Clunking sound from front end.

[Jonger1150]

Deezel, thank you for sharing this. You've really spent a ton of time tracking this down and helping everyone here.

I can reproduce a similar sound to my rattles by rocking the have shaft back and forth. After my SC ride along sitting shotgun, I now know the rattle is only present on the driver's side. The sound is less intense in cool/cold weather. During the heat of the summer, the rattling was substantially louder and even resulted in sloppy steering play. Has to be some component with lubricant viscosity impacting it.

Angles matter, too. I can almost make the rattle go away in -
Drive Mode: All Purpose
Ride Height: High
Ride Feel: Firm

The rattle is worse in -
Drive Mode: All Purpose
Ride Height: Standard
Ride Feel: Soft

Let us know what Rivian says about your inquiries. The more data, the better for us.

On warm days the clunking will transfer the vibration into the steering wheel. I have 6 months of relatively light noise to enjoy before the warm season returns.

"Hey Jon, wanna take the Rivian down to Florida this winter?"

My response,

"Nope, how about Montreal"

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[Noplacelikeloam]

FWIW, just had the jounce lines replaced. Already had the retrofit dampers. Its completely silent now. In fact its kind of weird, in a good way.

 

[Deezel]

It sure seems like there are numerous variables going on here. I don't believe all of us have the exact same issue or at least varying degrees of it.

Mine seems to get louder once it's cold. But it also depends on the road/speeds I'm driving at. When I first picked up my truck from the SC, it was fine all the way home (50miles away.) Once I pulled on the street I live on, I could hear some slight noises which were similar, but in the morning when I went to leave for work and it was below freezing, the noise was back in full effect!

I actually went to swap my snow tires/wheels on this weekend so was able to get a good look at everything with the wheel off. I checked all the bolts/nuts I could reach, everything was definitley tight. The only thing I could get to make a similar noise was the CV axle. However the motor and hub side splines have no play in them, they are super tight.

This is a relief since I was most worried about wear and tear on the expensive motor. ALL of the play/noise is coming from the two CV joints (the joints covered by the boots.) There is actually very little play, it's just very noisy, and that metallic clang noise just resonates like crazy. It almost makes me wonder if there is not enough grease in the boot.

I'm half tempted to undo the boot and try to check it/fill it up some more, but I'm not sure how to get a replacement clamp, or if I even have the correct tool for it. I could use a hose clamp, but the clearance is so tight in there it may cause issues. Also the extra mass on that clamp may cause vibration issues..

I do have extra grease, clamps and a clamp tool leftover from my Raptor. That truck ate CV boots every 6 months so I've done this before.

This all seems a bit crazy for a truck this new under warranty, so I will give Rivian time to try to sort it out, but I will keep this option as a last resort.

I just put in my next service request with Rivian, I will let everyone know what I hear back.

 

[Deezel]

One more note on CV Axles, are you guys able to see what PN you have?

Supposedly a few other trucks were fixed by replacing the CV axles with a new PN. That PN is PT00055489-C

I checked under my truck and it's the same PN with -E, instead of C.

If Rivian does part numbering like other large companies, then the letter is likely the part revision.

Part E would come two revisions after C, so it doesn't look like whatever changes they have been making have fixed the issue..

I'm wondering if most trucks are getting "fixed" just by random chance. ie getting a better tolerance axle, one with more grease etc..

 

[Jonger1150]

FWIW, just had the jounce lines replaced. Already had the retrofit dampers. Its completely silent now. In fact its kind of weird, in a good way.

You must have gotten lucky with the half-shafts. That's where most of my noise comes from.

 

[Noplacelikeloam]

You must have gotten lucky with the half-shafts. That's where most of my noise comes from.

I dont know what was wrong, but it sounded like a bag of bolts driving around, now its as I expected when I bought the truck. It took 3 visits to the SC but they did some magic and Im praying it stays that way.

 

[Jonger1150]

One more note on CV Axles, are you guys able to see what PN you have?

