Noise from dashboard when parked

7973 Views 12 Replies 7 Participants Last post by GKR, Nov 12, 2018

Ascilia

Discussion Starter · Oct 15, 2018

I said "when parked" but probably going on while I drive as well, I just hear it when I'm parked.
It's a constant noise coming from dashboard, or at the bottom of front windshield from outside.
around the where battery coolant pump might be located.
it's a constant fan whirling or pump sound.
and it's always on as far as I can tell.
could also be condenser fan?
Basically this noise make it, really annoying and louder than gas car when the engine is off.
Why can electric car be absolutely quiet when it's turned off?
I'm not using any AC or fan to circulate air.
can't tell where it's coming from.
Thanks for your input.

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garsh

· #2 · Oct 15, 2018

It's hard to say with certainty. It might be worthwhile to take a quick video, moving the camera around a bit to help us localize the source of the sound.

Even if you're not running the AC, the car needs to keep the batteries and motors from getting too hot. It's probably the drivetrain cooling system running. As you know, the car is rarely truly "turned off", and will do things like this whenever it feels it's required.

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Ed Woodrick

· #3 · Oct 15, 2018

Ascilia said:
I said "when parked" but probably going on while I drive as well, I just hear it when I'm parked.
It's a constant noise coming from dashboard, or at the bottom of front windshield from outside.
around the where battery coolant pump might be located.
it's a constant fan whirling or pump sound.
and it's always on as far as I can tell.
could also be condenser fan?
Basically this noise make it, really annoying and louder than gas car when the engine is off.
Why can electric car be absolutely quiet when it's turned off?
I'm not using any AC or fan to circulate air.
can't tell where it's coming from.
Thanks for your input.

Yes, the car does make noise when it sits. It can range from simple fan to really loud, dependent on conditions. It's partially the Air Condition, it's partially battery conditioning.
The Nissan Leaf doesn't have these noises, it is completely quiet.

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garsh

· #4 · Oct 15, 2018

Ed Woodrick said:
The Nissan Leaf doesn't have these noises, it is completely quiet.

But also, the Nissan Leaf doesn't have any battery thermal management, which causes severe battery degradation after a few years. Tesla's don't have this issue.

Also interesting, my new Hyundai Tucson is a little noisy for a minute or two after shutting it off. This is the first combustion vehicle I've owned that seems to do some extra stuff when turned off.

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Ed Woodrick

· #5 · Oct 16, 2018

garsh said:
But also, the Nissan Leaf doesn't have any battery thermal management, which causes severe battery degradation after a few years. Tesla's don't have this issue.

Incorrect. My 2015 Leaf ran for 3.5 years with only about 3% loss. There's a lot of other Leaf's that haven't had the problem either. Thermal management is quite overrated.
Don't get me wrong, it can help, but if you don't do 0-60 at every light and don't Supercharge everyday, then the needs of the thermal management are reduced.

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garsh

· #6 · Oct 16, 2018

Ed Woodrick said:
Incorrect. My 2015 Leaf ran for 3.5 years with only about 3% loss.

That's some lovely anecdata you have there. I have anecdata too.

My 2012 Leaf has just a bit over half of it's original battery capacity left. Yes, only half. This wasn't a car subjected to Arizona heat. I live in Pennsylvania. The Leaf was kept in a nice, climate-controlled integral garage for its entire life.

And the problem isn't only the lack of range. Nissan has also decided that a car with a battery this degraded should no longer have regeneration capabilities. So now I'm also burning through the brake pads, and I no longer have that glorious "one-pedal driving" ability that I loved when I initially bought the car.

Thermal management is quite overrated.

Maybe Nissan's terrible battery degradation had nothing to do with the complete lack of thermal battery management. But given that Chevy and Tesla implemented thermal battery management, and they don't appear to have this same issue, I'm thinking that it makes a huge difference.

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Ed Woodrick

· #7 · Oct 17, 2018

garsh said:
That's some lovely anecdata you have there. I have anecdata too.

My 2012 Leaf has just a bit over half of it's original battery capacity left. Yes, only half. This wasn't a car subjected to Arizona heat. I live in Pennsylvania. The Leaf was kept in a nice, climate-controlled integral garage for its entire life.

And the problem isn't only the lack of range. Nissan has also decided that a car with a battery this degraded should no longer have regeneration capabilities. So now I'm also burning through the brake pads, and I no longer have that glorious "one-pedal driving" ability that I loved when I initially bought the car.

Maybe Nissan's terrible battery degradation had nothing to do with the complete lack of thermal battery management. But given that Chevy and Tesla implemented thermal battery management, and they don't appear to have this same issue, I'm thinking that it makes a huge difference.

If I'm not mistaken, there definitely was some battery changed between the 2012 and 2015 models, the Arizona heat being one of the reasons for the change. My battery really never got hot, not in Arizona, but in Hotlanta. I think that there was a lot of learning that was occurring in those days. Its a lot of the same with the Model S, there were a lot of batteries replaced with early life issues on the original cars. But as an organization realizes the issues and the causes of the issues, the process are refined to give better results.

