I need to know about your rattles....

[super20g]

9500 miles. No rattles at all during the entire time of ownership so far.

If you list it for sale, that makes a good bullet point actually.

 

[voip-ninja]

What gets me is the service. I too have a couple of rattles. One in the A pillar on the driver's side. It comes and goes but it's mostly at city speeds. The other is mostly there which is the attenuators on the HVAC when the fans are blowing in your face. It doesn't happen when it's set to feet or defrost. I can hear it when stopped or parked mostly...it's like a slight humming. It's faint but it isn't just the "whoosh" of air.

Now...the service center in Watertown MA is downright useless for things like this. Not only do they lack patience in wanting to hear and resolve, I had one "lead tech" actually get out of the car and just walk away from me when I was trying to reproduce. I told the advisor do not ever let him work on my car again. Luckily, I am in NH and have Electrified Garage who are more than willing to help me diagnose this.

For the most part, I don't have rattles. However, the ones I do have should be an easy fix with some foam/tape, etc. I could do it myself but my point on a new car is why should I? What I am most upset about is the service personnel. I've found that they lack communication skills like writing back to you but also when you actually get there, it's really about just getting you off their backs. They claim things like "it's supposed to sound that way, they all do that, or I can't fix it". I don't even know how to get to management to complain.

I have zero proof of this but my strong suspicion is that Tesla techs are paid peanuts and are maybe given some stock options. Let's face it, working on a Tesla, other than a few very specific things related to the battery itself, are nowhere near as complex as an internal combustion car. They can probably get someone fresh out of high school to do it for $15 an hour.

Learning to work on engines, transmissions, etc., takes years of practice to get competent enough to be certified to work on a high end brand.

I think most of the training Tesla does is probably on the factory floor putting cars together for a couple of months as well as time they spend learning on the job at the SCs.

Just my guess though. Certainly they don't seem nearly as concerned with how satisfied I am with the work they are doing than any of the other car brands I own.

 

[firebat]

You indicated it's pretty easy to disassemble it, could you describe it? I've looked at the parts diagram but am finding it a bit daunting.

There are a couple decent videos on it. Try this one:

. The dash is attached with plastic clips so you don't even need a screwdriver, and there are very few pieces so you don't have to worry about losing things or reassembling it in the wrong order.

I'm hoping owners like yourself that are a little braver than the rest of us would be kind enough to start making videos of some of this stuff so we owners can start addressing the issues on our own rather than relying on Tesla service.

I'll see if I can find time to do this. I think we need a resource on the common noises/rattles, root causes, and remedies for the simpler ones. The front wheel well rattle was supremely aggravating (10 months of aggravation!), but it's also something that anyone can fix in <1 minute, so I really want to get that info out there.

And to echo the other comments, what really annoys me is the service. I get that Tesla is a new company and they have growing pains, and I'm willing to put up with that. But the very least that service could do is acknowledge that yes, there are noises, here are some steps that you the customer can take to help Tesla diagnose the problem since we are money/time/people-constrained. They're completely lacking in customer empathy.

 

[voip-ninja]

There are a couple decent videos on it. Try this one:

. The dash is attached with plastic clips so you don't even need a screwdriver, and there are very few pieces so you don't have to worry about losing things or reassembling it in the wrong order.

I'll see if I can find time to do this. I think we need a resource on the common noises/rattles, root causes, and remedies for the simpler ones. The front wheel well rattle was supremely aggravating (10 months of aggravation!), but it's also something that anyone can fix in <1 minute, so I really want to get that info out there.

And to echo the other comments, what really annoys me is the service. I get that Tesla is a new company and they have growing pains, and I'm willing to put up with that. But the very least that service could do is acknowledge that yes, there are noises, here are some steps that you the customer can take to help Tesla diagnose the problem since we are money/time/people-constrained. They're completely lacking in customer empathy.

Very interesting video! It's interesting/strange to me that he removed the entire front dash assembly rather than just unclip and remove the trim piece itself as there are many videos out there where this is done. I would be sweating while removing the numerous clips because that's typically where I screw things up and snap something off.

It doesn't look terribly complicated to remove this unit and it appears that the foam gasket that runs along the dash unit is specifically designed to prevent rattling and squeaking and would be a prime target for rattles if there were any gaps.... I would probably want to have a suitable product on hand for remedying any issues so if you can recommend something that would be awesome!

 

[firebat]

Can you link to videos where only the trim piece is removed? I removed the entire assembly too, and I think the wood trim is pretty firmly stuck onto the assembly and not easily removable by itself.

