Constant chattering fan noise behind in cabin (MCU?)

[Ted209]

I took delivery of a new P100D in early March, traded in a 2015 P85D I had.

I noticed that there is a constant chattering fan noise that seems to be coming from behind the dash somewhere. it sounds like a computer CPU cooling fan. I can't hear it when I'm on the freeway or when the radio is on, but otherwise it's a quiet car and when I'm driving i can always hear it and it's annoying and persistent. Incidentally, it's only starts up about half a minute or so after I get into the car.

I took it Tesla service and they say they can't help me because it's just the way it is. Not a safety issue, and it didn't trigger any alarms. They insisted that other Model S/X have the same noise, but I never noticed it on my older Model S. So I went home without resolving the fan noise.

Unfortunately I missed the cut-off for the new Intel based MCU, and I have the older Tegra system. I don't know if that's related to this or not. I'm not an engineer or anything so I wouldn't trust myself taking the car apart to check or replace the fan, etc.

Searching the forum, it seems other people have had issues with other fans, but service seems to have fixed those problems and I can't tell if those are the same fan noises I'm having. Am I the only one who is annoyed by this persistent chattering fan noise? I would have thought there'd be more posts about it.

 

[Corsair]

I have a similar problem ... a constant high pitched buzzing sound even with air conditioning is off. Likely from the old Tegra GPU fan spinning or RF interference. MCU1 100D

 

[Bebop]

I do notice almost a high ptiched sound with the levels at 1-3 in terms of fan speed, once I get it past 4 then it kind of goes away.

 

[StephenM]

2013 P85 here and noticed the same chattering noise behind instrument panel as well that developed after about 4 years into ownership. Asked Tesla about it and they said they would have to replace the whole unit and it would be ~$3000. I decided to live with it, and oddly enough it went away after about 6 months. I'm thinking the cooling fans will eventually start to chatter again but probably louder the next time around. Really wish it was easier to fix things like this without having to buy a whole friggin unit.

 

[Lasttoy]

Excuse me, u just have to live with it. Over my dead body.
I have 121k miles on my S. Its so quiet everyone wants to know why? That is what freaks out everyone, zero noise.
When friends drive it, yes i let everyone drive it, they are amazed as to how quiet it is when they mash the pedal. Even at 100mph its still quiet.
Make them fix it now. Get a good lawyer or invoke state lemon law.

 

[seetrai]

@Ted209 did you ever get this resolved? I got a Dec 2017 Model X and the sound has always been there. I reported it to service originally but was told a firmware upgrade would fix it. That was back in Jan/Feb 2018. Fast Forward to today, 11/12/2018 and the constant noise persists and service claims all vehicles have it, some worse than others and there is nothing they can do. While perhaps minor to some, I can't stand it. Sitting in the car not moving, in traffic or at low speed it is all I can hear. I simply can't accept that I have to deal with a constant "fan noise" from an otherwise amazingly quiet vehicle. I also don't accept this is a part of the design.