Model 3 rattles and vibrations, am I being unreasonable?

[khyros]

Hi all,

Collected my model 3 LR in August, initially everything was perfect, then little by little some vibration, rattles, noises started popping up here and there.
I live in Cambridge, where the roads are particularly bad. My nearest SC is Milton Keynes but that's still 1 hour / 60 miles away. Milton Keynes have perfect roads in comparison to Cambridge.

I have taken the car twice to the SC. In both occasions the Tesla people have been amazingly helpful and nice. But they have the problem of having very good roads, so they find it hard to identify issues. They have a bumpy road and they assume me twice that they have tested the car.

I have just come back from my second service appointment, and not only are the same rattles present, but now I have a new one as a results of having the parcel shelf at the back of the car replaced (came faulty from factory). Now, I understand Cambridge is very bad, but my 55K car sounds and feels like a cheap Dacia when driving locally.

What should I do?

 

[Jason71]

I find having teenagers in the car helps.
Can't hear anything over them + their music.

 

[Adopado]

Hi all,

Collected my model 3 LR in August, initially everything was perfect, then little by little some vibration, rattles, noises started popping up here and there.
I live in Cambridge, where the roads are particularly bad. My nearest SC is Milton Keynes but that's still 1 hour / 60 miles away. Milton Keynes have perfect roads in comparison to Cambridge.

I have taken the car twice to the SC. In both occasions the Tesla people have been amazingly helpful and nice. But they have the problem of having very good roads, so they find it hard to identify issues. They have a bumpy road and they assume me twice that they have tested the car.

I have just come back from my second service appointment, and not only are the same rattles present, but now I have a new one as a results of having the parcel shelf at the back of the car replaced (came faulty from factory). Now, I understand Cambridge is very bad, but my 55K car sounds and feels like a cheap Dacia when driving locally.

What should I do?

You're not being unreasonable. It clearly shouldn't be like that. If the SC can't come up with answers I would be getting together with a friend to help narrow down the locations and causes. You need 2 people so that when you are driving they can listen in different parts of the car. I've read that there's an app you can get that can make a loud sweep of frequencies (played through the car speakers) that causes things to vibrate if they are loose ... no idea how successful that is though. Obviously some noises can be part of the functioning of the car rather than from road vibration e.g. heat pump but it should be apparent which is which.

 

[DudleyDuoflush]

No, you're not being unreasonable. Your car shouldn't rattle and if it does they should fix it for you. I hate rattles but fortunately mine has been ok. Had a few but always traced to the passenger door storage bin or the centre console. Saying that, the stereo can produce way more bass than the interior fittings can handle.

 

[khyros]

No, you're not being unreasonable. Your car shouldn't rattle and if it does they should fix it for you. I hate rattles but fortunately mine has been ok. Had a few but always traced to the passenger door storage bin or the centre console. Saying that, the stereo can produce way more bass than the interior fittings can handle.

yes I've noticed that too... that's why I turn off the audio when I'm paying attention to rattles.
Which means maybe I'm being unreasonable sometimes and should just enjoy the car.

 

[thax1]

If you get fed up of the SC not finding the rattles, it is possible to go searching for them yourself.
We had several in the first M3 (Fremont build).
I used a free iPhone app that plays a sine wave through the car hifI. You vary the frequency until the rattle really stands out, and then go hunting round the interior to find it.
I used the non-hook (woolly) side of sticky backed Velcro strips to isolate the offending items. In our case it was the cables linking the phone docks, and also a seatbelt buckle.
Thankfully the MY has been fine so far.

 

[Spalding]

If you get fed up of the SC not finding the rattles, it is possible to go searching for them yourself.
We had several in the first M3 (Fremont build).
I used a free iPhone app that plays a sine wave through the car hifI. You vary the frequency until the rattle really stands out, and then go hunting round the interior to find it.
I used the non-hook (woolly) side of sticky backed Velcro strips to isolate the offending items. In our case it was the cables linking the phone docks, and also a seatbelt buckle.
Thankfully the MY has been fine so far.

