I need to know about your rattles....

[StealthP3D]

No squeaks or rattles in either of my Model 3's so far. Or my father's.

Our Sig S and X have never had any either. Our performance S had a few. My Roadster...now THERE was a car with squeaks and rattles!

Same here. We have two Model 3's and they are both as solid as a single piece of billet (one May delivery and one in Sept).

I've been beating mine up on a pretty rough State highway that goes up into the alpine where ice potholes have been forming but haven't been able to loosen anything up to the point it rattles. My wifes car has a bit easier of a life (except for the I-5 concrete expansion joints at 70-80 mph) and it won't even rattle over those. Solid as a rock.

 

[18_Mdl_P3D]

For me with ~4K mi still solid...no rattles.

 

[voip-ninja]

I am throwing the towel in on trying to diagnose these problems and have made an appointment with service.

Interestingly they contacted me with a “noise form” to fill out and want a separate one filled out for each noise problem.

The noise form is dated from August 2018 and goes out of its way to insist that cars making noises is completely normal.

 

[super20g]

I have a flutter sound around the front of the driver door that has always annoyed me. It is generally only present at interstate speeds or when there are strong cross winds and traveling 50mph+. Kind of sounds like the fender liner vibrating against the fender, but I had them check the fender liner and they added missing clips and said problem resolved but it is not. Its minor but annoys the hell out of me.

Other than that, the usual wind/road noise from the doors and fenders areas that seems more obtrusive than it should be.

And a rattle on the back glass where the plastic fitment is bad and vibrates against the glass when it is cold out.

 

[voip-ninja]

Car dropped off today. Was a bit surprised that Model 3 owners don't get Tesla loaners any longer, I was picked up by a Lyft and deposited at Enterprise for a complimentary rental vehicle... there was another Model 3 owner there getting his loaner vehicle at the same time. Weird.

I took the technician on a test drive and reproduced the rear rattle for him. I agreed with him that it's not easy to reproduce and he agreed that when it does reproduce it's irritating. He moved around the cabin and suspects the problem is somewhere in the rear passenger door. He commented this would not be an easy problem to fix. Goody.

I will say that the service was pretty good today, the service adviser, technician and assistant manager were all very responsive to my needs. They complimented me on not being an a-hole losing his mind I guess they get that a lot.

Also on deck while they have it;

• Loud resonating rattle sound from front driver side dash area. This happens rarely but when it does happen it sounds like something is rattling loose inside the climate vent. I could not reproduce this so I don't have a lot of confidence they will fix it but I did furnish them with a video demonstrating the problem's not in my head.
• Loud wind noise. The technician measured the windshield on the passenger side as being 2.5mm below the glass roof and maximum specification is ~1.5mm. Ideally the windshield is supposed to sit slightly above the roof to provide slipstream for it and mine is not installed from the factory within tolerances, Tesla offered to replace the windshield, which is something they outsource now.
• Charging port irregularities. They agreed to replace the charge port since it intermittently won't open by touch and is difficult to open when pressing a button on the HPWC. No idea if I'll get the redesigned part or not.
• Technician noted that my right turn signal doesn't stay on permanent blink when pressed all the way on the stalk about 5% of the time I use it. They were going to look at this, not sure if they will actually fix it as I had not made it a priority item.
• The service technician commented that the periodic "autosteer unavailable" message that pops up on the display when I put the car in drive could happen at times when I get out of the car and get back into it as there is a lag on the module that controls autosteer re-syncing with the steering wheel position.

They assured me they shouldn't need my car for a week this time as the queue is not backed up and they expected they could start working on my vehicle today or tomorrow.

If they could fix/improve the noise problems I would be much happier with the vehicle, so here's to hoping.

 

[more863-also]

Re #1 eventually felt won't work. Had that done at Burbank SC and the rattle came back. Replaced entire driver side B-pillar and the rattle goes away.

Eventually everything in the interior of my Model 3 will be replaced at least once before 50,000 miles.

Lol, nope. The rattle warranty is 12 months or 12k miles.

 

[ord3r]

I had the AC vent rattle.

