lovemore

Hello all!

I took possession of my new 2022 ES 350 a few weeks ago. Out driving yesterday I noticed it sounds like a window is down. Have anyone heard of this?

I checked all the windows and sunroof and nothing changed. I work from home so I have barely driven the car to notice it until now.

Any thoughts?

thanks!

lesz

Is there any chance that you have paint protection film on the vehicle, including on the outside rear view mirrors? Often, film on the mirrors can cause a wind whistle.

LexFinally

This is exactly the kind of useful information that can come from a forum like this. Thanks for posting it.

lesz

I'm sure that I learned about that possibility years ago from reading posts on internet forums.

When I bought my 2017 ES, I had about a 100 mile trip from the dealer to my home. As soon as I got on the highway and my speed got up above about 50 mph, there was an awful wind whistle. I peeled the film off of the driver's side mirror,, and the wind whistle disappeared completely. Had I not remembered reading about the possibility of paint protection film on the mirrors causing such a whistle, I would have spent lots of time trying to figure out if my car had some sort of "defect".

When today's cars are being designed, lots of attention is paid to the aerodynamics. If the air flows in a way that it catches something as small as the edge of paint protection film, it can cause a whistle that would not be there if the film wasn't there.

Ultimately, I had the paint protection film installer re-apply film to the mirror. When he re-applied the film, he must have positioned it slightly different from the original film, and with that small difference, there was no sound at all from the flow of air going past the mirror.

ionian

Interesting. I had the PPF installed on my side mirrors too and never have this issue. I guess the installer must did a good job.

lesz

I think it is pretty much "hit and miss". With various cars having mirrors that are shaped differently, I doubt that a film installer would know the precise spot where the tape should be applied on every vehicle, and it seems to be the case that just changing the positioning of the film by, say, 1/4" up or down or to the left or right can make the difference between having a wind whistle and not having one.

If you do a Google search, you will find some people with virtually every car make having had the problem, and, obviously, most don't have the problem. Curiously, the problem always seems to happen just on the driver's side mirror and not the mirror on the passenger side. I suspect the reason is that the the driver's side mirror is mounted on a different angle from the passenger side mirror, and the angle of the driver's side mirror must make it more vulnerable to having the air flow hit the edge of the film in a way that causes the whistle.

E46CT

Hard to say without hearing or seeing the car, but unless such film is obviously sticking out or peeling, it's highly unlikely to cause any audible noise regardless of where it's installed.

Best advice I can give is take it to the dealer if you think it's abnormal.

lesz

I can assure that, in the case of my ES, the film was not "sticking out or peeling" anywhere. Before I removed the film, I carefully examined it and looked for anything that with the film or installation that could have caused the wind whistle. The installation of the film looked to be perfect.

Like I said, do a Google search, and you will find dozens of people who had the same experience, and, again, it is always just with the driver's side window. Somehow, the film can cause a change in the air flow between the mirror and window to create the sound.

I have no idea whether that is the problem that the OP is experiencing, but, if he has film on the mirrors, that would be the first place to look.

E46CT

Yeah that's not really how aero works though. Film flat to the paint would not cause any perceptible difference in sound. Cars have panel gap, part/moulding variations way greater than the width of PPF and there's manufacturing tolerances in ALL cars regardless of price.. So any door, fender, plastic trim, moulding, spoiler, mirror cover, rubber trim, etc etc off by the width of a piece of PPF (and trust me all those parts have all sorts of varying gaps way greater) would be wreaking wind noise havoc all across this nation. It takes far greater defect to even START to introduce any appreciable difference in noise. and even THEN it's a stretch.

Also most people don't really understand that kind of stuff so as w/ any nuanced topic, all kinds of stuff will be misperceived.

So yeah like I said unless there's a big piece of plastic flapping in the wind loosely, that's not the source and can't be the source.

LexFinally

So you're saying that even though lesz said explicitly that this is exactly what happened to him, you deny his firsthand testimony and can flatly assert that he was wrong and didn't see what he saw.

Along the way, I also see the same word "nuanced" that I saw from you in another thread when you tried to embarrass me personally in a discussion about laser screw welding. If these topics are too "nuanced" to even discuss them with intellectual lessers like lesz or myself, why descend to posting on this board at all? I encourage you to make the leap of faith that if you describe the "nuances" of these respective topics, we might surprise you by showing just enough powers of comprehension to understand and learn from your superior knowledge. As I said in the other thread, I'm fine with that outcome — it's the very purpose of a discussion forum.

babaijebu

Well known on IS forum, while he/she/they can be very helpful with DIYs, this person has a habit of my way the only way.

I saw similar thread on macan forum about this same issue.. Some owners experienced same thing while some of them disagree also. I guess YMMV.

LexFinally

Thanks. That's good to know. I'll start letting it roll off.

And, is it YNVHMV? :.D

LexFinally

Oops, repeat reply.

grp52

I'd add to that advice that before taking it in to the dealer establish, if possible, the conditions to produce the "like a window is down" sound in a repeatable manner. Also, make a recording of the sound so you can play it to the service manager/department so they have a good idea of the exact sound you're complaining about.

I'll also mention there has been a few postings on the forum where excessive wind noise has been found to be caused by some sort of factory assembly defect. One was found to be "excessive clearance in rear door window division bar sub-assembly drivers side rear window" (See post #65 in the 2019 ES driver side window area wind noise thread). Although I can't seem to readily find it at the moment, there was another wind noise problem that was traced to an improper adhesive application to a driver's side front door weather seal gasket/molding/trim piece (???) that was allowing the piece to move away from the correct installation placement .hat one was fixed with a replacement of the piece with a good adhesive application.

IIRC, both required persistence and some involvement by regional/corporate technical support to get the problem identified and fixed.

lovemore

Thank you all for your input. I couldn’t find anywhere on my paper work where the protective film was applied. I will probably get out tomorrow as I “work from home” to check it out further. Following I will contact the dealer. I will definitely keep you all posted.
Thanks again!