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ecrsail
Member
I believe I experienced this for the first time today.
Prior to experiencing the issue, I had driven my X for about ~25 miles at both freeway and urban speeds without hearing the noise. The climate control air conditioning was on, and outside temperatures were in the mid 70s (F).
I parked the vehicle and grabbed lunch, returning to the vehicle after about 90 minutes. It was not charging while parked, but it was in bright sun. Upon entering the vehicle and powering it up, a new objectionably loud fan noise coming from behind the front dash began. It did not seem to be correlated with the climate control fan speed, or the selection of outside air, recycled air, or biodefense filtered air within the climate control pop-up. It was clearly distinct from the noise of rushing air that I consider "normal" when the climate control is operating at a high fan speed. Turning the climate control off did not seem to affect the noise. It was loud enough that it interrupted conversational speech with my passenger in the front seat, and could be heard over the radio. It was annoying.
Otherwise, the vehicle performed normally and I experienced no problems driving it the rest of the day. The noise did slowly decrease in volume to the point where it (almost) disappeared during the drive, but it was still clearly audible even at freeway speeds for ~15 minutes.
I am purely speculating here, but I am going to guess it is related to cooling/managing the battery when ambient temperatures exceeded some maximum. Continuing to speculate, perhaps this fan is unbalanced at high speeds, mounted in such a way that it generates noise through the dash, or maybe even running faster than it was supposed to in response to the temperatures.
If it happens again, I will log the issue with my Service Center.
Prior to experiencing the issue, I had driven my X for about ~25 miles at both freeway and urban speeds without hearing the noise. The climate control air conditioning was on, and outside temperatures were in the mid 70s (F).
I parked the vehicle and grabbed lunch, returning to the vehicle after about 90 minutes. It was not charging while parked, but it was in bright sun. Upon entering the vehicle and powering it up, a new objectionably loud fan noise coming from behind the front dash began. It did not seem to be correlated with the climate control fan speed, or the selection of outside air, recycled air, or biodefense filtered air within the climate control pop-up. It was clearly distinct from the noise of rushing air that I consider "normal" when the climate control is operating at a high fan speed. Turning the climate control off did not seem to affect the noise. It was loud enough that it interrupted conversational speech with my passenger in the front seat, and could be heard over the radio. It was annoying.
Otherwise, the vehicle performed normally and I experienced no problems driving it the rest of the day. The noise did slowly decrease in volume to the point where it (almost) disappeared during the drive, but it was still clearly audible even at freeway speeds for ~15 minutes.
I am purely speculating here, but I am going to guess it is related to cooling/managing the battery when ambient temperatures exceeded some maximum. Continuing to speculate, perhaps this fan is unbalanced at high speeds, mounted in such a way that it generates noise through the dash, or maybe even running faster than it was supposed to in response to the temperatures.
If it happens again, I will log the issue with my Service Center.
I've just lodged a complaint saying that the compressor is too quiet and it's hard to tell if the thing is running.I strongly suggest that everyone with this problem contact Tesla ASAP to figure this out. I would like this resolved before my July delivery.
In all seriousness, my wife told me today that it sounded like a "paper shredder" was running at the front of the car.
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K-MTG
Sunshade Captain of TMC
I can get the noise with the car in the garage just by opening the door. As others have said, you have to shout to be heard over it.
I noticed when it started the current draw jumped to 19A at 240V -- 4500 watts of power. I think it is being very efficiently converted to noise!
I noticed when it started the current draw jumped to 19A at 240V -- 4500 watts of power. I think it is being very efficiently converted to noise!
Pretty sure it is the interior A/C smart preconditioning. My X suddenly started making the loud compressor noise yesterday when the car was parked in the sun. I went to the Tesla app on my iPhone and shut off preconditioning on the climate page and it stopped immediately.
