digital audio clicking (driving, stopped, music playing or none at all)

[tharvey]

I've had an audio issue with my 2018 M3 for several months now. I will get digital audio 'ticking' for a few seconds every few minutes or so. Some days its worse than others and a couple of weeks ago it completely went away for a week or more (without any software updates).

Here's what I've found so far:
- when streaming music is playing (slacker or spotify) its a 'tick-tick-tick' for 1 to 3 seconds
- when no music is playing (not volume down but just off/paused) I can hear it when something like the blinker is on but instead of a tick-tick-tick its just a pause in the middle of the blink sequence
- occurs when car is moving or in park
- have also had it occur when playing video games while charging
- when it occurs the audio source seems to pause and resume with no loss of the content (ie if listening to streaming radio no words are lost)
- started several months ago but has persisted through several software updates
- rebooting MCU with thumb wheel does not help
- problem did go away completely for a couple of weeks recently (without software update)
- some days are worse than others but I can't pin it down to temperature/humidity

My service center is a couple hours drive away and my fear is if I take it in they won't look hard enough to find the issue. I believe its not a software issue as I haven't seen anyone else describing this issue.

Being a computer programmer it almost feels to me like the problem is that the clock of the audio codec runs too fast and consumes data too quickly starving the source stream.

Any ideas?

 

[RedTesY]

Not sure if this will help, but we had an intermittent static sound from under the touch screen on our 2021 Model Y that turned out to be the small fan behind the small grill just under the screen. It's relatively easy to pop out the grill using a very small flat screwdriver (there a notch at the front of the grill to pry), and disconnect the wiring connector to see if the sound stops. But don't leave it disconnected as this messes up climate controls. The little fan circulates cabin air past a temperature sensor. We used business card paper stock to block the fan blades and stop the noise, until we got a new fan ($5) from Tesla service (set up a service appointment on the app, which opens a text conversation with a service tech, to order a replacement fan). Good luck!

 

[tharvey]

Not sure if this will help, but we had an intermittent static sound from under the touch screen on our 2021 Model Y that turned out to be the small fan behind the small grill just under the screen. It's relatively easy to pop out the grill using a very small flat screwdriver (there a notch at the front of the grill to pry), and disconnect the wiring connector to see if the sound stops. But don't leave it disconnected as this messes up climate controls. The little fan circulates cabin air past a temperature sensor. We used business card paper stock to block the fan blades and stop the noise, until we got a new fan ($5) from Tesla service (set up a service appointment on the app, which opens a text conversation with a service tech, to order a replacement fan). Good luck!

This sounds like it was a 'mechanical' noise issue?

My issue is definitely going through the audio system and comes through all speakers in the car.

Thanks for the feedback!

 

[Kels]

I've had an audio issue with my 2018 M3 for several months now. I will get digital audio 'ticking' for a few seconds every few minutes or so. Some days its worse than others and a couple of weeks ago it completely went away for a week or more (without any software updates).

Here's what I've found so far:
- when streaming music is playing (slacker or spotify) its a 'tick-tick-tick' for 1 to 3 seconds
- when no music is playing (not volume down but just off/paused) I can hear it when something like the blinker is on but instead of a tick-tick-tick its just a pause in the middle of the blink sequence
- occurs when car is moving or in park
- have also had it occur when playing video games while charging
- when it occurs the audio source seems to pause and resume with no loss of the content (ie if listening to streaming radio no words are lost)
- started several months ago but has persisted through several software updates
- rebooting MCU with thumb wheel does not help
- problem did go away completely for a couple of weeks recently (without software update)
- some days are worse than others but I can't pin it down to temperature/humidity

My service center is a couple hours drive away and my fear is if I take it in they won't look hard enough to find the issue. I believe its not a software issue as I haven't seen anyone else describing this issue.

Being a computer programmer it almost feels to me like the problem is that the clock of the audio codec runs too fast and consumes data too quickly starving the source stream.

Any ideas?

After the aforementioned update on Christmas day and along with the climate control not working and the other things. we started hearing a clicking sound too when we were using Spotify. When I switched over to the music streamed by Tesla the clicking stopped.

 

[sk8erwitskil]

I'm having the exact same issue on 21 MY. The music will stop playing and a couple clicks will play through the speakers and then the music will resume.

 

[RedTessie]

I was experiencing the same issue in my 21 M3, and the screen (road visualization/cameras/navigation) was lagging a lot as well. Rebooting the computer with the two scroll wheels on the steer solved the issue for me. Let’s hope the issue doesn’t occur again.

 

[ArtK]

I'm having the exact same issue on 21 MY. The music will stop playing and a couple clicks will play through the speakers and then the music will resume.

Same for me on my 20 MY

 

[skygraff]

I get something like that when listening to audio over Bluetooth. It almost seems like the car is intending to play an alert sound but there’s nothing on the screen and no real reason for alerts when it happens.

