New Model 3 - Rattling / Noise Issues

[Alfred_Lanning]

I picked up my model 3 performance a few weeks ago and the noise inside the cabin was perfect. No issues whatsoever and build quality seemed amazing. I have about 300 miles on the car right now and it seems like every time I go for a drive, I am hearing some new rattling noise inside the car.

The first one I noticed was near the upper seat belt area of the passenger side. Now I am hearing significant rattling inside the steering wheel column and a new one that just came yesterday inside the door panels on the passenger side.

Has anyone else had these issues? I have a service appointment in a few weeks to fix unrelated issues. Wondering if this is common and if the service center is able to fix rattling noises.

I am hoping these types of issues do not progress with every 100 miles driven as they seem to be now.

 

[tech_nerd]

Only interior noise I have is sometimes if I open a window at speed, and close it, I get some kind of wind noise from the trim I guess. But other than that, I have no interior issues, just some drivetrain issue.

 

[fajitamondays]

On my 2018, the driver's side seatbelt adjuster rattles, and the top plastic cover of the steering wheel column rattles due to loosened fit (if I rest a finger on it, the rattle goes away).

My local service center's policy on fit/finish issues is to only diagnose/fix under warranty if within the first six months of ownership, so I would suggest front loading any of these kind of concerns with them before you hit six months.

 

[Baytomax]

Does your rattle sound like some plastic piece is flapping around?

I had two rattle noises in my newly delivered SR+. I was able to fix one of them myself.

My rattles sound like they're coming behind the trim pieces. I popped off the trim on the driver side rear quarter window and found that there's these rubber bungee cords that seem to be causing the sound. I just kept doing trial and error, popping the trim off, readjusting, popping back on, drive, rinse/repeat.

*Not my image, but this is a screencap from a tint installation that involves the passenger side trim piece and was the best example I could find

Now there's this rattle in the front of the cabin, it sounds like it's coming from the hazard light/rearview mirror area. If I push on the hazard light trim area with significant force, it stops the rattles for a day or two but eventually comes back.

I might pop the headliner off too and see if I can tighten something behind it. It's honestly driving me crazy.

 

[Sackmonkey]

My 21 M3P went from silent to rattling at about the 1000 mile mark. Both front seat belt adjusters were rattling like crazy. I found a few YouTube videos and carefully fixed them myself by adding felt in key places. Now I'm hearing a rattle in the headliner at the crossbar behind my head. There are 4 metal clips and the 2 on the left are making noise. I'm afraid to remove that piece myself though, so I'm going to attempt to get he SC to fix it. It only happens when the interior of the car is cool.

I have a 12 year old Saturn Aura that my teenagers drive. It doesn't have a single rattle. I knew this would be an issue before buying a Tesla though, so I'm not stressing about it yet.

 

[Beatles1235]

On my 2018, the driver's side seatbelt adjuster rattles, and the top plastic cover of the steering wheel column rattles due to loosened fit (if I rest a finger on it, the rattle goes away).

My local service center's policy on fit/finish issues is to only diagnose/fix under warranty if within the first six months of ownership, so I would suggest front loading any of these kind of concerns with them before you hit six months.

Really depends on how busy the SC is. I've had my Model 3 for a little over a year with 13k miles and they're still helping me with rattles.

 

[talkingevs]

I have one in our 18' somewhere in the dash behind the steering wheel. If I push the dash up towards the windshield, it stops.....irritating but I can live with it

 

[Phlier]

My local service center's policy on fit/finish issues is to only diagnose/fix under warranty if within the first six months of ownership

Is there a fit/finish limitation spelled out in the Warranty? I've never actually read it, so I'm seriously asking. : )

If there's not, I'd ask them to show you that limitation. If they're unable, I'd ask them to re-think their position on it.

 

[Gasaraki]

I picked up my model 3 performance a few weeks ago and the noise inside the cabin was perfect. No issues whatsoever and build quality seemed amazing. I have about 300 miles on the car right now and it seems like every time I go for a drive, I am hearing some new rattling noise inside the car.

The first one I noticed was near the upper seat belt area of the passenger side. Now I am hearing significant rattling inside the steering wheel column and a new one that just came yesterday inside the door panels on the passenger side.

Has anyone else had these issues? I have a service appointment in a few weeks to fix unrelated issues. Wondering if this is common and if the service center is able to fix rattling noises.

I am hoping these types of issues do not progress with every 100 miles driven as they seem to be now.

Hmm. I don't have any rattles other than the initial rattle from the right tweeter. A drop of crazy glue fixed that.

 

[Alfred_Lanning]

Service Center was being extremely difficult with fixing the rattling issues, they said it's not covered under warranty and I would be charged for them to try and fix the issue. Looks like I will be taking some panels off to try and fix this myself.

Is there any type of expanding foam spray you can use inside the door panels?

 

[RedBlitz]

I have a really annoying rattle that is coming from the passenger side rear door. It started after about 3 months of ownership in my 2021 M3 SR+ I got someone to sit in the back and find it on a drive. Found it super quick and it’s cured by putting a bit of material (like a jacket sleeve) between the seat base and the door pocket. Just haven’t found a way to fix it properly yet but this solution is ok for now.

