My car is a 2007 Prius, package 2, with about 37,000 miles on it. I just made my annual trip from New England to Florida a few weeks ago. During the last leg of my trip, I started to notice a loud noise (not pinging) that appears to be coming from under the hood. It starts at around 30 mph and gets louder as the speed increases. If I take my foot off the gas, say, at around 60 and let the car coast, the noise goes down as the car decelerates, going away under 30 mph. I sometimes think a scooter is passing me, but no one is there. I had the car at the dealer 2 days before I left and had the oil changed, tires rotated, and safety inspected. I have driven this Prius since December of 2006 and I have never noticed this before. Anyone have an idea what might be causing this? Thanks for any insight.
Since the last thing changed was the oil, did you check the oil to make sure that it's at the correct level?
If you can characterize the noise, it might help us to respond to your question. For example, does this sound like a loud exhaust sound due to a hole in the exhaust system, or whining from the transaxle, or a squealing sound from a bad wheel bearing, or ??
You are talking to someone who doesn't know too much about cars. It sounds like a scooter, starting slow, then speeding up as the car accelerates. I wouldn't not characterize it as a squealing. I thought about an exhaust problem, but the sound--to me--seems to be coming from the front end. If it is an exhaust problem, would the sound increase at a certain speed (>30 mph) and disappear completely at speed <30. I'll take it in next week.
with a hole in the exhaust the noise would increase as your accelerated, and decrease when not accelerating. The nosie normally sounds like a pop pop pop sound, or like a boy racers car.. a bit like the sound you explained, like a scooter starting up hope you manage to get it sorted soon Ann Marie
