# high pitched whine



## francoisp (Sep 28, 2018)

Often when driving over gently rolling hills with the cruise control set, the car's regen will be turning on and off and I will hear a high pitch whine that I find quite annoying. I was wondering if this is a defect before placing a service appointment.


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## garsh (Apr 4, 2016)

FrancoisP said:


> Often when driving over gently rolling hills with the cruise control set, the car's regen will be turning on and off and I will hear a high pitch whine that I find quite annoying. I was wondering if this is a defect before placing a service appointment.


Hard to say without a recording. EVs make lots of strange noises.

Is it very loud?
Do you drive with the sound system turned off?

Consider downloading a frequency analyzer app to your phone, and record it with that. Then we'll at least know how "high-pitched" it is.


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## francoisp (Sep 28, 2018)

garsh said:


> Hard to say without a recording. EVs make lots of strange noises.
> 
> Is it very loud?
> Do you drive with the sound system turned off?
> ...


I did a road test this morning. It appears that the sound frequency is around 2.4 khz. It's not loud but it's annoying. The sound seems to be more prominent when coasting around 40mph. I did a recording however the sound is kind of overwhelmed but the ambient noise on the recording.

The sound can be heard in the first few seconds of the recording.


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## Klaus-rf (Mar 6, 2019)

Rear seats folded down?? I read somewhere that putting the seats up reduces transmission of the regen noise.


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## francoisp (Sep 28, 2018)

Klaus-rf said:


> Rear seats folded down?? I read somewhere that putting the seats up reduces transmission of the regen noise.


No, they're always up.


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## garsh (Apr 4, 2016)

FrancoisP said:


> I did a road test this morning. It appears that the sound frequency is around 2.4 khz. It's not loud but it's annoying. The sound seems to be more prominent when coasting around 40mph. I did a recording however the sound is kind of overwhelmed but the ambient noise on the recording.
> 
> The sound can be heard in the first few seconds of the recording.


Excellent. Thanks for the recording.

That sounds pretty normal to me.


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## francoisp (Sep 28, 2018)

garsh said:


> Excellent. Thanks for the recording.
> 
> That sounds pretty normal to me.


Mind you, it was recorded with a mobile phone so it's hard to discern on the recording but I assure you it's there.


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## garsh (Apr 4, 2016)

FrancoisP said:


> Mind you, it was recorded with a mobile phone so it's hard to discern on the recording but I assure you it's there.


Yes, I heard it. Sorry if that wasn't clear.

I'm just saying that I think it's a normal sound that the Model 3 makes. I can't tell how loud yours is, but on my car it's easily drowned out by the sound system at reasonable volumes.


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## Mesprit87 (Oct 29, 2017)

Temperature related? Or new sound you've never heard before?
I know mine is noisier when its coasting and trying to warmup.


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## Bigriver (Jan 26, 2018)

@FrancoisP, I got an error when I tried to play your clip. But from your description, it sounds exactly what I hear in my model 3. No, don't like the sound either. I've thought it is the PRSRM motors in the back. I follow a number of Model X threads, and there have been a number of people noting the presence of high pitch noise in Raven models, with PRSRM in the front. Pre-Raven versions only have induction motors and do not have the whine. I do not have any whine in my pre-Raven X.


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## francoisp (Sep 28, 2018)

Bigriver said:


> @FrancoisP, I got an error when I tried to play your clip. But from your description, it sounds exactly what I hear in my model 3. No, don't like the sound either. I've thought it is the PRSRM motors in the back. I follow a number of Model X threads, and there have been a number of people noting the presence of high pitch noise in Raven models, with PRSRM in the front. Pre-Raven versions only have induction motors and do not have the whine. I do not have any whine in my pre-Raven X.


Yeah, this could be one of those things we'll have to learn to live with. Maybe if enough people complain, Tesla will add soundproofing material. I've scheduled a service call so the technician can tell me it's normal.


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## AndrisV (Oct 8, 2018)

I went in for my HW3 upgrade a couple of months ago and mentioned that I had the same kind of whine. They looked into it and told me it was well within normal. Soo ... I think you have to live with it. Have something playing on audio!


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## orekart (Nov 15, 2018)

FrancoisP said:


> Often when driving over gently rolling hills with the cruise control set, the car's regen will be turning on and off and I will hear a high pitch whine that I find quite annoying. I was wondering if this is a defect before placing a service appointment.


This motor whine noise became more noticeable with the driveline efficiency over-the-air update a long time ago. Not a problem.


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## francoisp (Sep 28, 2018)

Interesting development regarding my noise/sound issue that I was hearing when decelerating gently from 40 mph.

After having created a service appointment, Tesla texted me about my issue and their response was "we don't see any issue in your car log" and my appointment was cancelled shortly after.

I got aggravated and called Tesla Service to complain about the rapid dismissal of my issue without attempting a phone conversation. Tesla reached out to me again (by phone) and agreed to send someone to do a road test. The mobile service technician came over and we did a recording. For me it was pretty obvious but the technician would not readily acknowledge he was hearing the sound. In any case, I am told the recording was sent to Tesla in California for analysis. A few weeks later their diagnostic came back: "some noise is normal".

