Welcome to Tesla Motors Club
Discuss Tesla's Model S, Model 3, Model X, Model Y, Cybertruck, Roadster and More.
Register

Fan Noise

Is the fan noise of your M3 tolerable?


  • Total voters
    74
This site may earn commission on affiliate links.
I cannot stand the fan noise in my Model 3. Its loud, grindy, whiny, sounds like a low power leaf blower...

...three houses away. And it's an electric leaf blower at that. Yeah, I've got one. I can't agree that it sounds like a hair dryer or a leaf blower.

I turned mine off, but then again, not very many people need the fan on in CA. Wonder how many people would be willing to take your 3 off your hands.
 
  • Like
Reactions: NOCO24U
...three houses away. And it's an electric leaf blower at that. Yeah, I've got one. I can't agree that it sounds like a hair dryer or a leaf blower.

I turned mine off, but then again, not very many people need the fan on in CA. Wonder how many people would be willing to take your 3 off your hands.

unfortunately in chicago the fan needs to be on all the time to heat the car. my plan is to see how mine compares to another model 3 when i can actually find another model 3 to test. my suspicion is that my fan is uniquely loud, because there is no way what i have in my car is acceptable. i will try to make recordings of it this week and post on youtube. and yeah, if this IS normal, i will happily sell the car to someone that isn't bothered by the fan noise and wait until they come out with blower fan 2.0
 
On Auto, mine’s a semi-loud leaf blower indeed. Switched to Manual to reduce the fan speed. Summer may be a different story.

Reminds me of the early days of the Model S where the AC compressor was so loud and embarrassing both inside and outside the car and would even end up sending a vibration into the steering wheel. They installed a “sound blanket” on the compressor after.
 
In my Model 3, the fan is easily audible at idle and even while driving, when it is set at level 3 (which is usually where it is for "auto", given the mild weather in the SF Bay Area this weekend).
Even when driving at freeway speeds it is still above the ambient sound.

Level 2 is almost inaudible. So a big difference between 2 and 3. But of course level 2 is not "auto".
I don't want to have to fiddle with the fan speed (since on the M3 it is not something I can control on the wheel).

Sounds like some others have noticed this.
I would NOT describe my noise as a grinding sound. It is just a fan sound. But the start difference between level 2 and 3 surprised me.

In my Model S, the fan is almost inaudible most of the time on auto.
 
  • Informative
Reactions: NOCO24U
Good news! About 2 weeks ago, I wrote a formal complaint about the fan noise and asked for it to be reviewed by the exec team (through my tesla account). Today, Fremont contacted me and said they know about the issue as many people have complained about it, and that they are working on a new part to replace the existing problematic fan. The team member I spoke with has no information as to when the fan replacements will begin, but he promised it will happen, and soon. So, if your car has an annoying blower fan noise, tell your service center so you can be on the list for a replacement.
 
I haven't noticed excessive fan noise yet. Or any fan noise. ... still waiting.

By the time our 3 arrives hopefully this will have all blown over. :rolleyes:

Thanks for digging into early adopter beta test issues guys, keep up the good work!
 
  • Like
Reactions: NOCO24U
Yes. My build date was March 18. It's in service now for various issues, including excessive fan noise, but the service tech said that he hadn't heard anything about any fan issues. When Fremont contacted you, did they do so by email or telephone? If by email, would you mind sharing the email so I can provide to the service center?

has anyone with a newer VIN noticed excessive fan noise? still no word on the retrofit for my 41XX build.
 
Yes. My build date was March 18. It's in service now for various issues, including excessive fan noise, but the service tech said that he hadn't heard anything about any fan issues. When Fremont contacted you, did they do so by email or telephone? If by email, would you mind sharing the email so I can provide to the service center?

i went on my account, emailed from there, and then marked it as "escalate to executive". they called me back and said many people were complaining about the fan and they will work on a part. if i were you, i'd do the same, and also tell your service manager to contact fremont to inquire.

this is the first email i got, unfortunately the email address is not specific: "[email protected]"

after they had my car for service, joe carter called me to tell me they will build a retrofit part. :

Hello Mark,

I just wanted to reach out and let you know that we haven’t forgotten about this. I appreciate you taking time to speak with me last week regarding loud heater noise. I have escalated these concerns to the Westmont Service Center along with the regional leadership teams to try to understand what is causing the issue.

