Disable the grindy speakery thingy?

If this is supposed to be some sort of warning to pedestrians that an electric car is driving nearby, it is not working in my 2017 Prime Advanced. I drove around my work parking lot, going from a dead stop to ~10 mph with brakes on & off, while several co-workers stood nearby and tried to hear this noise maker. They all agreed that the car was dead-silent. "Like a golf car" was the comment.

 

Same here, though no co-workers; just me and the cat (oh yeah, the car too, har, har!) My 2012 PIP definitely made that noise. I wonder if it's available/adjustable and by whom.

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More details:
moving car slowly from driveway into garage, with both windows open, no sound. With the 2012 PIP, I could easily hear the sound, same garage, same driveway, same cat!

 

My Prime definitely makes that noise - it's just not audible from inside the car unless the car is near a sound reflector (i.e. my garage) and the windows are down. But from directly in front, it is definitely audible if you know what to listen for. It's a hard-to-describe sound.

 

The car is definitely making the noise, you guys just can't hear it.

For sure, every single Prius sold in the United States since the 2012 model year, all versions including plugin/prime/C/V have had the noisemaker. If you can hear any sound, whatsoever, at 1mph it is the noisemaker.

Look inside the upper radiator grill. You see the 3 round fist-sized things hanging in front of the radiator with plugs going to them? The 2 identical ones are the horn, the 3rd one is the noisemaker.

If you unplug the noise maker you will all of a sudden notice that you had in fact heard the noise the entire time, you just didn't notice it/thought it was a natural noise for the car to make once it's gone. Plus on gen 4 you get an error message.

EDIT: The noisemaker was near the wheel in 2012-13(maybe 14) in 15, and all of gen 4, it is under the hood right next to the horns.

 

But in my case, it's not just me and if a number of people can't even hear this "noise maker" as I drive in my work parking lot, how is it "protecting" anyone as I drive around this parking lot? If that's its only job, it's failing miserably.

 

It's hard to hear from inside the car. It's obvious from in front of the car.

 

So does clipping the wire to the nose maker set off an error message?

Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.

 

Yes, it will put up a nag message to see the dealer.

Do a search in this forum, for "disable prius prime noise maker"

 

Just drive slowly into a house's garage with all the windows down. Then unplug the noisemaker and do the exact same thing. The first time you should hear the noise and the second time it should be dead silent. While it is possible you have a defective noisemaker, it is basically unheard of, exceedingly rare. Plus the Gen 4 has a check to ensure the noisemaker is plugged in and working, you get a constant error message on the screen that never goes away telling you to see the dealer.

If in fact your noisemaker is broken in a way that doesn't set off the error then consider it a bonus. I personally hate the noise, and have found no utility in it other than annoying myself when pulling into the garage. I unplugged it on my 2015 and would have done the same on 2017 if not for the error message.

I hate the noise, I will watch out for and take responsibility for dumb pedestrians.


PS: It to me it sounds like "WEEEEEERRRrrrrrREEEEEEeERRreeeeeee" but slightly less annoying. it sounds like what you would imagine an electric motor would sound like.

 

I has nothing to do with dumb pedestrians, it has to do with VISUALLY IMPAIRED pedestrians.

That's gear whine or electric motor stator whine, not the sound of the noise maker.

The noise maker sounds more like the wind blowing.

 

are we still arguing about this?

 

Stuff a rag in it.

 

Just quoting myself from a similar PriusChat thread:

This is one case where the marketing people should have had a conversation with the engineers. Obviously, this is an important safety feature, but something which annoys a few owners.

Why not make the noise programmable, like the ring-tone on a cellphone? I'm sure there are Prime owners who would find occasions when they'd like to have their car sound like a Ferrari or a Harley. Or simulate the sound of air brakes on an 18-wheeler descending a steep grade. The possibilities are virtually endless.

Vrrrroooom! Vrrrroooom!

 

Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard No. 141, Minimum Sound Requirements for Hybrid and Electric Vehicles (49 CFR § 571.141) specifically prohibits customization (emphasis added):

Note that the compliance date isn’t until September 1, 2018, but I imagine Toyota considered the requirements when designing the fourth-generation Prius series, to avoid the need for a redesign later. If you can’t sleep tonight, feel free to read all 107 pages of the Federal Register notice (81 FR 90416) announcing the Final Rule. See page 90475 for the explanation of the sameness requirement; NHTSA considered and rejected comments asking to allow customizations of the kind you suggest.

 

gen 3 has it as well, starting in 2012.

 

The federally-mandated factory "noise maker", we have on our Primes is currently ineffective in alerting nearby pedestrians (Presbyterians). On a couple of occasions I asked people on the street, did you hear my car; none heard me. The only way I can hear this alert is to carefully drive into a quiet garage, and listen carefully. My solution is to add a manually controlled beeper which is quite audible, to the existing noise maker. This will keep me and nearby Presbyterians safe until the Federal government and carmakers get their S**t together!

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The noise maker has three levels, adjustable at your dealer.

 

Mr. Lee Jay, do you know how to verify the current setting, without special "tools"?

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Nope.

 

i'm hoping they don't require louder, i like silence.