Electrical Whine (not the motors)

[windscar911]

I test drove an AGT a couple of days ago.

Besides the usual software issues I thought the car was amazing. (we had to step out and reboot the car like 6x on the whole test drive/interaction - I still went ahead and ordered it for all the other things it does well )

There was one thing that bothered both my wife and I and the SA didn't really comment on it when we asked.

We both heard this high frequency "electric" noise coming from the car just being powered up. This happened on both the tester and the floor car. I've only ever heard this in a Prius before. I can't recall if the Teslas or the Mach-E make this sound, maybe they do?

It's just this really high frequency "hum" or whine and I don't know if it's normal. The frequency, I suspect, is so high that most people just lose sensitivity to it as they age. It's pretty loud when you're just in the car doing nothing. Don't need to be in drive or anything, just having the car "on"/awake was doing it.

Is anyone else hearing this or is it just something specific to both the cars we saw the other day?

 

[copper]

Are you thinking of the movement noise the car emits to warn pedestrians at low speed? While I don't particularly like that it intrudes in the cabin, I also tuned it out pretty fast on each drive I've taken.

 

[hydbob]

That is not something that is normal. Unless the AC is running, just sitting in my car is silent.

 

[windscar911]

Are you thinking of the movement noise the car emits to warn pedestrians at low speed? While I don't particularly like that it intrudes in the cabin, I also tuned it out pretty fast on each drive I've taken.

No it was not that. It sounded like an unintentional electrical whine from just everything being powered on.

Sounds like it's not normal. I'll make sure to point it out to the staff if I hear it again.

 

[MPawelek]

Probably the Flux Capacitor…..

 

[mnewber1]

@Adnillien experienced whistling A/C.

Whistling AC

My AC has started to make a loud whistling sound. I can make it go away by adjusting the fan speed for either the driver or the passenger. I remember @hmp10 had an issue with the fan rubbing. I think anyway. There one other person with a similar issue that I think was related to an air...

lucidowners.com

 

[idiot900]

I test drove an AGT a couple of days ago.

Besides the usual software issues I thought the car was amazing. (we had to step out and reboot the car like 6x on the whole test drive/interaction - I still went ahead and ordered it for all the other things it does well )

There was one thing that bothered both my wife and I and the SA didn't really comment on it when we asked.

We both heard this high frequency "electric" noise coming from the car just being powered up. This happened on both the tester and the floor car. I've only ever heard this in a Prius before. I can't recall if the Teslas or the Mach-E make this sound, maybe they do?

It's just this really high frequency "hum" or whine and I don't know if it's normal. The frequency, I suspect, is so high that most people just lose sensitivity to it as they age. It's pretty loud when you're just in the car doing nothing. Don't need to be in drive or anything, just having the car "on"/awake was doing it.

Is anyone else hearing this or is it just something specific to both the cars we saw the other day?

I think I’m hearing this now too in my car…seems to have developed recently. Does it occur on your own car?

 

[hydbob]

I think I’m hearing this now too in my car…seems to have developed recently. Does it occur on your own car?

Adjust the brightness of your pilot panel.

 

[windscar911]

Adjust the brightness of your pilot panel.

Yup it's this. Sometimes depending on the brightness setting on the pilot panel there's a loud whine.

 

[idiot900]

Adjust the brightness of your pilot panel.

Thanks! Better at lower brightness but does not eliminate the noise. It seems like inductor coil whine to me, and it wasn’t apparent a few days ago.

 

[windscar911]

Thanks! Better at lower brightness but does not eliminate the noise. It seems like inductor coil whine to me, and it wasn’t apparent a few days ago.

I notice it most days. It's been there since I picked the car up in September.

 

[idiot900]

I guess I’ll have to get used to it. I wonder why I’m just noticing it.

 

[np1989]

I have a similar noise, but it isn't related to screen brightness. Its an electrical whine that's tied to the HVAC system. I initially thought it was just a noise that always occurred from start up, but if you try shutting off the HVAC completely i found the noise stops immediately. Then as it turns back on at low fan speed settings it starts up again. I think its present anytime the HVAC is on, you just cant hear it at higher fan speed settings. My car is currently at service having this looked at. Ive gotten varying feedback from "this MAY be normal", to "this is so irritating it cant be normal". So far no official word back on a diagnosis.

