As they find ways to reduce noise in these cars, the remaining sounds become easier to hear... In mine, cruising at 70-ish on smooth highway, the loudest noises I hear are the tires, and the other cars on the road.

The sound of the flux capacitor really doesn't bother me, since I rarely go that fast. It doesn't make any sound at all until you are going 88 miles per hour.

 

The flux capacity kicks in at 88mph. Lucky you keep it below the limit and you'll still be here.

 

A couple of days ago I found an interesting post from the other thread. A guy was saying it could be a low transmission oil, may be it's under filled by the factory, causing the noise and rpm surging on a low speed. I was going to link the thread but could not find it. He said his 12 or 13 avalon had a same problem and the problem has gone away after they added 8 oz of oil. I will be mentioning about this in my next check up but if someone is visiting the dealer soon plz ask and share what they say with us.

 

Flux Capacitor Art. And thanks for the post. Now I won't go over 88... I was doing 85 on the Pennsylvania Turnpike the other day. Whew! how close I came to enabling the Capacitor...

 

The funny thing is the ES300h really does sound like it has a flux capacitor onboard, only it activates when slowing down at 8 mph Actually it's the electric motor reversing to harvest energy from braking. Sounds like a subway train slowing down at a platform.

 

Bob- I guess my flux capacitor exceeded it's capacity. I hope not to do that again. Whew.

 

jay4e may be right. I had the dealer inspect for a whine noise and the noise is coming from the transmission. They found the driver side axle seal leaking and after the repair, I don't hear the noise as much.

 

I'm dying! I bought this car about 6 months ago with 24,000 miles on it - no whine. Engine was quiet and relaxing. However, a month ago the "whine" started. Just like it has been described, it goes up and down with the RPMs. It is soooo annoying and totally ruins my enjoyment of the vehicle. I took it to the dealer. They heard the "whine" immediately. They had two techs come over. They also heard it. 3 days later the service people called to say that the "whine" was normal and just part of the wearing of the vehicle. How can that be? It only has about 40,000 miles on it! I am told that I just have to live with it. They said they spoke with Lexus, the manufacturer and, they too, decided the sound was normal.

I did not have them check the transmission fluid. However, that seems like such an easy fix that of course they would have considered that. . .

So frustrated. . .

 

Has anyone actually been able to get this fixed? Ours now has 33k and the whine has gotten louder. I plan on complaining to the dealer again about this, but would like to see if anyone else has had any luck. I know one post in this thread said one of their axle seals were leaking and that seemed to help.

The engine has such a nice sound to be ruined by this annoying whine that varies with rpm.

 

I had this same exact problem and what I did was change the transmission oil and set to the proper levels. Make sure mechanic knows the exact procedure. This transmission is finicky about oil level and will act funny and make whirring noise if off by just 100's of ml.

I also think there is something wrong with the Toyota WS ATF. I did one transmission oil pan change and whirring sound went away but then came back after one month. I did the change again and it went away again. This time I used Amsoil Signature ATF. Hopefully this time it does not come back. So far so good.

 

So...? Did the whine noise come back?

 

Asbel, I had a new ES250 loaner, it was buzzy, underpowered, unrefined. Transmission constantly hunted. Had to keep in SPORT to get any decent power out of it. Felt like a Camry not a Lexus. I hear ya sentiments here.