ALL POSTS - motor whine or "HUM" (Milling Sound)

[occ]

Congratulations on your new Rav4!

Way to be patient and take your time to test a few of them as well.

Thanks!

As a note, if this tranny noise is important to you, insists that they let you drive on the freeway at least 65mph for at least some duration. I noticed that my new rav4 tranny is just a wee bit more noticeable just right above 65mhp today (could also be my imagination, since I'm more critical knowing that it may be a potential future issue). Not enough to fret about, but if it gets any worst, Toyota will hear about it.

The one I rented was a lot louder even at 45mph. Also you have to be applying power (or regen'ing) at those speed to hear it. If there's no power, there's no noise. So there may be specific characteristics for each car, so make sure you can live with it. It's hard to gauge what "normal" is, but the standard is the LEAF for us, so pretty high in this regard IMO.

Tony, hope yours get resolved quickly, and please keep us posted for future reference.

 

[Dsinned]

Fwiw, most high voltage, 3 phase AC induction motors make a high pitch "whine" when they first start up or suddenly change load. This is especially true of 400Hz motors, commonly found in the aviation industry. I was exposed to a lot of high HP 60Hz and 400Hz motors aboard ship in the Navy, and they all seem to have this characteristic. Any connection to the RAV4 EV's drivetrain here?

 

[TonyWilliams]

Fwiw, most high voltage, 3 phase AC induction motors make a high pitch "whine" when they first start up or suddenly change load. This is especially true of 400Hz motors, commonly found in the aviation industry. I was exposed to a lot of high HP 60Hz and 400Hz motors aboard ship in the Navy, and they all seem to have this characteristic. Any connection to the RAV4 EV's drivetrain here?

Mine certainly makes a whine under heavy load. Different than the gearbox noise, however.

 

[TonyWilliams]

Fwiw, most high voltage, 3 phase AC induction motors make a high pitch "whine" when they first start up or suddenly change load. This is especially true of 400Hz motors, commonly found in the aviation industry. I was exposed to a lot of high HP 60Hz and 400Hz motors aboard ship in the Navy, and they all seem to have this characteristic. Any connection to the RAV4 EV's drivetrain here?

Mine certainly makes a whine under heavy load. Different than the gearbox noise, however.

Toyota once again sent somebody to the dealership to check out my noise complaints, and they have approved the motor assembly replacement. Hopefully soon, 'cuz this thing is getting LOUD !!!

 

[Bassman]

Mine seems to whine when I hit 50 to 55 mph. I'll talk to the dealer about it when I have my 5000 mile service.

 

[occ]

I think mine makes that very constant hum that's not really high pitch, but metallic, at greater than ~62mph. At ~62mph or less, road noise is louder, so the motor is comparatively quite. Higher than 62mph it starts to get louder than road noise, even in rough freeway, you can hear it because the freq is prob higher. This is all under load, ie. you have to be applying power. If you going at any speed and coast (no power), you only hear the road noise.

I wonder at what point will Toyota consider normal and not take care of this problem (for owners who feels it's a problem).

 

[waidy]

You, Rav4EVers, makes me wonder how that "whining" noise sounds like. None of our two 2012 Rav4EVs nor Model S has any noise. I went out on Dolphin (Rav) this afternoon, drove (with music off) between 65-75 mph for about 30 miles (this is out of my ordinary). I could hear some wind noise and a little bit noise coming out from the tires, but no pitching noise and definitely.. no body is whining.

 

[occ]

You, Rav4EVers, makes me wonder how that "whining" noise sounds like. None of our two 2012 Rav4EVs nor Model S has any noise. I went out on Dolphin (Rav) this afternoon, drove (with music off) between 65-75 mph for about 30 miles (this is out of my ordinary). I could hear some wind noise and a little bit noise coming out from the tires, but no pitching noise and definitely.. no body is whining.

Well, that did it! I'm gonna go whining to Toyota ! And I had the Rav for just over a week. I'll report how Toyota reacts.

 

[TonyWilliams]

You, Rav4EVers, makes me wonder how that "whining" noise sounds like. None of our two 2012 Rav4EVs nor Model S has any noise. I went out on Dolphin (Rav) this afternoon, drove (with music off) between 65-75 mph for about 30 miles (this is out of my ordinary). I could hear some wind noise and a little bit noise coming out from the tires, but no pitching noise and definitely.. no body is whining.

I will record it today.

 

[TonyWilliams]

My new motor will be here Monday.

 

[HD172]

Can someone with the noise record the the sound?

 

[occ]

Can someone with the noise record the the sound?

