Hi All,
I experienced an annoying and perplexing issue last week when disturbingly-loud "popping" noises started coming from my Model 3's roof while driving after the car was parked in a freezing rain, so I wanted to see if anyone else has experienced something similar or might have an idea of the cause. (An audio recording of the noises is linked below.)
Background:
There was a kinda weird freezing rain one day last week. Or, at least I think it was freezing rain... When I returned to my car in an uncovered parking lot after work, my Model 3 had lots of little globs of ice on it. (I.e., it wasn’t covered in a sheet of ice, but instead had little balls of ice on it, as if giant rain drops had landed on the car and then froze.) Then on the drive home, I started noticing really loud popping noises coming from the roof. It sounded similar to being in a hail storm with very large hail hitting the glass roof. The sounds only occurred while the car was moving, but curiously, they didn’t seem to increase in frequency or intensity when driving over bumps or rougher spots on the road, nor during accelerating/braking hard or taking turns (which I would have expected if the root cause was flexing in the vehicle’s frame). And I didn’t have any cabin heat on, so thermal expansion stuff likely didn’t play a role.
While driving, I looked to see if there were any cracks in the glass roof. There were none. I tried pressing on the glass and then also on the trim between the roof and the rear windshield to see if doing so would stop or muffle the noise, but it had no noticeable effect. When I got home and exited the car, I quickly inspected the areas around the perimeter of the glass, but I didn’t see anything obviously out of the ordinary.
The next morning (after parking overnight in a cold detached a garage) the noises were still there. At this point I took an audio recording of the noises with my phone by holding in up near the glass roof while driving. (It might be hard to gauge the volume of the noises in the recording, but I can tell you that the loudest “pops” were quite loud. Again, I’d make the same “hail” analogy as earlier.)
Noises from Tesla Model 3 glass roof when cold and icy.m4a
At the end of that drive, I again visually inspected the roof and the gaps between the roof and rear windshield glass panels. I did see a very little bit of ice down in this area between the glass panels, but it didn’t look out of the ordinary and it didn’t look like anything that could explain the noises.
At this point, the car was parked out in the cold (it was maybe ~10F) but it was also in the sun. An hour later when I got back in the car and drove off, the noises were gone.
So… Has anyone else experienced anything like this? Or know what the cause is?
I experienced an annoying and perplexing issue last week when disturbingly-loud "popping" noises started coming from my Model 3's roof while driving after the car was parked in a freezing rain, so I wanted to see if anyone else has experienced something similar or might have an idea of the cause. (An audio recording of the noises is linked below.)
Background:
There was a kinda weird freezing rain one day last week. Or, at least I think it was freezing rain... When I returned to my car in an uncovered parking lot after work, my Model 3 had lots of little globs of ice on it. (I.e., it wasn’t covered in a sheet of ice, but instead had little balls of ice on it, as if giant rain drops had landed on the car and then froze.) Then on the drive home, I started noticing really loud popping noises coming from the roof. It sounded similar to being in a hail storm with very large hail hitting the glass roof. The sounds only occurred while the car was moving, but curiously, they didn’t seem to increase in frequency or intensity when driving over bumps or rougher spots on the road, nor during accelerating/braking hard or taking turns (which I would have expected if the root cause was flexing in the vehicle’s frame). And I didn’t have any cabin heat on, so thermal expansion stuff likely didn’t play a role.
While driving, I looked to see if there were any cracks in the glass roof. There were none. I tried pressing on the glass and then also on the trim between the roof and the rear windshield to see if doing so would stop or muffle the noise, but it had no noticeable effect. When I got home and exited the car, I quickly inspected the areas around the perimeter of the glass, but I didn’t see anything obviously out of the ordinary.
The next morning (after parking overnight in a cold detached a garage) the noises were still there. At this point I took an audio recording of the noises with my phone by holding in up near the glass roof while driving. (It might be hard to gauge the volume of the noises in the recording, but I can tell you that the loudest “pops” were quite loud. Again, I’d make the same “hail” analogy as earlier.)
Noises from Tesla Model 3 glass roof when cold and icy.m4a
At the end of that drive, I again visually inspected the roof and the gaps between the roof and rear windshield glass panels. I did see a very little bit of ice down in this area between the glass panels, but it didn’t look out of the ordinary and it didn’t look like anything that could explain the noises.
At this point, the car was parked out in the cold (it was maybe ~10F) but it was also in the sun. An hour later when I got back in the car and drove off, the noises were gone.
So… Has anyone else experienced anything like this? Or know what the cause is?
