P3D+ Sheet metal pop sound

[jjrandorin]

I haven't supercharged yet, but I hear that sound everytime i get into the car, it greets me with that sound when the system is waking up.
also when I tap on the floor on the rear seats floorpan it makes the same sound.

I have exactly this (what you describe). I have super charged as the car was ready faster than I could get an electrician out to install my wall connector, so I supercharged while waiting for that to happen. The sound DIDNT happen for me when super charging. Instead, it happens every time I get into the car, when the car is waking up.

I decided to make a service appointment for it, and also because my screen boots up as if I hard rebooted it almost every time I get into the car.

When I called service on the noise issue, they called the service center while they put me on hold, and came back and told me "the service center cancelled your appointment for tomorrow and I need to reschedule it because they had to order parts for your issue".

I said " did they say what the issue is?" and the phone rep said "no".. then I said "but they have some idea of what it is though, since they are ordering parts...." and the phone rep said "I guess so....".

My new appointment is on 12/27 so I will let people know what happens. Not sure if they are going to address the noise issue or my screen, or both but we will see.

 

[Vines]

The sound when the car wakes up is a much sharper sound, and is the contactors closing and the car waking up.

Imagine you had a steel 55 gallon garbage can upside down, and you hit it with the heel of your hand. The questionable sound is deeper and more resonant than the snap of the contactors.

 

[copyhacker]

I hear it often during early and late stages of charging, both supercharging and in my garage. Haven't heard it while driving yet. Like someone else mentioned, I've noticed a similar sound when thumping the center of the rear floor--actually my wife noticed it first, when setting her purse down, so it doesn't take much force at all.

To my untrained ears, it does sound like it could be an uncushioned gap between the floor pan and the top of the battery. RIP Flufferbot.

My VIN is 1139XX.

 

[Jedi2155]

I've had multiple EVs and directly attached garage to my house. My Volt also made a lot of random "thunking" sounds with the contactors during the time I had it, and then of course my L2 charger contactors were also quite loud. The only thing different I noticed in the Tesla is how often it makes sounds and the intensity varies depending on what its doing.

I'm not particularly concerned about the battery sheet metal sound people have reported as I can't what the danger would be from it. The metal on top of the pack I've seen/heard looks very thin which easily explains sounds reported.

 

[AlanSubie4Life]

I haven't supercharged yet, but I hear that sound everytime i get into the car, it greets me with that sound when the system is waking up.
also when I tap on the floor on the rear seats floorpan it makes the same sound.

As mentioned above, pretty sure the contactor noise (the clunk on wake) is not what people are complaining about here - contactors have to be closed to supercharge - so you won't hear them when supercharging! But this nice single/double clunk you hear should be associated in your mind with pleasant feelings, as it means that your car was asleep (meaning you had minimal phantom drain recently) or it just went to sleep when you're leaving it (meaning minimal phantom drain going forward). It's the sound of success. If only it could be made to stay sleeping...most Model 3s are borderline insomniacs.

 

[cbutters]

I've gotten more familiar with the sounds and I think I'm noticing 3 distinct ones on my Performance 3.
A) Solid click thunk when car turns on and off. (seems like a normal operating sound)
B) Sheet metal Popping noise that occurs when supercharging starts or when the battery starts heating up. (I live on a steep hill and I can almost tell you the exact spot in the road where I will hear this popping noise (road is flat and smooth, so I'm fairly certain its just the high energy causing the battery to heat up as it takes to drive up the steep hill.)
C) Flex pop noise; This one occurs when driving over uneven surfaces putting a flex on the frame; battery casing or suspension (I'm still not sure which). This is the most concerning noise..... It could still be coming from the same source as noise B; but caused by mechanical forces of uneven surfaces putting more pressure on some tires than others and uneven forces being applied to the frame. I'm not entirely certain if it is suspension noise or that same battery noise; just caused by flexing instead of heat.

I did not notice sounds B or C as often in warmer weather; cold weather definitely seems to exacerbate these noises. As long as these noises don't progress; and if they fade out upon a return to warmer weather in the springtime; I'll consider it normal; otherwise I'll bring it up with the Service Center.

 

[bxr140]

B and C are most likely the same. I get that too. Seems like it’s when the thermal stress isn’t quite enough to make it pop, and the little bit of extra mechanical stress pushes it over the edge.

 

[luke666]

Same happened here yesterday. During supercharging. Outside temp was cold.

 

[Superspectral]

My P3D+ makes 2 different “oil can / steel drum “ noises from similar areas of the car - but from what I surmise are different sources:

1) something falls or hits the rear passenger foot wells - sounds like a boulder hit the chassis with a metallic bang.

