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What is this high pitched cricket like noise?
- Thread starter rjack1282
- Start date
ev_go123
Member
I don't have it, I've only heard it exists from RafidTM3. My guess is it's an internal Telsa doc and the best we could do is get a service rep to give us the article number or id.
Maybe thermal expansion? Hard to say. Also I'm not sure anyone has confirmed it's a wheel bearing, the only thing Tesla has said to a few people is it's a "bad bearing", but there are lots of bearings in the motor assembly--I would tend to think it's one of those. The wheel bearing is much easier/cheaper to replace and they could keep the front drive unit in place.
Has anyone else noticed the sound goes away while taking right higher speed hand turns (exit ramps)? It's extremely repeatable for me: sound is there, then start turning right on an exit ramp and it shuts up for as long as you're turning. Then when you straighten the wheel, it comes back.
Today was my service appointment, and I have a lot of new information to share. Mostly good news so far:
I brought my car in at 8am as the Urbandale, IA service shop opened up. I discussed the issue with a lead technician and the service manager for a while. I think they could tell that I was well-researched on the issue and had some credibility as a prior Tesla owner and a professional powertrain engineer. The tech said that I needed to take him for a ride and show him exactly what is going on. It was a bit challenging to find the right road conditions due to speed limits, road noise, and morning rush hour traffic, but I was able to recreate the issue to the degree that he recognized something was there. But to be honest, when I was hearing it make a bunch of noise, he said he really didn't notice anything. I think this is really an issue that some people will notice and some just won't!
The tech then took my car inside and spent about 30 minutes diagnosing it on the lift while I waited in the lobby. In service mode, they can individually drive the front and rear motors to diagnose issues like this. Sure enough, the rear motor was silent, and the front motor made enough noise to convince him that it needed a new front drive unit due to "a bearing issue". They shared that there is indeed an internal Tesla article/bulletin on this known issue, but it is still marked as "under investigation". It's hard to say if/when Tesla will do anything more about it. They said that the Tesla documentation refers to this as more of a 40-50 mph problem, not 50-70 as I have experienced. Hopefully it's the same issue...
So I of course asked: what are the chances that the replacement drive unit could have the same issue? The techs smiled a bit and confirmed that a certain percentage of the motors that get supplied for production get set aside as spare parts, so hard to say for sure. They had a spare drive unit in stock already and said they would get to it within a few days. I was offered a loaner of my choice -- which ended up being a Model X P100D
I'm also happy to say that I got the message at 5pm today that the service was already complete! So I plan to pick it up tomorrow morning first thing... I'm a little anxious that the issue could still be there, but I assume they ran it on the lift in service mode after the swap and confirmed no front drive unit noise.
Needless to say, I have had a positive interaction with my local service center, way beyond my expectations. They took my situation seriously. Fingers crossed that the issue is solved! Thanks to everyone that has contributed information to this thread.
The tech told me, the key to getting the new front drive unit was getting him out in the car to experience the issue in the right conditions. If I had just dropped it off, they would have taken it for a drive and probably concluded "everything's fine".
Benito1283
2021 MYLR 19"
Greetings from Stockholm, Sweden. Wow, what a relief to find this thread! I’ve just picked up the car from my second SC visit regarding this issue. I just found this thread today after picking the car up the other day and it’s a relief I’m not the only one being bugged by this noise. I couldn’t believe Tesla when they stated it’s a sound from the drive unit, to me it was unthinkable, but reading through this thread, it seems they were completely right.
My car was produced in july, 2022 (China). Picked up on september 2 and could hear this exact sound from day 1 of owning the car. I had my first visit at the SC in september, where I went for a drive with a technician who attested the sound and took in the car. They kept the car for a day and made a alignment of the driver side window, and stated that they could not reproduce the sound. The sound was still there the minute I left the SC. It starts at around 70 km/h and can be heard to 110+ km/h, while decelerating it can usually be heard down to about 30 km/h, but it always starts at around 70 km/h. On certain on-ramps and curvatures of the road, the sound may suddenly disappear, despite keeping constant speed.
