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Tiny high pitch squeak from AC fan?

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Hi all,

Hoping someone can help me troubleshoot...

I've got a tiny high pitch squeak, something like a short cricket chirp that comes from the passenger side dash when the AC is on (hot or cold). It's got a period of about a second or so, and lasts for about a quarter second.
Interestingly enough, it only happens when the fan is set to 4 or lower, and is at the same speed regardless of what the fan is set to in that range. Same speed chirp for fan setting 1 thru 4. At 5/6, it either shuts off or is getting obscured by other noises possibly.

If it's happening and i turn the hvac system off, it slows down gradually and stops within about 5 to 10 seconds. .

I'm thinking there's some constant speed fan in there somewhere that doesn't vary its speed based on demanded fan setting? Maybe a rubbing cowling or something like that. I'm hoping if anyone's solved this, i can point the SC at the likely culprit and they can verify based on rub marks/other evidence. Can anyone confirm/point me in a direction? Last time i brought it to the SC, they couldn't duplicate (it doesn't happen all the time, and when it does, it's one of those high pitched ones that only the younger people can hear)

Thanks!
 
Does it happen when you turn the fan on and off? that would be a motor bearing going bad in the blower.

If the churp constantly happens all the time, or when your going around a corner I would agree that the fan blade is rubbing against the housing.

Can you record the sound and take it to the SC?

There is another post that someone found of "the noises A Tesla makes on the drive train" it is for the service tech's to quickly diagnoses a problem without tearing into the car. I wonder if they have the same for other systems within a car. That is why I would try and record it.

The problem is we have these beautiful cars that are so quiet you hear everything now. The ICE engines mask a lot of these noises.
 
It's constant when it happens... but only happens sometimes.

It's so very quiet... I have young person ears, I've only ever found one other person who heard it, a 20-something I work with. I doubt i could even record it.
It's the kind of thing where if I were taking the car apart, I could find it pretty easily... find all fans, inspect the blades and cowlings for scuffs and it'll be obvious. Try telling that to a SC employee....
 
It's constant when it happens... but only happens sometimes.

It's so very quiet... I have young person ears, I've only ever found one other person who heard it, a 20-something I work with. I doubt i could even record it.
It's the kind of thing where if I were taking the car apart, I could find it pretty easily... find all fans, inspect the blades and cowlings for scuffs and it'll be obvious. Try telling that to a SC employee....

FWIW my S100D makes a very similar sound. I'm also really sensitive to high frequency sounds and have been ridiculed on several occasions for saying stuff like I can hear my office neighbor's gigabit switch when he downloads a large file (and then proved that indeed his switch has some capacitor whine).... And I can't sleep in most hotel rooms without a noisemaker because those smoke alarms make a little high pitched half-second-long noise every 10 seconds.

But at any rate, I demonstrated the noise to a SvC employee and he was polite and respectful, acknowledged that he can hear it too but said it was within the normal range of noises for the AC compressor.

The car otherwise functions perfectly including continuous 100+kW supercharging until taper, so I'll take his word for it in this case.
 
I know exactly what you mean, there's a tiny squeak squeak squeak sound that's really quiet and only happens on a rare occasion. Kind of sounds like you're riding a rusty bicycle. You would really only notice driving by yourself with no music playing.

For me it would also squeak when I turned the HVAC off and it would be winding down. Right before it stopped it would make some noise. I had them look at it during a service visit and afterwards I don't have the issue anymore.

Concern: Customer: Condenser fans squeak once you turn off hvac

Pay Type: Goodwill
Corrections: Fan - Condenser - LH
removed and replaced condenser fan for proper operation

SUBCOOL FAN SHROUD ASSEMBLY
(6008358-00-D)

FAN SHROUD ASSY, GAS COOL (6007614-
00-D)
 
Looks like this thread is 2 years old.
I have identical issue. Cricket like chirping sound that happens only when the weather is cold or there's high humidity (rain, fog etc).
Was your issue resolved? if so how?

Same issue just started for me a couple days ago (2014 S85). The weather just turned cold and wet here - I hadn't made that connection with the noise but will check when weather warms up later this week. I've also noticed that the chirp is more prominent when the accelerator pedal is released, which seems odd. I was thinking that the HVAC fan motor is just bad. Might look into a DIY replacement if it's easy to get to.