This fan noise is ridiculous. It's so loud that it drowns out the sound from the lawn people. My wife said she had two people today that asked her if the car had a problem. It's not OK. When you're driving in an electric car and people 200 or 300 feet ahead turn and look, that's no good.
Yeah, it's bad when the guy with the gas leaf blower is giving you the "cut it out" sign with his hand at his neck.
K-MTG
Sunshade Captain of TMC
I think a compressor-shade will help mitigate the noise...going to tweet Elon
Maybe the fan noise is part of their stealth marketing campaign - getting people to turn and look!
Has anyone received a response from Tesla service about this issue? Mine is in the shop and they just told me that they were able to recreate the loud noise, recorded it and said it was normal. There is no way an electric car should be one of the loudest cars on the road even if it is only some of the time. My experience has been this loud noise is frequent and it is not summer yet! This is a potential deal breaker for me. I'm hoping someone out there got Tesla to do something to mitigate the noise such as a sound blanket/insulation that I have heard was done for the S before.
I had a model s and also had that whiny ac sound. But my model X is waaayy louder than that. It sounds like when you get the window seat on the plane that's right next to the wings.
If tesla is saying that's normal well that's just...ludicrous.
I can live with the doors being off by a few millimeters but this sounds like the car is about to explode. I've got an SC appointment in 2 weeks and I'll ask about this.
In this other thread, @xkwizit has postulated that this fan behavior might be the result of an issue with the outside temperature thermometer. I tend to agree, based on readings we're seeing, and the behavior of the fan during those times. If the car thinks it's 120 degrees outside, it is going to work very hard to cool the compressor - which would be fine if it were really 120 degrees. However, if it's only 80, it should scale back.
It's a hypothesis, but I find it pretty reasonable.
It's a hypothesis, but I find it pretty reasonable.
xkwizit
Member
I sent our readings to TM who have asked my SC to bring in the car for observation. I have scheduled it for next week. Will report what they find.
Ahh yes that makes sense. I did notice that the car was reporting it was 108 degrees today but it was no where close to that. I'll bring up the thermometer issue on 6/20 and will report back as well.
xkwizit
Member
Posted my update here after my SC observed the car and the Service Manager called me to discuss:
Incorrect temperature reported?
Incorrect temperature reported?
xkwizit
Member
I am continuing to communicate with TM about this issue. Sent the following email to ServiceHelpNA:
"Hello - the Rocklin SC checked my Model X and found normal operations. They also took the time to explain the difference in design between Model S and X and thus different experience. Based on what the SC told me, Model X has one cooling fan which is larger and pulls in more air as compared to the two cooling fans on Model S. And thus it is louder.
I would like to escalate this to the Tesla Design Team and have them reconsider as the cooling fan currently in use in Model X is really loud. For an electric car that is supposed to be quite, people turn their heads to see what is rolling up that is so loud. If you are at a drive-in window to order food, you have to compete with the noise from the cooling fan so the order taker can hear me.
In short, while the operation of the car has been termed "normal" based on its current design, it is definitely NOT NORMAL from user experience perspective. I would again like to point out that this is not just my opinion but of several other Model X early adopters as you can see on several threads on this issue on TMC forum."
"Hello - the Rocklin SC checked my Model X and found normal operations. They also took the time to explain the difference in design between Model S and X and thus different experience. Based on what the SC told me, Model X has one cooling fan which is larger and pulls in more air as compared to the two cooling fans on Model S. And thus it is louder.
I would like to escalate this to the Tesla Design Team and have them reconsider as the cooling fan currently in use in Model X is really loud. For an electric car that is supposed to be quite, people turn their heads to see what is rolling up that is so loud. If you are at a drive-in window to order food, you have to compete with the noise from the cooling fan so the order taker can hear me.
In short, while the operation of the car has been termed "normal" based on its current design, it is definitely NOT NORMAL from user experience perspective. I would again like to point out that this is not just my opinion but of several other Model X early adopters as you can see on several threads on this issue on TMC forum."