There have been a couple of reports of overheating issues with the 2018 Leaf, but look at the scenarios. These are cases with multiple Fast charging as part of a long drive. The early Leafs, the middles Leafs, nor really even the 2018 Leaf were really designed for long drives. That's where I believe that battery conditioning becomes the biggest issue, high drain, followed by high charge in multiple successive cycles. That doesn't mean that it can't do it, just that isn't optimal. That's often the reason why families tend to choose the cars that they do, one for commuting and one for trips. And that can be one of the reasons why the higher range 2019 Leaf starts to implement cooling.

The Tesla is definitely designed better for longer trips, but even then, that Supercharger warning still appears.

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Kizzy

· #8 · Oct 17, 2018

garsh said:
Also interesting, my new Hyundai Tucson is a little noisy for a minute or two after shutting it off. This is the first combustion vehicle I've owned that seems to do some extra stuff when turned off.

Your first? That's interesting. My 2005 Honda Accord (pure ICE) could run the cooling system for up to an hour (forgot the exact timing) after parking.

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GKR

· #9 · Nov 6, 2018

I have a similar problem, maybe. After the car is parked and it locked itself, it would not go to sleep. There is a whistling/buzzing noise, like from an old transformer. It is not very loud, but I can hear it inside the car and much more outside. I hear it the most near the front wheel wells on both sides. With the car not sleeping, it loses about 10-12 miles of range per 24 hours.

Someone else had a similar problem and posted an interesting work-around: if the car is locked with the phone app, after about two minutes it does go to sleep. It works for me too. The car becomes completely quiet and doesn’t lose much range (maybe 1 mi per 24 hr.) If I don’t do this unlock/lock ritual, the noise continues for days nonstop.

I am wondering if anyone had a similar problem and had found a root cause. I have a SC appointment in five days. Will report back if they find anything.

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babula

· #10 · Nov 6, 2018

GKR said:
I have a similar problem, maybe. After the car is parked and it locked itself, it would not go to sleep. There is a whistling/buzzing noise, like from an old transformer. It is not very loud, but I can hear it inside the car and much more outside. I hear it the most near the front wheel wells on both sides. With the car not sleeping, it loses about 10-12 miles of range per 24 hours.

Someone else had a similar problem and posted an interesting work-around: if the car is locked with the phone app, after about two minutes it does go to sleep. It works for me too. The car becomes completely quiet and doesn't lose much range (maybe 1 mi per 24 hr.) If I don't do this unlock/lock ritual, the noise continues for days nonstop.

I am wondering if anyone had a similar problem and had found a root cause. I have a SC appointment in five days. Will report back if they find anything.

10-12 miles in 24 hours is horrible, from what I know most people are around 2-3 right now (although this also varies by firmware version).

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ATechGuy

· #11 · Nov 7, 2018

GKR said:
I have a similar problem, maybe. After the car is parked and it locked itself, it would not go to sleep. There is a whistling/buzzing noise, like from an old transformer. It is not very loud, but I can hear it inside the car and much more outside. I hear it the most near the front wheel wells on both sides. With the car not sleeping, it loses about 10-12 miles of range per 24 hours.

Someone else had a similar problem and posted an interesting work-around: if the car is locked with the phone app, after about two minutes it does go to sleep. It works for me too. The car becomes completely quiet and doesn't lose much range (maybe 1 mi per 24 hr.) If I don't do this unlock/lock ritual, the noise continues for days nonstop.

I am wondering if anyone had a similar problem and had found a root cause. I have a SC appointment in five days. Will report back if they find anything.

Hi GKR, There are mountains of forum entries (not only a M3 issue) with phantom drain. In your case, I suspect you're HEARING the drain, which makes it easier to know it's happening. To save you a little time in researching this, the biggest drain issues tend to be related to the interior temperature and the car wanting to keep it comfortable, as if you were still inside, and the car's ability to sleep. The two are very different, but the former makes the fan noise, while the latter is more "in the electronics". For starters, think about what features you've enabled, and the problem ones, usually relating to the latter are other subscriptions you might have signed up for with your car, such as teslafi or tezlab. Teslafi has been known to keep the car "awake" when it really should be sleeping. The other is the interior temperature setting. Look to see how yours is set, as it's possible it's simply trying to keep the car at you desired setting, even when you're not driving the car.

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GKR

· #12 · Nov 11, 2018

ATechGuy said:
For starters, think about what features you've enabled, and the problem ones, usually relating to the latter are other subscriptions you might have signed up for with your car, such as teslafi or tezlab. Teslafi has been known to keep the car "awake" when it really should be sleeping.

Thanks, ATechGuy. Nope, no Teslafi or Tezlabs. Also interior temperature control is disabled, and the car is parked in a cool garage. I don't think it is a setup issue, because whatever is causing the vampire drain stops when I lock the car using my mobile app.

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GKR

· #13 · Nov 12, 2018

I visited the SC the other day. Here is the verdict:
The noise is the battery cooling pump. The car not going to sleep is a known issue that may be fixed in some future firmware release. The theory is that this happens if the car senses one of the paired phones nearby.

I did have another phone paired with the car and that phone remained in a room adjacent to the garage. I made the car foget this phone now. So far so good, the car is going to sleep a few minutes after I park. I will update this thread if I find any new information.

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