Gearbox whining, chirping sound?

[heems]

I have the same sound. I attributed it to the “clutch” for the diff locks that’s new in the CT. It’s not a motor whine as you say. Given that so many folks have the same I am inclined to believe it’s normal. ?‍

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[HaulingAss]

I have the same sound. I attributed it to the “clutch” for the diff locks that’s new in the CT. It’s not a motor whine as you say. Given that so many folks have the same I am inclined to believe it’s normal. ?‍

It's the reduction gears, the pattern the sound makes is unmistakable and common on heavy-duty gears similar to Cybertruck's gears. It's primarily noticeable to this degree because there are so few other sounds. Probably a contributing factor is the lightweight alloy cases allowing the sound to transmit easier.

I associate it with a heavy-duty manual gearbox, only in this case it's not a multi-speed gearbox, it's always in third gear. Same sound.

 

[ituner-HF]

The Cybertruck is geared lower than other Teslas. The faces of the gears are bigger and hardened to a high degree to handle heavier use cases. There may be other differences to handle the heavier duty nature of the Cybertruck like the angle of gear cut, and the clearance between the gear faces (to allow for more oil cooling where the gear faces meet). I believe what you are hearing is the "singing" of the gear faces against each other through the lightweight cast gear housings.

I'm not worried that it indicates a problem, it sounds like an inherent characteristic of the design of the gearbox. I've heard the same thing in the manual gearboxes of heavy-duty ICE trucks although all the other noises tends to mask it more.



If it is brake dust it means that brake is lightly dragging (the pads are supposed to pull back from the discs slightly when not applied). This will have a noticeable impact on efficiency if it's enough to be leaving brake dust on the wheels. The normal cure is to clean/polish and put some high-temperature brake grease on the pins that locate the brake pads. It shouldn't be happening on a new vehicle unless it's been driven through corrosive salts or other strong chemicals so I would let Tesla Service inspect it and find the problem. It might be one of the brake pads is jambed cock-eyed for some reason (maybe a tiny rock sliver got caught in there). Since you say you don't brake much, it might fix itself if you do several hard braking events, both in forward and reverse, alternately.



Me too! It's amazing in so many ways!

Thank you for explaining the cuts in the gerarbox. Any reason for this sound to be 'cyclical' rather than a continuous gear singing'? Just resonance, aka normal?

 

[CyberJerry]

I’ve driven teslas for 6+ years and am accustom to the motor sounds, but there is something different here. We initially called it our gearbox cricket and hoped it would decrease as we put more miles on the truck. 2000+ miles later and the noise is still present. It is only audible when the drivetrain is under load, acceleration or regen.
I wanted to see if anyone else here is experiencing anything similar?

My first Tesla was a very early model S Vin number in the 6000s. We purchased it used from Tesla with under 40,000 miles and it had several warranty issues that were not taken care of before the previous owner turned it in.
I didn’t understand at the time why somebody wouldn’t get the warranty work done but now I think I do. I’m not really excited about taking the truck in for service until the service centers have had more experience working on the trucks and also availability of parts. My model S was in the shop for three months after we bought it to clear up all the warranty issues. I’m not about to do that with the truck right before summer. This is why I have not scheduled the service visit yet.

I’ve noticed this too. I don’t mind it

 

[ituner-HF]

I think you're hearing pulse oscillation of motor power. I'm not sure, since there are other things that can make noises like that.

There's a weird physics function that adding power and coasting is more efficient than constant power for many types of motors. So the most efficient motor power curves is for it to apply power in short, single spin bursts based on the requirements of the driving conditions. If it's oscillating this in a frequency of human hearing (20-10,000 times a second), you'll hear it as a repeating tone.

-Crissa

Like advanced PSUs, I wish they would do a little bit of spread spectrum pulsing to distribute the energy over a wider audible and sub-audible band, thus avoiding resonance.

 

[HaulingAss]

Thank you for explaining the cuts in the gerarbox. Any reason for this sound to be 'cyclical' rather than a continuous gear singing'? Just resonance, aka normal?

