what's the latest on the milling sound (2017)

[eye.surgeon]

I have a Dec 2014 S85 with 25k miles that has made the milling sound pretty loud the last 3 months. I've been putting up with it but finally broke down and called my service center and made an appointment, as it has reached the point that passengers are commenting on it and it's detracting from my enjoyment of the car.

I'm expecting them to change the motor. Have they finally fixed this issue so that my replacement motor won't have it in the future? I don't hear much talk about this any more but a year or two ago it was a big issue. I assume I will get a rebuilt motor? Was it determined to be a bearing failure? What change do they make in rebuilding these that prevents the issue from returning?

 

[DDotJ]

Revision Q of the drive unit has been known to fix this issue. I had the milling noise on my October 2014 Model S and replaced the DU a year ago to revision Q, and my car has been whisper quiet ever since. I replaced my DU at 25,000 miles, and now I have 50,000 miles and it has been holding up really well. On my old drive unit, it began milling at a very specific power band and got worse over time. My new DU makes no noise odd noises at any power level.

And I haven't been hearing complaints about DU replacements on the forums since Tesla began putting revision Q drive units in cars. There used to be a thread for Drive Unit Replacements and it's been very quiet lately. The issue seems like is has been resolved once and for all.

 

[mike_j]

Just had my Nov 2014 drive unit replaced due to milling noise. I had tolerated it as long as possible.

Received a refurbished Q motor, and the car is back to wonderful again.

 

[chillaban]

FWIW: My May 2016 built S70D had a fairly loud front motor under light acceleration at 30-40mph. A couple software updates improved it slightly, but it was never really a complete fix.

I couldn't believe how quiet my March 2017 built S100D is. There's almost no motor noise unless regenning. I wonder if I got an old DU in my last car. I had assumed it was normal until this car, but if I had spent time in both cars before, I would've taken my S70D in to complain about the noise.

 

[dragoljub]

We had our Nov 2014 S85 DU replaced a few weeks ago. It's whisper quiet now. We waited as long as possible to get it replaced. S85 is now quieter than the new 2017 S90D because no motor in the front.

Anyone else notice the front motor whine on 2017 models?

 

[pilotSteve]

We had our Nov 2014 S85 DU replaced a few weeks ago. It's whisper quiet now. We waited as long as possible to get it replaced. S85 is now quieter than the new 2017 S90D because no motor in the front.

Anyone else notice the front motor whine on 2017 models?

That matches exactly my experience I had with my 2012 Sig S85. When the DU was replaced in 2014 the milling sound went away entirely. Also when I traded her in on my late 2016 90D I noted the slightly increased noise from the dual motors.

I actually found the RWD to be quieter and more to my liking, sound wise. On the other hand, I love the increased regen the D has over RWD, and I've made myself happy by learning to like the spaceship warp drive sound of the front motor!

 

[ohmman]

I have a -P revision that was installed in August 2015. I have 17k miles on the car since the replacement and the milling noise never returned. Hopefully that does it for me.

 

[evp]

I had my Sep '14 motor replaced at about 33K miles with a -Q model. At 76K miles, no recurrence of milling noise.

 

[eye.surgeon]

OP update - they just replaced mine with a Q revision rebuild motor, it's back to whisper quiet and I'm loving my car again. As usual, great customer service here in Fresno with complimentary ranger pick up and delivery with a MS loaner, the job was done in the Seaside service center.

 

[LoL Rick]

Mine was replaced in January of 2016 - I don't have the revision handy. But the new motor has 40K miles on it (71,500 on the car) and is still as quiet as new.