Unfortunately, the audio doesn’t pause so I do miss some content.

 

[BMW740iL]

same issues here on a 2020 M3 SR+ since updating to V11 iirc

Any responses yet from Tesla and or SeCs on this issue?

 

[Big Earl]

Reboot and it’ll fix it for 6-8 hours of driving. Seems the system is running out of memory (wild ass guess on my part) and audio glitches are the primary manifestation. I was able to consistently repeat this behavior on a recent trip to New England.

This problem seems to be most noticeable when the car is in continuous operation - either continuous driving or parked in camping mode or with sentry mode on. Letting the car sleep seems to help but rebooting definitely fixes it, as described above.

 

[TechNerd]

Reboot and it’ll fix it for 6-8 hours of driving. Seems the system is running out of memory (wild ass guess on my part) and audio glitches are the primary manifestation. I was able to consistently repeat this behavior on a recent trip to New England.

This problem seems to be most noticeable when the car is in continuous operation - either continuous driving or parked in camping mode or with sentry mode on. Letting the car sleep seems to help but rebooting definitely fixes it, as described above.

I have a 2022 M3 that has this clicking and it seems to be more frequent every day - I had it occur three times today,— at 10:22, 2:24pm and 6:24pm. All three times the display froze up. I reset the first two times but the last one I let play itself out… the clicking occurs with some type of audio feedback from the car (autopilot engage / disengage, blinkers, or text message notification). I have mobile service coming out to look at it next week.

 

[Smacdonald]

I have a 2022 M3 that has this clicking and it seems to be more frequent every day - I had it occur three times today,— at 10:22, 2:24pm and 6:24pm. All three times the display froze up. I reset the first two times but the last one I let play itself out… the clicking occurs with some type of audio feedback from the car (autopilot engage / disengage, blinkers, or text message notification). I have mobile service coming out to look at it next week.

Any outcome? I’ve got this too- been doing more road trips so it’s more noticeable.

 

[john5520]

I've noticed it as well, but not at the frequency people are describing. I'm willing to bet it's software related and will probably end up being fixed in a subsequent update. For me, it's when using bluetooth.

 

[BMW740iL]

I made a service call for this with Tesla. I had the ticking again this morning and Tesla service is now looking at the logs from my car to diagnose.

The first thing Tesla service is asking is to not use the front usb for charging my iphone. Does that make any sense?

 

[BMW740iL]

follow up after diagnosis from Tesla:

Dear Mr. xxx, Our diagnosis team has just been able to do with the timestamp diagnosis you provided. This shows that the ticking will be fixed with a future firmware update. Unfortunately I can't give a time indication when it will actually be solved there. Tomorrow's planned visit will not be a solution either. If you have no further questions, I will remove the appointment from the agenda. Sincerely, Tesla service.

 

[Knightshade]

FWIW I just had this for the first time.... was about 5 hours into a 6 hour road trip, so the memory leak suggestion from Big Earl sounds about right.... streaming music (slacker) and suddenly weird ticking sound.... I turned off AP, and the sound went away immediately.... so as someone else suggested seems to be car trying to play some alert and getting the tick instead- turning out AP removed the alert I guess.

 

[lUtriaNt]

its not just streaming from on board apps, its also through bluetooth. and no the front usb ports makes no difference. i had this issue in my 3/2020 build m3p after an update and i do not use the usb ports to charge my car. 99.0 percent of my music is streamed through bluetooth. i have 3 phones and ive seen this behavior on the two i use most for bluetooth streaming.

i can kinda trace this back to when i got fsd in november on my 3/2020 m3p. now i have a new 2022 m3p for a week now and ive not heard this issue at all as of yet.

 

[BMW740iL]

its not just streaming from on board apps, its also through bluetooth. and no the front usb ports makes no difference. i had this issue in my 3/2020 build m3p after an update and i do not use the usb ports to charge my car. 99.0 percent of my music is streamed through bluetooth. i have 3 phones and ive seen this behavior on the two i use most for bluetooth streaming.

i can kinda trace this back to when i got fsd in november on my 3/2020 m3p. now i have a new 2022 m3p for a week now and ive not heard this issue at all as of yet.

does your new 2022 m3p have the new AMD Ryzen computer?

 

[lUtriaNt]

has new ryzen yes . to date no issues with this.

 

[LightningByte]

follow up after diagnosis from Tesla:

Dear Mr. xxx, Our diagnosis team has just been able to do with the timestamp diagnosis you provided. This shows that the ticking will be fixed with a future firmware update. Unfortunately I can't give a time indication when it will actually be solved there. Tomorrow's planned visit will not be a solution either. If you have no further questions, I will remove the appointment from the agenda. Sincerely, Tesla service.

Are you still experiencing it or has an update indeed resolved it? I am also having occasional clicking/ticking for a few seconds, so I might be having the same problem.