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Has anyone had their Model 3 make sounds like this and then half the car stop working?

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A

amcfarla

Member
Jun 1, 2020
15
23
Northglenn CO
#1
I drove to Sidney Ne and everything was fine from Denver Co. When we were in Sidney I charged up at that super charger and then drove over to a friend's house.

When we were getting ready to leave my friend's house I have extremely loud clicking fan noise in my car that I had never heard (video at the end). After we left the restaurant it was still doing it, we went to pick up his kids and I discovered after that none of my cameras were working (the car couldn't see cars on the screen), also my backup camera stopped working. Then discovered that cruise control wouldn't work either so no idea why everything just broke all of sudden in my vehicle.

I call Tesla roadside and they have no clue why my car is making that sound and why my cameras aren't working, and they had me do a few things and that didn't fix it and then they suggested I needed to get my car towed but unfortunately they can't find anyone that can tow my car from Sidney Ne to the closest Tesla Service center (in Denver at my home).

Luckily I was able to drive home but none of the smarts worked in the car past the steering, lights, turn signals, acceleration, brakes and the stereo, so basically like driving a muscle car in the 70's.. Not sure if anyone has had this happened to their model 3. My Model 3 was purchased in June of 2020 and has 10k miles on it. Here is a video of the sounds that my car was making before this all happened
 
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Reactions: Phlier and KenC
#2
Never heard of the clicking nose, but remember from reading this thread the following symptoms occur if a smart fuse had tripped in the car:
"In cases where car has lost: all cameras (black backup camera), GPS, AutoPilot, lane lines and other vehicles, then this has been reported to remedy the issue."
The helpful guide to RESET on Tesla Model 3
There is a hard reset procedure that can reset the fuse, but it is not a recommended procedure for users. However you have no way to get to the service center or home, it might worth a try.

I presume they already had you try the regular reset procedure.
 
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Reactions: Phlier
#4
stopcrazypp said:
Never heard of the clicking nose, but remember from reading this thread the following symptoms occur if a smart fuse had tripped in the car:
"In cases where car has lost: all cameras (black backup camera), GPS, AutoPilot, lane lines and other vehicles, then this has been reported to remedy the issue."
The helpful guide to RESET on Tesla Model 3
There is a hard reset procedure that can reset the fuse, but it is not a recommended procedure for users. However you have no way to get to the service center or home, it might worth a try.

I presume they already had you try the regular reset procedure.
Click to expand...

The service person on the phone had me try resetting the camera calibration and that failed, after we tried it after powering off the car and trying it again, still failed.

But what you are stating here sounds like exactly what happened, I lost all my cameras, GPS stopped working, Autopilot and cruise control no longer worked and I couldn't see road lines or other vehicles.
 
#5
amcfarla said:
The service person on the phone had me try resetting the camera calibration and that failed, after we tried it after powering off the car and trying it again, still failed.
Click to expand...
There are two procedures to reboot regularly:
Restarting your touchscreen
Do It Yourself - Model 3
Powering down
Do It Yourself - Model 3
You can also factory reset (you will lose all your profiles).

However, the click noise is still concerning, which suggests a hardware fault (did it eventually stop?). Tesla will need to look into that. Given you were able to get the car home and would eventually be able to have Tesla take a look, I guess you perhaps don't need to try the hard reset mentioned in the other post (which requires disconnecting the 12V battery and also the connector in the rear seat).
 
Last edited:
#6
stopcrazypp said:
There are two procedures to reboot regularly:
Restarting your touchscreen
Do It Yourself - Model 3
Powering down
Do It Yourself - Model 3
You can also factory reset (you will lose all your profiles).

However, the click noise is still concerning, which suggests a hardware fault (did it eventually stop?). Tesla will need to look into that. Given you were able to get the car home and would eventually be able to have Tesla take a look, I guess you perhaps don't need to try the hard reset mentioned in the other post (which requires disconnecting the 12V battery and also the connector in the rear seat).
Click to expand...

I was told to take my car to Tesla service tomorrow and I have an appointment on Monday for them to investigate so hopefully they can figure out the issue pretty quickly. At least I was able to get home, after kind of a stressful day. The clicking sound is still occurring in the video. Thanks for providing the information you posted in your first post.
 
#7
Kinda sounds like something is stuck in the shutters in the front grill (they can open and close to control for airflow through the radiator & condenser, and to help with aerodynamics). Perhaps it caused them to fault and affect the vehicle electronics. The service center will figure it out and get you taken care of.
 
#10
We were waiting in the Model Y yesterday and I was scrolling through Netflix, and it freak it out. The car started making a very loud roaring noise, and the screen froze up.

I was able to reboot the computer with the scroll wheels. The noise stopped, and the car was fine after that. It had recently updated to 2021.4.6.
 
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Reactions: Phlier
#11
TLLMRRJ said:
We were waiting in the Model Y yesterday and I was scrolling through Netflix, and it freak it out. The car started making a very loud roaring noise, and the screen froze up.

I was able to reboot the computer with the scroll wheels. The noise stopped, and the car was fine after that. It had recently updated to 2021.4.6.
Click to expand...

@amcfarla If you get a chance, would you tell us what firmware version your car is running?
 
#13
I had a similar noise back in December. In the video below you can hear the final 7 seconds of it (lasted about a minute). It sounds a lot like yours the first couple of seconds before it spools down.

Took it to the Service Center and they replaced my condenser (free, warranty). Not sure why you had all of the electrical issues, but your compressor sounds just like mine.

For comparison: Model 3 Performance, 12 months old, 20k miles, version 2020.48.35.5

https://youtu.be/O_uTSbah-lI
 
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