Anybody else have wind noise / whistle?

A few of us have run into it, and I went to the trouble of taking it in for warranty service.

The culprit? The indentations for the screws on the underside of your door mirrors. They should be covered up. The dealership stuck on two pieces of clear plastic, so I guess that's the "proper fix", although I know someone here used tape.

 

Got 2007 also, but no noises.

 

I have an '07 basic. After 6 months it also developed the high pitch whistle caused by the mirrors. It gets quite loud and obnoxious at speeds of 45 mph or greater. Thanks for the info about the screw indentations. The mirror seemed to be stable and secure and I was having trouble figuring out how this problem developed.

 

we have that whisstle noise too on our 07, I thought it was a window not sealing , will check the mirror with tape if it works I will plug holes.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(zqfmbg @ Aug 11 2007, 01:58 AM) [snapback]493904[/snapback]</div>

I never had trouble with wind noise... in fact, the Prius may be one of the quietest cars I've owned in that respect.

But after reading these posts, I checked my mirrors, and sure enough the screw holes are covered with clear plastic. It's hard to tell if they're plugs or tape (and I don't want to mess with them to find out.) When a any car comes from the factory, there are any number of things the dealer is expected to install, such as the ornamental wheel hub cover. My guess is that the mirror screw covers are one such thing, and maybe some of them don't know or don't bother.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(zqfmbg @ Aug 10 2007, 10:58 PM) [snapback]493904[/snapback]</div>

My parent's Prius had exactly this same issue. Did not have it at first, then they took it to the car wash one day, and after that, it did have it. I checked it out while I had the car last week and is was these indents under the mirror. Looks like it came from the factory with some thin scotch-tape-like discs covering them up. The car wash had ripped off half of one of these, and the razor-thin remaining half was channeling wind into the hole and making the noise. I stuck a piece of scotch tape over it and it solcved the problem.

I wish someone would make some nice hard-plastic or rubber hole plugs for these holes. That would be a cool and inexpensive "mod" and would eliminate this wind-noise issue with class.

In the meantime, I am going to try and find some standard sized plugs that work.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(thehabs @ Aug 11 2007, 06:05 PM) [snapback]494135[/snapback]</div>

It's hard-won experience. Nobody knew what it was in my case, and it wasn't until after I'd gotten it fixed and was reading back in the other forums that I noted someone else had had the same problem and fixed it in the same way.

People love to say "go use the search function, you idiot", but I think people grossly overestimate the utility of the search function.

 

Same for me, whistling, i thought it was the engine or something, i was resigned to thinking it was "cute" now i will check the mirrors, thanks!

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(GeoDosch @ Aug 11 2007, 10:03 AM) [snapback]493955[/snapback]</div>

Just Checked mine and screw holes are covered with clear plastic also.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(NYPrius1 @ Aug 12 2007, 08:42 AM) [snapback]494258[/snapback]</div>

This forum is totally awesome. Just checked my new 2007 Prius. It has the plastic covers. But good info to have, should one day I hear some whistling noice. I will immediately check the covers.

This forum is packed with a wealth of information. It is better then any manual, which, btw, kind of buts you to sleep reading.


Richard

 

just checked mine, they are still covered, I guess I'm just special. I'll pretend I'm "Knight Rider" and make funny noises as I drive slow through the 'hood,

 

We developed a whistle on a road trip over Thanksgiving. I was about to take our 2007 Prius into the dealer to have him check the window seal, but decided to check this chat room first. Sure enough, part of the tape was missing on one of the screw holes under the mirror. You guys saved me an unnecessary trip to the dealer. What a great chat room. Thanks.

Mark in Clarendon Hills

 

I just had this happen to me, though I did find the cause on my own. The tape over one of the screws on the mirror had torn and was whistling. Removing the tape entirely resolved the noise.

I assume it's done for streamlining since it doesn't whistle without the tape. The tape had dried out and cracked after just a few months, which doesn't seem satisfactory for a permanent installation.

Either Toyota intended the tape to be a temporary cover (why?), or just came up with a lousy cover. If it was supposed to be permanent, they should have used plugs.

 

I think this forum may have saved my sanity. Just brought a 2005 Prius and drove it back from Vegas to San Francisco and there was a wind whistle driving me crazy the whole ride up today. Wind noise is a huge peeve of mine so I was feeling buyers remorse, but I just checked and there are three nice open screw holes under my mirror. I'm hopeful now. Thanks.

 

Thought you might be interested to know that my Prius has (had) the same problem. Having just read this article, I went out and taped up both mirrors screw holes and took it for a test drive. I still had some noise but not like it used to be, so thanks for the solution guys ,it works.

The posters who had clear plugs - did it look like a Toyota fix or a home made one? Just wondering if this ought to have been done at the dealer before I got the car or what ?

Thanks

 

Our 2006 and 2007 both suffer from wind noise at freeway speeds, not a whistle sound though. More like the side windows don't seal enough.

 

When the rear windows are down there is definitely a wind noise (much base) best described as the drumming of a helicopter rotor or 20mm cannon fire. This results in a headache & ringing in the ears. Happens on a 2006 & 2007.

 

I've had the reverberation effect on just about all recent model cars if the rear windows are down.