High-pitched "Electrical Whine"

[SteelMach]

I brought this issue up with my dealership service department as another item alongside a different problem with the car. Got it back and apparently it's working as intended and a "normal characteristic of this car"... From the write up:

Yeah I didn't get it written up but that seemed to be my dealer's response too. No effort to call Ford and ask, no effort to order a new screen. Just "huh yeah it does buzz"

 

[Finkerton]

Subscribing -- I also have this and it drives me nuts if I'm not playing audio. I don't remember how to find the build date but I know I saw it before and I think around December 20th. FE.

 

[SteelMach]

Subscribing -- I also have this and it drives me nuts if I'm not playing audio. I don't remember how to find the build date but I know I saw it before and I think around December 20th. FE.

It's worse in mine - I can hear it over the audio. It's driving me absolutely insane. I feel angrier after I get out of the car just from hearing that constant buzz the entire time I'm driving.

 

[Finkerton]

It's worse in mine - I can hear it over the audio. It's driving me absolutely insane. I feel angrier after I get out of the car just from hearing that constant buzz the entire time I'm driving.

I mean now I wonder how loud you crank your audio. Maybe not enough? But that sounds pretty awful.

 

[Thevanin]

Well... I dropped my car off Monday morning and just got it back.

TL;DR - Issue isn't gone but is improved. They think it's a cooling fan for the screen. Took longer than expected due to issues with programming the new screen. Can't notice that it was taken apart. No scuffs or rattles. 100% covered so I didn't have to pay anything.

They replaced the entire screen module. This required taking off the large center touchscreen and the entire dashboard. They didn't find the source of the buzzing, but they suspect that it's a cooling fan that blows over the back of the screen. The tech couldn't hear the buzzing when I took the car in, but he said he could hear the fan when the dashboard was off and couldn't hear anything once he put the dash back on. The reason it took so long was because they had to re-program the new display. The instructions that Ford provided seemed to downplay how involved this was. It sounded like they had to get extra software from the Ford site before they could continue. The first time they tried the software failed after several hours, but the second time succeeded in a fraction of the time.

As for the buzzing, it's not gone, but it is much improved. I don't have any readings or a before vid, but I'd say that the current screen on max brightness is about as loud as the last screen on 30-50% brightness. My case also didn't seem to be as bad as some of the other people in this forum. They did a great job getting everything back together. There are no scuffs, marks, or rattles coming from the dashboard. All in all, I'm pretty happy with how things went. This was covered under the warranty so I didn't have to pay anything out of pocket. Once it became clear that this was going to take more than the 2-3 hours they initially quoted me the dealer gave me their demo Mach E to use until my car was ready.

Edit: Attached pic of service report

 

[opennetus]

I hear the instrument cluster noise too, very clearly. It was present in both Mach-E’s I have sat in. Dealer Rep admitted to hearing it too, but said it must be a “normal characteristic” because both Mach-E’s have it.

Just because all Mach-E’s suffer from the same obvious defect doesn’t make it normal or acceptable! Very frustrating particularly since there is nothing I can do about it and the dealer is not willing to do anything to resolve it. Ford needs to step up, do the right thing, and create a fix for this issue.

I would much rather have no instrument display at all than one that causes a constant noisy, high pitched whining. The second display was the primary reason I picked a Mach-E instead of a Tesla Model Y, but now I am just left disappointed and wishing I had a Tesla instead.

I had high hopes for Ford, but seems they still don’t know how to QA a new vehicle properly before production starts or publicly admit to problems in a timely manner. This and the wind noise issues should have been obvious during testing. So much for our hopes that Ford would have better build quality than Tesla. I’ll take their panel gaps and sloppy paint jobs any day over excessive and irritating noises that will never go away. I am embarrassed to show people the car because of it.

i didn’t know the full extent of these issues until after my purchase because it was an extremely windy day outside when I test drove and purchased which masked the problems.

 

[opennetus]

I did some tweeting and got the attention of Ford customer support. They opened an escalation ticket for me regarding this. Not expecting much, but I think it is important for all of us experiencing this issue to make our voices heard everywhere we can. The more people complaining, the more likely Ford will do something to fix this instead of shrugging it off and ignoring us.

I don’t want to send it to a dealer service department as they don’t have the knowledge or experience right now to fix the problem and might just make things worse; only Ford’s display supplier can correct the design/manufacturing flaw so it is important that each of us make Ford aware of our displeasure and expectations for a solution.

