Temporary Loud, Super High Pitched Noise

Discussion in 'Gen 3 Prius Care, Maintenance & Troubleshooting' started by GrumpyCabbie, Mar 21, 2012.

  1. GrumpyCabbie

    GrumpyCabbie Senior Member

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    I have had my gen3 Prius for two and a half years and have covered 65,000 miles.

    At the weekend I drove a 500 mile round trip to London and back, using mostly motorways at 70-80 mph. (I managed a trip average of 58 mpg UK :cool:).

    Anyhow, on the way home the car emitted a super loud high pitched noise for about 30 seconds. I am fully aware of the car making high pitched noises such as when you're braking etc but this time it was very very very loud and continuous to the point that I could barely hear the radio. In fact I thought it was a dodgy CD and turned it off only for the noise still being there.

    The car is running fine, it returned great mpg's considering my driving and hasn't flagged up any warning signs or displayed any undesirable symptoms.

    Is it a one off or an inverter about to fail or something inbetween?
     
    #1 GrumpyCabbie, Mar 21, 2012
  2. jdcollins5

    jdcollins5 Senior Member

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    Were you doing anything unusual at the time, going down a long downgrade, etc?
     
    #2 jdcollins5, Mar 21, 2012
  3. GrumpyCabbie

    GrumpyCabbie Senior Member

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    On the flat, crusing at a steady 75 mph.
     
    #3 GrumpyCabbie, Mar 21, 2012
  4. mgb4tim

    mgb4tim Noob

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    Maybe you should pull the trouble codes.
     
    #4 mgb4tim, Mar 21, 2012
  5. GrumpyCabbie

    GrumpyCabbie Senior Member

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    I'm out of warranty now so I'm not paying £70 an hour labour costs for the dealer to look at it - hence asking on here if anyone had previous experience.
     
    #5 GrumpyCabbie, Mar 21, 2012
  6. qbee42

    qbee42 My other car is a boat

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    Have you looked under the car for pedestrians?

    Tom
     
    #6 qbee42, Mar 21, 2012
  7. wick1ert

    wick1ert Senior Member

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    Dog whistle stuck on the car?
     
    #7 wick1ert, Mar 21, 2012
  8. spiderman

    spiderman wretched

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    I was thinking it could possibly be the customer when they heard what the fare total was.
     
    #8 spiderman, Mar 21, 2012
  9. GrumpyCabbie

    GrumpyCabbie Senior Member

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    And here's me expecting a sensible contribution from long standing members lol
     
    #9 GrumpyCabbie, Mar 21, 2012
    1 person likes this.
  10. wick1ert

    wick1ert Senior Member

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    Get a copy of TechStream, and I'll loan you the compatible cable that works with Windows XP to try and pull codes. It could very well have been something that got stuck to the car creating the noise, but for it to be that loud would be a little surprising.
     
    #10 wick1ert, Mar 21, 2012
  11. GrumpyCabbie

    GrumpyCabbie Senior Member

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    I'm pretty sure it was the same noise the inverter makes just much much louder.

    I've checked to see the inverter pump was working - which it is. The car hadn't been used for a while and I have a feeling the 12v is getting weaker than it was.
     
    #11 GrumpyCabbie, Mar 21, 2012
  12. tumbleweed

    tumbleweed Senior Member

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    If you can reproduce the noise there may be a few things you could try to help isolate it. For example speed up or slow a little to see if it changes, put the car in N and see if it goes away, roll a window down an inch or so and see if that changes it, touch the brake and see if it changes, etc.

    On this side of the pond some auto parts stores will read the codes for you free, see if you can find someone to do that and post them, if any.
     
    #12 tumbleweed, Mar 22, 2012
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