Glass roof crackling noise

[WesB]

The other day the temperature went down to -20C (under 0F) and when I was driving home I noticed the glass roof was making crackling noises, mostly when going over bumps or a slightly uneven road. It was pretty loud as I could hear it over my music. It happened today too, at around -15C. Anyone else have this problem? My guess is the glass is contracting from the cold and making noise for some reason.

 

[Icenks]

I’ve built up on your roof between the glass. when the car flexes the ice got squeezed.

 

[Icenks]

Ice build up I mean. Typo.

 

[webbah]

I hear this occasionally even at 0-10C temps. Definitely no ice in my case. I haven’t noticed any stress cracks yet but I brought it up to the service center the last time I was there. Never had a car do that to me before, but they told me not to worry about it. A typical Tesla response imo.

 

[WesB]

Could have been ice build up, there was some ice that I scraped off the windshield but I didn't scrape the roof. There was an awful lot of noise for ice though.

 

[WesB]

Never had a car do that to me before, but they told me not to worry about it. A typical Tesla response imo.

Haha yeah that's a typical answer, but I don't think there really is anything to worry about here. Just kind of annoying.

 

[WesB]

I hear this occasionally even at 0-10C temps. Definitely no ice in my case.

Thanks for the reply. Not sure if there was any ice in my case but good to know it can happen regardless.

 

[Icenks]

Every single car I drove (2 Honda and 1 Subaru) with moonroof has that cracking sound. maybe the ice is at the seams that’s hard to spot.

Never have real problems. Glass never crack or anything.

 

[KenC]

Well, try to isolate where the noise is coming from. I have the rubber gasket on the roof, so there's probably alot less ice in the channels to make any noise. Having said that, I did notice once that after some melting and refreezing one day and night, that I was getting creaking in the rear window when going over bumps. I opened the trunk, and realized that the rubber channel surrounding the rear glass, had small slivers of ice. Due to the melting, the water ran down that channel, and refroze at night. The next day, it was squeaking. Brushing that out, got rid of the squeaking/creaking.

 

[super20g]

My prior 3's roof glass made some downright scary noises when it was really cold out.

 

[mswlogo]

The other day the temperature went down to -20C (under 0F) and when I was driving home I noticed the glass roof was making crackling noises, mostly when going over bumps or a slightly uneven road. It was pretty loud as I could hear it over my music. It happened today too, at around -15C. Anyone else have this problem? My guess is the glass is contracting from the cold and making noise for some reason.

I had that happen on my Model 3.
It was ice frozen in the gap around the roof glass. I used RPM Noise Reduction Kit to fill that gap and it never happen again.

I really didn’t like the idea of ice freezing in that gap and expanding (which is what you hear). And yeah you’d hear it going over bumps.

 

[spacemanwill]

Also heard a crunching noise from the glass roof today with the temp around 4F (-16C) and my mind immediately went to the stories of roofs flying off early production Model 3's. After reading these posts suggesting it's caused by contraction and expansion of the glass, potentially crunching ice within the gaps, I feel a bit of relief. Keep in mind, glass has extremely high tensile and compressive strength, so it's not likely to crack even at very low temperatures.