Tagging executives at Ford is also a good way to get attention of people with the power to do something. Best as a reply to their posts for more visibility.

 

[sockmeister]

I did some tweeting and got the attention of Ford customer support. They opened an escalation ticket for me regarding this. Not expecting much, but I think it is important for all of us experiencing this issue to make our voices heard everywhere we can. The more people complaining, the more likely Ford will do something to fix this instead of shrugging it off and ignoring us.

I don’t want to send it to a dealer service department as they don’t have the knowledge or experience right now to fix the problem and might just make things worse; only Ford’s display supplier can correct the design/manufacturing flaw so it is important that each of us make Ford aware of our displeasure and expectations for a solution.

Tagging executives at Ford is also a good way to get attention of people with the power to do something. Best as a reply to their posts for more visibility.

I took delivery of my Mach-E today, and I definitely have the screen buzzing. It doesn't really bother me, but I can hear it.

Who exactly did you tweet to, or who can I email about this to make my voice heard outside of the dealership?

 

[Ciero]

I picked up my Mach-E today, and prior to today it was on my mind to listen for the noise because it seemed like something that would drive me crazy. After getting in the car I promptly forgot to be angry and listen for it, and I didn't notice it. Later when I turned everything off and focused on it I could definitely hear it, but it was not at a level I would consider annoying...just sort of barely there, which was relieving. The demo mach-e my dealer had seemed to have a more noticeable whine.

 

[DanCoon]

I've had my Mach-E for 4 days now. I noticed my screen making this noise for the first time this morning. It's not at a level that I could consider annoying at this point, but I will be keeping an eye on it.

By the way... this whole "normal characteristic of this car" reminds of of the transmission class action lawsuit that my 2014 Focus was involved in... where people, including myself, were told that the jerkiness and grinding noises of the transmission were also a "normal characteristic of this car." Guess we'll find out in about 6 years, if not sooner!

 

[Chudsaviet]

“Normal characteristic of a car“ is just a dealer trick. I hope Ford will address this issue. I will write to their Twitter - they answer it pretty fast.
Slightly good news are that this looks like PWM screen backlight issues, and can probably be solved by increasing PWM frequency in software. Maybe not.

 

[sockmeister]

“Normal characteristic of a car“ is just a dealer trick. I hope Ford will address this issue. I will write to their Twitter - they answer it pretty fast.
Slightly good news are that this looks like PWM screen backlight issues, and can probably be solved by increasing PWM frequency in software. Maybe not.

100% agree. It does seem like PWM noise to me, too. And hoping that a simple frequency increase will fix it -- you make a good point.
Unless it's a third party supplier and they have no control over it.

 

[fawzma]

sat in a demo the other day.

to me, it sounds like an el wire inverter (backlight driver). but louder in the car. Curios if there's interference with the high voltage system.


Go to 1:30

 

[sockmeister]

sat in a demo the other day.

to me, it sounds like an el wire inverter (backlight driver). but louder in the car. Curios if there's interference with the high voltage system.


Go to 1:30

Yep. It's a similar thing. Changing the PWM frequency for the backlight driver would move the buzz to a high enough frequency that we wouldn't be able to hear it anymore, that's the idea.

 

[louibluey]

sat in a demo the other day.

to me, it sounds like an el wire inverter (backlight driver). but louder in the car. Curios if there's interference with the high voltage system.

It might work to coat an offending transformer or inductor if that is the problem, but the whole assembly looks to be air cooled by a fan. So, say you could just drill a hole in the back and fill it with glue, the display would probably overheat and fail. Assuming there can still be a cooling air path where needed, it might be possible to use some sound deadening cloth (assuming the sound is not radiating from the front surface, but more from the case and back).

Probably more than one of us has been tempted to just pull the damn thing to see if there is any easy solution, but disassembly includes removing the big display and several panels, so somewhere between too risky, and probably not worth the effort for an owner to pull and study the small display (happy to be wrong is someone does it, but probably not a good idea). It looks expensive too!

The software solution might work, but this display module and its internal power supply is almost certainly an outsourced assembly, not externally programmable for something like power supply switching frequency. Also, they might have to replace several components to be able to raise the frequency too, but that is a good potential solution, to raise any internal switching frequency and/or PWM above human hearing.

Also, I think someone earlier said the internal fan itself was suspect. Does not sound like a fan to me either, but who knows until one is taken apart and operated hanging from the dash, or better on yet a Ford R&D technician's workbench (Hey Ford!)

Sponsored