mknox
Well-Known Member
I have a very subtle noise that I can hear at low speeds reflected off curbs and such. The best description is like tires rolling over a wet, sticky surface, and it is speed proportional. I wonder if it is bearings?
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New Noise immediately after 6,500 mile road trip, opinions?
- Thread starter islandbayy
- Start date
I have a very subtle noise that I can hear at low speeds reflected off curbs and such. The best description is like tires rolling over a wet, sticky surface, and it is speed proportional. I wonder if it is bearings?
As of 3 weeks ago when mine was in before my road trip, I was charged $200 deductible for a ball joint that went out at 55,000 miles. So unless they changed something in the last 3 weeks, they are still charging it.
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That was the service centers thought, but wern't quite sure. A Ranger will be in my area already on Tuesday, about 1/2 mile from me, I bet he's visiting rcrdmatt
haha, anyways, ranger is going to stop by, take a quick listen, and record the sound with high end recorder (not a iphone uploaded to youtube haha) and send it to engineering.
That was the service centers thought, but wern't quite sure. A Ranger will be in my area already on Tuesday, about 1/2 mile from me, I bet he's visiting rcrdmatt
They'll probably use one of these:
http://tascam.com/product/dr-05/
That's what my service center used when I drove the tech around to show them sound issues with my last drive unit before it was replaced.
TES-E
Member
After completing a 1600 mile trip to do a factory tour, mine started making this noise. I can't hear it with either the radio or AC on, but when it is quiet, it is very noticeable up to 20mph or so. It did not make ANY noise prior to this trip. Getting close to 12,500 mile inspection, so I'll have the SC check it then.
Yep. Did about 500 more miles. It is now making the noise up to 160kW accel and easily 40+ mph. Loud enough to turn heads now. I do believe it's electronic. On a BIG hill, I switched to Neutral and coasted. Dead Silent. Put it back in drive and applied accelerator, maintained fairly same speed, but could "play the drivetrain noise" like a engineer would play a old steam whistle.
Cyclone
Cyclonic Member ((.oO))
Sadly, mine can be heard over normal radio levels. The loaners I've driven from the service center have been dead silent and the whine/whir is really annoying me!
Mine got worse again. Now noise at full accel.
BUT!!! I LEARNED TO EMBRACE IT!
Given that I can vary the pitch/frequency of the sound, I've started having fun with it!!!
Ive been trying to play music with my drive train! I got Doctor Who, Imperial March from Star Wars, Star Trek TNG ;-) And Back in Black by AC/DC Tehehe
BUT!!! I LEARNED TO EMBRACE IT!
Given that I can vary the pitch/frequency of the sound, I've started having fun with it!!!
Ive been trying to play music with my drive train! I got Doctor Who, Imperial March from Star Wars, Star Trek TNG ;-) And Back in Black by AC/DC Tehehe
glhs272
Unnamed plug faced villian
How many miles on this refurb drive unit? I have been getting about 25K from mine. Recently got another, although my car has had the month off while I have been away on business. This refurb unit that I just got seems... mature... Inverter is actually noisier than my prior one. No bearing noise yet. Are you intending to run yours to failure? That would be interesting.
tinm
2020 Model S LR+ Owner
Just started reading this thread and watched OP's video.
Sorry, I had to chuckle a chuckle of instant recognition while shaking my head.... the dreaded milling sound.
My car started making this around around 21k miles, right after a 1000-mile trip. And that was back in, oh, Feb or March. Ever since then, it happens all the time when I lightly accelerate and keep below 10kW. The sound has veerrrrrryyyy gradually gotten louder and more pronounced. Sometimes I hear it with all the windows closed, like driving very slowly in a big parking lot -- at such times it has a different quality, sounding more like a tiny electric power drill or screwdriver, with little gear mesh grinding sounds, and also the sound coming distinctly from under the rear seat cushion.
Anyway, I'm taking my car into service for its 2nd annual thingie this coming week, and this is one of the things I want them to fix. Meaning: new drive unit. I really don't like the milling sound.
Sorry, I had to chuckle a chuckle of instant recognition while shaking my head.... the dreaded milling sound.
My car started making this around around 21k miles, right after a 1000-mile trip. And that was back in, oh, Feb or March. Ever since then, it happens all the time when I lightly accelerate and keep below 10kW. The sound has veerrrrrryyyy gradually gotten louder and more pronounced. Sometimes I hear it with all the windows closed, like driving very slowly in a big parking lot -- at such times it has a different quality, sounding more like a tiny electric power drill or screwdriver, with little gear mesh grinding sounds, and also the sound coming distinctly from under the rear seat cushion.
Anyway, I'm taking my car into service for its 2nd annual thingie this coming week, and this is one of the things I want them to fix. Meaning: new drive unit. I really don't like the milling sound.
Mine has started with the noise between 0-20kw.... And we had a 1500 mile trip last weekend... The car is at 20,500 miles. It is going in for contactors next week, they can have a listen to this too....
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tinm
2020 Model S LR+ Owner
When I made the Service Center appointment on the phone, the Tesla person said there was supposedly a new fix for the milling sound, he just wasn't sure it was going to be rolled out in time for my appointment.
