High-pitch hissing/whistling when driving (video)

[likkuid]

Model 3 LR is only two months old, for the past couple weeks it's been hissing whenever I drive, regardless of speed. It sounds to be coming from the left-front of the driver side. I've tried removing objects, pressing and pulling on things, and taking other advice I've found in related threads, but nothing works. It's not constant but occurs most of the time.

I have a service appointment with Tesla tomorrow morning, however this is one of those frequencies only some people hear (my wife cannot, for instance.) Any tips should I hear "it's within tolerance", "that's normal", etc.?

 

[blackT3$!@]

frequencies only some people hear

I bet the Tesla tech won't be able to hear it either.

 

[KenC]

Had to put my AirPods Pro in to hear it. Computer speakers aren't good enough. That sounds like a high-frequency hiss, but at the low end of the high-frequency range. I had to concentrate to hear it. I doubt they'll hear it. What was worse, is that there seems to be a lot of leaf flapping noises. Have you vac'd out the air inlet?

 

[XPsionic]

I can hear this with my speakers just fine. And no, I've not heard this sound in my own Model 3 before.

You need to narrow down when this sound happens. Did you try changing the AC fan speed? Does it sound different when you accelerate? Does it sound different if you set the nav to a nearby supercharger and precondition?

 

[AS9.9.]

Interesting. I just picked up my used 2020 model 3 last week and was surprised about how loud it was, and how many random noises I was hearing from the b-pillar area (and the overall road noise). It seems they haven't fixed the road noise at all even in the newer models (which I was envious of before watching your video as I thought they did).

I used to have a sound similar to this in my KIA and it was seemingly coming from my vent area/navigation area I banged on both of them a couple of times and it went away, only to return the next day. While it wasn't a permanent fix, it did get rid of it for my drive.

Hope you figure it out!

 

[likkuid]

I can hear this with my speakers just fine. And no, I've not heard this sound in my own Model 3 before.

You need to narrow down when this sound happens. Did you try changing the AC fan speed? Does it sound different when you accelerate? Does it sound different if you set the nav to a nearby supercharger and precondition?

No to AC and acceleration. I haven't tried the other two and will do so. Thank you.

 

[likkuid]

Had to put my AirPods Pro in to hear it. Computer speakers aren't good enough. That sounds like a high-frequency hiss, but at the low end of the high-frequency range. I had to concentrate to hear it. I doubt they'll hear it. What was worse, is that there seems to be a lot of leaf flapping noises. Have you vac'd out the air inlet?

I have not. I'll try that, thanks for the suggestion as I would not have considered that.

 

[likkuid]

I can hear this with my speakers just fine. And no, I've not heard this sound in my own Model 3 before.

You need to narrow down when this sound happens. Did you try changing the AC fan speed? Does it sound different when you accelerate? Does it sound different if you set the nav to a nearby supercharger and precondition?

OK, the sound completely disappears when the battery is preconditioned (and reduces until gone when I set GPS to Supercharger).

Any ideas?

 

[KenC]

Are you sure the preconditioning whine is not masking the sound?

 

[likkuid]

Are you sure the preconditioning whine is not masking the sound?

Yes because I didn't base that assessment when it was ongoing, but when I cancelled it after 15min. No whine from preconditioning.

 

[fignacious]

Did you get this looked at? Same sound in my Model Y when cruising in the 45-55mph range. At almost 10k miles and no issues from it. Had it checked by two SCs and both said it's nothing concerning. One even said they had MY in my VIN range they drove with the same sound. Guess it's just a characteristic of some front motors...

 

[likkuid]

Did you get this looked at? Same sound in my Model Y when cruising in the 45-55mph range. At almost 10k miles and no issues from it. Had it checked by two SCs and both said it's nothing concerning. One even said they had MY in my VIN range they drove with the same sound. Guess it's just a characteristic of some front motors...

Yes, they said it's front motor drive unit and they regularly hear rear motor but not front. They put a special audio device in and recorded it to send to Tesla Engineering--but the SC said it's within spec.

Annoyingly, the first 20min drive with the tech was the first time I didn't hear the sound, because the car warmed up over the 45min drive there. I waited about an hour and it was heard the next time albeit not as intense as usual. Four hours later he drove it himself to record--but with the AC on (I could tell from my analytics app), which I said not to do.

He said they recorded it because the sound occurred not just when accelerating but when cruising etc.

All that said, I took a 55k km RWD loaner home and the sound was much worse, albeit from the rear.

 

[ev_go123]

This is the same hissing/cricket like noise 30+ people are complaining about on this MY thread:

https://teslamotorsclub.com/tmc/threads/what-is-this-high-pitched-cricket-like-noise.253698/page-13

Of those people, all M3/MY with the front motor and nothing older than late 2021. I think four of those people, including myself, have had their front drive unit replaced due to the noise (SC says it's a bad bearing) but at least half of those replaced make the same noise, just at different speeds.

Something to note, many people don't notice the noise when they're driving in my car, either they don't care, or they literally can't hear it due to the frequency being out of their hearing range (10kHz or so). Also it only occurs when the car has been cold soaked at around 50-60F or less, and at certain speeds.