Constant high-pitched ringing noise

[melvincat]

Update: For anyone who is curious, I've escalated this to corporate and they connected me to another Toyota for a full diagnostic - this is different from the typical maintenance checklist. They have my car for a few days. I sat in the car with them and at first they said it sounded like the battery fan or something specific to hybrids but they then changed their minds and said "huh, maybe I don't hear what you're talking about!" It's gonna take a lot of different ears and communication skills to avoid having them all think I'm talking about the spaceship or fan noise. What's funny is that they rented me a 2024 corolla hybrid and that thing is DEAD quiet. So, I don't think I'm going to accept their argument about it just being normal hybrid noise anymore. Because it just isn't normal. If the corolla hybrid is more comfy than the LC, then we have a serious problem, y'all.

Hi! I'm hoping someone can help me out with a pretty significant issue I'm having.

Got me a 2025 LC 1958 recently, drives amazingly and I'm very happy with the car... except there is this extremely high-pitched ringing noise, it sounds like electrical, or a bad charger if you know what I mean. It is constant except when at a full stop. Sometimes it's even ringing when I turn on the car and it's in park. I took it to the dealership service department, they said it's normal noise and that it's most likely the battery charging, and then immediately tried to get to roll over negative equity from my lease into a different car. Overall it was not a good outcome. They didn't seem interested in troubleshooting or anything like that. I then took the car to an automotive audio shop, and he listened to the ringing, and he said that is ABSOLUTELY not normal noise, and he suspects maybe it's the rear HVAC unit causing problems? The only reason I'm trying to get it fixed is because the sound is actually unbearable. I can't just deal with it. It's genuinely an awful sound. It's not a regular/typical hybrid engine sound, either. I'm having such bad tinnitus now. This issue also popped up about 2 weeks after having the car, so I was hoping they'd find an issue during inspection but everything came back clean. I'm not sure what to do. The audio shop owner was trying to save me his hourly rate and told me to take it to another Toyota first, otherwise he would have taken apart the center armrest area himself. When I put my ear to that spot, it is indeed louder. Has anyone else experienced anything like this in this car? I don't know how to just suffer through the noise.

 

[jmo]

Same issue here and driving me nuts. I bought a Carista to see if turning off ANC might help but it didn't. I'm considering taking it to a different dealership to get it checked out again during my 5K service.

 

[melvincat]

Same issue here and driving me nuts. I bought a Carista to see if turning off ANC might help but it didn't. I'm considering taking it to a different dealership to get it checked out again during my 5K service.

 

[melvincat]

I am so sorry. I have nothing but empathy for the people who can hear this noise. I’m off to the second diagnostic at a different (and friendlier) location tomorrow morning. Fingers crossed they can rectify the issue!

 

[ultane]

Good luck!!

 

[PDPete]

Is this maybe a case where the sound is a high enough frequency that most people can’t hear it, especially those over the age of 30, but younger people can?

 

[melvincat]

Is this maybe a case where the sound is a high enough frequency that most people can’t hear it, especially those over the age of 30, but younger people can?

Yeah I definitely think this is the case. I feel kind of crazy trying to explain this issue in person to the people who can't hear it. Luckily the audio guy was validating and even said it was irritating him, lol.

 

[jpto]

Kind of sounds like coil whine, which, there isn’t a lot you can do except for replacing the offending component or try to dampen it by wrapping the area around the component with sound deadening material. Can you tell where the sound is coming from?

I’d take a closer listen to the battery area in the hatch

 

[melvincat]

Kind of sounds like coil whine, which, there isn’t a lot you can do except for replacing the offending component or try to dampen it by wrapping the area around the component with sound deadening material. Can you tell where the sound is coming from?

I’d take a closer listen to the battery area in the hatch

I would consider something like coil whine except it's constant in pitch - it does not ever change. It really sounds like a bad phone charger but much, much louder. It only happens when the car is in drive. If i come to a full stop, the ringing stops, but when I continue driving, it immediately turns back on. It's much higher-pitched than anything mechanical or any normal hybrid noises which I am fine with. It honestly sounds loudest when I put my head on top of the center armrest. The audio guy said it might be a problem inside of there but he didn't know for certain, since it's such a new car model. I have confirmed it's nothing to do with the A/C or heating, or anything that is digital inside of the car. It persists no matter what.

 

[katekebo]

Do you have anything plugged into the rear USB-C charging ports?

 

[melvincat]

Do you have anything plugged into the rear USB-C charging ports?

I don't. Even if there was something plugged in, it's puzzling that the noise seems to be connected to starting and stopping the engine. Full stop = noise goes away. Accelerate or put it in drive = noise starts. That's basically how it's been behaving.

 

[katekebo]

Get a Physics Toolbox app on your phone and use Tone Detector, Spectrum Analyzer and Spectrogram to identify the frequency of the noise. Take screenshoot and post them here. By knowing what frequency is the noise and if it is a single frequency or has harmonics may help to identify the source. I'll post a couple of spectrograms from my LC later so that you can compare your vehicle vs. mine.