Could you please post a link to the sine wave app you're using? That might be the trick I need to find some rattles and buzzes that I can't recreate when the car is still.

 

[thax1]

Could you please post a link to the sine wave app you're using? That might be the trick I need to find some rattles and buzzes that I can't recreate when the car is still.

I used this one:

https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwiR_tvFv937AhWXd8AKHSNMCyAQFnoECA4QAQ&url=https%3A%2F%2Fapps.apple.com%2Fus%2Fapp%2Ftone-generator%2Fid457003837&usg=AOvVaw11zkLi_CfEa2md2pBn-bsb

but there are lots and I think are all basically the same.

 

[khyros]

If you get fed up of the SC not finding the rattles, it is possible to go searching for them yourself.
We had several in the first M3 (Fremont build).
I used a free iPhone app that plays a sine wave through the car hifI. You vary the frequency until the rattle really stands out, and then go hunting round the interior to find it.
I used the non-hook (woolly) side of sticky backed Velcro strips to isolate the offending items. In our case it was the cables linking the phone docks, and also a seatbelt buckle.
Thankfully the MY has been fine so far.

I tried that app - tried every single frequency and didn't really catch any vibration

 

[thax1]

I tried that app - tried every single frequency and didn't really catch any vibration

Sorry to hear that. I’d found the very low-end freq at strong volume pretty effective.

Failing that you’re down to getting someone else to drive the car whilst you practise the ‘laying on of hands’ to try and narrow down what’s vibrating.

I’m sure you’ve tried getting passengers / other half to see if they can point out where the noises are coming from - but I find invariably they say useless stuff like “it’s coming from outside the car”; or they just slam the glovebox and claim to have fixed it

 

[spdpsba]

Hi all,

Collected my model 3 LR in August, initially everything was perfect, then little by little some vibration, rattles, noises started popping up here and there.
I live in Cambridge, where the roads are particularly bad. My nearest SC is Milton Keynes but that's still 1 hour / 60 miles away. Milton Keynes have perfect roads in comparison to Cambridge.

I have taken the car twice to the SC. In both occasions the Tesla people have been amazingly helpful and nice. But they have the problem of having very good roads, so they find it hard to identify issues. They have a bumpy road and they assume me twice that they have tested the car.

I have just come back from my second service appointment, and not only are the same rattles present, but now I have a new one as a results of having the parcel shelf at the back of the car replaced (came faulty from factory). Now, I understand Cambridge is very bad, but my 55K car sounds and feels like a cheap Dacia when driving locally.

What should I do?

Did you try another M3 on the same roads? Not saying anything wrong with your observation but sometimes it helps to figure out what is normal for a M3.

 

[Spalding]

Sorry to hear that. I’d found the very low-end freq at strong volume pretty effective.

Failing that you’re down to getting someone else to drive the car whilst you practise the ‘laying on of hands’ to try and narrow down what’s vibrating.

I’m sure you’ve tried getting passengers / other half to see if they can point out where the noises are coming from - but I find invariably they say useless stuff like “it’s coming from outside the car”; or they just slam the glovebox and claim to have fixed it

I get a lot of that. Rattles don't bother some people as much as they bother me, I suppose.

 

[khyros]

Did you try another M3 on the same roads? Not saying anything wrong with your observation but sometimes it helps to figure out what is normal for a M3.

Actually I did.. I rented 3 different model 3 from UFO drive and they were all pretty much like a solid tank.
I will rent one at some point to cross-check but I'm quite sure of that.

And UFOdrive cars are driven by hundreds of people in all sorts of occasions so go figure...

 

[RSpanner]

I get a lot of that. Rattles don't bother some people as much as they bother me, I suppose.

They bother me too. Our 14 month of Model 3 aws lr..has a number of rattles the chief one coming from the center of the steering wheel. One newly paved roads, it's almost quiet but on normal roads, but having music on helps. O Tesla......