I mostly drive at low speeds and I’ve only been to two longer trips since I got the car, hence I’ve not been putting much effort into getting it fixed since it hasn’t been THAT much of a concern. I’ve been very busy for the past six months so last week I finally took the time to take the car back to the SC. My initial thought was that the sound was wind related.
They could reproduce the sound and I got the following response from the SC:
”Customer concern investigated. The noise described by the customer is not a type of wind noise, rather it's a whine noise coming from one of the drive units inverters. A level of noise is expected when operating an electric motor, a noise of that nature can be acceptable as per Tesla specifications as long as the noise intensity and frequency does not exceeds Tesla limitations. As for the noise currently detected in the vehicle, took a recording and checked against the limitations, both intensity and frequency found to be within tesla specifications and does not warrant any actions. If at any point the customer feels that the noise becomes too high, then a service visit can be scheduled to inspect again. Satisfactory.”
By no means do I think this is ”within specifications”, but I guess Tesla can set any limitations they want and call it ”within specifications”. I would never have bought the car if I knew I could be expecting this noise. I find it hard to pursue this since the sound is so intermittent and seems to depend on a number of factors. Maybe when the technician went for a test drive, the sound wasn’t that prominent. ”Too high” is certainly objective, but I’m for sure getting fed up with listening to this whenever I enter a highway. I doubt that anyone in Tesla’s engineering team would accept driving a brand new car haunted by this noise.
Spring is approaching so I’m kind of worried it’s going to be harder to reproduce for the SC going forward. The technician told me during the last test drive (before picking the car up again) that he had the sound recording in their records. I’ll try to ask for it to try and determine what the sound was like during the recorded test drive. I find it hard to record on the phone which is the only recording device I have access to.
I will keep pushing the SC for a fix and keep you posted.
My car was produced in july, 2022 (China). Picked up on september 2 and could hear this exact sound from day 1 of owning the car. I had my first visit at the SC in september, where I went for a drive with a technician who attested the sound and took in the car. They kept the car for a day and made a alignment of the driver side window, and stated that they could not reproduce the sound. The sound was still there the minute I left the SC. It starts at around 70 km/h and can be heard to 110+ km/h, while decelerating it can usually be heard down to about 30 km/h, but it always starts at around 70 km/h. On certain on-ramps and curvatures of the road, the sound may suddenly disappear, despite keeping constant speed.
I mostly drive at low speeds and I’ve only been to two longer trips since I got the car, hence I’ve not been putting much effort into getting it fixed since it hasn’t been THAT much of a concern. I’ve been very busy for the past six months so last week I finally took the time to take the car back to the SC. My initial thought was that the sound was wind related.
They could reproduce the sound and I got the following response from the SC:
”Customer concern investigated. The noise described by the customer is not a type of wind noise, rather it's a whine noise coming from one of the drive units inverters. A level of noise is expected when operating an electric motor, a noise of that nature can be acceptable as per Tesla specifications as long as the noise intensity and frequency does not exceeds Tesla limitations. As for the noise currently detected in the vehicle, took a recording and checked against the limitations, both intensity and frequency found to be within tesla specifications and does not warrant any actions. If at any point the customer feels that the noise becomes too high, then a service visit can be scheduled to inspect again. Satisfactory.”
By no means do I think this is ”within specifications”, but I guess Tesla can set any limitations they want and call it ”within specifications”. I would never have bought the car if I knew I could be expecting this noise. I find it hard to pursue this since the sound is so intermittent and seems to depend on a number of factors. Maybe when the technician went for a test drive, the sound wasn’t that prominent. ”Too high” is certainly objective, but I’m for sure getting fed up with listening to this whenever I enter a highway. I doubt that anyone in Tesla’s engineering team would accept driving a brand new car haunted by this noise.