 

[melvincat]

Get a Physics Toolbox app on your phone and use Tone Detector, Spectrum Analyzer and Spectrogram to identify the frequency of the noise. Take screenshoot and post them here. By knowing what frequency is the noise and if it is a single frequency or has harmonics may help to identify the source. I'll post a couple of spectrograms from my LC later so that you can compare your vehicle vs. mine.

There's a post from someone else - they actually did that exact thing and posted it. The post is below! A page or 2 in you can see the screenshot of the audio, but it looks like it's about 14,000hz at peak. To me, it sounds extremely consistent in pitch. I wish I could use the app with my car but it's in the shop so I can't measure anything right now. But I am confident after reading OP's description of the "tinnitus" noise that this is the same or similar. I will definitely attempt to record when I get the car back, though.

Ringing noise that only stops when stopped 2024 LC

Hi, I just purchased a new 2024 LC trim yesterday. I noticed there is a constant ringing that ONLY goes away when I am stopped. As soon as I let off the brake and the car begins to move the ringing starts. It doesn't stop again until I am completely stopped. Any clue what this could be?

www.landcruiserforum.com

 

[jmo]

I personally hear 2 different levels of this high-frequency ringing. The pitch changes when the car is moving or not. Like I'll be stopped at a light, but as soon as I lift off the brake, it changes to the louder, slightly lower-pitch ringing. TLDR- there's an annoying ringing ALL THE TIME.

 

[PDPete]

it looks like it's about 14,000hz at peak

Well...that's pretty high, but not in that "can only be heard by young people" range, which is generally just above 17,000hz

 

[katekebo]

So I took a few spectrograms

These are with the vehicle stopped. You can clearly see a few very distinct frequencies between 8 and 14kHz. They are so narrow that they can't be of mechanical origin (like gear noise). They appear and disappear randomly. Some go away, while other show up.

These are with the vehicle moving. If you look closely, there is two frequencies, one around 10 and the other around 13kHz that seam pretty persistent.

All these noises are very faint, and me being over 60 years old, I can't hear them. But somebody with very sensitive hearing may.

As for origin, because they are so narrow and steady, they appear to be of electronic origin. DC to DC converters and frequency inverters usually operate around 20kHz. So this noise may come from the power inverter, but also the infotainment system or even USB chargers.

 

[gradles]

Fingers crossed someone has some success with this at some point to set precedent. I hear mine do it EVERY day. And I’m 33 so people over 30 can hear it

 

[ultane]

I wonder if my tinnitus is just drowning it out..

 

[katekebo]

Fingers crossed someone has some success with this at some point to set precedent. I hear mine do it EVERY day. And I’m 33 so people over 30 can hear it

Based on the sonograms from my phone (not a sophisticated sound analysis equipment), these high frequency tones are very faint. Not even my children (both under 30) can hear it. But the level may vary from vehicle to vehicle. Get the Physics Toolbox for your phone and take some measurements yourself. It would be interesting to compare results.

 

[FLC250]

Update: For anyone who is curious, I've escalated this to corporate and they connected me to another Toyota for a full diagnostic - this is different from the typical maintenance checklist. They have my car for a few days. I sat in the car with them and at first they said it sounded like the battery fan or something specific to hybrids but they then changed their minds and said "huh, maybe I don't hear what you're talking about!" It's gonna take a lot of different ears and communication skills to avoid having them all think I'm talking about the spaceship or fan noise. What's funny is that they rented me a 2024 corolla hybrid and that thing is DEAD quiet. So, I don't think I'm going to accept their argument about it just being normal hybrid noise anymore. Because it just isn't normal. If the corolla hybrid is more comfy than the LC, then we have a serious problem, y'all.

Hi! I'm hoping someone can help me out with a pretty significant issue I'm having.

Got me a 2025 LC 1958 recently, drives amazingly and I'm very happy with the car... except there is this extremely high-pitched ringing noise, it sounds like electrical, or a bad charger if you know what I mean. It is constant except when at a full stop. Sometimes it's even ringing when I turn on the car and it's in park. I took it to the dealership service department, they said it's normal noise and that it's most likely the battery charging, and then immediately tried to get to roll over negative equity from my lease into a different car. Overall it was not a good outcome. They didn't seem interested in troubleshooting or anything like that. I then took the car to an automotive audio shop, and he listened to the ringing, and he said that is ABSOLUTELY not normal noise, and he suspects maybe it's the rear HVAC unit causing problems? The only reason I'm trying to get it fixed is because the sound is actually unbearable. I can't just deal with it. It's genuinely an awful sound. It's not a regular/typical hybrid engine sound, either. I'm having such bad tinnitus now. This issue also popped up about 2 weeks after having the car, so I was hoping they'd find an issue during inspection but everything came back clean. I'm not sure what to do. The audio shop owner was trying to save me his hourly rate and told me to take it to another Toyota first, otherwise he would have taken apart the center armrest area himself. When I put my ear to that spot, it is indeed louder. Has anyone else experienced anything like this in this car? I don't know how to just suffer through the noise.

Hi melvincat, would you have a recording of this noise?

Is it similar to this: