Annoying AC noise and annoying service centre

[jumpman]

Wondering if anyone has experienced this. Ive had my P85D since last Nov and as of last week the AC unit has started developing a low freq buzzing noise which comes on and off seemingly dependent on the temperature setting. Was wondering if anyone has encountered similar or service centre has addressed it.

Which leads me to my second annoyance. I placed a call to technical support. Obvious cannot deal with it and said they will book me in to look it. The earliest available booking, Mid August! Also suggested I should book my annual inspection now for a Nov service. Sorry, as car ownership experience goes, this is ridiculous.

 

[Ames]

I think now that the summer is almost here the ac has to work harder. The ac is very quiet when it has nothing to do, and really makes a lot of noise when the car or battery is hot.

From inside the cabin you can feel a vibration in the steering wheel and it buzzes as it increases cooling. It sounds like a jet engine starting from inside a plane. I know it is out of character with the complete silence of the car.

From outside it can also be very noisy on a hot day. I'm running my Model S in 45 C + and it cools very well.

Don't let it bother you, once the car has cooled down it will go away.

There is an article on Teslatap.com where you can hear what the ac sounds like when working hard.

Sounds of Tesla Vehicles | TeslaTap

Alex

 

[ediot]

For the service centre long wait issue, I believe it's out of Tesla HK's control at the moment since they're quite understaffed and have inadequate space to even keep/rotate all the new stocks coming in/ cars needing fixes etc - they did sell a significant amount of them in HK within a short two years. I have my own reasons to be frustrated with them but that's another issue, still gotta understand from their perspective.

as for the aircon noise, mine has started becoming noticable a week ago or so, more probably due to the recent temperature change (i received my 70D in late dec 2015). What i've found very strange, however, is that the noise level doesn't seem correlate with the temperature setting, but rather the fan speed.

I did some testing with the following conditions:

car is stopped at an outdoor carpark, no wind but open air, at 31'c

i sat in the car, chose "no outside air intake" setting, all windows closed, A/C on at 23.0'c, and sat in the car for 5 mins - more than enough to let the car cool the cabin.

This whole time the whining was present at an "acceptable" level equivilant to a quiet ICE car at idle (this is hard to quanitify i know, i don't have a decibel meter at my disposal). as i turn up the FAN SPEED from 3 to 7, the whining noise goes from a noticable whine to an annoying level, you can tell it comes from the front of the car to the left of where the conventional ICE engine would be, and its volume overcomes the fan noise which is already loud as heck at speed 7.

i got out of the car to hear it and it sounded like my previous ICE at approx 1500 rpm. it's just strangely loud.

after that i turned the fan speed to 3, then tried different temperatures - the noise increase from a 23.0'c to 18.5'c is noticable but NOWHERE near as significant as the fan speed correlated noise increase, which is even more head scratching to me at the moment.

i haven't booked anything with tesla HK to check at the moment, everyone knows why some of us are reluctant to do so anyway. time for more googling for me. (i'll post back if i find anything useful)

 

[jumpman]

Thanks for the feedback guys. I've played around with the fan speeds and temperatures during the course of the last week just to try and derive at some kind of consistent test and so far the when the outside temp is as is these last few days 28-34C and the system is set to 20-22C, the noise is most prevalent when its trying to stay at the temp. When I lower the temp to 19.5, the noise goes away. Most of the time, I have all other climate settings on auto. Even when i changed the fan speed, this didnt seem to have as big of an effect.

As for the service centre, I've had alot of issues with them since day one as well as their 24 road side assistance thus my hesitations in even contacting them unless I was desperate. I understand their limitations but i'm frustrated by their management not doing better to communicate. Its about managing expectations.

 

[jsiu]

When compared with USA (comments from this worldwide forum), afer sales service provided here is far worse than USA.

 

[A$H M]

Wondering if anyone has experienced this. Ive had my P85D since last Nov and as of last week the AC unit has started developing a low freq buzzing noise which comes on and off seemingly dependent on the temperature setting. Was wondering if anyone has encountered similar or service centre has addressed it.

Which leads me to my second annoyance. I placed a call to technical support. Obvious cannot deal with it and said they will book me in to look it. The earliest available booking, Mid August! Also suggested I should book my annual inspection now for a Nov service. Sorry, as car ownership experience goes, this is ridiculous.

 

[A$H M]

I have as well some kind of noise from my aircon specially when starting the my 85D. Sounds like a fan noise which was not heard before and has just started few days ago?

 

[kcin]

I have the same issue. Called the service center to schedule a check-up and the earliest available date is on August 9th! I have never experienced such a bad service. Given the bad service and I still feel the interior of Model S is substandard, I am seriously consider selling my car back to Tesa in 2 years.

 

[A$H M]

I want to know, everyone who bought a car get the 13Amp wire included?? I knkw many of my friends got this but i was not aware and Tesla made me pay for it?

 

[A$H M]

Kcin, that is really bad service?

 

[markwj]

I want to know, everyone who bought a car get the 13Amp wire included?? I knkw many of my friends got this but i was not aware and Tesla made me pay for it?

In general it seems that cars come with the blue type II Mennekes cables. You also get a wall connector (big EVSE to mount on your wall). Some owners who can't install the wall connector have asked, and been given a Mennekes BS1343 10A mobile EVSE instead.

 

[gubes]

Owning a Model S is an anxious experience. Constantly worried what will be faulty next, knowing it will take a LONG time to fix if there is a problem which there will almost certainly will.

 

[jumpman]

I think thats one of the main gripes I have with Tesla. I dont hate the car (I dont love it either) but I am totally disgusted with Tesla HK and the way they've handled things. I can accept that issues and problems can and will arise but management of these issues and managing expectations is important. This they've failed in spades.

Perhaps if they put as much effort into servicing their clients as they do selling their cars, everyone would be in a happier place.