High Pitch Whine

[mluvara]

I recently purchased a 2023 AWD Mach E CR1 ER and have noticed a noise that I would characterize as a whine/chirp while accelerating or decelerating around the 30mph range. It seems most prominent in whisper mode since it does not decelerate as fast as the engage mode. I found this thread while searching to see if others had experienced the same sound. Attached is a video with the audio. Is this similar to other's experiences? I haven't reached out to my dealer yet as I'd like to point to them with concrete definition of the issue.

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[Ford Motor Company]

I recently purchased a 2023 AWD Mach E CR1 ER and have noticed a noise that I would characterize as a whine/chirp while accelerating or decelerating around the 30mph range. It seems most prominent in whisper mode since it does not decelerate as fast as the engage mode. I found this thread while searching to see if others had experienced the same sound. Attached is a video with the audio. Is this similar to other's experiences? I haven't reached out to my dealer yet as I'd like to point to them with concrete definition of the issue.

Hi there, Mike. This noise concern doesn’t sound like something we want you to experience with your Mach-E. Could you please send us a PM with your VIN and the name and location of your Ford dealer? I'd be happy to look into how I can assist you on my end. To send a private message, just click on our username and select "Start Conversation".

 

[mluvara]

I recently took my 23 CR1 AWD ER to Ford to look at the 'whine'. When I went for a test drive with the foreman, he called the noise normal. I'm quite disappointed. I did some quick audio captures and the noise appears at 1700-1800 Hz, so it's definitely some high frequency resonance either in a gearbox or the motors themselves. I've seen 1-2kHz issues before in a different electric motor application where pole-stator interactions were exciting the structure.

 

[EVGEYE]

I recently took my 23 CR1 AWD ER to Ford to look at the 'whine'. When I went for a test drive with the foreman, he called the noise normal. I'm quite disappointed. I did some quick audio captures and the noise appears at 1700-1800 Hz, so it's definitely some high frequency resonance either in a gearbox or the motors themselves. I've seen 1-2kHz issues before in a different electric motor application where pole-stator interactions were exciting the structure.

2023 Mach-e AWD, same noise. Extemely annoying and not normal. Had the same type of thing develop in my Tesla model 3, Tesla found it was a grounding strap issue and corrected it. Ford needs to find the problem and fix it or take the car back.

 

[Ford Motor Company]

2023 Mach-e AWD, same noise. Extemely annoying and not normal. Had the same type of thing develop in my Tesla model 3, Tesla found it was a grounding strap issue and corrected it. Ford needs to find the problem and fix it or take the car back.

Hi there! I can look into your Mach-E's noise concern on my end. To get started, could you please send a private message over with the name/location of your local Ford dealer and your Mach-E's VIN?

 

[mluvara]

2023 Mach-e AWD, same noise. Extemely annoying and not normal. Had the same type of thing develop in my Tesla model 3, Tesla found it was a grounding strap issue and corrected it. Ford needs to find the problem and fix it or take the car back.

The Ford support here reached out to me (as they responded to you) and opened a 'case' for me. In order for them to do anything, they had to have the dealer look at it. I took it to my dealer and on a quick test drive with the head mechanic, he said it is a 'normal characteristic' of the vehicle, to which I am extremely disappointed with. It's an awesome car otherwise. I never received a response from the 'EV Concern Team'.

I'm as frustrated as you because it is an annoying sound unless you have the music on. Maybe my ears are sensitive to 1.7KHz...

 

[EVGEYE]

The Ford support here reached out to me (as they responded to you) and opened a 'case' for me. In order for them to do anything, they had to have the dealer look at it. I took it to my dealer and on a quick test drive with the head mechanic, he said it is a 'normal characteristic' of the vehicle, to which I am extremely disappointed with. It's an awesome car otherwise. I never received a response from the 'EV Concern Team'.

I'm as frustrated as you because it is an annoying sound unless you have the music on. Maybe my ears are sensitive to 1.7KHz...

I hope if enough people raise this issue it will be looked at. It is not normal. It's similar to when a radio/speaker isn't grounded properly. I don't think they are investigating the root cause of the issue. I had the EXACT issue with a model 3. To be fair it developed about 4 years into ownership and it has the same characteristics of this Mach-e noise. Whine at specific mid speed constant load, they resolved it in 30 min, free of charge cleaning off the grounding strap of my rear motor on the Model 3. If the front or rear motor is indeed not grounded properly it might be the cause of the noise we are hearing.

 

[mluvara]

I hope if enough people raise this issue it will be looked at. It is not normal. It's similar to when a radio/speaker isn't grounded properly. I don't think they are investigating the root cause of the issue. I had the EXACT issue with a model 3. To be fair it developed about 4 years into ownership and it has the same characteristics of this Mach-e noise. Whine at specific mid speed constant load, they resolved it in 30 min, free of charge cleaning off the grounding strap of my rear motor on the Model 3. If the front or rear motor is indeed not grounded properly it might be the cause of the noise we are hearing.

I agree. It's not normal and shouldn't be present in this class of vehicle. I've seen resonances in other types of electric propulsion systems that are excited in operation.

There is a TSB (Technical Service Bulletin) for previous year models of this where they addressed it with software, and my assumption is that they likely applied whatever fix natively into the 23 models, but I could not get confirmation of this.

See this thread. https://www.macheforum.com/site/thr...tween-30-40-mph-48-64-km-h.30916/#post-696646

 

[Fremont Kid]

The Ford support here reached out to me (as they responded to you) and opened a 'case' for me. In order for them to do anything, they had to have the dealer look at it. I took it to my dealer and on a quick test drive with the head mechanic, he said it is a 'normal characteristic' of the vehicle, to which I am extremely disappointed with. It's an awesome car otherwise. I never received a response from the 'EV Concern Team'.

I'm as frustrated as you because it is an annoying sound unless you have the music on. Maybe my ears are sensitive to 1.7KHz...

That is frustrating. I read through the posts in case my vehicle begins to experience this. To date my 2022 Premium AWD ER has never produced this sound.
Now my son has a Toyota Venza hybrid, but not a plug-in, which produces a low wine that sounds like an emergency vehicle is 1/4 mile away, but only during coasting/regenerating.

 

[n2585722]

The BLDC type motors I have worked with do make a high pitch sound at higher RPM that you can hear and they are a lot smaller motors used mainly in VCR's. The old tube type TV's would also make that high pitched sound from the flyback transformer that was at 15khz. I could hear it to the point it would annoy me but other people would not hear it. Mine does have a high pitch around 35-40mph that I can hear if I turn off the AC, sound system and roll down one of the windows but my other Mach E also had the same sound only I believe the newer one is quieter but it does have a different rear motor since it is a 2024.

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