I drive a 2010 LS460L. While driving, I heard a medium volume high pitched whining sound. I was alone in the car and it sounded like the sound was coming from the passenger side but I could tell if it was from the front or back. My first instinct was that it was phone or radio related so I shut both down but the sound continued.

Call my dealer and he suggested it could be a bad amplifier. However, he said that the radio would not play if it was an amplifier and my radio continued to play.

The sound is not constant but it comes and goes generally lasting about 30 seconds. Yesterday, the sound came on once again. I shut down the radio and phone but it continued. Then, it came on and I shut off the climate control and the sound stopped immediately. It occurred again but stopped when I shout down the climate control which leads me to believe it the fan motor going bad.

Has anyone else experienced this type of issue? How many fan motors are there in my car? I am assuming just one but I do not know. Finally, my car is still under warranty for about three more months. I am concerned that the dealer will not be able to replicate the problem. Is there some way to test this motor to show it is failing? I don't want a charge for diagnostics just to be told they could not get the problem to occur in house.

Thanks for your help,

Greg

 

Good afternoon to you!
Sorry to hear about the troubles you are experiencing with your LS...

I have an 07L and another member here, Doublebase has an 07 SWB.

I had a very similar, if not the exact same issue that you had last year, Jan of 2016.

I was on a road trip and had the heat on between the 1st and 2nd speed for about 11 hours driving to my destination. Had the heat on where ever I drove while visiting family then had the heat on amidst my return home. About 1 hour into the drive is when I began to hear the noise and I thought the same thing; the amp. But when I cut everything off, the noise still persisted. After about a minute or two, the noise just stopped-but at that time it never occurred to me that it was heat/blower fan related.
When I was nearly home, closing in on the 11th hour of my heat being on inside the car, the noise happened again...
This time I did turn everything off, and noticed that when I hit the "OFF" button for the climate control, the noise immediately stopped.

I left it off for a few minutes, turned it back on and within a minute or so, the noise would happen again.

I let the car sit for a few days and figured if I heard the noise again, id take it to the dealer, but I never heard the noise for the rest of the winter last year and have not gotten the noise again this year (knock on wood).

Now, brining Doublebase into this, when I entered that into the thread last year, he had stated that he experienced the same thing but his was short-lived as well.

I cant recall if he started hearing the noise again closer to the beginning of this winter, but he ended up replacing his blower motor by himself. Before he did so, he did something to the original unit that I believe lessened the noise (something about a bearing), but it wasn't a 100% remedy. He went ahead and replaced it so he would'nt have any issues during the dead of winter.

Some others had offered advice in saying that there is a possibility that there is either a small piece of paper or leafs possibly in or near the blower or in/near the filter area in the glove box. From what I could see/find, that wasn't my issue, as everything was clear.
Here is the thread:

https://www.clublexus.com/forums/ls-...ement-diy.html


Im not sure if this is your problem exactly, but based off of what you've written, the blower motor may be the culprit.
Please do keep us informed of the issue, how you decide to move forward and the conclusion of it all, as it would be greatly appreciated by many of us here.
Good luck!

 

I believe the amplifier remains on while the head unit is turned off. If this is indeed the case, then it could pick up interference at very low volumes. Have someone listen close to the speakers while you drive the car. Could be the fan motor and interference from the fan motor.

 

Also make sure the seat ventilators are turned off. They can be pretty loud.

 

Absolutely. They are pretty quiet on my LS but really noisy on my IS. Not so much as a whine, rather more like a roar!

 

Definitely sounds like your blower motor, it's a $260 dollar part (which is ridiculous), but it only takes maybe ten minutes to replace...I'm sure Lexus would charge you $600 to do it.

If it's just whining you can probably get away with it for a while longer, and when it gets warmer it will go away. But next winter it will come back and get worse.

 

I have an 07 LS 460 as well and have put on 150K and still going strong but having said that have had the same wrroomm noisy fan on the passenger side dash behind the glove compartment for the last 6 months and it disappears completely when on the lowest setting and restarts at medium and disappears on high speed. took out the motor from under the glove compartment and otor seems to work perfectly and there is absolutely no sound when turned on at any speed, also vacuumed the inside for leaves and such and when i reinstalled it back the sound returns... any thoughts guys besides replacing it. I know people have removed the fan and the motor from inside the trunk to clean the chamber but not sure if it is accessible in an LS 460?