Loud drive train noise from the front?

[redth]

So we just drove home from the airport after a week. On our initial drive to the airport a week ago, our 2022 MYP started making more noise than usual somewhere in the drive train. It sounds to me like its front motor maybe but not super easy to tell.

We made it fine, no warnings or anything from the car. We drove home as well and it seems to only have gotten louder, but still no warnings, charges fine, etc.

I uploaded a video of the noise during some acceleration and deceleration where it changes the pitch based on speed:

I’ve seen others with a high pitched whining but this isn’t the same, it’s lower frequency and more course sounding.

I’ve setup an appointment but the earliest is for over a week away, and it’s a 2.5 hour drive to the service center (there’s closer ones across the border in Michigan, but I don’t believe they will give me a loaner to drive back to Canada if this turns into a multi day repair)

I have questions:

1. Does this sound familiar to anyone? Motor unit? Could it be grounding strap even though it doesn’t sound like the high pitched sound that people posted with that issue?

2. Should i stop driving? We have another longer drive to do next weekend before the appointment that I’m concerned about.

3. When I asked Tesla in the app about if I should drive it or not they replied with a seemingly auto / canned message to call roadside assistance if I’m concerned. I’m at home now, is this an option I should really just consider?

 

[redth]

After talking with the service centre, they suggested it could also be a wheel bearing. This tends to make more sense, so hopefully it's the case.

They suggested using Roadside assistance if I wasn't comfortable driving the 250km to the service center. I put in a roadside request and they got back to me promptly and said yep they could definitely tow, but of course if the repair ended up being not covered by warranty i'd have to pay for the tow. They called the provider for an estimate and called me back - $1200 CAD - yikes.

So, I decided to call my tire place and they were great. I have an appointment Monday first thing to inspect things. They did my wheels/tires awhile back - great Kal Tire shop, locally owned by a good family, they own two teslas themselves and have people coming from all around to get their tires done there given they have experience with teslas that isn't common otherwise around here. The guy I have dealt with there previously said they'd be able to diagnose if it was tire or bearing related so that I know for sure before getting the car towed to the service center.

So hopefully Monday I find out what the cause is more specifically and can make a decision of what to do then. If the local tire place can do the repair, it might be worth paying out of pocket for the convenience.

I also realized i have CAA coverage and they will tow up to 320km, so if I decided to send it to the service center, I could at least have them tow it there and save myself 6 hours of driving (there and back) and only have to catch a train up to the service center and drive back when it's ready to go.

 

[Tderani]

Hey there, what was the outcome? I’m having this exact issue with my M3. I had a local mechanic come to my home to check things out..they said wheel bearings are fine, but they did replace the brakes/rotors ( rotors a bit warped)…but sound is still there.

 

[redth]

So I went to the tire shop and they confirmed was the front wheel bearing. I mentioned that in the Tesla app in the chat with the service appointment, and they seemed to accept that was likely the cause.

I kept my appointment and decided to still try and drive to the service centre even though I was a bit uneasy about driving that far with the bearing somewhere towards a failure point. I just didn't want to trust that Tesla wasn't going to try and weasel out of it being a warranty claim (eg: I had after market wheels/tires on it), and that they'd try and stick me with the towing bill too.

Anyway, I made it up just fine, they replaced both front wheel bearing hubs, under warranty, no questions asked!

Unfortunately, on my drive up, a rock hit my windshield and did some damage. Speedy glass tried to repair it, but it just made it crack more. So that's a whole other problem now. Short story, I got a local place who has experience doing Tesla's to replace it with an aftermarket windshield, however I noticed a day later there's some distortion with the glass, so I'm going to need to take it back to them to redo it, and maybe push for them to order an OEM one instead.

Hopefully yours isn't too much harder to diagnose. I know I saw a lot of posts about a grounding strap needing tightening causing some higher pitched whining noise, but my noise wasn't that high pitched.