Spring is approaching so I’m kind of worried it’s going to be harder to reproduce for the SC going forward. The technician told me during the last test drive (before picking the car up again) that he had the sound recording in their records. I’ll try to ask for it to try and determine what the sound was like during the recorded test drive. I find it hard to record on the phone which is the only recording device I have access to.
I will keep pushing the SC for a fix and keep you posted.
update on my visit. they replaced front drive unit and its been 3 days and I dont hear any noise now. SC mentioned they only had 3 issues of this kind so far happend due to bad motors ( sure thats incorrect). He mentioned he had a device attached to motor and sent the data to engineering team to confirm. also showed me the recording of what of they captured. I no longer hear any sound and hope it remains that way.
You are lucky. I picked it u after they had it for 3 days and they said that they could not hear the noise and how that some people are more sensitive to noise. The lead tech said that for now that it sounds normal. I do not agree and had shared the documents from the thread with some of the people who had success in changing the front drive unit. He did tell me that I should try another service center and maybe they could hear the noise. But the tech heard it when I dropped it off but for some reason they could not recreate the sound but when I drove it home, it was still there! This is so annoying. I have ANOTHER appt next week with another center which is closer to my home. There are about 6 service centers in my state and I will continue to book an appt until this gets resolved! I am very persistent and want this fixed!Today was my service appointment, and I have a lot of new information to share. Mostly good news so far:
I brought my car in at 8am as the Urbandale, IA service shop opened up. I discussed the issue with a lead technician and the service manager for a while. I think they could tell that I was well-researched on the issue and had some credibility as a prior Tesla owner and a professional powertrain engineer. The tech said that I needed to take him for a ride and show him exactly what is going on. It was a bit challenging to find the right road conditions due to speed limits, road noise, and morning rush hour traffic, but I was able to recreate the issue to the degree that he recognized something was there. But to be honest, when I was hearing it make a bunch of noise, he said he really didn't notice anything. I think this is really an issue that some people will notice and some just won't!
The tech then took my car inside and spent about 30 minutes diagnosing it on the lift while I waited in the lobby. In service mode, they can individually drive the front and rear motors to diagnose issues like this. Sure enough, the rear motor was silent, and the front motor made enough noise to convince him that it needed a new front drive unit due to "a bearing issue". They shared that there is indeed an internal Tesla article/bulletin on this known issue, but it is still marked as "under investigation". It's hard to say if/when Tesla will do anything more about it. They said that the Tesla documentation refers to this as more of a 40-50 mph problem, not 50-70 as I have experienced. Hopefully it's the same issue...
So I of course asked: what are the chances that the replacement drive unit could have the same issue? The techs smiled a bit and confirmed that a certain percentage of the motors that get supplied for production get set aside as spare parts, so hard to say for sure. They had a spare drive unit in stock already and said they would get to it within a few days. I was offered a loaner of my choice -- which ended up being a Model X P100D
I'm also happy to say that I got the message at 5pm today that the service was already complete! So I plan to pick it up tomorrow morning first thing... I'm a little anxious that the issue could still be there, but I assume they ran it on the lift in service mode after the swap and confirmed no front drive unit noise.
Needless to say, I have had a positive interaction with my local service center, way beyond my expectations. They took my situation seriously. Fingers crossed that the issue is solved! Thanks to everyone that has contributed information to this thread.
The tech told me, the key to getting the new front drive unit was getting him out in the car to experience the issue in the right conditions. If I had just dropped it off, they would have taken it for a drive and probably concluded "everything's fine".
ev_go123
Member
Yeah I had that once with a tech. On one test drive he was like oh yeah I hear it (it was loud and obvious), then they spend 4 days with the car fixing "wind noise". The same tech and I go on another drive and he claims not to hear it (when it was again being obvious). I'm confident he was sick of debugging the issue and was just trying to get rid of me. Very frustrating.
