"Um um um" increases in frequency with speed. I hear it. Passengers hear it. Tires wear out prematurely, mainly the inner passenger side rear on my December 2014 Model S P85D build. Tesla Service, however, said the problem was MY TIRES making this noise. So, they replaced tires and lined up front and rear ends. I had to come get the car one Saturday evening. Couldn't get in the doors of the Service Center to talk to anybody. Car still made same "um um um" noise. Drove my Model S P85D 365 miles to get it home. Scary drive with that noise. I did not feel safe. Drove 250 miles a couple months later to another Tesla Service Center and got the same diagnosis - said I needed new tires and alignment. I told them not again! We just did that! I think something to do with that noise is wearing out the tires. I quit driving it because I can't afford to keep replacing tires. I don't know what to do. Tesla said something about getting aftermarket this or that and me trying to fix it with these aftermarket parts - something about camber problems on the rear tires of these older Model S cars. Huh? I don't engineer suspension systems I know nothing much about. I'm just the guy that worked and saved 130 grand to get the car of my dreams. Now it's a nightmare.
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"UM UM UM" noise & tires wearing out turns dream car into nightmare
- Thread starter jerry505
- Start date
beatle
Active Member
It's difficult to follow your post, but what tires and wheels are you running and how many miles are on your car? Some tires, especially performance tires, will howl as they get close to the wear bars. It's not unsafe, just loud. My Pilot Sport A/S 3+ only have about 21k on them, but they've started to make noise. This is especially noticeable in an otherwise quiet car. A failing wheel bearing will also make noise, but it is often more of a constant growl that sometimes gets better or worse while cornering.
What is difficult about following my post? Can you imagine Ford or GM or any other company diagnosing this noise as the fault of a tire, then replacing tires and not driving the car to listen for the same noise? I picked up the car and it HAD THE SAME NOISE and they had changed out those old tires! Then, I go to another Tesla SC and get the same diagnosis- new tires and front and rear end alignment!
Have you tried taking it back to the non tesla approved body shop and asking them about the repair you said you did there?
stopcrazypp
Well-Known Member
Actually I can, the service departments of many dealers are not particularly good about diagnosing noise problems. You typically really have to hold their hands to point out exactly the noise (for example ride with them in the car). They suggest tires and alignment because typically that is the most common cause of noise and uneven/excessive wear.
Just a quick google of a Ford dealer that offered the same solution of tires and alignment (which did not solve the problem). Eventually OP got a camber kit (not offered from factory) that fixed their problem.
Tire / Road Noise issue.... - Electric Vehicle Forums
canasion35
Active Member
For what its worth - my model 3 had that um um um noise under light load. I was going mad wondering what it was. I needed an alignment as i had lowered the car about 4k miles ago and needed to get one. I took it in, got it aligned and BOOM...on the drive home i noticed no more humming noise.
Dannietjoh
Member
dark cloud
Active Member
There is no way you should eat a set of tires in a "couple of months" unless you did drive over 5000 miles in that time.
Post the results of your alignment so we can see the measurements.
If you want a solution, either replace your 21" wheels with 19" ones, or purchase and install these:
Alignment Kit 1 - Acceleration Shudder & Inner Tire Wear - Tesla Model X & S
Dannietjoh
Member
Can we have an honest moment? While my car is under an extended service agreement, I don't want to modify with an aftermarket alignment kit or oddball parts. This is actually a suggestion Tesla Service brought up to me. So, stock Tesla parts will not fix the tire wear/alignment problem? We have to go to an aftermarket company?
dark cloud
Active Member
Let me fill you in on the conversation I had with service centre back in 2018.
"So in order to combat the inner tire wear, Tesla has told you (service centre) to say we should have the car in standard height position?"
"yes"
"But on the standard height I get too much shudder from the halfshafts"
"We have road tested your car, and when driving on the low height setting the shudder/vibration is within service limits"
Lovely.
The older the stock camber arms get, the more the negative camber gets, and it is not adjustable with the stock arms. I believe they went to an eccentric cam bolt at some point, but the adjustment is minimal. Once your rear camber gets beyond -2 degrees it is going to wear out the inner edges. If toe is out that may contribute to it as well. You could get new OEM or "stock" Tesla camber links, which with new bushings should help, but I don't know anyone who did this because it is probably less money to go with an aftermarket adjustable one so that is what people have done. Do you not have the alignment results? We could see what the numbers are.
As I said above the other option is to go with 19" wheels.
This is not new, owners have been discussing this for a long time, there are dozens of threads regarding this issue
this is a thread going back to 2013:
Negative Camber in the Rear and Expensive Tires
If we are having an honest moment, as you say, and this is how you feel, I am confused as to why you took your car to a non tesla approved body shop and made a video about it.
Because the Tesla approved body shop was 250 miles from my home, and when I got there (in late November) that shop said it would be middle of January to get the parts from Tesla. I wanted to know where they would store my car until the end of November, all of December, and to the middle of January. They said they would park my car in the shop and drive it in and out of the shop every day. It was then I decided I'd had enough. There is no way I was going to leave a car I'd paid well over $100,000 for in that parking lot wondering the multitude of people that would be driving my car on a daily basis over the next 6 weeks. Answer me. Would you? Tesla had refused to send parts to my local shop. Why? I had to use their "approved body shop." So, this another 500-600 miles, unnecessarily and lost many hours of work, plus transportation back home. My local shop could not reach Tesla by phone, but they did finally make some progress through emails until many weeks later (I think 4-6 weeks) Tesla finally sold them parts to do this simple fix. I made the video to show that Tesla parts are no more expensive than parts for a regular car, contrary to the lies I had been reading on the Internet.
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