Supposedly a few other trucks were fixed by replacing the CV axles with a new PN. That PN is PT00055489-C

I checked under my truck and it's the same PN with -E, instead of C.

If Rivian does part numbering like other large companies, then the letter is likely the part revision.

Part E would come two revisions after C, so it doesn't look like whatever changes they have been making have fixed the issue..

I'm wondering if most trucks are getting "fixed" just by random chance. ie getting a better tolerance axle, one with more grease etc..

I'm not sure if the noise is the splines or the internal half-shaft. (not sure what the name is for that)

 

[Jonger1150]

I dont know what was wrong, but it sounded like a bag of bolts driving around, now its as I expected when I bought the truck. It took 3 visits to the SC but they did some magic and Im praying it stays that way.

I hate to be the one with the bad news, but they might have greased your splines. If they did, it will come back. Let's hope not.

I have 31 months left on this lease. If there is no fix by month 26 or so..... this thing is gone.

I have a year 3 Rivian (2024) -- let's see where things are during year 6 Rivians.

 

[Deezel]

I'm not sure if the noise is the splines or the internal half-shaft. (not sure what the name is for that)

Ah! I did not realize our CVs had that center section. That would explain how they can telescope and adjust lengths to all the different ride heights. I was wondering how the hell they were able to accommodate such crazy axle angles, but the telescoping axle helps mitigate that.

There is more info on this post, but I'm not sure anyone confirmed Rivian actually uses this design.

https://www.rivianforums.com/forum/...ure-missed-by-service-center.7404/post-189439

I actually think the noise, at least in my CV, is coming from the bearings housed in the boot area, those are where all the grease is held.

It's absolutely possible though that that center telescoping area is part of the problem or the source of noise.

I may measure that inside boot length and change my ride height. If that boot length changes, they for sure have some telescopic witch craft going on in there!

In other news.. I found a CV axle on ebay with a "G" on the end of the PN. sounds like there may be even more revisions out there! I wonder if Rivian will tell us what the latest PN is.

 

[DayTripping]

Phew, I just read all 24 current pages of this thread. It sounds a lot like the front halfshaft issues that the current gen Tesla Model S's have. WIth them there tends to be a bad vibration and get worse, faster, when you are in the higher suspension modes. Obviously not the same issue but there are similarities. Tesla still hasn't fixed it, likely never will, since almost anything is in "spec". Which is apparently code for "its broken, we realize it, but we're not going to fix it." I hope Rivian doesn't get to that point but it sounds like they are closer than I'd hoped.

If I had read this thread before buying, I might not have. Or instead of buying a used one, I might have leaned toward a Gen 2 truck where maybe it was sorted out. I bought my '23 quad with 6k miles. I just turned 10k miles. So far no noises. Believe me, my ear is very tuned for listening for anything like this after the Model S issues. I listened to every video clip in this thread. Now I am almost afraid to go drive my truck. It is like one of those things you can "un-see" or "uh-hear" once you do. Maybe I was blissfully ignorant before and no will notice something that I might have missed before no matter how unlikely.

Regardless this has likely been the most useful thread I've read here, right up there with replacement tires. I am very thankful for everyone whose contributed there experience and solutions so far. I am not armed with every TSB I can be. My truck is going in for service this week and for a variety of issues so I'll have them check on some of these while in since it took me 6 weeks to get the appointment.

I honestly thought Rivian's QC was better than Tesla's until owning this truck. I've only had one issue with my Plaid in the 2+ years I've owned it. It was the aforementioned halfshaft vibration, and it only affected the car in a narrow speed range of 48-52 mph, and mine was never as bad as most people's. You could traverse that speed range under hard acceleration in milliseconds anyway. Mine was pretty much eliminated when I had the track pack brakes put on.

So far my R1T has 5 issues that need to be fixed at this appointment. I only had 1 when I originally set it. After reading through this thread, I am pretty sure I have the suspension chirping issue. So I'll add that to the service ticket.

Thanks again to all those who contributed. It's sad that we have the issues, but what a great community resource we have as well! It can help keep the pressure up on Rivian to fix.

