So for the past couple months or so I've noticed my air conditioning has been very loud. By very loud, I mean that I can hear it across the parking lot, in the house and it's very loud while driving. It's like a jet engine starting up! After it cools down, the sound gets quieter. Also happens when charging and supercharging. I've never heard an S this loud. Cooling works, but it and the heat sort of slow down when I stop the car at a light and pick back up when I begin to move. I also get a vibrating noise at a certain fan speed. Any thoughts on what could be the issue? Probably time for my bi-monthly trip to the SC. Thanks a lot.
I see you are in Philadelphia. The Northeast, including where live in the Boston area and presumably Philadelphia, has had an incredible heat wave over the past week or so. On days like we have been having, I can also hear my Model S from across my condo parking lot when I am pre-cooling the car. My car is nearly 4 years old, so I know this loud sound is "normal" because I have heard it in past years. I say normal so long as the sound is like a fan (or more likely a compressor) that is turning fast, but not making grinding noise or excess vibration, just a "smooth" sound. In my car, and I assume yours as well, the sound drops abruptly when you open the door to get into the car.
I will say, however, that this past weekend was beyond my car's capability. On Saturday, it was 95 or so here, and very humid, and the car's HVAC system could not cool the car down to my usual setting of 69F when it was 90+ outside, even with more than 30 minutes of precooling. I have described in more detail in another post that the system seemed to be giving preference to the battery cooling, because it was making noise, but not much cool air was getting to the passenger compartment, even with the fan speed manually set to 11. So, I may make an appointment for a system check.
So, i would not judge by the sound level, I would judge by how cool the car gets. I see posts all the time from people who say things like, "I live in Arizona where it is 110 or more, and my Model S is always cool," or words to that effect. So apparently the system should be able to handle severe heat. But it will indeed make a loud noise when supercharging or precooling.