The bulletin is not complete. I believe he had said it was "under investigation" so until it they correct the wording I do not believe that they will continue to fix the front units unless you keep pushing. I will continue to push.
Guys, quick update:
I brought the car for the 6th time so they can « record and compare the car noise with another car » , said the tech.
After 2 days of investigation and exchanges with the engineering, they decided to replace the front drive unit !
Job is expected to be done next month.
I’ll let you know. Fingers crossed…
I brought the car for the 6th time so they can « record and compare the car noise with another car » , said the tech.
After 2 days of investigation and exchanges with the engineering, they decided to replace the front drive unit !
Job is expected to be done next month.
I’ll let you know. Fingers crossed…
I think what you hear is a totally different sound. I do have another sound when preconditioning, we are talking about another high pitch sound when you drive over 40-50mph and it is a constant sound, that does not go away until you go slower and stop the car.
It's like a hiss. The sound comes and goes if I don't precondition the car. It's pretty consistent on the highway, even local if the weather is cold enough.
I sent it to SC as well, but the technician could not locate the sound too. I guess the car warmed up a bit when I got there LOL.
Well, lo and behold, the issue was not solved with the new front drive unit... Got on the highway after leaving the service center and... damn.Today was my service appointment, and I have a lot of new information to share. Mostly good news so far:
I brought my car in at 8am as the Urbandale, IA service shop opened up. I discussed the issue with a lead technician and the service manager for a while. I think they could tell that I was well-researched on the issue and had some credibility as a prior Tesla owner and a professional powertrain engineer. The tech said that I needed to take him for a ride and show him exactly what is going on. It was a bit challenging to find the right road conditions due to speed limits, road noise, and morning rush hour traffic, but I was able to recreate the issue to the degree that he recognized something was there. But to be honest, when I was hearing it make a bunch of noise, he said he really didn't notice anything. I think this is really an issue that some people will notice and some just won't!
The tech then took my car inside and spent about 30 minutes diagnosing it on the lift while I waited in the lobby. In service mode, they can individually drive the front and rear motors to diagnose issues like this. Sure enough, the rear motor was silent, and the front motor made enough noise to convince him that it needed a new front drive unit due to "a bearing issue". They shared that there is indeed an internal Tesla article/bulletin on this known issue, but it is still marked as "under investigation". It's hard to say if/when Tesla will do anything more about it. They said that the Tesla documentation refers to this as more of a 40-50 mph problem, not 50-70 as I have experienced. Hopefully it's the same issue...
So I of course asked: what are the chances that the replacement drive unit could have the same issue? The techs smiled a bit and confirmed that a certain percentage of the motors that get supplied for production get set aside as spare parts, so hard to say for sure. They had a spare drive unit in stock already and said they would get to it within a few days. I was offered a loaner of my choice -- which ended up being a Model X P100D
I'm also happy to say that I got the message at 5pm today that the service was already complete! So I plan to pick it up tomorrow morning first thing... I'm a little anxious that the issue could still be there, but I assume they ran it on the lift in service mode after the swap and confirmed no front drive unit noise.
Needless to say, I have had a positive interaction with my local service center, way beyond my expectations. They took my situation seriously. Fingers crossed that the issue is solved! Thanks to everyone that has contributed information to this thread.
The tech told me, the key to getting the new front drive unit was getting him out in the car to experience the issue in the right conditions. If I had just dropped it off, they would have taken it for a drive and probably concluded "everything's fine".
To be honest, I never really believed the whole "bad bearing" story for my situation. I still believe it is some kind of electrical noise when the vehicle is at steady-state conditions between 50 and 70 mph, with the power bar relatively low. (e.g., ~0% grade). I just figured replacing the drive unit (i.e. motor, inverter) had a chance at eliminating whatever issue was present, bearing, cable connection, or otherwise.
I think this is one of those deals where the service center connected my research into the issue with the Tesla service article and figured a drive unit replacement was the best shot. The original drive unit might have had no physical issues after all...
