High-pitched "Electrical Whine"

[Thevanin]

I took mine into my service department on Monday to report this issue. Neither the salesman I worked with nor the tech could hear it (one was older and one had tinnitus), but I took a video of it that showed how it changed with the brightness setting which convinced them I wasn't just making it up.

I just heard from them today. Ford recommended that they replace the instrument cluster and they put in an order for one. No ETA on when it'll be available.

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[CHeil402]

I took mine into my service department on Monday to report this issue. Neither the salesman I worked with nor the tech could hear it (one was older and one had tinnitus), but I took a video of it that showed how it changed with the brightness setting which convinced them I wasn't just making it up.

I just heard from them today. Ford recommended that they replace the instrument cluster and they put in an order for one. No ETA on when it'll be available.

That's good to know. Honestly, for me at least, that's my biggest concern not having received mine yet. All of the software bugs I'm sure can be ironed out eventually and I can live with early adopter issues; however, hardware can't be updated without a more invasive approach.

When I was in the road show model I sat in for a while in October, I can't say I heard anything (although I wasn't listening for it... but if I can't hear it without listening for it/putting my ear next to it, I don't care anyway). But I went for a test drive earlier this month and the car was so bad I heard it while driving with the radio on and I had a headache after the 30 minute test drive. I otherwise loved the car, but that would really ruin the experience for me... so I was planning on rejecting delivery if it had it and they weren't willing to replace it.

Let me know how it goes and if it fixes the issue!

 

[methorian]

I took mine into my service department on Monday to report this issue. Neither the salesman I worked with nor the tech could hear it (one was older and one had tinnitus), but I took a video of it that showed how it changed with the brightness setting which convinced them I wasn't just making it up.

I just heard from them today. Ford recommended that they replace the instrument cluster and they put in an order for one. No ETA on when it'll be available.

Interesting.

I haven't pushed back on my service department after they were instructed by Ford to see if any other Mach-E's had the same whine. The other 2 that've come through their shop also had an audible whine, so Ford said "it's expected/common then!".

Definitely let us know if a replacement fixes the issue!

 

[Jimmy2]

I have an iPhone 12 Pro and it also would randomly stop charging. In my case it was very slightly moving down the pad it seems I remedied it by putting a small piece of rubber on the bottom of the charging pad area, seen here:

Has been reliably charging since putting the rubber there. Note that I do not use a case on my phone.

Good old American ingenuity. You gotta love it.

 

[Jimmy2]

But I went for a test drive earlier this month and the car was so bad I heard it while driving with the radio on and I had a headache after the 30 minute test drive. I otherwise loved the car, but that would really ruin the experience for me... so I was planning on rejecting delivery if it had it and they weren't willing to replace it.

Wow. I've been following you for a while now since you have the Electrical Engineering background. Love your "Ask an Engineer" thread. Do you suspect it may be some kind of interference between electrical components?

What was your build date? Mine was built about the 2nd week of March and I hope for delivery around the 2nd week in April. Keeping my fingers crossed the newer builds will not suffer from the buzz syndrome. Anyway, I'm going to insist on dealer allowing me a 24 hour test drive before I sign the sale docs. The other thing that concerns me is what others have described as the bounciness of the ride.

 

[Thevanin]

My guess is that it's a bad capacitor. That's a pretty distinctive buzz.

The sound of bad filter caps - hum and ghost notes. - YouTube

 

[Jimmy2]

My guess is that it's a bad capacitor. That's a pretty distinctive buzz.

The sound of bad filter caps - hum and ghost notes. - YouTube

Bad capacitor? That would make an easy fix perhaps?

 

[Thevanin]

Something like that is so integrated I doubt the Ford tech would tear it apart and go hunting for the source. My guess is that the service department will replace the whole module and the old display will be sent to the subcontractor for FA to find/confirm the problem.

That's my guess at least... I work in semi-conductors and that's what would happen for us.

 

[CHeil402]

Wow. I've been following you for a while now since you have the Electrical Engineering background. Love your "Ask an Engineer" thread. Do you suspect it may be some kind of interference between electrical components?