I was ready to leave it at that and live with it. A few weeks later, unrelated to this, I went on a Model Y test drive. After returning the car, I saw a Model 3 in the parking lot and I asked to test drive it. And guess what: no noise/sound at 40 mph, it was super quiet. I walked to the service department and basically told them that I wasn't happy with the diagnostic, that I just drove another Model 3 which is quiet as a mouse, etc. After a few days Tesla agreed to do another sound recording. To be honest I did not think this was very promising. In any case, a shop technician wanted to to do a road test with me. So we did, and he heard the sound. He asked that I leave the car overnight so that he and another technician could perform the sound recording. The next day I got the car back, without any paperwork or email, and drove home. To my surprise, I noticed the noise was gone. I could not believe it. I decided I should test it some more the following days to be sure. Indeed. the noise is gone.

Several days later, I called Tesla Service and asked if anything was done to the car. This is when I learned that the technician found a Service Bulletin describing a similar problem and which had something to do with the grounding of the drive unit. According to what I was told, the resolution is to loosen the ground screw of the drive unit and re-tighten it to the required spec.

I am sharing this so that others may benefit from my experience.


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## garsh (Apr 4, 2016)

FrancoisP said:


> we did a recording.


Do you have an audio recording that you can share here?


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## Long Ranger (Jun 1, 2018)

FrancoisP said:


> To my surprise, I noticed the noise was gone. I could not believe it. I decided I should test it some more the following days to be sure. Indeed. the noise is gone.


Are you saying you have an AWD and you don't hear any regen whine at all now from the front motor, or were you talking about some sound that was on top of the normal regen whine?


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## JasonF (Oct 26, 2018)

FrancoisP said:


> Several days later, I called Tesla Service and asked if anything was done to the car. This is when I learned that the technician found a Service Bulletin describing a similar problem to mine and which had something to do with the grounding of the drive unit. According to what I was told, the resolution is to loosen the ground screw of the drive unit and re-tighten it to the required spec.


That's very consistent with what I was hearing in the above audio clip. I didn't know what it was at first, because it didn't sound like regen whine - that tends to correspond with the speed of the car, so if you're decelerating you'll hear the pitch dropping ever so slightly. I thought maybe it's the coolant pump, which does make a sound close to that audio range, but why would that decide to start making noise just then, and then stop?

Do you remember when 3G cell phones were a thing, and if you got them too close to an ungrounded speaker you would hear the CDMA/TDMA pulses resonating through it? It makes perfect sense that an electric motor with electromagnets generating electromagnetic pulses and not grounded correctly to might cause items in the car to resonate with the pulses. Including the speakers inside the cabin.


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## francoisp (Sep 28, 2018)

garsh said:


> Do you have an audio recording that you can share here?


Unfortunately Tesla is not sharing.


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## francoisp (Sep 28, 2018)

Long Ranger said:


> Are you saying you have an AWD and you don't hear any regen whine at all now from the front motor, or were you talking about some sound that was on top of the normal regen whine?


This was a sound on top of the normal regen whine. It could be heard when decelerating gently from 41 mph to 39 mph, generating a little bit of regen (i.e. the green line on the display indicating regen was tiny). Decelerating from higher or lower speeds or with a higher regen did not produce the sound or the sound was outside my hearing range.


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## KnightRider (Jul 15, 2020)

My Tesla Model S is about ten months old. Mileage is 20852 km (13960 mi). I started to hear the high pitching noise almost immediately but thought it would go away but it didn't. I can hear it between 60 and 110 km/h (35-70 mph). So I contacted Tesla SC and they had it in a couple of months ago for this and some other concerns. This is their findings:









When I picked up the car I told them I wasn't satisfied with the result but one of the service managers told me that he had heard from advisors in Tesla HQ that a software update was planned that would fix the problem but they couldn't say when the fix would be available.
One interesting thing noted in their notes is that they found the problem in the rear motor and not in the front motor as expected.

Tomorrow I am going to a SC again and this time I have vibrations when accelerating that they will hopefully fix on warranty.

But I will surely tell them about the findings here regarding the Service Bulletin for the grounding.


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## JasonF (Oct 26, 2018)

The method they used was so thorough that their diagnosis looks sound. What I would predict is that it has to do with the variable frequency drive (motor drive circuit) causing its own resonance, and that _would _be solved by a software update by having the VFD circuit avoid certain frequencies that tend to resonate.


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## francoisp (Sep 28, 2018)

KnightRider said:


> But I will surely tell them about the findings here regarding the Service Bulletin for the grounding.


I should have updated my notes earlier. Unfortunately 2 weeks ago I found out this whole bulletin thing was an invention from the service desk guy. I found that out when I finally got the final service work order and could not find a comment about said bulletin. After further inquiries, the service rep admitted he misspoke. So, in the end, the SC has done nothing and, like you, they said this was "normal". I must say that the noise is mostly inaudible now in that 38 to 40mph range. Actually, the sound can now be heard, faintly, in the 43 to 45 mph range. Maybe the warmer weather is the reason, maybe Tesla has pushed an update to the Model 3, who knows. Future will tell.


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## eyedrop0 (Jun 9, 2020)

Some EV's, especially older Tesla's, can have strange sounds coming from the drive train from all frequency bands, especially high frequencies. I would say its normal unless its becoming glaringly loud over time.


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## tommybahamaX (Jun 16, 2021)

Same thing is happening in my new MYP 2022, that exact sound you described and posted i hear when I accelerate or slow down, can't notice it with music on but it's not normal, my last MYLR did not make this sound.


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## Rick Steinwand (May 19, 2018)

tommybahamaX said:


> Same thing is happening in my new MYP 2022, that exact sound you described and posted i hear when I accelerate or slow down, can't notice it with music on but it's not normal, my last MYLR did not make this sound.


Was your battery cold? They now run both motors on dual motor setup, to warm the battery quicker. I know I can hear the difference.


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