New Model Ys & Model 3s Humming Noise Issue

Hello and welcome to my page dedicated to my new Model Y's humming noise issue.

My name's Fabrizio Ferrari, and I love Tesla. I have been a Tesla fan since its inception in 2003. I have driven Model Ss, Model Xs, and I own a Model 3, and now a Model Y. I have always loved how Teslas are not only super powerful, but super environmentally friendly and hyper-technological (I am a geek and an engineer, so that's my thing!). I have also always enjoyed the fact they were quiet cars. You could drive around just hearing the noise of tires on the road. But is it still like that?

I got my new Model Y on June 26, 2021, and, to my surprise, it had a little but very annoying issue: a continuous humming noise coming from the front trunk (the "frunk").

As I have discussed on the teslamotorsclub.com forums, this humming sound seems to come from one of the coolant water pumps, which is part of the octovalve cooling system (thanks to Sandy Munro for his excellent analysis of the system shown in the picture below). And it looks like this problem is affecting many of the newest produced 2021 Model Ys and Model 3s.

Such a noise starts as soon as you open a door, or the charging port, or even if you open your Tesla app, and doesn't matter if your A/C is on or off, the noise is always there.

Look at the video below, created for the Now You Know YouTube channel where I explain the problem and why I think Tesla should take it seriously: :

JP on the Tesla Motors Club forums:

This is a very serious problem that Tesla MUST solve as soon as possible because it is scaring people away!

So, if you own a new 2021 Model Y or Model 3, please perform the following test:

1. Make sure your car has been parked and not open for at least 30 minutes. Also make sure it doesn't make any noise and that the A/C is off.
2. Open the door to see if you hear a humming sound like the one in the video above and make sure it is coming from the front-right part of the frunk. Also make sure the noise doesn't stop unless you close all doors and leave your car alone for at least 5-10 minutes (it can take up to 30 minutes for the noise to stop).
3. Make sure you can clearly hear the noise from inside the cabin with all doors closed and the A/C off. The noise should sound like having a lawn mower running in front of your car.

If you have taken the steps above and can confirm that your car is affected by the same issue, please report it to your nearest Tesla Service Center and complain about it. Be ready to push with them, asking to compare your car with other ones, because they'll insist saying that the noise is normal, which, in my opinion, is not.

Also: Ask your Tesla Service Center to open an Engineering Ticket about this issue! That'll force them to make an investigation and file the case. The more cases they file about this issue, the more chances we have to have it fixed on our cars. And if your car is still in warranty, timing matters!

I had several trips back and forth to the nearest service center between July and August, and I had to insist a lot to make them understand that this was not something "normal" as they kept claiming. I had to literally ask them to compare my Model Y with other Model Ys that they had in their parking lot, which were completely quiet. Only another Model Y, made around the same time as mine, had the same issue (it was actually even worse!).

So… what's going on here? Well, by talking with the technician, it looks like only a certain number of of cars produced after May 2021 may have this issue. The technician also speculated that, in this last production batch, Tesla could have used lower-quality pumps or other components due to supplier-related shortages. And I think he's right!

To make the story short, I requested to open an "engineering ticket" at Tesla to further research this issue. Their "investigation" consisted of simply coming to my place and taking noise measurements of the water pumps.

After a couple of days, I got a call from my technician at Tesla saying that the engineering team reviewed all the collected information and they confirmed, again, that everything was normal and within their "normal" range, so there was nothing else they could do about it. I asked if I could have access to the documents showing proof that everything was in their "normal" range. They said that those documents cannot be made public. Bummer. How can that noise be normal if most other Model Ys don't have it?

I was very disappointed.

At this point, I think Tesla is not dealing with this problem seriously. In my opinion, there is a kind of defect here which affects who knows how many other new Model Ys and Model 3s.

So, please be aware that your new Model Y or Model 3, may be affected by this problem, and if so, report it to Tesla immediately. The more people complain about it, it will be more likely that Tesla will take this issue seriously and replace any defective component to once again make our cars quiet. If you are part of the Tesla Motors Club forums, please, post your experience on this dedicated forum as well. The more the better!

Thank you for visiting, and if you have this issue, please fill out the form below. I am building a petition to have Tesla definitively fix this.