That's above my pay grade, I'm afraid. I just know it's not unusual.

 

[Crissa]

Thank you for explaining the cuts in the gerarbox. Any reason for this sound to be 'cyclical' rather than a continuous gear singing'? Just resonance, aka normal?

My theory is that it's part of a duty cycle to be more efficient.

Like advanced PSUs, I wish they would do a little bit of spread spectrum pulsing to distribute the energy over a wider audible and sub-audible band, thus avoiding resonance.

And if the most efficient one is creating a pattern in human hearing, well, there's no real way to escape it while still going the speeds you want to go.

No matter what the design is, going from 0 to 34.5 thousand rotations per hour (the speed of Cybertruck's tires at 60mph) is always going to pass into human hearing range somewhere unless you have in-wheel motors.

-Crissa

 

[jameskk]

I got my CT a week ago and have been experiencing an annoying chirping sound. Is this is same as everyone else’?

https://youtu.be/W0mFsq2ELww?si=6uHp52uhqmoMamDy

https://youtu.be/dP79JCJAmew?si=GEpJCr1wqThCrewm

 

[CyberTruckeeTheOne]

There should be an option to pipe V8 engine noise through the stereo for ICE refugees

Or their solutions to those ugly grinding sound in the gear box: Turn up the volume of your radio!

 

[Firepower2010]

I also owned Teslas for 12 years and I am accustomed with different motor sounds but this one is different. Please search this forum for the word "modulated", that's my post, it includes a recording...

With my Cybertruck, I noticed that the repetitive sound is 'in sync' with each wheel revolution, the faster I go, the faster the 'sound beats' I hear. If my accelerator is in 'neutral', meaning no regen or acceleration, the sound dissapears.

I placed a service call as this sound is really annoys to me, I am the OCD type.

Having said that, it could be just some sort of off-balance tire or something missaligned drive shaft. It is def not related with revolution of the motor, those are spinning much faster than what I hear. My sound is audible from 30-50mph (2-3 whines per second) and then it gets drowned by wind speed, etc.

I also noticed that one of my rear tires has excessive brown brake dust, the other 3 wheels are pristine (I rarely use brakes!).

Ask Tesla to perform an alignment and if they refuse, try to rotate your tires. I also read that these tires have some sort of anti-noise foam and that sometimes gets loose, creating a balance issue (my speculation). I will post my visit outcome in this forum.

Other than this annoying sound, I simply love this truck!

I am hearing the same thing, and it is VERY annoying. I have owned a P85, a current MYLR, and a Lightning, so electric motors and noises I am used to, however this noise sounds like a bad differential noise like in some of my prior ICE cars. This is an issue, bigtime..

 

[Defiant]

I am hearing the same thing, and it is VERY annoying. I have owned a P85, a current MYLR, and a Lightning, so electric motors and noises I am used to, however this noise sounds like a bad differential noise like in some of my prior ICE cars. This is an issue, bigtime..

I have a service appointment to take care of a number of little things, that noise being one of them.
I will follow up on this after the appointment with what I have learned.

 

[Firepower2010]

Please keep us in the loop, the more of us that band together and share info and feedback the better, hopefully we can get to the bottom of it. I have to take mine in for a hood issue, and I am going to have them add this noise on my list as well.

 

[Firepower2010]

Well guys, turns out Tesla engineering knows this is an inherent design flaw with no current solution... Tesla is most likely buying my Cyberbeast back. WOW, after waiting 5 yrs waiting for delivery this is very very disappointing.

 

[jameskk]

Well guys, turns out Tesla engineering knows this is an inherent design flaw with no current solution... Tesla is most likely buying my Cyberbeast back. WOW, after waiting 5 yrs waiting for delivery this is very very disappointing.

During my service visit they said it was the inverter and absolutely normal

 

[Firepower2010]

They are pulling your leg, the default answer to every complaint is it's "normal", nothing to see here... But you have to push in order to get real answers as I did. I have lots of experience on and off the track with over 175 cars owned , exotics, race cars, luxury Rolls Royce and everything in-between, this noise is NOT NOT normal, it's an engineering failure.

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