It might be difficult if your rav's motor noise/hum is just above road and wind noise, which is what mine have. My personal opinion is that if you hear the motor "hum" at any speed past ~20mph, it's not right as far as EV noise goes. I only have my wife's LEAF to compare with, but that car is "motor noiseless" at any speed, even when its road and wind noise is way better (less) than the rav4ev.

There is an "up whine" and "down whine" at very low speed when you're accelerating and regen-stopping, but that's normal, partly because at those really slow speed, you hear everything. Even in the LEAF you can hear it, but much more subdued than the rav, at least my rav.

I'll try to see if I can record it, because it seems my motor hum is less when ambient temp is higher than 75F. I seem to notice it more in the morning commute when it's 50F than in the afternoon when it's 75F around here.

 

[occ]

I'm going to start this thread for those owners who are getting annoyed by the Rav4ev "motor hum". You can read from this thread

http://www.myrav4ev.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=203

where the topic was started, so without a doubt this is a real issue and not imagined. Hopefully, it's only for some owners and Toyota will address it.

For me, I thought I was being very careful to test drive it first before purchasing it, but in hindsight it was not long or thorough or fast enough. I remember not noticing it during the test drive, and that my particular Rav's motor hum is not loud enough to present a problem, but enough to start annoying me as time goes by.

What's worst is that I went to my dealer and have them check it out and the EV tech there could hear something but to him it was "normal". To be fair, it was a warm day (80F), and will admit that I could hear it but was more subdued than normal during the test drive with the tech also. The tech and service rep suggested I break it in and come back after a few more months if I still hear it. When I do comeback it will be early in the morning and coldest temp possible.

What I like to hear is from other RavEV owners on the forum what their experience with "constant motor hum" during various speeds. My experience with another EV is with my wife's LEAF, and you can only hear road noise (even wind noise in the LEAF is almost non-existence), and lower road noise in comparison with the RavEV, yet you cannot hear the LEAF's motor noise (besides the "up whine" and "down whine" from/to stop).

My opinion is that in an EV, you should not hear any motor hum at any speed besides "up whine" and "down whine". I would like some collective experience to determine if I should pursue this with Toyota, or live it with because it's "normal" for the Rav4EV? At other speeds with constant power applied, can you hear the "motor hum" over road/wind noise in your Rav4EV? Please "hum" in!

 

[yblaser]

I haven't noticed any hum, but haven't really been listening for it either and usually have the radio on. Maybe I have been distracted by the rattle in the dash that has been annoying me :evil: . You're welcome to drive over to Long Beach and test drive mine if you want to compare.

 

[TonyWilliams]

Mine is really quite loud now, and I get my new motor Monday. I did already record the sound in every variation I could think of, up and down, different speeds, coasting, "backlash" (going from power to regen), etc.

I will post it on YouTube likely today.

 

[TonyWilliams]

Can someone with the noise record the the sound?

I did yesterday and will post today on YouTube.

 

[occ]

I haven't noticed any hum, but haven't really been listening for it either and usually have the radio on. Maybe I have been distracted by the rattle in the dash that has been annoying me :evil: . You're welcome to drive over to Long Beach and test drive mine if you want to compare.

yblaser, very appreciative of your offer. I've PM'ed you. Thank-you!

 

[occ]

Mine is really quite loud now, and I get my new motor Monday. I did already record the sound in every variation I could think of, up and down, different speeds, coasting, "backlash" (going from power to regen), etc.

I will post it on YouTube likely today.

That's great Tony! I'd really like to hear it and compare! Thanks!

 

[jspearman]

I noticed a high-pitched whine on our Leaf, but I don't hear anything on the RAV4 or Volt.

 

[Dsinned]

No drivetrain humming in mine; at least not that I can easily hear.

An electric car is generally so quite, it is a pleasure to listen to the satellite radio or songs in my iPhone. If I turn off the radio and listen intently for anything coming from the drivetrain, I hear certain "sounds" that change in frequency as I speed up or slow down - sort of like a whinning sound, but at such a low audible level, I consider it insignificant.

In my VOLT, with the radio on, I can't really tell when the ICE is operating. With the radio off, and no chit chat with any passengers going on, after conditioning myself to carefully listen for it, I can now clearly tell when the ICE is operating. Frankly, it would bother me more if I never heard it operating, because then I would worry I'm out of gas or something is not right with the car's extended range mode.

Noises are funny that way; annoying when you hear them, then again, they can be even more worrisome when you don't. :mrgreen:

Just the size of a car's tires can be a major factor in how much noise a car makes driving down a road. To wit, yesterday I took a drive in my Z06, and the pickup noise from the tires while driving on the freeway was almost deafening. No reasonable setting on my satellite radio volume control could overcome the road noise from my Z06's steamroller size tires. That is just the nature of the beast! :lol: