New owner: Battery expectations / Audio upgrades / Slight rattle

I also have a 2020 same rattle I believe. Anyways fixed easily by making sure the weather stripping is overtop of the inside pillar material, it’s real cheap and pops out sometimes, pull back strips, give the pillar a good slap, and release seal

There's also a plastic clip that can break and sit at the bottom of the door and rattle

As for the battery, no I wouldn't worry about putting aside money. Unless there's a very rare failure, you can consider the lifetime of the battery for life

Yeah this is super normal on the Model 3 (especially 2018/2021). When it gets cold the car just gets noisier. The dash plastics, door panels, window trim, and even suspension bushings all stiffen up and shrink a bit. That’s when you’ll hear light rattles, clinks, or tapping that you’d never notice in a gas car. On my 2020 Performance most of the noise shows up on cold mornings and almost completely goes away once the cabin warms up or after a few minutes of driving. Preconditioning helps a lot. Even a car wash can quiet things down for a while because the warm water and moisture soften the rubber and plastics. Door rattles and dash buzzes are probably the most common especially around the window trim, A pillar, speaker grille, and glovebox area. A little silicone on door seals and window tracks can help, and sometimes just reseating trim clips fixes it. It’s not usually a mechanical problem unless the noise is loud, constant, and still there even when the car is fully warm. Most of the time it’s just cold weather + NVH + Tesla interior materials. Pretty much every Model 3 owner notices this their first winter. Congrats on joining the family! 🏎️

I have a 2020 M3P. Now that its cold I get 2-3 clunks from the rear as the tires turn. Is that normal?? After im moving it stops. This only happens if the car has sat and its cold.

Probably not... At 60,000 miles I had to do the rear trailing arm bushings on my 2022 M3LR... Good chance you're having the same problem. I discovered it because I was getting abnormal tire wear so I went in for a four wheel alignment... And huzzah the problem was discovered only 2,000 miles after my warranty expired... So it ended up being close to three grand with labor new tires parts and a four-wheel alignment... And I only wanted new tires LOL

Yeah idk. I just had my suspension checked in october and it came back good. They check tire wear and alignment and all were good. Its just weird.

I had the rattle on both sides and they begrudgingly fixed it under warranty. I don’t think they used any new parts, but just clipped everything back in tightly and made sure the weatherstripping was on right.  It’ll probably fail again, but it’s fixable. It’s just a poorly designed part of the car.

Only problem with older M3 are the control arm bushings, my 18 M3LR AWD needs replacement for the front and maybe the rear too

Thanks - I’ll try a little silicone to see if it helps, but good to know that it’s expected

Audison and Alpine make audio packages for the Model 3 that are Plug N Play and sound really good.

I had a 2020. Loved it! 4 years in the battery pack failed - nothing to do with the batteries, just a fault in the pack. It was covered under the warranty, and they took out my entire pack and replaced it with a refurbished pack of similar age (and presumably sent mine off to be repaired - aka refurbished). It was then I realized I didn't own a battery, but a warranty, so when it approached the mileage limit, I decided to avail myself of a good deal on a new one and refurbished my warranty. It probably will work for you without any problems, but you need to be realistic - the battery and the motors are the most expensive parts in the car. Be prepared, but enjoy the car - its wonderful fun!

>Is there a known problem area that I should take a look at? This got a chuckle out of me. The entire interior is a known problem area for rattles and creaks, especially on the older Model 3. My 2022 RWD had creaky seats, rattle from the dash somewhere on the passenger side, and a couple of other creaks and squeaks from avarious unknown areas in the back seats and trunk.

Heh, fair enough. Maybe I’ll focus on the audio upgrades so that the rattles are less noticeable.

Don’t worry about battery would be my answer. Charge to the recommended amount and use as you like the bms should take care of the battery much better than you ever could.

Tesla rattle is a common issue (unfortunately). As for the battery, I agree with the other person says that you are paying for the warranty and not the battery. I have also experienced battery failure as well. Be prepared for this. When you have several replies but 2 of us said our batteries failed, that’s something to note down.

How does one know when they start causing problems?