Hello everyone:

I recently bought a 2015 ES300H at 34,000 miles. During my test drive, I didn’t notice any engine noise (salesman had the ac on and the radio playing). But after driving a while on the freeway, I noticed a high pitch whine seemingly coming from the front of the car. It is not usually present when in electric only mode. The noise is noticeable from 45 mph and higher, with the pitch getting higher with speed. The noise gets drowned out usually when accelerating to highway speeds, but is very noticeably when coasting at highway speeds. I have taken it into the dealer twice for this problem. The first time, thy said they didn’t hear it. The second time, I asked a technician to drive with me and he heard it instantly. The dealership took the car for a few days and called back saying that they compared the noise to other ES300H around the same year and mileage and did not notice much difference. I was told that the sound is the electric motor and there is nothing that they can do about the noise. Now, the loaner car that I got was a 2018 ES300H with 6000 miles on it. I drove the same way I would in my car to work and there was absolutely no whine from the car. I asked the technician why there was such a big difference and he couldn’t give me a straight answer. He claimed the mileage may be a factor, so I asked him if the 2018 would experience similar noise problems when it reached 30,000 miles and he couldn’t answer that question either.

I really like this car, but the electric motor mosquito like noise is really driving me crazy. I have fairly sensitive ears so I can hear the whine over my music. Is it really normal? And Is there anything that I can do to reduce this noise?

I have scoured all of the other forums and have seen the various other threads. I should have posted this in one of the other threads. I apologize.

We may be talking about the same whining noise, but mine is not drowned out by the road noise. I believe it may be differences in the volume of the whining sound and the hearing ability of the driver. If my ears are more sensitive than those of other people, so be it. However the technician who went with me on the drive along also heard it right away, which leads me to believe that it’s not just my supersonic hearing. I can hear the noise clearly with no music on. Turning on music does make it less noticeable, but I can still hear it faintly. At times, it even makes the hair on my arm stand on edge. I wish I could upload a video clip of the sound, but it says that the file is too big. I’ll have to find a way to compress the file when I get home from work.

That makes sense about the electric motor speed. I do notice the engine kick in around that speed.

The music does drown out most of the whining noise, but my ears still pick up the whine over the music. Sometimes, the whining noise will create a dissonant chord with the music and it’s like someone ran their nails across a chalk board.

Is there a way that I could confirm that the inverter is the culprit? And if the inverter is the component that is making this sound, is there something that can be done to fix it? Would replacing the inverter get rid of the noise? Or is this characteristic of all inverters? (I don’t even know what an inverter is...)

Just drove 2019 es300h noise seems gone very quiet good power no glass roof seems available

The loaner 2018 ES300H that I drove around also did not have this whining noise. The dealership called me to tell me that the noise was similar in another 2015 ES300H with similar mileage. I asked them to allow me to ride along with them to verify the noise. They said that they don’t have the car here anymore. How convenient.
So when I have an issue and present the car to them, they first say they can’t hear it and force me to do a drive along with a technician to verify the issue. However when I want the same to verify that the noise is actually present at a similar volume in the similar car that they supposedly test drove, it’s a no go.
Tbh, this isn’t the treatment that I was expecting from Lexus.
If this whining noise is within the normal operating range, then Lexus should not market this car as a luxury vehicle.

Thank you for the information!
I completely understand what you are saying about the otherwise silent drive of the Lexus hybrid. However, the sound is so noticeable that the technician who is doing the drive along with me remarked on how loud it was almost immediately. I don’t mind a little noise. I don’t even mind the regenerative break noise (probably because it’s not constant). But this whining noise seems louder than should be acceptable.

Perhaps I have supersonic hearing. But I am a dentist so I have to listen to my high speed drill and ultrasonic instruments all day. I would prefer I don’t have to listen to a similar noise to and from work.