2) sheet metal flex noise when supercharging a cold battery

They need to glue rubber ribs in strategic places to kill the resonances that amplify the sound from slight movement/impact of these structures.

 

[stonelance]

I just did a 500 mile trip over a mountain pass in below freezing temps. I heard what sounds like a good sized rock hitting sheet metal 3 or 4 times on the trip. I thought it was maybe rocks or chunks of ice being kicked up but I could feel them on the floor. At least once I had a good eye on the road when it happened and am sure I didn't drive over anything. I'm guessing it is the same as the sounds here. Possibly from metal expansion/contraction sound, like a cookie sheet cooling after coming out of the oven?

 

[stonelance]

Just supercharging my car now before the trip home and heard the exact same sound about 10 minutes in on the front right side and then another a minute later on the front left which I could feel on my feet, so at least I don't need to worry about the bottom of my car being beat up from rocks. Just beat up from temperature changes...

 

[jjrandorin]

I have exactly this (what you describe). I have super charged as the car was ready faster than I could get an electrician out to install my wall connector, so I supercharged while waiting for that to happen. The sound DIDNT happen for me when super charging. Instead, it happens every time I get into the car, when the car is waking up.

I decided to make a service appointment for it, and also because my screen boots up as if I hard rebooted it almost every time I get into the car.

When I called service on the noise issue, they called the service center while they put me on hold, and came back and told me "the service center cancelled your appointment for tomorrow and I need to reschedule it because they had to order parts for your issue".

I said " did they say what the issue is?" and the phone rep said "no".. then I said "but they have some idea of what it is though, since they are ordering parts...." and the phone rep said "I guess so....".

My new appointment is on 12/27 so I will let people know what happens. Not sure if they are going to address the noise issue or my screen, or both but we will see.

So I was told by the service center that my specific noise issue was the contactors like some suspected. They kept the car for a couple hours, and heard the noise and called me and confirmed that in my case its the contactors.

Said I would update, so thats the reason for this follow up post.

 

[spurs10]

Just notice the same sound after almost 8k km
It felt like I went over something
Today weather was relatively cooler than yesterday, from 10 degree celcius to 0
I went up to the mountain today
Not sure if temperature and different in elevation play a factor

 

[stonelance]

I forgot to update with what i noticed on my trip home. On my ~400 mile trip home, I heard the sound around half a dozen times, sometimes quieter, and sometimes pretty loud. All of them happened either when going up or down a pretty steep section in 20-30F temps. My guess is the larger current draw\regen causes the battery to heat more and causes some popping due to expansion.

Separately I also noticed that the area in the center console gets pretty warm even when i have the interior heat set fairly low (~68F). I wonder if some heat released from the battery is effectively trapped in there? Could also be heat from the HVAC going to the back seat though. Just a PSA, don't put chocolate in there

 

[jgrgnt]

I've always had the sheetmetal-popping sounds when Supercharging. This evening, I experienced it when making sharp left and right turns across drainage dips in the road. Current temp is 50 F. Thought I ran over something.

August 2018 P3D+.

 

[Kermit]

I'm hearing an occasional, random metallic clunk while driving. Sounds like sheet metal resonance. Not related to hitting pavement defects. Haven't noticed it during supercharging, but I'm not in the car then. Model 3 Dual Motor -- delivered Dec 2018

 

[pleeau]

Heard it for the first time today. July build 2018, p3d...

Noise was on the front right and left...

 

[AnesDragon]

I hear these sounds routinely on my P3D+. During supercharging, during routine driving, and just as I pull out of the driveway. Its like a thunk and pop and snap and so on. Some are quieter and once in a while little louder. Currently, I just accept it as part of the normal process since it does not seem to affect the vehicle operation. Anyone knows for sure if this should be addressed or should be just accepted as a normal process?

 

[boiler81]

I recently encountered this noise in my Aug '18 build 3D both while supercharging, and going down mountain grade in cool weather. Like other's mine seems associated with the battery heating up in cooler weather (<40 deg. F)?

In another similar thread I read Tesla is working on this but doesn't have a fix. (I don't they will be able to fix this on current cars) Maybe the fluffbot was needed after all.

 

[McSaggler]

I always hear the same clank sound when supercharging. It usually happens 2-3 times during a 30 minute session. I suspect it has to do with the colder temps in SoCal but not sure. I also hear some strange clank sound coming from the floorboard when it’s cold out and I use the heater for about 15 minutes. You can only hear this sound when going over uneven road, such as my driveway which has a divot in the middle for water draining.

July 2018 P3D+ (VIN 558XX).