What is this high pitched cricket like noise?

[Benito1283]

How did this work out? Did they replace the drive unit?

I have the same sound, been to SC in Oslo, Norway twice. Last time they removed the HV and replaced penthouse sealing. Did not help.

I actually made them an entire dropbox folder with the sound. Sounds excactly like yours. Model Y

After the seal replacement I had the technician call me, and he admitted they didn't have any solution for now. Tesla Norway don't have enough experience with the MY. Hopeully this thread will help them.

My car is a MYLR (10500 miles)

They replaced the front drive unit. Car was silent on the drive home, which I attribute to being warmed up from them supercharging it.

Sound returned the next morning when the battery was cold, ~40F outside. Then it was gone for a two hour drive in the afternoon when it was 70F. Big waste of my time and theirs replacing the motor. PS I listened to your sound and it's definitely the same as mine.

I have yet another SC appt scheduled for next Friday, but I'm getting pretty tired of SC waiting game. There's an independent Tesla shop near me I might try.

I learned that when the battery is cold, the motors do some extra/different work to warm the coolant and sent it to the battery, or something. So maybe that's the process we're hearing. Maybe it's normal, just slightly louder in some cars.

Too bad the wait for a new white MYLR is so long (Dec 2022). I half have a mind to order a new one and trade in my car, and probably would break even based on resale values.

 

[Benito1283]

I suppose it’s possible once they figure this out it could be fixed with a firmware update, given the computer controls all those processes. Unless it’s an actual physical abnormality.

 

[fignacious]

They replaced the front drive unit. Car was silent on the drive home, which I attribute to being warmed up from them supercharging it.

Sound returned the next morning when the battery was cold, ~40F outside. Then it was gone for a two hour drive in the afternoon when it was 70F. Big waste of my time and theirs replacing the motor. PS I listened to your sound and it's definitely the same as mine.

I have yet another SC appt scheduled for next Friday, but I'm getting pretty tired of SC waiting game. There's an independent Tesla shop near me I might try.

I learned that when the battery is cold, the motors do some extra/different work to warm the coolant and sent it to the battery, or something. So maybe that's the process we're hearing. Maybe it's normal, just slightly louder in some cars.

Too bad the wait for a new white MYLR is so long (Dec 2022). I half have a mind to order a new one and trade in my car, and probably would break even based on resale values.

I had the thought of doing that as well, but that could be a lot of work and potential financial loss waiting to sell in order to possibly have the same thing happen again!

I'm kind of curious to see if it goes away completely for me as things get warmer.. in the summer when temps are rarely below 70 at night it'll be interesting to see what happens.

 

[Benito1283]

My drives over the last several days confirm that the noise is always present when I have limited regen - anything over 2 dots or so. And then once my battery warms up and my regen gets to 1-2 dots, it starts fading, and once I have full regen (zero dots) the sound is completely gone. It's got to be something related to how the (front) motor uses waste heat to warm the battery. And once the battery is warmed that process goes away.

When I precondition the battery through climate in the app, it stops warming the battery (3 bacon lines dissappear) when I have like 10-12 regen dots. Any idea if there's a way to further warm the battery w/o driving, to the point of no regen dots? This is the only potential workaround I can think of until I get it fixed, which I'm not that hopeful about.

 

[mackgriggs]

This morning I had my service center appointment...and....I was really worried about it. I haven't really heard the sound for the past two days. And sure enough....we couldn't reproduce the sound at the appointment and during a 5-10 minute drive. We made a note that I had the issue, but....without being able to reproduce, and haven't heard of the issue on other cars, there wasn't anything they could do.

The issue? We had a warm front move into Boise and its been 60°F+.

You previously said: "Sound returned the next morning when the battery was cold, ~40F outside. Then it was gone for a two hour drive in the afternoon when it was 70F. ".

Oh...yeah, you had the same warm front in Denver as here in Boise. Just unseasonably warm.

Now, you also are thinking it could be due to full regen or not....which ...correlates with warm weather. (I.e., you obviously have full regen when its warm out).

You would need to test it like...on Sunday in Denver when its cold again. Wait to charge until before you leave, so the battery is warm from charging, and test if the noise doesn't happen even when its 25° out, but the battery is warm.

