Rear axle clicking after using conserve mode

[Tritium]

The half shaft noise issue has been identified before in this forum, but can be hard to find. Due to the large suspension articulation available in the Rivian R1S and R1T, it uses an extended travel CV axel at all four corners, which are known to make noises, especially when you significantly change the ride height. This is a normal condition (feature) of this half shaft and does not indicate that anything is broken, or going to break. Here is a link to a supplier with more information on the CV halfshafts:
https://www.trakmotive.com/products/automotive-cv-axles/xtended-travel/

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[MOT]

The half shaft noise issue has been identified before in this forum, but can be hard to find. Due to the large suspension articulation available in the Rivian R1S and R1T, it uses an extended travel CV axel at all four corners, which are known to make noises, especially when you significantly change the ride height. This is a normal condition (feature) of this half shaft and does not indicate that anything is broken, or going to break. Here is a link to a supplier with more information on the CV halfshafts:
https://www.trakmotive.com/products/automotive-cv-axles/xtended-travel/

Thank you for sharing. My primary concern is that the issue occurs when Conserve mode is engaged but disappears when put back into All-Purpose mode and the suspension is raised. If Rivian says something to the effect of "It's all good, but we offer extended coverage on the rear powertrain assembly to ease your concerns," then I'm fine with it. The clicking sounds are not the problem; it's more that no one can explain why it's clicking. Telescoping half-shafts with CV joints have been around for a long time, and their design does not inherently lend itself to clicking.

 

[picasso]

Had the exact same problem you describe, clicking "card-in-the-spokes" type noise, audible at low RPM in conserve, would notice it a lot less, if not gone completely, switching to all purpose. Took it to the SC in Richmond, they identified the problem as faulty disconnect switches for the rear motors . This must have been the right diagnosis, after fixing that the noise was gone on the (long) drive back from SC in conserve. They also advised me to keep the truck in all purpose for general driving unless otherwise needed for long trips. Also suggested to switch modes while in motion, to put less stress on the tires/suspensions, explained that as the analog of trying to turn the front tires while stationary on hard surface as opposed to doing the same while rolling, less friction and resistance to adjustments in the latter case.

 

[MOT]

Had the exact same problem you describe, clicking "card-in-the-spokes" type noise, audible at low RPM in conserve, would notice it a lot less, if not gone completely, switching to all purpose. Took it to the SC in Richmond, they identified the problem as faulty disconnect switches for the rear motors . This must have been the right diagnosis, after fixing that the noise was gone on the (long) drive back from SC in conserve. They also advised me to keep the truck in all purpose for general driving unless otherwise needed for long trips. Also suggested to switch modes while in motion, to put less stress on the tires/suspensions, explained that as the analog of trying to turn the front tires while stationary on hard surface as opposed to doing the same while rolling, less friction and resistance to adjustments in the latter case.

I wonder if this might have fixed my issue. I just got my vehicle back and they did a LOT of work. I'm not sure it was needed. I'll follow up with a another message showing all the work that was done.

 

[MOT]

I got my R1T back this past Friday, and they did a lot of work. Since they seemed stumped, they just replaced the drive units.
Below, you can see they replaced the clutch units first, and when that didn't fix it they installed full new drive units.
The clicking is gone, but I'm not putting it into conserve mode.
The next day, I used the R1T to pull out a few small stumps and loaded it up with a cubic yard of topsoil without any issues.

 

[IGR]

Got my truck back from the service center for same issue, tapping at low speeds. They replaced one of the disconnect unit with half shaft.
Both of those things are not covered under the powertrain warranty and otherwise would be ~$1700 service according to SC representatives.

They also couldn’t tell me why this happened.

Edit: at the time of happened truck had around 5500 miles on it

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