 

[ufgatormatt]

My 21 M3P went from silent to rattling at about the 1000 mile mark. Both front seat belt adjusters were rattling like crazy. I found a few YouTube videos and carefully fixed them myself by adding felt in key places. Now I'm hearing a rattle in the headliner at the crossbar behind my head. There are 4 metal clips and the 2 on the left are making noise. I'm afraid to remove that piece myself though, so I'm going to attempt to get he SC to fix it. It only happens when the interior of the car is cool.

I have a 12 year old Saturn Aura that my teenagers drive. It doesn't have a single rattle. I knew this would be an issue before buying a Tesla though, so I'm not stressing about it yet.

I have seatbelt rattles as well. Mind posting a link to those youtube videos?

 

[RedBlitz]

I have a really annoying rattle that is coming from the passenger side rear door. It started after about 3 months of ownership in my 2021 M3 SR+ I got someone to sit in the back and find it on a drive. Found it super quick and it’s cured by putting a bit of material (like a jacket sleeve) between the seat base and the door pocket. Just haven’t found a way to fix it properly yet but this solution is ok for now.

Sprayed the bottom edge of the plastic door trim that touches the metal part of the bottom edge of the door wit some silicone spray and it cured it. No more squeak.

 

[Sackmonkey]

I have seatbelt rattles as well. Mind posting a link to those youtube videos?

This guy's videos were what gave me the courage to yank the B-pillar trim off myself.

However, I will say that the two fixes he identifies actually didn't work for me. Where my 3 was rattling (badly!) was slightly different and took a few tries before I figured it out. If you look inside the trim, you'll see that the adjuster mechanism slides up and down in two rails that are physically heat-staked into the b-pillar trim piece (which is a plastic welding/melting processs). The rails should be locked in tight, but the staking process clearly was lacking and the rails themselves were rattling within the b-pillar piece (it was not a problem with the slider mechanism rattling within the rails). If you look at it, you'll understand what I mean. I put felt between the rails and the b-pillar to add enough stress to stop the rattling. I could have just super glued the two parts together to stop the rattling instead (same result).

Very rarely, I have rattles that still come out of the b-pillar area. They could probably be fixed applying the techniques in the videos, but they happen so rarely that I'm not so bothered by them.

 

[Sackmonkey]

Does your rattle sound like some plastic piece is flapping around?

I had two rattle noises in my newly delivered SR+. I was able to fix one of them myself.

My rattles sound like they're coming behind the trim pieces. I popped off the trim on the driver side rear quarter window and found that there's these rubber bungee cords that seem to be causing the sound. I just kept doing trial and error, popping the trim off, readjusting, popping back on, drive, rinse/repeat.

*Not my image, but this is a screencap from a tint installation that involves the passenger side trim piece and was the best example I could find
View attachment 702137

Now there's this rattle in the front of the cabin, it sounds like it's coming from the hazard light/rearview mirror area. If I push on the hazard light trim area with significant force, it stops the rattles for a day or two but eventually comes back.

I might pop the headliner off too and see if I can tighten something behind it. It's honestly driving me crazy.

Did you ever pop the headliner off? My cross bar is rattling like crazy and I booked an appt. with the SC because I'm afraid to pull it down myself (afraid I will break a clip/mounting tab if I pull it).

 

[Timur]

the following link from cnn is quite depressing, especially since i bought a new long range model 3 in july, 2021 and since day 1, i have been battling vibration/rattling issues that are driving me nuts. one issue on the right-hand side dashboard was fixed by a friendly and helpful technician who insulated the speaker grill. i am still hearing rattling coming from the left rear seat and for that the service center has ordered a part. also, my ears have to put up with periodic rattling coming from the left-hand side of the dashboard which sounds like it needs insulation as well. elon musk finally acknowledging quality issues does nothing for me. he should set up special ad-hoc centers or something of the sort to provide focused attention to help us paying customers who feel we have been ripped off. the amount of youtube DIY issues to patch up quality gaps with felt tape or insulation on these expensive cars is scandalous if you ask me!

Elon Musk admits Tesla has quality problems

Critics have slammed Tesla for Model 3 quality issues for years. And now CEO Elon Musk is admitting even his harshest critic was right.

www.google.com

 

[westernvine]

I recognize they won't do this... because it admits the problem...

But if they published a self-service rattle diagnostic/common fixes set of support documents and videos, similar to the "do it yourself air filter replacement", it would help everyone, especially to have something more than the YouTubers.

My 2018 had the passenger seat belt adjuster rattles and the SC fixed it early on; I'm told the SC in Seattle won't do any rattle fixes now other than brand new cars or if people pay the hourly shop rate for diagnostics.

 

[AZGolfore]

My M3LRP has a passenger seat rattle that I’ve attributed to the plastic back of the seat. The vehicle is quiet as a tomb when the music isn’t on. That’s how I heard the rattle.

 

[RSpanner]

Center of steering wheel ( I think ) has started to rattle on roads that are rough. Trying to ignore it. 6 month old M3 AWD LR.

 

[Pseudofinn]

2022 RWD here with 10k miles. I've had a rattle in my driver seatbelt adjuster for a bit now, and one in the rear passenger door. SC sorted out the belt adjuster rattle, but I'm sad to report that the rear door is actually much worse than before after they spend 2-3 hours.

I'm well glad that the bit by my head is no longer a rattle, but annoyed as can be that the other rattle is worse.

Question now is- I'm handy enough, have gaff and felt tape as well as the silicone spray one poster had recommended; any good reason not to pop off that panel and go to town myself?