You bring the idea that it could be due to limited regen and noise being made from that...but.....I also have heard the noise just during normal driving when neither brakes (disc or regen) are running, so I'm not so sure about that.

I'm thinking.....since its only happening in cold weather, that....our rotors or pads or something are negatively affected by the cold and its causing some kind of rubbing issue.

OR....I'm thinking it has to do with the Disc Wiping function still. From the manual ->

Model 3 Owner's Manual | Tesla

Understand your vehicle's braking system and stopping features.

www.tesla.com

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Brake Disc Wiping​

To ensure brakes remain responsive in cold and wet weather, Model 3 is equipped with brake disc wiping. When cold and wet weather is detected, this feature repeatedly applies an imperceptible amount of brake force to remove water from the surface of the brake discs.
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So, during cold weather, the brakes are being applied, but...maybe due to tolerances, one of the brakes is being applied ever so much more than the others causing the issue, or....some other issue with brake disc wiping.


Right now....current plan is to wait till next winter so it happens again and then bring it back into service so they can hear it, or take it to a real brake shop then and see what they say. Car will still be under warranty.

 

[Benito1283]

Copy that. Yeah, I'm almost positive this sound isn't coming from the brakes. The SC totally disassembled and reassembled my brakes before they replaced the motor. Said everything looked perfect.

I have the sound during regen, coasting, and accelerating. But I believe the motor is always using waste heat to warm up a cold battery, not only during regen.

I have done the tests you described. I do hear the sound when it's warm out but the battery still has regen dots. And I don't hear the sound when it's cold out but when the battery has been warmed up from lots of driving and regen dots are gone. Charging (and preconditioning) does warm the battery when it's cold out, but not enough to totally eliminate regen dots.

So I've concluded that whether I hear my sound is 100% determined by if my battery is cold enough to be warmed by the motors. Once the regen dots are gone, the sound disappears.

 

[mackgriggs]

Copy that. Yeah, I'm almost positive this sound isn't coming from the brakes. The SC totally disassembled and reassembled my brakes before they replaced the motor. Said everything looked perfect.

I have the sound during regen, coasting, and accelerating. But I believe the motor is always using waste heat to warm up a cold battery, not only during regen.

I have done the tests you described. I do hear the sound when it's warm out but the battery still has regen dots. And I don't hear the sound when it's cold out but when the battery has been warmed up from lots of driving and regen dots are gone. Charging (and preconditioning) does warm the battery when it's cold out, but not enough to totally eliminate regen dots.

So I've concluded that whether I hear my sound is 100% determined by if my battery is cold enough to be warmed by the motors. Once the regen dots are gone, the sound disappears.

Thats interesting. Hmm...I'm just trying to reconcile why I didn't hear the noise for a day or two (and it was still cold out) after bedding in the brakes.

But...its possible.....that...maybe I had full regen during the times that I didn't notice the sound (and just wasn't paying attention to regen dots).

Its just hard when we don't know exactly what to watch for when the sound happens. Right now its the whole problem of "correlation does not imply causation". And...we are running out of days that its cold out to determine what is causing it during cold weather.

 

[jacie6056]

I read the whole thread and try to listen to all the videos with the different headsets but I didn't notice anything.

Does this sound that your's guys?

 

[jacie6056]

when I pulled the file into my trusty audio frequency analysis it shows those beeping are around 1.5K to 2K range with speed around 44 mph.

 

[andrlilj]

They replaced the front drive unit. Car was silent on the drive home, which I attribute to being warmed up from them supercharging it.

Sound returned the next morning when the battery was cold, ~40F outside. Then it was gone for a two hour drive in the afternoon when it was 70F. Big waste of my time and theirs replacing the motor. PS I listened to your sound and it's definitely the same as mine.

I have yet another SC appt scheduled for next Friday, but I'm getting pretty tired of SC waiting game. There's an independent Tesla shop near me I might try.

I learned that when the battery is cold, the motors do some extra/different work to warm the coolant and sent it to the battery, or something. So maybe that's the process we're hearing. Maybe it's normal, just slightly louder in some cars.