First off, my ac vents are like, coming loose, they couldn't fix this without new parts. I thought this was the source.

They undid the dash, and said it was missing clips, re did it and the rattle is pretty much fixed. Sometimes get some rattle over super rough roads, but at that point everything is shaking so not too worried.

Ac vents still loose and dangly, but they dont make noise so whatever, can't see them without a flashlight anyway.

They did leave a pry mark on the dash where they pried it off, like bent up plastic. I don't care but this may trigger some folks.

They coudn't fix some of the other issues i had, but I easily fixed those myself (see the horn not honking thread).

 

[HostileHarry]

1. I get the AC whine when blasting heat at full speed.

2. MY worse rattle comes from the phone console area. It squeaks and drives me nuts.

3. I do get the front passenger noise from the seat belt pillar as well as somewhere down near the side storage on the door.

4. I get another rattle somewhere in the rear passenger side area. Very well could be from seat belt... not sure.

 

[TheLocNar]

My right front door is squeaky like crazy. Sounds like plastic on plastic rubbing together. Bumps and even acceleration/deceleration make the noise. Not sure I want to take it into service and risk them making it worse. Sigh.

 

[omar]

This has been my car’s name for awhile now. Early vin in the 8,000s.

 

[nvx1977]

2. MY worse rattle comes from the phone console area. It squeaks and drives me nuts.

I have a squeak around that area, but it feels a bit higher, like it's behind the touch screen.

I've actually removed the touch screen to rule out that it was part of the screen itself. Definitely deeper. I'm suspecting A/C or HVAC unit. I had that replaced (cause my car's A/C was DoA) and I feel like the squeak started happening after that replacement.

happens more in warmer weather. not a peep during the winter. Service center said they'd welcome me bringing it back when it's warmer if it recurs. They won't enforce that "rattle warranty".

 

[LyftupX]

One area of rattles are the seatbelts hitting the plastic.

Other than that on rough roads I have a slight rattle in front of the steering wheel where the dash board meets another section. If I push down sometimes it will go away for some time.

Try firm presses in some of the areas... I may try small shims next that you can’t see.

 

[zhu-]

I have some rattle or something near the rear passenger side. No idea what it's from and cannot be accurately reproduced. Seems to happen most when I'm turning over a bumpy road - possibly the suspension? Sounds like a clicking sound sometimes.

 

[Glamisduner]

 

[TeeEmCee]

This has been my car’s name for awhile now. Early vin in the 8,000s.

View attachment 384018

Play some of this loud enough and you'll be alright

 

[Perry]

I have several annoying rattles in my Model 3 which has less than 4,000 miles on the odometer. The car is an August 2018 build.

Unfortunately these rattles come and go depending on the road surface and with the exception of one rattle. Have not been able to isolate any of them.

It is quite annoying to have these issues on any new automobile let alone one I paid so much for.

I’m hoping the forum regulars can help identify if they have rattles that have been resolved and what the fix was.

1. I had an annoying intermittent rattle in the passenger side B pillar near the seatbelt anchor. It would go away if you pushed the anchor. Ranger stuffed felt in behind the roller and seems to have resolved it.

2. There is an intermittent noise that almost sounds like a groaning or resonating sound coming from the driver side dash or climate vent area when going over some road surfaces. I have a video of this.

3. There is a rattling tapping sound that sounds like it is coming from the rear passenger door area. I was suspicious this was caused by the rear seat deck above the trunk area since you can tap that and get it to make noise, but putting felt in this area did not resolve the problem. This one is the most difficult one to reproduce but sometimes it can occur continuously on some roads for minutes at a time.

I have your problem 1 exactly. Took it in 3 times and still nothing has changed. Took it in a forth time and they put some anti-rattle tape in the B pillars but the noise is still there just a little lower pitch. Looks like it's just a bad design and it's unfix-able. Let me know if you figure out a way to fix it.

I also have these creaking noised from the body frame. Every time I accelerate/decelerate more aggressively the whole frame creaks like the body joints are being torn apart or something. In general this car feels very poorly made. My 20 year old Lexus doesn't do this, why should my new Tesla?

