New Prius Whistling sound

Nope, nothing aftermarket at all. The only accessories I got with the vehicle are all-weather floor and cargo mats (really like them), first aid kit, and cargo net (both the first aid kit and cargo net were part of an accessory package that Toyota assigned to the car (I really wish they wouldn't do that, but that's for another thread ). So there's nothing "extra" attached to the outside of the car (no bumper applique or paint protection film).

Thanks for the thought though.

 

I noticed something last night as I was getting out of the car (in the daylight) that I wanted to include in this thread...

I'm not sure how I didn't notice this before, but now my driver's door is out of alignment. The top right corner of the door is sucked into the car about 1/4", so it doesn't close flush to the top left corner of the rear door. I'm guessing that the dealer adjusted the door alignment in an attempt to make a tighter seal along the top of the door, but it's strange I didn't notice it before.

Tomorrow when I speak with the district/regional factory technician I'm going to point this out to him/her and let them know that it needs to be readjusted to be flush with the rear door. Especially since making that adjustment didn't correct the issue.

I'll let everyone know how it goes tomorrow.

 

The whistling sound may be corrected. Yay!

Yesterday I brought the vehicle into the dealer and met with a District rep and District Technician from TMS. Both were very professional, reassuring and interested in listening to my concerns (not only about the whistling and door adjustment, but other things as well).

After looking at and discussed the door alignment, the technician drove my vehicle with me in the passenger's seat and the district rep in the back seat. Of course we were able to reproduce the sound and both the tech and I heard it. One thing the tech did that I didn't think to do and I don't know if anyone else did was to pull in the side mirror. That immediately stopped the noise. When he pushed it back out the noise came back again.

This lead us to believe that although the sound seemed to come from around the top of the window, it may have to do with airflow around or through something lower. He told me that he would use the tape technique to narrow down the issue.

A few hours later he called me to show me where he was with the vehicle and explain what he found. He determined that the noise was coming from the area where the vertical part of the front upper door frame meets the lower part of the rest of the door, under the exterior window sill molding. The proximity of the mirror to this area explains why folding in the mirror made the sound go away. He told me that using tape on this 2” long area he could turn the whistle on and off like a light switch.

He informed me that there’s a small piece of foam tucked inside this area that’s about 1.5” long or so. By replacing that foam with a similar but longer piece it seems as though he corrected the issue. He test drove the vehicle and wasn’t able to reproduce the sound, but left the service order open so I could test it more because traffic and wind conditions got to be such that he didn’t feel he could accurately reproduce the driving conditions that lead to the noise.

Last night after driving home in traffic, I took it out for a spin on the open road and wasn’t able to reproduce the sound. Sometime after the rain stops I’ll drive it more to confirm again that it’s not whistling.

He also re-aligned the door frame, so now it’s just about correct. It’s actually a tiny bit out from where it should be and still doesn’t quite match the passenger’s side. However, it looks much better than it was before and I’m going to live with it for a little bit before deciding if it’s worth it to have them try to readjust it again.

I’ll follow up with the results of my additional driving tests. Also, I’ll try to take some pictures to better show where the issue was and what he did.

 

I had another opportunity to drive the car last night and yup, the whistle is gone!

As promised here are pictures. I've included pics of both the driver's side where the fix was done, and the passenger's side for reference. I highlighted the relevant areas of the pictures.

Location of Driver's side whistling sound:


Exterior closeup of Whistle Location with foam highlighted (It's hard to see, but it is there):


Interior view of the foam highlighted:


Passenger's side showing no foam (for reference):


Interior view of Passenger's side without foam (again for reference):


I hope they're helpful, and please let me know if you have questions or want me to take more pictures from different angles.

Thank you to everyone who posted suggestions. I think one of the biggest lessons I learned in this process was that a noise can come from a different location than where it sounds like it's coming from. Everyone who drove my car thought it was coming from the top of the driver's window even thought it was coming from closer to the bottom front of the window. So all the suggestions about Windshield, front grill, wiper arms, etc could all have been possible.

The tape idea is a great one. I prefer the blue painter's tape (maybe even the 60 day removal kind) because it's thin, leaves less residue, and peels off easily.

Thanks again, and I hope this thread is helpful to anyone else who has a similar issue.