I need to know about your rattles....

[TeeEmCee]

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.

Sigh, I did some “test knocking” around the well liners the other day; there’s so much wrong with how those were put together, it’s not funny.

Check the very bottom of the wheel well liner, right behind the front wheels. It tucks behind a very small lip and it may occasionally bang against it. Squeeze a piece of automotive trim tape in there, it may help.

 

[TeeEmCee]

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.

Had that too, it took several trips and arguments but it was fixed. By now they should have data on what is causing it and what the repair procedure is.

 

[sg021]

There is no one year service for the Model 3.

Wow I never realized that, I just had assumed based on the Model S. It looks like brake fluid and battery coolant are the only maintenance items. I guess I'll bring it in when i feel motivated enough to do so since i don't want to wait two years.

 

[SigNC]

I have what sounds like a vibration/rattle coming from the right rear window when I go of small bumps in succession. I haven't tried to track it down as I'm never riding in the car and not driving but i find it quite annoying.

 

[1deepthink]

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.

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've crawled all around the passenger back seat on this one. I agree it's in the deck area. I can reproduce with road bumps and a couple of different songs with deep base that I have stored 1) This D.J. by Warren G and 2) Youth Dem Cold by Richie Spice ....music tastes duly noted!

 

[avarkey]

I have creak noise in the front dash specially in the cold weather and happens about after 30-40 minutes of driving. There is also rattle coming from rear while driving on rough road. Car ride feels bumpy and harsh on the uneven road. Took it to the service. Here is the report:

Verified concern, Technician applied sound reducing material and adjusted the
dash , performed a road test and verified noise no longer present.
Correction: Exterior NVH General Diagnosis

upon inspection , technician verified that the passenger door was not properly
secured, Technician re-secured door panels and performed a road test .
verified noise no longer present.
Correction: Exterior NVH General Diagnosis

Both of the issues still persist and very hard to duplicate it at the service center.

 

[voip-ninja]

So I have some good news.

According to my service adviser the "rear rattle problem has been resolved". Unfortunately I won't get the car back for a couple more days as they have not been able to reproduce or identify the dash rattle. That one doesn't happen too often so I told them as long as it's documented in case it gets worse I can live with it.

They are replacing the windshield tomorrow and I guess on Monday there's a chance I get the car back. They probably want to evaluate it for wind noise after getting the windshield replaced.

 

[paranoidroid]

I have had zero rattle issues with mine. It spent one day at the track and two full days at the autocross (where my vehicle was used as an instructor demo vehicle and driven very hard) so any rattle issues would have definitely shown up by now.

Good luck with voip getting the issues resolved.

 

[TeeEmCee]

For those of you who have front-end rattles that may be attributed to the wheel well liner:

I found that the Audi liners have this strip of rubber along the edges (the Tesla does not). This allows the liner to bang against the edges of the fender or door skirt without rattling, while having just about as much play. The liner seems to be fastened a bit more tightly on the Audi, but not dramatically so.

I’m going to try to lay some thin rubber tape on the edges of all wheel well liners on the Model 3. I hope it will stay in place.

 

[voip-ninja]

So I got my car back from Tesla Service yesterday morning.

Work completed was that my primary noise complaint was addressed via "installation of sound deadening material". My secondary noise complaint couldn't be reproduced and they also replaced the vehicle windshield and charge port.

Driving home it was noticeable within a mile or two that the original noise is still present. The noise is somewhat muffled and it is subtle, but it's clearly still there. Anyone test driving the car (as they claim to have done) should have picked up on this.

More troubling is that there is a new resonating noise coming from the area near the top of the windshield where the passenger side sun visor is. It's possible it's coming from the headliner, or maybe even the camera module. I pressed on the headliner and moved my hand along and heard a tab snap into place but the noise persists. Also while pressing my hand along the headliner firmly I heard a bit of a crunching sound, like perhaps too much adhesive was used in the windshield installation, not really sure.

