High-pitched "Electrical Whine"

[Prashantsukhs]

I'm lead to believe it's the backlight of that screen as well. Did some further "testing" and here's the results....



Texted the video to my salesperson today. He confirmed that he can hear it from the video and will get with the sales manager and service manager Monday to discuss.

If anyone has connections with Ford's EV team/service it might help. This will all be new territory for my dealership for sure...

What trim is your car. I am thrilled to see 223 mile range for 100% charge.

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[Illinibird]

Oh yea - definitely the little instrument cluster screen. It goes away when that times out and turns off (by getting in the car with the key and it "wakes up", but if you don't turn the car on it'll time out and turn off).

Here's a video where even played back I can clearly hear it... You may need to turn your volume up.

I don't hear a thing (my sound is turned up as loud as it will go). I wear hearing aids and have high frequency sound loss (from years of listening to the "scream" of the high speed dental handpiece) that they're supposed to compensate for but not that frequency apparently. Probably a good thing for me ?.

 

[methorian]

What trim is your car. I am thrilled to see 223 mile range for 100% charge.

It's a First Edition, so AWD extended range. I did reset the EV driving history once I took delivery, have driven around town a bit, and it's chilly outside/in my garage, so 223 on the GOM isn't too bad IMO.

 

[sockmeister]

I'm lead to believe it's the backlight of that screen as well. Did some further "testing" and here's the results....



Texted the video to my salesperson today. He confirmed that he can hear it from the video and will get with the sales manager and service manager Monday to discuss.

If anyone has connections with Ford's EV team/service it might help. This will all be new territory for my dealership for sure...

It sounds like a square wave, very much a digital rapid on-off, and not the traditional high-pitched sine wave noise of a CRT. could very much be the display backlight, or its power source... Not normal.

I did not hear this in the demo car I sat in, and I think I definitely would have noticed it.

We will have to ask other owners to listen on their cars though when they get them...

 

[MJMachForum]

I'm lead to believe it's the backlight of that screen as well. Did some further "testing" and here's the results....



Texted the video to my salesperson today. He confirmed that he can hear it from the video and will get with the sales manager and service manager Monday to discuss.

If anyone has connections with Ford's EV team/service it might help. This will all be new territory for my dealership for sure...

That sucks dude. Interesting how you can change the pitch by adjusting brightness. Fingers crossed they can fix it quickly.

 

[mmefan]

@methorian Do you hear the same whine when you are stationary outside of your garage (or where that video was shot)?

I ask because I had the same problem in my 09 MB E350. It went away when I left the garage. Turns out it was LED interference from the many lights in my garage.

 

[methorian]

@methorian Do you hear the same whine when you are stationary outside of your garage (or where that video was shot)?

I ask because I had the same problem in my 09 MB E350. It went away when I left the garage. Turns out it was LED interference from the many lights in my garage.

I do hear it outside the garage. I first noticed it leaving the dealership, but didn't think tooo much about it at the time (far too excited to have it after waiting over a year).

 

[mmefan]

In that case, definitely looks like a car-specific issue. I’m glad the dealership is responsive and following up. That sucks, brother. But hang in there; I’m sure they will figure something out.

This, unfortunately, is the reality of version 1.x software and hardware. This is a new platform for Ford, and I would brace for more of these kind of issues. But, if you have faith in Ford corporate’s doubling down on the EV business model, I’m sure they will double down on solving these issues.

 

[Garbone]

Bad output circuit of the display backlight controller circuit. Could be something like a loose/bad ground connection or a capacitor or something in parallel to it is bad causing the hum.

 

[methorian]

In that case, definitely looks like a car-specific issue. I’m glad the dealership is responsive and following up. That sucks, brother. But hang in there; I’m sure they will figure something out.

This, unfortunately, is the reality of version 1.x software and hardware. This is a new platform for Ford, and I would brace for more of these kind of issues. But, if you have faith in Ford corporate’s doubling down on the EV model, I’m sure they will double down on solving these issues.

Thanks, I'm not too bummed at all, could be much worse. I knew taking earlier delivery of a 1st gen EV would probably have it's little issues and all. Hopefully it does end up being an easy fix.

 

[JSOrange97]

Oh yea - definitely the little instrument cluster screen. It goes away when that times out and turns off (by getting in the car with the key and it "wakes up", but if you don't turn the car on it'll time out and turn off).

Here's a video where even played back I can clearly hear it... You may need to turn your volume up.

Yikes. That would be a deal-breaker for us.

 

[ARK]

Oh yea - definitely the little instrument cluster screen. It goes away when that times out and turns off (by getting in the car with the key and it "wakes up", but if you don't turn the car on it'll time out and turn off).

Here's a video where even played back I can clearly hear it... You may need to turn your volume up.

Wow, I hope the dealership is able to take care of it. As others have mentioned, you could hear it on old monitors and it would drive me crazy. About five years ago I started replacing my incandescent lightbulbs with LEDs, but they buzzed so much I had to change them back and it took me a couple years to find a brand that didn't do it.

This would be a deal breaker for me if Ford said it was within spec. But I am hopeful that it might be a defective unit and therefore fixable because that seems very noticeable to me and others haven’t flagged it before.

 

[methorian]

Wow, I hope the dealership is able to take care of it. As others have mentioned, you could hear it on old monitors and it would drive me crazy. About five years ago I started replacing my incandescent lightbulbs with LEDs, but they buzzed so much I had to change them back and it took me a couple years to find a brand that didn't do it.

This would be a deal breaker for me if Ford said it was within spec. But I am hopeful that it might be a defective unit and therefore fixable because that seems very noticeable to me and others haven’t flagged it before.

Yes - It's common for cheaper LED drivers to emit this same sort of hum, especially if they're of the dimmable variety and put on a dimmer switch. We get this complaint at my workplace (work for an electrical supply distributor).

I actually have some older Philips LEDs in my kitchen that will do this at certain dimming points, though not quite as loudly as my Mach-E's screen....

 

[mmefan]

Could be something like a loose/bad ground connection or a capacitor or something in parallel to it is bad causing the hum.

I’ll be honest — this is one of the things that scares me the most about vehicles that are more computers than mechanical. Over time and through the many bumps on the road, are the components of EVs designed to sustain those jolts? I suppose one can argue that electrical components are more resilient than mechanical (fewer moving parts), but all it takes is one bad capacitor to throw the user experience in a tailspin.

Maybe I’m overthinking this.

 

[MerryBrown]

Thanks, I'm not too bummed at all, could be much worse. I knew taking earlier delivery of a 1st gen EV would probably have it's little issues and all. Hopefully it does end up being an easy fix.

I really hope this can be fixed! I have really sensitive hearing as well. If it's in mine I will notice it. I am wondering now if this is one of the reasons the added the different mode sounds - just to cover up potential sounds like this.

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