Anyone heard about this? I assume a new fix translates to mean, instead of drive unit replacement.
Anyone heard about this? I assume a new fix translates to mean, instead of drive unit replacement.
You would think....
But what's better for the stock price? The noise is purely cosmetic or we still haven't fixed the drive unit issue completely?
Long story short, maybe. We don't have definitive information that the whining and the clunking are precursors to drive unit failure. Tesla does drive unit replacements for all three. Oddly enough, people reportedly develop that whining after 20k miles about, and/or after extended road trips. These two factors are easily verified here in the forums.
I will say that i suspect drive unit issues are still not resolved and here is why. If they were, you'd see no more drive issues after a certain VIN. And for those that have had a replacement, they would have only had one (several on here have had multiple).
Now maybe there is a half truth here. We haven't seen a lot, if any, P85D drive unit failures or whining yet. This could be caused by the problem actually being fixed in a version 2 rear drive unit or because in a dual motor setup, the rear motor isn't taxed to the same levels (since the front helps out) and therefore never develops the problems.
And if it really is a version 2 thing, I would guess supply limitations keep then from trickling down to P85/85 warranty repairs. That could only be fixed by an increase in that component's supply or a decrease in P85D demand (unlikely).
The take away is that Tesla is still covering the repair. It would just be nice to have a little more transparency, even if it reveals a design flaw for RWD model S'.
I don't know about a lot or few, but here are some ones I quickly found via Google search affecting P85D drive units:
Early P85D, lots of minor issues, anybody else? - Page 2
How Quiet is your P85D ?
First P85D with major malfunction failure @ 221 miles -- story + repair
I'm sure there are others.
Oh shoot, those totally flew under my radar. Are those possibly isolated to the most earliest of production runs of the P85D? Maybe some version 1 drive units snuck in. If not, then I'm considerably more concerned than I was before.
And actually, one of those was a front motor. I have no comment on that except that it's outside the scope of this particular thread that is taking about rear drive units. We may find that front motors have a similar issue, but I'm not ready to tackle that yet.
It sounds like the rebuild of the rear motor at 500k suggested by Tesla, is happening a lot sooner than they led us to believe. Something in there is wearing out.
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glhs272
Unnamed plug faced villian
There is definitely something in there wearing out...rotor bearings. As described to me by Tesla: induced electrical current is flowing from the rotor through the bearings to the motor housing. This will cause arcing in the bearing races, which makes them pitted over time, therefore causing a noise and leading to eventual failure. Thus the "milling sound". It will likely make the sound for a long time before actual failure.
My opinions: this is a fleet wide issue for all RWD cars such as the S60 and S85. Perhaps some factors in driving/usage/environmental/luckiness are allowing some people to not see this problem in their cars for longer durations than I have. Not clear if the issue is the same on the P85s, but probably is. There may be a redesigned drive unit that no longer has this problem, thus far I have not received one despite multiple DU failures for this milling issue. For a short period of time I thought I was going to get a "new" one, but turned out to be another refurbished/remanufactured one. I get about 20 to 25K out of them before they start showing the problem, so it will be about another year before I know if the latest refurb still has this issue. I suspect they more or less just change out the bearings and put it another car, which obviously doesn't correct the underlying issue. They may be just doing this to buy them some time until they can get caught up with new drive units. But I am not very confident about it anymore. I don't know what to do about this if by the next 25K I will need another replacement. How can I force Tesla to give me a new "gen 2" DU (if they exist)? Are there lemon laws that I can leverage to help me, seeing how this keeps happening? I know the warranty is good till 125K, but what then? I will be there before too long.
I love my car and really want to keep till it's junk (hoping for 250K+). Maybe there will be aftermarket solutions if Tesla can't seem to fix it. Please don't flame me for expressing my honest opinions. I succeed if Tesla succeeds, I burn if Tesla burns...
My opinions: this is a fleet wide issue for all RWD cars such as the S60 and S85. Perhaps some factors in driving/usage/environmental/luckiness are allowing some people to not see this problem in their cars for longer durations than I have. Not clear if the issue is the same on the P85s, but probably is. There may be a redesigned drive unit that no longer has this problem, thus far I have not received one despite multiple DU failures for this milling issue. For a short period of time I thought I was going to get a "new" one, but turned out to be another refurbished/remanufactured one. I get about 20 to 25K out of them before they start showing the problem, so it will be about another year before I know if the latest refurb still has this issue. I suspect they more or less just change out the bearings and put it another car, which obviously doesn't correct the underlying issue. They may be just doing this to buy them some time until they can get caught up with new drive units. But I am not very confident about it anymore. I don't know what to do about this if by the next 25K I will need another replacement. How can I force Tesla to give me a new "gen 2" DU (if they exist)? Are there lemon laws that I can leverage to help me, seeing how this keeps happening? I know the warranty is good till 125K, but what then? I will be there before too long.
I love my car and really want to keep till it's junk (hoping for 250K+). Maybe there will be aftermarket solutions if Tesla can't seem to fix it. Please don't flame me for expressing my honest opinions. I succeed if Tesla succeeds, I burn if Tesla burns...