I noticed that there is an O ring sitting in my car's cupholder. I'm not sure what the o-ring is for but perhaps it's involved.

The windshield was replaced because it was out of spec and was suspected as being related to excessive wind noise in the car that even the technician acknowledged he noticed on the test drive. The wind noise is still present, it's actually more noticeable now on the driver side than the passenger side.

I am frustrated that Tesla is unable to fix their cars and meet a quality standard of similar sedans I have owned in the past 20 years.

I texted my service adviser about the frustration with new added issues and original issues not being addressed and have not heard back from him as of yet.

TLR? I took my car to Tesla to address persistent annoying noise issues and they have made it worse.

 

[super20g]

TLR? I took my car to Tesla to address persistent annoying noise issues and they have made it worse.

Ugh, sorry man. Noise complaints are tricky. They probably should have went for a ride with you. Or I guess you could have made an about face, but if you are anything like me, I am usually mentally drained and out of time by the time I pick up that I go home, regroup, then get back a hold of them for another appointment.

 

[hcdavis3]

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.

Took delivery of a July 2018 3 last Friday. No rattling or squeaky sounds I can detect. Wind noise and tire noise only. So far so good.

 

[markbraggs]

My car was built in July (VIN around 35k). I’ve taken it in 3 times for clicking/rattling/creaks and squeaks under the driver seat area when going over bumps at low speeds. Anyone know what’s causing this?

Model 3 Videos - Google Drive

 

[voip-ninja]

Audio recording of noise;

Headlinernoise

 

[moridin2002]

I have two and the car is currently in being serviced. The first one, which is interment, luckily presented itself towards the end of the road test with the technician. Sounded like a loose fitting glove box. You can hear it when seated in the front passenger sear or faintly when driving. The other, more prominent noise was coming from the driver side, rear seat. The tech heard it right away and from what I guessed, its the seat belt tensioner assembly.

VIN 88xxx, dual motor, took delivery in September, 2018

 

[WileyTheMan]

Audio recording of noise;

Headlinernoise

I would definitely notice that rattle. Personally the only odd noise I experienced in my car was a slight clanging noise from the back. Turns out it was the back seat trunk access latch, but since I have child seats installed back there now, I no longer hear it.

 

[voip-ninja]

o-ring found in cupholder after windshield replacement;

 

[TeeEmCee]

o-ring found in cupholder after windshield replacement;

View attachment 385830

Leaving an o-ring in the cupholder must be standard procedure, I too had found one of those.

As to your headliner noise, check whether it’s not from the mirror housing.

 

[voip-ninja]

Leaving an o-ring in the cupholder must be standard procedure, I too had found one of those.

As to your headliner noise, check whether it’s not from the mirror housing.

I pressed on the mirror housing and it didn't make any difference.

Tesla does appear to want to make it right, as they've agreed that they should have their most experienced techs try to get this issue resolved and appear willing to provide an actual loaner this time around.

This is incredibly frustrating. I don't bring a car to service and expect to get it back with new problems and this, my 14th car purchase in my lifetime is the first time I am dealing with this level of crap from service.

 

[TeeEmCee]

I pressed on the mirror housing and it didn't make any difference.

Tesla does appear to want to make it right, as they've agreed that they should have their most experienced techs try to get this issue resolved and appear willing to provide an actual loaner this time around.

This is incredibly frustrating. I don't bring a car to service and expect to get it back with new problems and this, my 14th car purchase in my lifetime is the first time I am dealing with this level of crap from service.

My mirror rattle came from deep within and was not gone until they replaced the whole thing ... after only two months of foam-and-duct-tape engineering. Merely pressing on the outer plastic cover did nothing.

As to “appearing to make it right”, my local teams were too, right up to when they got tired of me pointing out their failures and told me I was a “problem customer” and to get lost. They’re quite good at bullying customers into accepting lies and shoddy repairs, as if we were born yesterday and never saw any better.