Loud buzzing

C

Cracklintulip

New Member
Hello! I posted this on Reddit but here I am also, in case it looks familiar. Saturday we installed a Juicebox 40 charger for oro Clarity, purchased in December. When I plugged it today after a short trip, it started buzzing very loudly..... Dare I say snapping too. Freaked me out but I thought I might be paranoid, so I let it fully charge the small amount it needed. Unplugged. Went to the garage later and the buzzing was back, but no snapping. It's buzzing from the back of the car. I captured a short video before it stopped on its own.

I have to drive it tomorrow and I'm still a little freaked out. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated!!
 
These cars make funny noises while charging at times. Usually it changes or stops. And usually it charges quietly. If it does it all the time, take it to dealer. Just once in a while and the car is otherwise working normal? Ignore.
 
Not really. We took it to the dealer and that was a bust, because of course it didn't make the noise while there. I showed them the video but that didn't help. They plugged it into a slow charger (that's supposedly all they had!!).... Nothing. They did run a diagnostic which showed nothing unusual, so I guess that's good.

I've heard the buzzing and snapping only once since, but really, who hangs around their car while it's charging? I certainly don't. Unplugged it and it stopped. It's still a bit disturbing to hear, but what else can I do?
 
There is a service bulletin regarding charging. You need to check if it was installed on your car. That may resolve the issue.
 
ab13 said:
There is a service bulletin regarding charging. You need to check if it was installed on your car. That may resolve the issue.
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How do I see if it was installed? A reddit post mentions a Service Bulletin he got in Oct. We bought the car in Dec. We took it to the dealer last month. Has the bulletin been released recently?

Of course, after saying that I only heard the buzzing once, last night I heard it again. I posted another video to YouTube and if you listen closely you can hear the snapping. Although I didn't catch it on video, while I was trying to film, the car clunked and the tone of the buzzing changed (well, I tried to catch it on video, but I was so startled by the noise that I scooted myself out from under the car ASAP! lol. kinda too bad I didn't get that on film).

Anyway, here's my video from yesterday with the buzzing AND snapping.

 
Thanks! But how do I know if these SBs have been installed already or not? Someone asked the same question in the thread but never got an answer ☹️
 
Also note that the Service Bulletin 18-097 for charging problems will not be routinely installed. You must first tell the service dept that you are having trouble charging. Then they will install it.
 
8BFF5192-71BE-4E97-8351-269D2953A266.webp FC716E0F-7B79-43D9-A213-18C273DE085F.webp I’ve had this same issue with 220 charging once with a low quality charger... so I upgraded to JuiceBox40

Here is what I’ve learned.. if I set the max rate to 32 amps, it WILL make these noises and on the graph show erratic charging, but if I set the max rate to 24 amps, absolutely no noise and smooth charging graph.

I have know idea why it is happening but it seems to be that the higher amps make it happen.

If you look at the two graphs, one is at 24 and the other is at 32... big difference normally occurs at the end of a charge in my experience. I’ve seen no I’ll effects as of yet but I definitely cringe when I hear that sound.

I just leave my JuiceBox set to 24 amps and that eliminates the “issue”
 
BA6F515B-2C63-461F-88F9-9DC305520081.webp One more example, I had the juice box set to 24 but for whatever reason said “I think I will try going back to 32amps”

You see the graph at 24 to start and the “drop” is actually the increase to 32 amps, and immediately following you see the “up and down” irregularities that correlate to the dreaded noise from the rear
 
jdonalds said:
I just set mine to 24A based on your results. I had it set to 40. My graphs have been ragged. Hope this helps
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Here's what I've found, having set max current to 24A. To preface I do not have the loud buzzing of the recordings in this thread. What I do hear is typical transformer noise when the car is charging; a lower volume than that of the recordings.

What I notice is at 24A, with the present ambient temperature in our garage, which is in the 70s, the car's cooling fan does not come on. As soon as I bump current up to 32A the fan will kick on. However the fan will be on quite often when the garage is 90+ degrees no matter what the current max is set to.

Yes my charge graph looks better at 24A but then again looking back in the history of daily graphs they can look ragged or smooth and I don't know what causes one or the other.

Just as an aside I noticed playing with the max current value just happens to be at the present trip point of our solar system. Right now, at mid day with full sun, my system is generating about 6,300 watts of power. With the JuiceBox set to max 24A the solar system is supplying all of the needs of the house plus charging the car and some extra energy is being pumped into the grid. If I bump it up to 30A the system is past the balance point and the city grid has to supply some power. This doesn't mean much. It's just the condition at the present moment and a fun observation for me.
 
jdonalds said:
Here's what I've found, having set max current to 24A. To preface I do not have the loud buzzing of the recordings in this thread. What I do hear is typical transformer noise when the car is charging; a lower volume than that of the recordings.

What I notice is at 24A, with the present ambient temperature in our garage, which is in the 70s, the car's cooling fan does not come on. As soon as I bump current up to 32A the fan will kick on. However the fan will be on quite often when the garage is 90+ degrees no matter what the current max is set to.

Yes my charge graph looks better at 24A but then again looking back in the history of daily graphs they can look ragged or smooth and I don't know what causes one or the other.

Just as an aside I noticed playing with the max current value just happens to be at the present trip point of our solar system. Right now, at mid day with full sun, my system is generating about 6,300 watts of power. With the JuiceBox set to max 24A the solar system is supplying all of the needs of the house plus charging the car and some extra energy is being pumped into the grid. If I bump it up to 30A the system is past the balance point and the city grid has to supply some power. This doesn't mean much. It's just the condition at the present moment and a fun observation for me.
Click to expand...
Nice, as far as the cooling fan coming online, I’m pretty sure most can attest that it is completely normal (mine, for example, comes on every time I charge almost regardless of temperature (not so much below freezing of course))

Secondly, I would love to have your level of solar!! Great job in that regard, but I highly doubt it has anything to do with the “buzzing” issue we are discussing, I’m glad your graph leveled out and I agree... I’ve had level graphs at 32amps, but very few. On the other hand, set at 24 amps I’ve NEVER had erratic graphs or the noise, which is why I recommend 24 amp if you have this issue, it solved the problem for me

Please let us know your future results (and post some of your data points if you can)
 
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