Odd Pump Noise?

apacheguy · Nov 16, 2014

Recently I starting noticing a terrible noise coming from underneath the front passenger side bumper. Often happens when I go to plug the car in at night. Here's a video grab I got of it last night. You'll hear it right off the bat:

Tesla Model S Pump Noise? - YouTube

The humming noise heard in the background is normal - I believe it's related to the coolant pumps. However, the fact that it coincides with the coolant pumps has me wondering whether one of them is on the fritz. Car is going in for service tomorrow, but I'm not quite sure how to explain the noise to them. Anyone else heard this before and know the source?

EarlyAdopter · Nov 16, 2014

Never heard that. Definitely doesn't sound normal. Could be a bad coolant pump, or maybe one of the front louvers is stuck and the motor is jammed up. I seem to recall the car cycles the front coolant radiator louvers when it starts charging. There are two, bottom front right and left corners.

apacheguy · Nov 18, 2014

Well, MS was in for service today. Service advisor listened to the noise after I sent the recording to him via email. On my invoice, I saw they "traced" the noise to a compressor fan on the driver side. Huh, I thought that was weird. After all, it was distinctly heard on the passenger side. Sure enough, went to plug in the car and heard the exact same noise! It's still there! Ugh.

Appreciate service's effort and cooperation, but they're going to need to look into this again.

islandbayy · Nov 18, 2014

apacheguy said:
Well, MS was in for service today. Service advisor listened to the noise after I sent the recording to him via email. On my invoice, I saw they "traced" the noise to a compressor fan on the driver side. Huh, I thought that was weird. After all, it was distinctly heard on the passenger side. Sure enough, went to plug in the car and heard the exact same noise! It's still there! Ugh.

Appreciate service's effort and cooperation, but they're going to need to look into this again.

Thats not the fan. That is the actuator motor that opens and closes the active shutters to allow air flow to the radiators.

apacheguy · Nov 18, 2014

Yep, islandbayy, you called it. Just after I posted I went out to see what I could find. I observed the actions of the passenger side flaps with a flashlight. The noise was exactly correlated with the opening and closing action. Looks like service will need to replace the motor controlling the flaps.

islandbayy · Nov 19, 2014

apacheguy said:
Yep, islandbayy, you called it. Just after I posted I went out to see what I could find. I observed the actions of the passenger side flaps with a flashlight. The noise was exactly correlated with the opening and closing action. Looks like service will need to replace the motor controlling the flaps.

Tesla needs to hire me....

EarlyAdopter · Nov 19, 2014

apacheguy said:
Yep, islandbayy, you called it. Just after I posted I went out to see what I could find. I observed the actions of the passenger side flaps with a flashlight. The noise was exactly correlated with the opening and closing action. Looks like service will need to replace the motor controlling the flaps.

Ahheemm - "louver" means "flap."

apacheguy · Nov 19, 2014

EarlyAdopter said:
Ahheemm - "louver" means "flap."

Yes, you mentioned that might be the case in addition to the coolant pumps.

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Odd Pump Noise?

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