What was your build date? Mine was built about the 2nd week of March and I hope for delivery around the 2nd week in April. Keeping my fingers crossed the newer builds will not suffer from the buzz syndrome. Anyway, I'm going to insist on dealer allowing me a 24 hour test drive before I sign the sale docs. The other thing that concerns me is what others have described as the bounciness of the ride.

Thanks! I'm glad that you enjoyed my posts.

My build date was 2/11 and expected delivery is the week of 3/28. I REALLY hope that it doesn't suffer from that issue because based on what I've seen from other owner experiences and issues, this is really the only one that I don't think I could live with. I'm also equally afraid that I'll accept the car anyway (high emotions and somewhat impulsive nature) and then they won't fix it and I'll regret it later. I found essentially the same car was what I ordered at a dealer 1.5 hours away and almost went and purchased it, but I didn't for several reasons... one of which was exactly your thinking that a car that was build a few months later would be better. My wife was quite impressed that I had the patience to wait another month for delivery, haha.

That being said, this is most likely an example of "coil whine". This can be caused by a number of issues, but it is likely isolated to the screen module as a whole and not an artifact of an interaction with another module in the car. This could be induced by the PCB design in the power converter portion of the screen module, but then I would expect to see it on all cars. The fact that it happens on only some (or more on some than others) would make me believe it is either a QC or workmanship issue. If the inductor/transformer that's causing this isn't properly soldered or physically tied down to the PCB, it can cause this. Or it could be a parts supplier issue where the inductor/transformer is not properly manufactured with the resin between the inductor turns.

One of the railcar projects I worked on suffered from this issue where one of the big power transformers was not properly manufactured and made an audible whine in the passenger area that made several Twitter posts get the attention of the agency management. The end result was the transformers had to be replaced with newer ones with tighter manufacturing tolerances.

For reference (if you're interested in more technical details) you can check this out: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electromagnetically_induced_acoustic_noise

 

[VegStang]

I was listening to the buzz the other night while messing with the settings on the car and I could swear that some noise was also coming from the speaker to the left of the screen, a slightly different noise that sounds like interference. Just a subjective observation though.

 

[Jimmy2]

I took mine into my service department on Monday to report this issue. Neither the salesman I worked with nor the tech could hear it (one was older and one had tinnitus), but I took a video of it that showed how it changed with the brightness setting which convinced them I wasn't just making it up.

I just heard from them today. Ford recommended that they replace the instrument cluster and they put in an order for one. No ETA on when it'll be available.

Bob, can you tell us your build date?

 

[machefan]

I took mine into my service department on Monday to report this issue. Neither the salesman I worked with nor the tech could hear it (one was older and one had tinnitus), but I took a video of it that showed how it changed with the brightness setting which convinced them I wasn't just making it up.

I just heard from them today. Ford recommended that they replace the instrument cluster and they put in an order for one. No ETA on when it'll be available.

Thanks for taking one for the team!

I think others should wait and see how this goes, personally I wouldn't want my dash ripped apart and put back together for nothing. I have a feeling this is not a bad part, rather a design flaw that impacts some owners depending on ones hearing. Personally I don't mind it like others as I can only hear it when my ear is up to the steering wheel or in dead silence.

 

[Jimmy2]

Thanks for taking one for the team!

I think others should wait and see how this goes, personally I wouldn't want my dash ripped apart and put back together for nothing. I have a feeling this is not a bad part, rather a design flaw that impacts some owners depending on ones hearing. Personally I don't mind it like others as I can only hear it when my ear is up to the steering wheel or in dead silence.

Interesting, If you are right about it being a design flaw, then replacing the little instrument cluster behind the steering wheel would accomplish nothing.

 

[Maquis]

where the inductor/transformer is not properly manufactured with the resin between the inductor turns.

Or even more likely, between the core laminations....presuming the inductor has a laminated core.

 

[VegStang]

I tried smacking the screen last night, a love tap shall we say, for a moment thought it might work.

Mine is bad enough that I think it needs to be replaced/corrected, but I'm willing to wait a few months to get confirmation on a fix.

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