Too bad the wait for a new white MYLR is so long (Dec 2022). I half have a mind to order a new one and trade in my car, and probably would break even based on resale values.

I'm sorry to hear that repacing the drive unit didn't work, was hoping otherwise.

I have 3-4 colleagues with TMY, they don't have the noise - so I won't stop bothering the SC untill they figure it out.
I guess we could eliminate the fixes being done on this forum:

Drive unit front
Sealer penthouse cover gasket (SC second "fix")
Insulate low pressure pipe from AC system (SC first "fix")

Both me and the (second) technician thought the noise was coming from the back, I still do.
The noise is not increasing if I open the windows - one of the reasons I ruled out the brakes.

Would the electric car making this noise if the grounding was missing og partly missing (referring the the ground strap in other threads)?

If this is a normal sound and other cars have it too, it would be easy for the SC to find the missing isolation in our cars - and point out why the noise is inside the cabin.

 

[mackgriggs]

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The noise is not increasing if I open the windows - one of the reasons I ruled out the brakes.
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Hmm...that is also interesting....I haven't tried that before. Yeah, you would assume that if you opened up the window, the noise would be louder if it was a brake since the brakes are "external" to the cabin.


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Both me and the (second) technician thought the noise was coming from the back, I still do.
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I still think it sounds more like its coming from driver side front....

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Would the electric car making this noise if the grounding was missing og partly missing (referring the the ground strap in other threads)?
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I'll have to go through those threads and see if someone made a recording. I played the audio/video examples from this thread to the SC technician (since we couldn't reproduce it yesterday), and he also thought it sounded like an "electrical" noise, which is also what I thought initially it sounded like too. Though, once someone said it was possibly brake related, the sound to me sounds more like a brake/friction type noise but...I could be wrong.

 

[fignacious]

For me it definitely doesn't go away when I have full regen. Maybe it's less prevalent and more faint, but still reproducible.

Can't hear it when the windows are down, probably due to wind.

Hard to say if it sounds electrical.. the description someone had of the sound of a CD spinning up in a CD player sounds pretty good.

Also definitely sounds like it's coming from front drivers side for me.

I will probably have to rely on you guys and trips to the SC to try to figure this one out further. My closest SC is 2+ hrs away and I've been unsuccessful both times.

 

[andrlilj]

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Both me and the (second) technician thought the noise was coming from the back, I still do.
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I still think it sounds more like its coming from driver side front....

Had a long trip this weekend, and had the chance to move around in the cabin (not while driving of course). Totally agree with you, the noise is coming from the front. The noise was hard to "find" while sitting in the back. That explaines why my passengers can't hear it when I'm complaining.

I had the car standing outside over night - 14F degrees when we started driving in the morning. Usually I have the car in a parking garage, so not used to having the regen dots. When the regen dots were present, and the noise was gone.
As the car warmed up during the 4,5 hour drive, the noise came back as the regen dots disappeared.

Preheating the battery for supercharging also made the noise go away, or it got replaced by the warm up sound from the battery.

I received the car in august, and did not have the sound for the first time. Tesla removed the disable option for regenerative braking in the October 2020 software update. My first visit to the SC with the problem was in november.

Updated the dropbox folder with video with the regen dots present. Login - Dropbox

 

[mackgriggs]

Had a long trip this weekend, and had the chance to move around in the cabin (not while driving of course). Totally agree with you, the noise is coming from the front. The noise was hard to "find" while sitting in the back. That explaines why my passengers can't hear it when I'm complaining.

I had the car standing outside over night - 14F degrees when we started driving in the morning. Usually I have the car in a parking garage, so not used to having the regen dots. When the regen dots were present, and the noise was gone.
As the car warmed up during the 4,5 hour drive, the noise came back as the regen dots disappeared.

Preheating the battery for supercharging also made the noise go away, or it got replaced by the warm up sound from the battery.

I received the car in august, and did not have the sound for the first time. Tesla removed the disable option for regenerative braking in the October 2020 software update. My first visit to the SC with the problem was in november.

Updated the dropbox folder with video with the regen dots present. Login - Dropbox

So you said:
Usually I have the car in a parking garage, so not used to having the regen dots. When the regen dots were present, and the noise was gone.
As the car warmed up during the 4,5 hour drive, the noise came back as the regen dots disappeared.