It’s likely that we will need to further inspect your vehicle. I will be in touch with any updates I receive.


Best wishes,
Joe Carter | Executive Care
45500 Fremont Blvd | Fremont, CA 94538

The content of this message is the proprietary and confidential property of Tesla Motors, and should be treated as such. If you are not the intended recipient and have received this message in error, please delete this message from your computer system and notify me immediately by reply e-mail. Any unauthorized use or distribution of the content of this message is prohibited. Thank you.
P Please consider the environment before printing this email
 
  • Like
Reactions: jamnmon66
Yes. My build date was March 18. It's in service now for various issues, including excessive fan noise, but the service tech said that he hadn't heard anything about any fan issues. When Fremont contacted you, did they do so by email or telephone? If by email, would you mind sharing the email so I can provide to the service center?
any word on your fan issue?
 
any word on your fan issue?

No joy. They said that they compared it to a number of other 3s that they had there and that they all sounded the same, and that they were all within tolerances. My take is that their "comparison" doesn't actually prove that there's nothing wrong with mine (they could just as easily all be defective, which would make sense if this is a widespread issue), and I'm highly skeptical that they took any kind of scientific dba measurements in the car with which they could assess deviation from standard.
 
  • Informative
Reactions: NOCO24U
My Model S had some intermittent under-warranty squeak and rattle issues that disappeared whenever a tech was investigating. But the service center asked me to make a recording. I used my iPhone's voice recorder app to do it, and was surprised at how well that captured the sounds. This was useful to the service center and helped them figure out what was wrong. They (mostly) eliminated those sounds after I provided the recording. Fan noises could be more tricky because blowing air onto a microphone just makes noise, but maybe this could help you.
 
My Model S had some intermittent under-warranty squeak and rattle issues that disappeared whenever a tech was investigating. But the service center asked me to make a recording. I used my iPhone's voice recorder app to do it, and was surprised at how well that captured the sounds. This was useful to the service center and helped them figure out what was wrong. They (mostly) eliminated those sounds after I provided the recording. Fan noises could be more tricky because blowing air onto a microphone just makes noise, but maybe this could help you.

the service center did a recording and sent it to engineering. they called and said they will build a retrofit fan part because a lot of people complain about it. that was a few months ago. i'm not sure if the newer VINs have this issue. hopefully once they complete their ramp up phase of production, then they can take care of issues like this fan problem for us early adopters.
 
  • Like
Reactions: fiatlux
the service center did a recording and sent it to engineering. they called and said they will build a retrofit fan part because a lot of people complain about it. that was a few months ago. i'm not sure if the newer VINs have this issue. hopefully once they complete their ramp up phase of production, then they can take care of issues like this fan problem for us early adopters.

Any luck or update with the fan noise. I have a 15xxx VIN and the same noise. Took it for service. No luck. The noise is really annoying especially when the car is at a stoplight.
Thanks
 
Funny how this has been mentioned awhile back. My vin is 101,xxx and my fan only makes the odd sound at fan speed 1. It sounds like crickets or a low vibration sound. I notified Tesla at Littleton, CO (no help at all) and they compared it to another model 3. We tested and the other model 3 did have the same sound. So it makes me wonder if these fans are all defective because I've never had a vehicle make such odd sounds from a variety of components compared to all the Asian vehicles I've owned.
 
I have one of the 1st M3s made and I also have one of the last M3s made and they both, (and all the other M3 EVs I tested) have the identical "grating" fan noise. We are talking about a noise at the lowest selected fan speed. It's not a loud noise, but the noise characteristic is annoying, especially when EVs are perfectly and otherwise silent. A decibel meter is not the correct instrument to measure a low volume annoying noise. I live in San Francisco where not much climate control is needed so unlike most people, the climate control is almost never on full blast. My friend w/ M3's in Texas has his AC on full blast much of the time so like most people would never hear this noise. All of my other vehicles ICE and EVs don't make have an annoying "grating" type of fan noise. Level 1 fan speed should be on par with ambient environmental noise floor and should not produce a low volume grating sound. Full disclosure: I'm also the guy that replaces all his cooling fans with high-efficiency heat-sinks and low noise fans. Don't like listening to noise (times) forever, that can be eliminated by throwing a few dollars at the problem. I will sometimes manually disable climate control to "fix" it. Obviously not getting rid of an otherwise great car, too many cool things that cant be had anywhere else.
 
  • Informative
Reactions: Watts_Up