 

[kyledmb]

Another week or so into this, I've been driving around town on All-Purpose | High Suspension | Moderate Feel and very few rattles at all. As soon as I put it in Standard height, it rattles like crazy.

For my specific half-shaft issue, it seems shaft angle has the largest impact on the rattling.

Problem is that the ride height auto lowers after you pass 45 MPH, which is fine, but it doesn't auto raise back to High after you slow down. I really wish they would include this in the auto adjust feature.

 

[Jonger1150]

Mine is much quieter with the colder weather. Clearly the cold grease slows down the knocking.

6 months before my temps are much warmer than they are now.

 

[Cascadian]

I am going to share my story that happened this week here, since there is a discussion on half shafts, clunking etc.

On Thursday my R1S (G1 Quad) started to make an awful clunking noise from the front left (see video).

I tried driving at different ride heights but that didn’t help and it just kept getting worse. Called Rivian service and went through the usual reset process. Very wonderful service agent (Taylor) quickly set me up with a tow to El Segundo and a rental car.

I was resigned to being without my car for a while so I was surprised to get a call the very next day saying my car was fixed and ready to be picked up. A true miracle.

I have attached the invoice that says what Rivian found. According to the front desk person this is a very common problem and was a result of incorrect sized hub bolts installed at the factory, which subsequently loosened and damaged the half shaft. They replaced both front half shafts and also the right front CV boot which was leaking grease.

I share this just to point others who might have this issue. For me, it came on very suddenly and I had not noticed clunking or or other noises before this week.

Also huge shout outs to Taylor on the phone and Ray in El Segundo service, who were amazing. I couldn’t have asked for a better experience.

I think I may have the same. My vehicle wasin SC over 2 weeks for just a tailgate adjustment and 7500 inspection. On the phone today I was told they worked on the driveshaft because a a CV boot issue. There were no indicators of a problem before inspection. They did not write it up in the invoice, so I have no further details.

On the way home from the SC I started hearing a clunk in stop and go traffic. Later as I drove down a steep hill there was a bang, region stopped and I had to get on the brakes. As I drove on, the region did not come back, I checked the drivetrain display and no power or regeneration was showing in the front motors. I drove home and called roadside assistance. As I drove back and forth to parallel park in a safe place the noise like in your video started. They will tow it back to the SC tomorrow and hopefully they will give it priority like yours.

 

[kyledmb]

I think I may have the same. My vehicle wasin SC over 2 weeks for just a tailgate adjustment and 7500 inspection. On the phone today I was told they worked on the driveshaft because a a CV boot issue. There were no indicators of a problem before inspection. They did not write it up in the invoice, so I have no further details.

On the way home from the SC I started hearing a clunk in stop and go traffic. Later as I drove down a steep hill there was a bang, region stopped and I had to get on the brakes. As I drove on, the region did not come back, I checked the drivetrain display and no power or regeneration was showing in the front motors. I drove home and called roadside assistance. As I drove back and forth to parallel park in a safe place the noise like in your video started. They will tow it back to the SC tomorrow and hopefully they will give it priority like yours.

Oh that sounds terrible. Was this Seattle? I have not had a good experience with Seattle SC and they will NEVER touch my vehicle again. They have done nothing but write off my concerns about the grinding/clunking/rattling in the front left suspension and I know I am headed for some failure like you experience. Scares the crap out of me to drive my truck anymore.

 

[Cascadian]

Oh that sounds terrible. Was this Seattle? I have not had a good experience with Seattle SC and they will NEVER touch my vehicle again. They have done nothing but write off my concerns about the grinding/clunking/rattling in the front left suspension and I know I am headed for some failure like you experience. Scares the crap out of me to drive my truck anymore.

Vehicle towed back to Bellevue SC

Update:
Rivian say they packed too much grease in joint between half-shaft and motor, which caused over-pressure and the drivetrain computer to freak out.
New half-shaft installed with correct amount of grease and so far so good.

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