannot find the ideal position?

I couldn't find it, I like the feeling of sinking into the seat and usually have the seat height as low as possible. When I get Cookie back I'll try again since now I know what it should look like, maybe it's just me or maybe it's another issue...

 

[Mark Z]

Was that a SC quick fix? My rep hadn't seen it before. I figured we could still drive with one flap down, but he said leave it so they could fix it as soon as a part came in... whenever that might be...

After delivery I took a closer look at some hidden areas of Model X. One of those areas is to lift the flexible cloth covered plastic material at the bottom of the hatch storage. The air tube is located under that cover. Mine was not fully extended; allowing air leaks. I pushed each tube away from the center split to get the assembly properly positioned with the foam seal doing its job. The SC was not involved, but I did include it on the punch list to help QA get an accurate list of potential issues.