Fun little project, first time disassembling an electric car. Didn't fry myself, that's good.

The OG Tesla retractable door handles are arguably one the car's best features—but they have an Achilles Heel: a tiny "paddle gear" has a weak point where it connects to an axle that eventually breaks. Other things can happen too: water damage, fried microswitches, or issues with the wire harnesses.

The door handle assembly is about the size of a large salad plate, and I needed to remove the door trim, disconnect five-or-so wire harnesses, and remove the window in order to get it out of the door cavity. Inside, there are four systems:

1) extract/retract motor/gears,

2) push sensor (to trigger an extract),

3) pull sensor (to unlatch the door), and

4) a tiny LED.

All those things were fine, but as expected the paddle gear had broken off from the axle. Interestingly, the replacement paddle gear didn't fit on the axle, so I had to widen the holes a bit with a couple different-sized drill bits.

Everything's working great now, but given the sound the front door handle is making (audible in the video!), it won't be long before I'm doing this again.