Yesterday I decided to remove the dash grill since I found a video on how to do it and it looked easy:

. Turns out removal is easy, but reassembling the thing was the most frustrating experience ever. Anyone removed grille at front of dash? Rattle driving me nuts. has more details. I added some felt tape to various exposed plastic bits (particularly the slot on the right where the pillar trim slides into), and that seems to have solved some of the rattling/squeaking from that area; I haven't heard a single thing from it while driving this morning.

Later in the morning I started disassembling the door and found the source of my front-right door squeaking. There's a wire inside and either the wire is rubbing against the door frame, or the clip holding the wire in place is rubbing. I'm taking a break right now since I'm not sure how to fix this one yet, but I'll probably just add lots of quieting tape/foam to make the wire/clip immobile. I tried taking some pictures and video, but the spaces are so tight that it's not very understandable. I think what I'll do instead is grab some diagrams from https://epc.teslamotors.com and mark which areas are problematic.

After this, the only irritating noise remaining should be my suspension.

Here are some tools I found useful for Model 3 disassembly and sound-proofing:
- Trim removal kit: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01KXN7LE6/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
- Torx set (needed for door trim): https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00S0AMN5M/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
- Thick quieting foam tape: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004J64OOO/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o05_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
- Thinner felt quieting tape: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01455QMX4/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o09_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

You could probably just get the felt tape since it's a bit more versatile due to its thinness.

Also one last tip in sound-proofing: When you disassemble an area, just go ahead and try to add sound-proofing stuff everywhere since adding bits of the felt tape is easy. Disassembly/reassembly is hard so you want to minimize that.

 

[firebat]

Quick update, I found the exact part that was rubbing inside the door frame. It was the zip tie for the wire harness near the door latch, rubbing against the plastic cover for the door latch assembly. I had to work completely blind since it's in such a tight spot, but managed to pop out the clip for the wire harness and added felt tape between the clip and the plastic cover.

The subsequent drive was glorious. There are still some slight squeaks, but they require rather rough roads to trigger. On the freeway, all I can hear now is wind and road noise.

 

[omkar]

I've got an annoying rattle in the driver's door on my SR. I wasn't sure where it was coming from and used a Tone Generator app to reproduce the rattle. Installed it on my phone, pushed sound through the car, and played with the frequency until I was able to reproduce the rattle. Got the idea from this video:

I haven't yet asked Tesla to take a look and I'm a bit concerned doing so after reading the stories here. Hope this tip helps some of you reproduce the rattle.

 

[firebat]

I put together a quick guide on the latch harness squeak (the one triggered by the armrest): Model 3 Rattles - front_door_latch_harness_squeak

The harness squeak is nearly impossible to record because of the tight location (I'd likely have to get an inspection scope; even a GoPro was too big to get any reasonable footage), so I figured some diagrams would be easier to understand.

Let me know if you find this useful, and I can write up guides for the other problems I've had. Also, does anyone have recommendations for a decent wiki where I can host these? I'd like to start a community guide site.

I've got an annoying rattle in the driver's door on my SR. I wasn't sure where it was coming from and used a Tone Generator app to reproduce the rattle. Installed it on my phone, pushed sound through the car, and played with the frequency until I was able to reproduce the rattle.

The tone generator worked for one of my earlier rattles, but doesn't trigger any of my recent ones.

 

[goldwing99]

What gets me is the service. I too have a couple of rattles. One in the A pillar on the driver's side. It comes and goes but it's mostly at city speeds. The other is mostly there which is the attenuators on the HVAC when the fans are blowing in your face. It doesn't happen when it's set to feet or defrost. I can hear it when stopped or parked mostly...it's like a slight humming. It's faint but it isn't just the "whoosh" of air.

Now...the service center in Watertown MA is downright useless for things like this. Not only do they lack patience in wanting to hear and resolve, I had one "lead tech" actually get out of the car and just walk away from me when I was trying to reproduce. I told the advisor do not ever let him work on my car again. Luckily, I am in NH and have Electrified Garage who are more than willing to help me diagnose this.

For the most part, I don't have rattles. However, the ones I do have should be an easy fix with some foam/tape, etc. I could do it myself but my point on a new car is why should I? What I am most upset about is the service personnel. I've found that they lack communication skills like writing back to you but also when you actually get there, it's really about just getting you off their backs. They claim things like "it's supposed to sound that way, they all do that, or I can't fix it". I don't even know how to get to management to complain.

This is great - thanks for sharing the news that service techs don't want to waste time on your non issues, so they can spend valuable time and limited resources on more deserving customers with consequential problems. Hopefully Electrified Garage can make you happy.