 

[windscar911]

I have a similar noise, but it isn't related to screen brightness. Its an electrical whine that's tied to the HVAC system. I initially thought it was just a noise that always occurred from start up, but if you try shutting off the HVAC completely i found the noise stops immediately. Then as it turns back on at low fan speed settings it starts up again. I think its present anytime the HVAC is on, you just cant hear it at higher fan speed settings. My car is currently at service having this looked at. Ive gotten varying feedback from "this MAY be normal", to "this is so irritating it cant be normal". So far no official word back on a diagnosis.

Interesting...please keep us posted.

I'll try turning the hvac off next time I hear it and report back

 

[hydbob]

Also, the seat vents when on have a slight whine as well.

Solution: bump that music!

 

[idiot900]

I have a similar noise, but it isn't related to screen brightness. Its an electrical whine that's tied to the HVAC system. I initially thought it was just a noise that always occurred from start up, but if you try shutting off the HVAC completely i found the noise stops immediately. Then as it turns back on at low fan speed settings it starts up again. I think its present anytime the HVAC is on, you just cant hear it at higher fan speed settings. My car is currently at service having this looked at. Ive gotten varying feedback from "this MAY be normal", to "this is so irritating it cant be normal". So far no official word back on a diagnosis.

I hear something like that too but it doesn’t seem annoying to me. I can understand why it would be annoying and possibly worse on other cars.

But I just worked around my specific issue by setting the pilot panel brightness to 100%. Apparently the LCD brightness is duty cycle based and I’m guessing that high frequency was what’s bothering me.

 

[OCDC]

I have a similar noise, but it isn't related to screen brightness. Its an electrical whine that's tied to the HVAC system. I initially thought it was just a noise that always occurred from start up, but if you try shutting off the HVAC completely i found the noise stops immediately. Then as it turns back on at low fan speed settings it starts up again. I think its present anytime the HVAC is on, you just cant hear it at higher fan speed settings. My car is currently at service having this looked at. Ive gotten varying feedback from "this MAY be normal", to "this is so irritating it cant be normal". So far no official word back on a diagnosis.

I have the same noise. It's loudest coming out of the front center vents. The car is going into service next week to address this and a few other minor issues. The first time they looked at it back in Oct/Nov, the service advisor polled 10 other cars that were in and 4 of them had this noise. It's "normal" in that a plurality had it, but the other 6 not being noisy implies that there is some production variable they aren't (weren't?) controlling for well enough. Cold weather has made it louder, so I suspect it's source is the HVAC heating element or its controller. I hope they fix it this time around because the sound is a really annoying tone.

 

[np1989]

Interesting...please keep us posted.

I'll try turning the hvac off next time I hear it and report back

Well, the noise was stated to be "electric heater elements buzzing together is expected". I kind of let it go, but the heater is definitely not on when the noise is happening. Anyway, I'm not sure the service team was too focused on this complaint when they had to deal with replacing the HV battery pack due to un-diagnosable drive fault errors (not the red turtle). That is the first battery swap I've heard of on a 92kwh pack. It was about at 3,900 miles.

 

[TeddyBozeman]

We have had this issue on our GT since we got it in March; we never thought to turn off the climate to see if that helped, and it went away, and strangely hasn't come back, but we expect it to eventually. It is most likely not fan related, as the way it shut off, and the timing of it, was independent of the HVAC fans, and it sound like electrical whine (and not through the speakers).

 

[idiot900]

We have had this issue on our GT since we got it in March; we never thought to turn off the climate to see if that helped, and it went away, and strangely hasn't come back, but we expect it to eventually. It is most likely not fan related, as the way it shut off, and the timing of it, was independent of the HVAC fans, and it sound like electrical whine (and not through the speakers).

Curiously, if you vary your screen brightness, does that affect this particular whine?