Week old 2010 Prius II owner. I have noticed that there is a very high pitched sound that comes from the inverter when switching to charging under brake regeneration during around town driving. This is a steady high frequency pitch and is either on or off, is does not change in pitch or amplitude. This is not wind noise, nor gear or motor noise. This is also not brake pad or wheel bearing noise; is is definitely coming from the area of the inverter. As a parttime musician, this is very annoying to me. I am one of those people who can hear a television's CRT (remember tube TV's?) in the next room, even if the volume is all the way down. This seems very similar to this, or to the pitch put out by some electrical transformers or power strips. I have heard that frequencies from 10,000 to 100,000 Hz are produced by the electronics on the Prius. Anything from 10,000 to 20,000 is audible by most humans. Is there anything that can be done address this? After a while, my very sensitive left ear tends to hurt from hearing this pitch so often.
Dude, I live in Dixie and even at 60 years of age, I can still hear mosquitos and we've got a bunch. But I've learned to ignore it. Historically there have many efforts to add sound insulation to the firewall, hood, and floor to minimize cabin noise. This is probably your best bet. Now if you really want to 'have fun,' you could get a tweeter, amplifier and mike and try to design and build a phase canceler. This is a fairly sophisticated effort but it is what noise canceling headsets do (not very well IMHO!) For a minute, I was hoping you might be referencing the opening "toot", a clarinet 'bleep' that I briefly hear every time I start my wife's 2010 Prius. I actually look forward to it like the mewing, greeting sounds our dog makes when I get home. Bob Wilson
Heh. Youre slightly unlucky in that the inverter noise in the 2010 is actually *louder* than in the second-gen cars. No idea why, but I can hear a 2010 coming in a decel much more easily than the earlier cars. The new inverter is smaller, maybe its castings aren't quite as beefy and sound-absorbing. Some of the sound probably also comes from the motor windings, even though they're encased in the transaxle. . _H*
Actually I still can hear the inverter, but I've gotten to live with it since it doesn't seem a problem for the hardware. In fact the high pitch frequencies tend to deteriorate faster the ear and, as you are suffering, we're surrounded with electronics -at home, at work and, now, in the car- and all of them tend to emit high frequency noises. But I'm sure it'll be worse for earphone users, a lot more, with a '40 deaf ears generation coming soon. As a former musician myself -in fact a musician never stops with music, of course- I feel sympathetic with you.
I heard this the first time I test drove it. At first I thought a cop was approaching from behind. I mentioned it to the passengers (wife + salesguy) and neither had a comment. It is still there, but I've gotten used to it. Wife never mentions it. BTW I see at the bottom of the page, lots of "Similar Threads". So you can read all about it.
Same here (brand new Prius III). Indeed it's very noticeable, but still a minor nuisance as far as I'm concerned. (Though I do have keen ears so I notice it almost all the time.)
Turn the tunes up. I hear it too but it doesn't bother me. Rather, I like the lower-pitched whir as you pull away.
I used to be a violinist and I have very sensitive ears as well. I have an LCD screen next to me and I can hear the high pitch sound coming out from the back of the LCD everytime it is on the off mode and it annoys me. As with the Prius's sound you can't do anything about it but I however don't have the same problem as you. I actually embrace the high pitched noise. It is not exactly the same as the CRT noise that you've been hearing, as a matter of fact I enjoy the electronic sounds coming from the Prius. What I can't stand is the noise from Rattling but thats fixed now as well for me.
I've been hearing this whine, too, when the car is accelerating, and I was worried that something might be wrong so did a search. Good to know I can forget about it! Incidentally, I'm 71 and hear it clearly as well as the t.v squealing, etc. My husband is 73 and can't hear it. He also can't hear birds sing anymore and really misses them. Be happy if you can hear the whine!