 

[voip-ninja]

This is great - thanks for sharing the news that service techs don't want to waste time on your non issues, so they can spend valuable time and limited resources on more deserving customers with consequential problems. Hopefully Electrified Garage can make you happy.

Tesla has a lot to learn about service and so do you.

All cars have rattles, and not all rattles can be reasonably solved by service departments, but most can with a moderate amount of effort. FWIW I've purchased 10 vehicles over the past 20 years and the only vehicle where I've gotten push back about fixing rattles/squeaks has been Tesla... who is also the only one to ever bring up that rattles/squeaks are only going to be addressed during the first year of ownership.

I just had my sun visor that was making a rubbing noise when it was in the stowed position replaced by mobile service and that issue appears to be resolved.

My last real bugaboo is the intermittent dashboard rattling that can get quite loud at times and is very annoying in a $60,000+ car. Mobile service checked the area out and said that there is a possibility that the retention clips in the dashboard trim (her words not mine) are loose and allowing it to resonate at certain speeds or in certain temps. She recommended having these replaced and fitted tight to eliminate this from being a possible source of the issue. She also removed and checked out the glove box as she said that's a common source of these noises, but she didn't think that was causing it in my case.

This particular mobile ranger is great and has always been attentive to my issues.... so there are certainly people at Tesla that take pride in their work.

Another thing worth mentioning is that different people have different sensitivity to this kind of thing. I'm moderately sensitive to noises but after decades of car ownership I've learned to tune out some of the really minor ones.... I've also gravitated towards higher end luxury brands that have fewer of these problems and go out of their way to solve the ones I do have.

My wife on the other hand could drive around with an erector set loose in the car and wouldn't give a damn about it.

 

[voip-ninja]

Can you link to videos where only the trim piece is removed? I removed the entire assembly too, and I think the wood trim is pretty firmly stuck onto the assembly and not easily removable by itself.

Yesterday I decided to remove the dash grill since I found a video on how to do it and it looked easy:

. Turns out removal is easy, but reassembling the thing was the most frustrating experience ever. Anyone removed grille at front of dash? Rattle driving me nuts. has more details. I added some felt tape to various exposed plastic bits (particularly the slot on the right where the pillar trim slides into), and that seems to have solved some of the rattling/squeaking from that area; I haven't heard a single thing from it while driving this morning.

Later in the morning I started disassembling the door and found the source of my front-right door squeaking. There's a wire inside and either the wire is rubbing against the door frame, or the clip holding the wire in place is rubbing. I'm taking a break right now since I'm not sure how to fix this one yet, but I'll probably just add lots of quieting tape/foam to make the wire/clip immobile. I tried taking some pictures and video, but the spaces are so tight that it's not very understandable. I think what I'll do instead is grab some diagrams from https://epc.teslamotors.com and mark which areas are problematic.

After this, the only irritating noise remaining should be my suspension.

Here are some tools I found useful for Model 3 disassembly and sound-proofing:
- Trim removal kit: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01KXN7LE6/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
- Torx set (needed for door trim): https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00S0AMN5M/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
- Thick quieting foam tape: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004J64OOO/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o05_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
- Thinner felt quieting tape: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01455QMX4/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o09_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

You could probably just get the felt tape since it's a bit more versatile due to its thinness.

Also one last tip in sound-proofing: When you disassemble an area, just go ahead and try to add sound-proofing stuff everywhere since adding bits of the felt tape is easy. Disassembly/reassembly is hard so you want to minimize that.

This is really good information thanks for sharing it.

I think I was mistaken on the dash trim swap because I watched some of the videos I had seen earlier and in fact they do remove the entire forward assembly to get the piece with the trim out.

Local ranger indicated they can take a stab at fixing my dash noise by replacing retention clips that she believes are loose (possibly from earlier removals and see if that addresses the problem.

She basically told me she's more than happy to continue working on the problem until the 1 year clock runs out, or maybe longer if it goes unresolved and Tesla has an outstanding work item on it.

 

[Glamisduner]

9500 miles. No rattles at all during the entire time of ownership so far.

exact opposite of my car. 12k+ miles of intermittent rattling. I really wish I could figure out what was causing the one in the rear of the car. I'm also not sure what the fix is for the seat latch and rear trunk latch rattle. Electrical tape around them has help allot, but it will come back as the tape wears. Anyone know what part of the rear deck above the truck will cause rattling? It sounds like something between the rear deck and rear glass, and it's super annoying. Also how hard is it to remove the headliner between the top and rear glass? I want to try adding some felt of foam to whatever is rattling up there.

