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Drive unit replacement - getting better?
- Thread starter mspohr
- Start date
KidDoc
Member
tliving
Member
Just had my DU replaced. According to the SC the milling is metal filings inside the flight created by a loose connection in the gearbox. The claim to have fixed things by tightening up the tolerances and making it so metal shavings can't get shaved off into the fluid. Im no mechanic but thats what I was told and that it would not have failed but would have gotten worse (sounding) over time.
KidDoc
Member
I made a recording of my noise today in a parking garage. I don't know why it recorded that popping noise probably me moving the phone but you can hear the drone/buzz/airplane noise that seems to be worst when accelerating between 5-40 MPH. I already called the service center to set up an appointment on 9/9 but it is 90 minutes to and from the service center so I don't want to waste a day if this is going to be called normal or cosmetic. For those of you who have already had a replacement let me know if this is the noise that is from the metal filings or loose bits in the drive unit.
Tesla Model S new noise - YouTube
Tesla Model S new noise - YouTube
Last edited:
taurusking
Member
KidDoc
Member
KidDoc
Member
Took mine to the North Houston service center yesterday and they confirmed it was a drive unit issue. Left it there and took the P85+ loaner supposed to take a week to fix.
islandbayy
Active Member
Just got Drive Unit 3, first was due to Excessive Clunking loud enough to echo between houses. Second was due to excessive milling, that was loud enough for neighbors to hear INSIDE their homes with developing clunk. I have 70,000 on my car, drive unit one had about 35,000 on it roughly drive unit 2 developed noise at 55,000 but was replaced at 68,000 a month later. As of 2 weeks ago when installed, current version is "P". New motor is clunking already 
And seems to be getting worse already too...
And seems to be getting worse already too...82k miles and 4 drive units (all for milling noise). given that my 4th drive unit replaced about 5 weeks ago with a BRAND NEW unit (not remanufactured), and just this past week i can hear the subtle start of the milling again with only about 4-5k miles on it the new one, I'd say NO it's definitely not getting better. If anything, it's getting worse.
if tesla doesn't fix this before Model 3 comes out, they are going to have a massive unsustainable problem on their hands.
if tesla doesn't fix this before Model 3 comes out, they are going to have a massive unsustainable problem on their hands.
This is really insane. I would guess they have replaced thousands of drive units already with each one dissected to find the root cause of failure. If it hasn't been fixed by now, it means:
1. They don't know the cause
2. They know the cause but not the fix
3. The problem is unfixable
None of the above sounds promising to a current S owner.
1. They don't know the cause
2. They know the cause but not the fix
3. The problem is unfixable
None of the above sounds promising to a current S owner.
Electricfan
Active Member
I agree, sort of. My only question is - how many Model Ss have this problem? Sure we see a lot about it on forums, but people like me don't post to say "My Drive unit is perfect! It was perfect in the first Model S I bought in 2013 and my new 2015 car is perfect too!!".
What percent of MSs have this?
Regardless of that answer, though, its clearly a huge concern if multiple repairs fail to fix it. That part scares me no matter what the rate of the occurrence is.
You forgot option 4-sloppy remanufacturing process. Tesla knows exactly the cause of the issues, and for the most part they have been taken care of in new drive units.
Unfortunately, we don't know what the occurrence rate is since we have only 48 people reporting here that they have had at least one replacement. The denominator could be "number of people who have seen this poll and responded".
Most of the replacements are in cars manufactured in 4Q 2013 and 1Q 2014 so there was probably something going on then that seems to have been corrected since the number of replacements since then has been small in spite of the increase in production.
The multiple drive replacements are a bit concerning but since these are usually remanufactured units, it would seem to indicate that there is some defect in the original units which is not being corrected by the remanufacturing process.
islandbayy
Active Member
The new drive units are definately not perfect, but they are much better than the early ones. If one wants a completely silent drive unit, Tesla is probably not going to be the car to go with. Some of the SC's are authorized to take DU's apart, and the problems are well documented.
You need miles on it for it to start to happen. New cars and new units usually won't start the milling noise until around 15k miles. For the avg joe that's over a year. AFAIK it's a fleet wide issue with all units. Most people just don't have the miles racked up yet for it to happen or be loud yet. And there's also people that have it that can't hear it themselves because it's subtle and outside of their hearing range.
Sure, miles will potentially reveal problems, but I have driven many Model S cars with and without the noise, and just because the car has high miles, doesn't mean it will be noisy. FYI, I have the 65 mph drone, and a very faint milling noise. For the past 20k+ miles the noise hasn't got any louder. Car has 43k miles on it, and was silent for a couple thousand when new. The SC wants to replace DU, but I don't. I drive either 55-60 mph or 85mph+most of the time(its quiet at those speeds), so the noise doesn't bother me. I know as soon as they put a Reman DU in, I will have a noise that will be bothersome, so no DU replacement for me....
It's obvious that whoever is in charge of these decisions at Tesla, has dropped the ball big time. This is just like the UMC/HPWC quality problems. They could have nipped it in the bud early for some $$, but they haven't, and in the end it will cost them a ton more because there are that many more defective units out there. It's called stepping over dollars to pick up nickels, and Tesla is excellent at that...
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