I recorded another iPhone video today, this time shared via streamable. (I think YouTube filters out some of the sound content I'm trying to highlight.) You might need to turn up the volume and try headphones or earbuds: 2023 Tesla Model Y LR - staticky noise, 60-70 mph The staticky noise is present from 0 to 0:20 and 0:34 to 0:50. It is not present from 0:20-0:34 when I am accelerating slightly.
Funny thing is, I realized that 66 mph is kind of the magic speed where the noise is the worst. This is the exact speed where the technician said he heard the noise when we went for the test drive with me yesterday...
Reading through this entire thread a couple days ago and listening to some of the audio/video recordings others shared, I get the feeling that there could be several different types of noise issues on this thread. I think some of these could be actual bearing issues; maybe others are not.
My best guesses (most to least likely) at this time are:
1. Electrical noise related to how the front drive unit is controlled at steady-state conditions between 50 and 70 mph. I need to do some more research into how the front motor is controlled in this condition... maybe I can find a diagnostic tool/app that shows how the motor is commanded.
2. The replacement drive unit is bad like the original one. This is possible.
3. Something with one of the auxiliaries in front of the firewall. e.g., coolant pump, valve, etc.
4. Some kind of weird wind noise due to a pinhole air leak or something like that. Seems unlikely.
At this time, I plan to let the SC know that the issue was not solved and do a bit more research into the issue before heading back for service.
ev_go123
Member
So a few things to note about the front motor. Since it's an induction motor that's less efficient than the rear fixed magnet, Tesla's algorithms don't turn it on unless you're at low speeds (0-16mph ish) or you're accelerating hard. You can see this quite clearly using ScanMyTesla, it'll show you front/rear motor power. So in the cases where we hear noise, it's just free spinning, shouldn't be any power going in/out of it (however the electronics are likely still on, not sure of specifics here).Well, lo and behold, the issue was not solved with the new front drive unit... Got on the highway after leaving the service center and... damn.
To be honest, I never really believed the whole "bad bearing" story for my situation. I still believe it is some kind of electrical noise when the vehicle is at steady-state conditions between 50 and 70 mph, with the power bar relatively low. (e.g., ~0% grade). I just figured replacing the drive unit (i.e. motor, inverter) had a chance at eliminating whatever issue was present, bearing, cable connection, or otherwise.
I think this is one of those deals where the service center connected my research into the issue with the Tesla service article and figured a drive unit replacement was the best shot. The original drive unit might have had no physical issues after all...
I recorded another iPhone video today, this time shared via streamable. (I think YouTube filters out some of the sound content I'm trying to highlight.) You might need to turn up the volume and try headphones or earbuds: 2023 Tesla Model Y LR - staticky noise, 60-70 mph The staticky noise is present from 0 to 0:20 and 0:34 to 0:50. It is not present from 0:20-0:34 when I am accelerating slightly.
Funny thing is, I realized that 66 mph is kind of the magic speed where the noise is the worst. This is the exact speed where the technician said he heard the noise when we went for the test drive with me yesterday...
Reading through this entire thread a couple days ago and listening to some of the audio/video recordings others shared, I get the feeling that there could be several different types of noise issues on this thread. I think some of these could be actual bearing issues; maybe others are not.
My best guesses (most to least likely) at this time are:
1. Electrical noise related to how the front drive unit is controlled at steady-state conditions between 50 and 70 mph. I need to do some more research into how the front motor is controlled in this condition... maybe I can find a diagnostic tool/app that shows how the motor is commanded.
2. The replacement drive unit is bad like the original one. This is possible.
3. Something with one of the auxiliaries in front of the firewall. e.g., coolant pump, valve, etc.
4. Some kind of weird wind noise due to a pinhole air leak or something like that. Seems unlikely.
At this time, I plan to let the SC know that the issue was not solved and do a bit more research into the issue before heading back for service.