I know there is a broken clip in one of my driver side doors, but it seems like it is wedged into place so it hasn't been rolling back and fourth lately. Not sure it's worth fixing, or how to get service to do it.

 

[danix]

Brand new owner. My car rattles underneath over bumpy roads, if I had to guess it sounds like a loose liner or belly pan.
Trying to figure out the quickest way of sorting this short of returning the car.
Checked online for a service appt, they are a week out.
Sent an email instead, let's see if I get any reply.

 

[dwalme]

Anyone know what part of the rear deck above the truck will cause rattling? It sounds like something between the rear deck and rear glass, and it's super annoying.

Just tap with your hand until you can reproduce the rattle noise to help identify it. It seems almost the entire rear deck rattles to some degree depending on where you tap and how much force you use.

Most of the rattles come from the metal grill, but only when tapping a bit forward of it in my case. Depending on where you tap changes the tone of the rattle from the metal grill.

Also the edges furthest rearward on the c pillar covers will rattle if you tap them. Some foam tape on the inside of them should fix those up.

 

[firebat]

I know there is a broken clip in one of my driver side doors, but it seems like it is wedged into place so it hasn't been rolling back and fourth lately. Not sure it's worth fixing, or how to get service to do it.

I know you didn't ask about this, but in case you're curious about the effort to do this yourself, probably not worth it unless you can constantly hear it. With the front doors you can disassemble enough of it by removing the trim/unscrewing various bolts to get access to the interior, but unless you remove the inner plastic panel entirely, it's extremely difficult to poke around. With the rear doors, it appears that getting access inside also requires messing with the automatic window mechanism, so it's even more effort.

FWIW, I've heard a metallic sound occasionally (maybe every 1-2 months) when suddenly accelerating, and it was only after my recent forays into the front door that I've realized the metallic sound is a loose clip. And I'm just going to live with it; it's too rare of a problem for me and way too much effort to fish it out.

 

[Glamisduner]

I know you didn't ask about this, but in case you're curious about the effort to do this yourself, probably not worth it unless you can constantly hear it. With the front doors you can disassemble enough of it by removing the trim/unscrewing various bolts to get access to the interior, but unless you remove the inner plastic panel entirely, it's extremely difficult to poke around. With the rear doors, it appears that getting access inside also requires messing with the automatic window mechanism, so it's even more effort.

FWIW, I've heard a metallic sound occasionally (maybe every 1-2 months) when suddenly accelerating, and it was only after my recent forays into the front door that I've realized the metallic sound is a loose clip. And I'm just going to live with it; it's too rare of a problem for me and way too much effort to fish it out.

The part the has broken off the clips in my doors is a round ring. It likes to roll back and fourth inside the doors. I had 3 broken clips on my passenger side and 2 in the trunk. The door looked like it came off pretty easily when I watched a tech, but there were a couple gotchas, like the window moving up when you unplug the puddle light.

 

[voip-ninja]

So mobile service was out today on the follow-up appointment for the "clips" in the dash being loose.

I took the tech on a test drive and was able to repro the problem to his satisfaction and he spent about an hour working on the car and test driving it.

He commented that the clips were 'really loose'... I'm not sure what clips these are unless they are replaceable clips that allow the front door trim and vent assembly to be removed from the dash itself. Would be neat to see a close up picture of one as I was not able to watch this repair.

The tech said that he drove the car over the same roads I drove it on for our test drive and could no longer reproduce the problem but said 'no guarantees' that this is the permanent fix.

I can report that the strange rubbing/shifting noise that I had which I temporarily resolved by rotating the passenger side sun visor does appear to have been fully resolved by replacement of that part by mobile service a week or so ago.

My drive home this afternoon will be interesting to see if my dash rattling is really gone or not or if it's just improved... the tech was somewhat baffled by the noise when it was being reproduced and was doing things like shining a flashlight into the vents thinking there could be a foreign object stuck in there (no foreign objects).

//side note... the little plastic anchors that hold the rear plate frame in have been coming loose on my car for a couple of months now, I asked the mobile tech if he had any on his van and he reported that they only had them at the service center and to make another appointment and if possible he would pick the ticket up and bring them by... bizarre they wouldn't just mail them to me.

 

[voip-ninja]

Yeah problem occurred immediately upon pulling out of parking garage.

FML.

 

[voip-ninja]

And this morning I observe I now have an intermittent rattle in the left side of the dash that wasn't there before Tesla messed with my vehicle.

Tesla continued lack of capability strikes yet again.

 

[NYCR160]

No rattles yet after one year and 18,000 miles. I am still driving it like I stole it. If there any any rattles in there I will find them.