Also now my driver window squeaks every time I move it up/down like a cheep plastic toy.

 

[sg021]

Ours is from October and feels solid. There is sometimes a rattle from near the emergency lights button. If I press on the area it stops. I'm kind of surprised I'm the only person mentioning it.
I plan to have that, the misbehaving turn signal that a bunch of cars near our build date got, and one year service done all at once in the fall.

 

[voip-ninja]

Ours is from October and feels solid. There is sometimes a rattle from near the emergency lights button. If I press on the area it stops. I'm kind of surprised I'm the only person mentioning it.
I plan to have that, the misbehaving turn signal that a bunch of cars near our build date got, and one year service done all at once in the fall.

There is no one year service for the Model 3.

 

[Birdman325]

Please let me know what they say about the load wind noise and the windshield sitting too far below the glass roof. The wind noise in my 3 is way too loud. Sounds like it is a combination of driver’s side window noise, general windscreen window noise, and of course, the omni present road noise.

In terms of rattles, I get the rear creaking when I accelerate and slow down but it seems to come and go. Thankfully I have not yet heard any real “rattles”, but I do have the odd “flex” and “parts moving around” sounds when I go over bumps. I am trying not to think about what it will sound like a year from now and then some - hopefully this is what it is and won’t get worse.

But the wind / road noise really makes taking long trips a bit of a pain

 

[voip-ninja]

Please let me know what they say about the load wind noise and the windshield sitting too far below the glass roof. The wind noise in my 3 is way too loud. Sounds like it is a combination of driver’s side window noise, general windscreen window noise, and of course, the omni present road noise.

In terms of rattles, I get the rear creaking when I accelerate and slow down but it seems to come and go. Thankfully I have not yet heard any real “rattles”, but I do have the odd “flex” and “parts moving around” sounds when I go over bumps. I am trying not to think about what it will sound like a year from now and then some - hopefully this is what it is and won’t get worse.

But the wind / road noise really makes taking long trips a bit of a pain

The wind noise was on the laundry list of items and interestingly the technician who was sitting in the passenger seat on the 30-40mph test ride said he could hear that the noise sounded abnormally high.

He said that the windshield needs to be flush with the roof glass or it needs to be above the roof glass by no more than 2 mm if I understood him correctly.... as the windshield is supposed to break the wind down to the roof vs the roof line breaking up the wind and causing loud buffeting.

In my case the windshield on one side is below the roof glass. In cases where the windshield is below the roof glass it can't be more than about 1.75mm below and in my case it was over 2.5mm below. They had to reference the car specs to find this out. If it looks like your windshield is below your roof line you should measure it with calipers, if it's over 2 mm you can argue that Tesla needs to replace the windshield to get it in spec.

The service adviser commented that sometimes it's "more trouble than it's worth" to replace the glass, but when I asked the tech if he would have it replaced on Tesla's dime with it being out of spec he said absolutely he would.

So I asked them to get it done. They outsource glass replacement so I don't know if this means I get the car back and have to have the windshield replaced at a later date or if they will get the glass replacement done while the car is in their care.

I got a text last night that "work is progressing" on my vehicle. I will see what they have to say about it today. I do know the technician said he was going to do his best to solve my primary complaint of a rattle in the passenger rear door area but I could tell that he didn't have high confidence of what it might be.

We know that these cars can be built tight as evidenced by owners who report zero issues. The one I rented on Turo had zero problems. We also know that Sandy Munro's engineering firm that completely disassembled the car did not have anything publicly negative to say about how the assembly was done or reasons why the car would be more susceptible to creaks/rattles. If the design itself was crap then it's hard to believe that two of Munro's engineers would have bought the car for themselves after seeing all of its warts (on the other hand they also would know exactly how to resolve any noise issues on their own without bringing the car to Tesla).

All I can chalk it up to is rushed/sloppy production... which can happen with any make/model of car. It will take things like owner sat surveys over time to really determine how the cars are holding up and if they have more noise issues than other brands.