Harmonic vibration above 70mph; on two different S's

[GreenT]

My car (VIN 4???) has been in and out of service for almost 3 years with symptoms of vibration above 70mph.
It comes and goes. The vibration
When in service for other stuff, the techs say they cannot reproduce it.
It's returned to me. Still there. Then a ranger gets in the car and does feel it.
Once they seemed to have fixed it only for it to return within a day.
They've blamed it on bald tires and a damaged wheel, neither of which replacement fixed it.
We've tried suspension. A/C on / off. All sorts of driving dynamics.
She's back in service ... for the same problem again.
Got a loaner. Model S VIN 4????, a build probably 6 months younger than mine. An S60
And last night I drove it on I-75 near Naples and discovered over 80 mph it also vibrated.
If two cars exhibit the same problem, which has been described as an harmonic vibration, I cannot believe the symptom is isolated to just two cars.
Could it be I-75? The problem manifests itself all along the Tampa to Miami corridor.
When they put new tires on it 4 weeks ago, it felt better, only to get worse and worse over the course of a day or two.
The ranger described it as 1/4 as bad as the infamous shudder exhibited by Model X during acceleration.

Anyone else experienced this?

 

[Skateboardgolf]

This sound like a tire/wheel issue. No Model S should vibrate, at any speed.
I had a similar issue - above 70 or 80, my Model S vibrated, and it could be felt especially in the steering wheel.This happened after a set of new rear tires were installed, along with a new steering alignment.

When the steering and wheel alignment was checked and fixed a second time, the issue went away, and it drove as smooth as butter at all speeds.

I'm not an expert, but make sure the front and rear wheels are aligned properly, along with camber, toe, etc. Check your rims aren't dented, or out of round. Good luck!

 

[Lasttoy]

I have had a vibration at 72 - 74 mph for 2 years. 3 sets of tires on 2013 rims, wheels balanced 3 times, rotated.
Guess what? I got new set of 2018 tires and wheels, SAME vibration.
Its one of the drive shafts.

 

[Lasttoy]

U can NOT align rear end. If you put it on lift and look, there is or are NO adjustments. This is confirmed by Fremont.
EVtuning is making new bushings so you can adjust rear camber. My rear tires were wearing out on inside. 2 sets of tires.
A guy on here said to take off auto lowering. Its changing the camber of rear tires enough to wear them out.
I am trying that. I am on third set of tires now, we will see in 20k miles.

 

[GreenT]

Thanks for your addition.
"A guy on here said to take off auto lowering." That might be but I literally had new tires put on a month ago ... and already it's vibrating.
If you and I are having this issue, we cannot be alone?
My car's been in service again for almost a week for the problem ... trying to get an update but no one will

- answer the phone
- reply to voice mails or emails
- I look at the app and all I see is PARKED!

I am SO FED UP with Tesla service!

 

[GreenT]

Got my car back from service.
Invoice suggests many parts were replaced.
I got my confidence up!

No need.

It still vibrates.

It's now been in for the same issue 5 times over 2 years.

What to do?

 

[ckoval7]

My car has a vibration between 75 and 80 MPH. It's not severe, but definitely noticeable, at least to the driver. I'm not too worried about it, but i would love to know what's causing it.

 

[AmpedRealtor]

Count me in. My P85 vibrates at 85 MPH the worst, can be felt 80-90 MPH. Had it in service three times for this issue as long as 18 months ago. Every time they rotate and road force balance, issue persists. They say they cannot drive the car at that speed, so cannot confirm at the time they do something whether it resolves the issue. Techs can feel the vibration on ride-alongs, easy to reproduce.

So far they have replaced the drive unit, rear half shafts, and all four air struts. They even put four test tires on the car (with different rims). Problem persists. The vibration started about 18-24 months ago after they upgraded my TPMS system to the newer one. They added a transmitter and a few other things, but they told me there was nothing about the TPMS upgrade that could cause this issue.

Tires are not the problem, road force balance is almost perfect and Discount Tire checked the tires and said they are completely fine. Not out of round, no unusual wear, etc. No cracked or bent rims.

I had a ranger recently suggest having them look at the rear lower control arms. Tesla has new, revised lower control arms that also require replacement of the rear subframe. He also suggested that it could be the rear bearings. I'm also suspecting a possible cracked motor mount - that was a common problem with lower VINs. Mine is in the 16k range.

Some days there is no vibration at all at this speed, other times it's so bad it makes my teeth chatter. I have a Wednesday service appointment for this again and told them I don't want my car back until it's fixed, even if it means sending my car to Fremont. I'm not accepting any more bullshit.

Thank goodness for my ESA!

 

[GreenT]

Thanks for adding your car.
Mine is back in service.
Do they need a dynamo to easily reproduce it?
The foreman test drove it with me and reproduced it.
And yes, ESA to the rescue.
Fremont is an idea. But what if they cannot fix it?

 

[GreenT]

Got my car back.
This time they claim they replaced a bent wheel and a tire.
Drove it 25 miles and it is very much improved. I still feel a slight vibration, maybe 20% of what it was.
Why would they / could they not have found this the 1st or 2nd time it was in?

Version 9
And even though they and I agreed NOT TO upgrade to "Version 9" they did. ARGH!
Gave me the excuse that they could not perform advanced diagnostics on the car running the prior version.
Don't buy that for a second.
Drove it using "9". What a CF.

 

[Skateboardgolf]

Got my car back.
This time they claim they replaced a bent wheel and a tire.
Drove it 25 miles and it is very much improved. I still feel a slight vibration, maybe 20% of what it was.
Why would they / could they not have found this the 1st or 2nd time it was in?

Congrats!
Glad they figured out it - like I always say, it's always the tires or the the wheels.
As for finding the last 20% of vibration, here's my thought - it's the tires or the wheels

 

[AmpedRealtor]

UPDATE - After having all wheels road-force balanced three times by both Discount Tire and Tesla in Tempe, Tesla in Scottsdale found an imbalance in rear driver's side wheel and did another road-force balance. Now the issue is completely gone. WHY???? Just glad it's over for now.

 

[GreenT]

Did someone say "For now"?

 

[Evoforce]

Yup, mine had the vibrate at higher speeds too! Rims slightly bent was the answer. They messed with it and it was much improved!

 

[Olle]

This has haunted many of my cars. For my Model S, with vibration above 70 mph, it turned out to be a manufacturing error in the Continental Contisilent tires, 3 out of 4(!) They were round and balanced and still caused vibration.
It took 3 road force balancings and 5 months to find out. Continental sent us new ones and all problems gone ever since.