New high-ish pitched whirring whine coming from up front now as I drive....

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Care, Maintenance and Troubleshooting' started by priusrecon, Oct 18, 2021.

  1. priusrecon

    priusrecon Member

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    Listened to several of the videos here and can't find a match.

    Just started noticing it, since I've had the radio on lately, but had the radio off today. Don't remember this sound from before. It is disturbingly loud.

    I have a Gen2 Prius, 2006 with 177K miles on it.

    - Car drives and seems to work normally.

    - The noise usually starts after I step down on it, like when I'm passing on the highway, or accellerating climbing a hill, as if it starts when under load with the ICE doing the pulling. Usually quiet, so far, when not much load.

    - Never seems to occur when rolling along just on the battery without the ICE running.

    - Doesn't seem to occur even when the ICE starts (like when topping 40mph) and even under mild accelleration using the ICE, but instead seems to start if I step down and push it. I've noticed when the ICE is pulling heavy torque, and usually if the RPMs get over 2800-3000, that's when it seems to start. Noise seems to stop once I lighten up on the gas, generally with a little tinge of a chain like "rattley" flavor to it. However, one time the sound did continued after lightening up, before evenually intermittenly fading away.

    - Other than the noise, the car runs perfectly, gets great milage, and shows no codes.



    * sound occurs here at 0:09, intensifies at 0:13, and occurs again at 0:24




    * sound occurs here around 0:09




    - This is a new sound to me that I'm not used to, not sure if it's OK to continue driving the car. Don't want to be tearing something up in there....

    - Any ideas what this is, and how deep a pile am I in here?

    Thanks,
     
    #1 priusrecon, Oct 18, 2021
  2. ChapmanF

    ChapmanF Senior Member

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    If you get the engine up to 2800 to 3000 rpm without much load (say, just "racing" it in Park) is there a similar sound?

    I don't remember offhand just how fast you can "race" the engine. Of course the go pedal is just an input to an ECU, which is programmed to say "ok, Park and the driver is pressing the go pedal, I'll go race the engine some."
     
    #2 ChapmanF, Oct 18, 2021
  3. priusrecon

    priusrecon Member

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    The car let it drift up to abt 3 grand while in park, where it wandered about a bit.
    As the engine drifted above 3K, it did start tickling out that scratchy whirring sound.
     
    #3 priusrecon, Oct 19, 2021
  4. ChapmanF

    ChapmanF Senior Member

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    Now you can grab a friend to stimulate the go pedal, and take a mechanic's stethoscope out under the hood and go hunting.

    Might as well start with the low-hanging fruit ... poke the stethoscope around the bearings for the water pump, the A/C clutch, and the idler pulley.
     
    #4 ChapmanF, Oct 19, 2021
  5. Alty

    Alty Junior Member

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    #5 Alty, Feb 24, 2023
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