Another thing I've noticed is that the noise goes away completely when taking hard right turns. This points to something mechanical over electrical--as you turn, you load up the front drive train, putting forces on gears/bearings/etc. However I wouldn't think the inverter/power electronics shouldn't care about that mechanical force, especially if it's mostly off anyway. So that points to gear/bearing/coolant, aka something physical rather than electronics noise. That being said, maybe the electroincs are on just a bit, and in that state they make noise when the motor is under no load, pretty
If you want to see more of how the motor works, here's in depth video for gear heads:
Wow. I thought that would have fixed the issue as it did for some on the thread. I was hopeful your would be fixed and more of a reason for Tesla to fix it!Well, lo and behold, the issue was not solved with the new front drive unit... Got on the highway after leaving the service center and... damn.
To be honest, I never really believed the whole "bad bearing" story for my situation. I still believe it is some kind of electrical noise when the vehicle is at steady-state conditions between 50 and 70 mph, with the power bar relatively low. (e.g., ~0% grade). I just figured replacing the drive unit (i.e. motor, inverter) had a chance at eliminating whatever issue was present, bearing, cable connection, or otherwise.
I think this is one of those deals where the service center connected my research into the issue with the Tesla service article and figured a drive unit replacement was the best shot. The original drive unit might have had no physical issues after all...
I recorded another iPhone video today, this time shared via streamable. (I think YouTube filters out some of the sound content I'm trying to highlight.) You might need to turn up the volume and try headphones or earbuds: 2023 Tesla Model Y LR - staticky noise, 60-70 mph The staticky noise is present from 0 to 0:20 and 0:34 to 0:50. It is not present from 0:20-0:34 when I am accelerating slightly.
Funny thing is, I realized that 66 mph is kind of the magic speed where the noise is the worst. This is the exact speed where the technician said he heard the noise when we went for the test drive with me yesterday...
Reading through this entire thread a couple days ago and listening to some of the audio/video recordings others shared, I get the feeling that there could be several different types of noise issues on this thread. I think some of these could be actual bearing issues; maybe others are not.
My best guesses (most to least likely) at this time are:
1. Electrical noise related to how the front drive unit is controlled at steady-state conditions between 50 and 70 mph. I need to do some more research into how the front motor is controlled in this condition... maybe I can find a diagnostic tool/app that shows how the motor is commanded.
2. The replacement drive unit is bad like the original one. This is possible.
3. Something with one of the auxiliaries in front of the firewall. e.g., coolant pump, valve, etc.
4. Some kind of weird wind noise due to a pinhole air leak or something like that. Seems unlikely.
At this time, I plan to let the SC know that the issue was not solved and do a bit more research into the issue before heading back for service.
Thanks for the input. I think I will look into some of the apps and do some collection with one of those. I agree with your point that, even though no power may be going in/out of the front motor, electronically it is probably still doing something.
As mentioned before, I work as an engineer in R&D for a major supplier of electric powertrains for commercial vehicles, and I am somewhat familiar with the different topologies and control strategies. But I have not dug into these finer details of the Tesla dual motor setups yet -- like what exactly is happening with the front induction motor at steady-state highway speeds.
Last night, after I posted my update, I was thinking to myself, "You know, I described this earlier as a kind of a staticky noise, like a bad ground on a speaker.... what are the chances that it could ACTUALLY be coming from a speaker?" Like some kind of weird interference between HV power electronics and a speaker wire. It just hardly seems like the kind of noise that originates at the FDU, goes through the firewall, and into the cabin.
It looks like there were a bunch of issues with staticky speaker noise on earlier Teslas. Most of those were staticky even if the vehicle was parked, so maybe I'm just dreaming this up. I'm probably going to do some test driving this weekend and see if I can link it to a speaker, through "various methods" which I will share later. I don't like the idea of just dumping it on the SC again and ending up with another swapped FDU for no reason...
I have only heard the staticky high pitch sound while driving/crusising. I do not heard it when I go below 40mph. For me, I doubt it would be the speaker.
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