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jkliu47
Member
Ugh. I just picked up my S85 this past Monday, and was up in Wine country for 2 days before returning to Fremont for a supercharge.
Already I have noticed a strong drone/hum from the right rear at speeds above 70 mph, but seeming to go away above 75 mph. Its so obvious that even with music on at 6+ my wife inquired about 'that noise'. I told her its probably tire noise.
But apparently not so from the comments I am reading in this thread.
Looks like I have visit Tesla service once I get back to Los Angeles.
Already I have noticed a strong drone/hum from the right rear at speeds above 70 mph, but seeming to go away above 75 mph. Its so obvious that even with music on at 6+ my wife inquired about 'that noise'. I told her its probably tire noise.
But apparently not so from the comments I am reading in this thread.
Looks like I have visit Tesla service once I get back to Los Angeles.
mknox
Well-Known Member
bareyb
Active Member
Well you sure can't fault the customer service... They build the drive units in house no? Hopefully they figure out what makes these noisy one's different from the others and can stop it at the source.
mknox
Well-Known Member
Yep. No questions asked. Here's something I noticed: Since getting the car back, the speedometer dial doesn't go up as high, and neither does the power meter. I'm talking about the maximum values on the gauge. They did not upgrade the car's firmware, and I'm still on the same flavor of 4.5 that I was on when I took the car in.
EDIT: My apologies. The speedo / power meter limits have not changed. I went back through some iPhone photos I'd snapped of the cluster and they are the same. I must have been confused by the rental ICE I was driving.
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Forty Creek
Member
I have recently started observing the same low frequency sound at speeds 75mph and higher. It is interesting that my first thought was that the noise consistent with wheel bearing going bad, similar to other posters. I kind of dismissed this initially as a rear tires related issue (Mishelins PS2, about 7,000 miles, will probably need replacement at about 11,000), but yesterday during the day trip with all family members in the car, both my wife and son commented on the noise, and my son sitting in the back also noted noticeable floor vibration at the same speeds.
I am curious about the route cause and kind of think that this is motor bearing(s) issue, but they replace the whole unit as sub-assembly because it makes the most sense to do for a field repair.
My winter tire/wheel set is due from the Tire Rack in couple of weeks, and I will need an appointment to calibrate the tire pressure monitoring sensors. Will ask service to check the noise and will try to talk to them about root cause. Stay tuned for an update.
I hope that this is a bearing issue, and as such would indicate bad batch received from a supplier. The motor itself is manufactured in-house.
I am curious about the route cause and kind of think that this is motor bearing(s) issue, but they replace the whole unit as sub-assembly because it makes the most sense to do for a field repair.
My winter tire/wheel set is due from the Tire Rack in couple of weeks, and I will need an appointment to calibrate the tire pressure monitoring sensors. Will ask service to check the noise and will try to talk to them about root cause. Stay tuned for an update.
I hope that this is a bearing issue, and as such would indicate bad batch received from a supplier. The motor itself is manufactured in-house.
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mknox
Well-Known Member
Try this: While driving at speed and observing the drone sound, back off on the accelerator until the power meter reaches zero and see if the drone sound goes away. This was my car's behavior and I could make the drone sound come and go at will by doing this. If not, it may very well be a tire or bearing noise.
Thanks, will try. At this point I am pretty sure it is not a tire noise, as I observed the exact same noise at the same speed in the rain. If it would be tire related, as a minimum, noise would be different in the wet weather and could almost disappear. The suspect #1 IMO, is motor bearings. The noise does not sound as frequency induced electrical hum, which is associated with vibration of motor laminations against each other at certain frequencies.
bsd
Member
I have the same situation as mknox. When it first started it was only noticeable above 70kn/h, but is now noticeable on acceleration and deceleration of any speed. It's only annoying when > 115km/h and we have visitors for the next couple of weeks, so I haven't started agitating yet.
Just got mine back from the body shop after being rear ended. Did not get a new motor. The boominess starting at 63mph has been curtailed. The volume still goes up around there, but the very obvious booming drone noise has abated. Course the ambient temperature is also very different now. But perhaps it's not the motor itself that is causing/amplifying the noise. It'll be interesting to see if the noise returns after a couple more months.
bsd
Member
I wonder if you're suffering from the pressure buffeting issue:
http://www.teslamotorsclub.com/showthread.php/12441-Pressure-Buffeting-Has-anyone-experienced-it
The noise in my car can be "turned on/off" by varying the position of accelerator, exactly as mknox reported earlier in this thread. The trigger for turning the noise is easing off the accelerator to the point when car is coasting, i.e. spedometer "needle" is at the zero kW output line at which point it turns from orange to green. So given that this noise is both speed and output power related, I doubt that it is a bearing issue. May be the noise comes from the reduction gear. If the gears have premature wear they will produce noise at certain speed when they are under the load. Once load is removed the noise disappears.
Would be interesting to hear any competing explanations. Ultimately I will make sure to question the service center guys as to possible root cause when I take car for service.
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mknox
Well-Known Member
I am reasonably sure it is an electrical noise, probably from the inverter. AC currents can cause noise. Think of what a large electric utility transformer sounds like. You can easily hear the 60 cycle "hum" coming from it.
mknox
Well-Known Member
SeminoleFSU
Voluntaryist
driving home from work today my car started to sound like a souped up Honda Civic with an aftermarket muffler.. I could change the pitch with the accelerator. It would stop when I let off enough to get my power consumption right at "zero" on the regen bar... It seemed to go away after a while and I thought maybe it was road texture, another car, something... but after reading these other descriptions, I'm starting to wonder if my inverter or motor is starting to die? Will film it if it happens again so I'll have reference/proof
TeslaSinHR
Member
Wow! I started noticed the same problem about 2-3 weeks ago (before I found this thread). Same thing that mknox says - noisy when the power meter is orange, silent when in the green - doesn't seem to be related to overall speed. I thought it might have had something to do with the weather getting colder. Another thought was that I took the car to a small town airport and raced it on the runway - pedal to the metal up to 105 mph. I often give test drives showing off the acceleration but only take it up to about 90 in those cases.
I'll keep an eye on it and see what the service center says the next time I need to take it in.
Thanks to everyone for sharing their experiences.
I'll keep an eye on it and see what the service center says the next time I need to take it in.
Thanks to everyone for sharing their experiences.
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