Hmm, that is the opposite of what @Benito1283 is experiencing. He is hearing the noise when he HAS regen dots, and the noise goes away when regen dots are gone.

 

[fignacious]

I'll add to this.. I hear it all the time, though it is louder when the regen dots are there. I can go on a 2 hour highway trip and when i get back into town, when I get back to 45mph roads, it's there. I'm at a complete loss, but will agree definitely coming from the front, and it seems the front drivers side.

 

[Benito1283]

I will say, since they replaced my front motor, the sound is definitely quieter. I spazzed when I first heard it after I got the car back, but it is quieter. Maybe half as loud at its loudest. It’s quiet and infrequent enough now that it’s totally tolerable and I probably never would have thought the sound was something “wrong.” Could be a coincidence .

 

[mackgriggs]

Well, I was thinking that maybe it was the same noise as the loose grounding strap issue...though in this video, it really is a different high pitched noise ->

High pitched whirring sound when driving

My car just started doing this today. It’s not the AC. It stops when I put the car in park. Any thoughts?

teslamotorsclub.com

So, I guess that isn't it.

 

[fignacious]

I will say, since they replaced my front motor, the sound is definitely quieter. I spazzed when I first heard it after I got the car back, but it is quieter. Maybe half as loud at its loudest. It’s quiet and infrequent enough now that it’s totally tolerable and I probably never would have thought the sound was something “wrong.” Could be a coincidence .

How's the weather been? Could it be that it's quieter due to warmer weather, or do you think it might actually be the drive unit? And if you still hear it but it's quieter, maybe it's just a normal sound and the variability is pretty wide... aka "within spec"

 

[Benito1283]

How's the weather been? Could it be that it's quieter due to warmer weather, or do you think it might actually be the drive unit? And if you still hear it but it's quieter, maybe it's just a normal sound and the variability is pretty wide... aka "within spec"

Good call. It's super cold here today, around 15F. I took it out first thing w/o preheating and the sound was super loud - as loud as it was before motor replacement. Then I came back home and fully preconditioned the battery leaving just a handful of regen dots. Went out again and the sound was still there. Drove about 40 minutes. The regen dots gradually decreased to 1 or 2, but the sound was still there, maybe only a little decreased. So it seems like it's more dependent on outside temp than battery temp. And the motor replacement didn't help at all.

So...this might point back to a brake sound? Maybe the sound goes away as some part of the brakes warms up, and that takes a lot longer when it's really cold out. Maybe the 'brake disc wiping' feature that engages when it's cold or wet? It's really loud. Easily heard over music.

For any newcomers, here's a link to the sound (only audible on a phone; volume up). For me it's typically between 40-65 mph. Huge cash reward for anyone who can solve this.

 

[rjack1282]

Good call. It's super cold here today, around 15F. I took it out first thing w/o preheating and the sound was super loud - as loud as it was before motor replacement. Then I came back home and fully preconditioned the battery leaving just a handful of regen dots. Went out again and the sound was still there. Drove about 40 minutes. The regen dots gradually decreased to 1 or 2, but the sound was still there, maybe only a little decreased. So it seems like it's more dependent on outside temp than battery temp. And the motor replacement didn't help at all.

So...this might point back to a brake sound? Maybe the sound goes away as some part of the brakes warms up, and that takes a lot longer when it's really cold out. Maybe the 'brake disc wiping' feature that engages when it's cold or wet? It's really loud. Easily heard over music.

For any newcomers, here's a link to the sound (only audible on a phone; volume up). For me it's typically between 40-65 mph. Huge cash reward for anyone who can solve this.

This is why I was a little shocked when your SC diagnosed the problem as the drive unit and not the brakes. I've actually been hearing the same noise on my ICE pickup truck which just so happened to have had a brake job a couple months ago. I've never done any sort of bedding procedure on the truck either.

I'm still confident it is a brake noise based on my recent hard brake testing. Unfortunately I've had to delay my service appoint a couple times now and each time I only wanted to delay a few days but the next available timeslot was weeks away. I'm still currently scheduled for March 19.