SC430icand

My sister just backed out of the RX400h that she ordered because when she drove the car there was a loud annoying whine everything she would step on the brakes (regardless of speed). Just to double check, she also drove the demo and it did the same. The dealer said that's they way they really are. Hard to believe that Lexus would put out a product with such as problem. Even the Honda Accord and Civic does not have this issue...

Has anyone heard about this? I was consider the RX400h but when I heard this, I'm no longer sure. Thanks.

sc430icand

ChuH

The whine is not a problem. When you press the brake the electric motor switches mode from providing added power to becoming a generator to take the otherwise lost energy to produce more electricity to recharge the battery. It also adds resistance to help slow the RX400h in addition to the friction from the normal brake pad and rotor.

Chu...

CK6Speed

iTrader: (1)

Unless he is saying that the Civic and Accord IMA hybrids that also use regenerative braking to recharge the batteries does not make this odd whine noise? Persoanlly I don't know since I haven't driven either hybrids, but maybe the whine is not part of the brakes but more to do with the CVT transmission on the RX400H?

spwolf

heh, reason is that RX400h uses much bigger electric engines, batteries, etc, and it needs bigger generators which you hear when you are stopping... While IMA system has 16hp, RX400h pumps out more than 220+ electric hp in engines that power the car plus another 67hp engine that powers everything in the car.

Even Prius has "only" 67hp.

It is not for everyone, another lucky owner was served now, that will know to appreciate it!

KenLex41

I notice a slight noise when I stop. My wife and I call it warp drive, but it is not very loud and not annoying. I don't even notice it now and no one else even notices it. Maybe the dealer just got a couple bad units. Sorry to hear you had a bad experience. I think it is a great car!

HarrierAWD

If the sound was too loud, I'd back out of it for now. My sister just bought a 2005 Toyota Prius and there's no whining sound when she steps on the brake - I couldn't hear a thing. I'd expect Lexus to do the same.

parula

I also never heard anything like that on a Prius I drove a day or so, that car was really quiet and really neat.

NeverSatisfied

The only whine I heard on my test drive yesterday was when coming to a complete stop (sort of sounded like an electric golf cart). It's a very nice package overall, but I'm not sold on the whole battery thing being guaranteed for 8 years and no one really knows what happens after that. Expensive to replace? Probably!

SC430icand

Thanks to all of you for your input. I think I'll hold off for now.
SC430icand

HarrierAWD

The Toyota Prius has been out since 1997. According to Toyota, no batteries were replaced on any Prius thus far. Also New York City Dept. of Environmental Protection has a large fleet of the old Prius. All have over 100,000 miles on them. No battery replacement needed either.

Lextranny

Yeah, the battery alone will cost you $4,000 to replace.

rxdriver

Oh no... not the battery life discussion again!

For those that really want to re-live it, it's here:
https://www.clublexus.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=159963

NeverSatisfied

The eighth year is right now; let's see what happens next year?

HarrierAWD

FWIW, I have a Toshiba Protege T610 laptop that I bought back in 1995. It uses Nickel Metal-Hydrite battery which I believe is the same battery technology in the Prius. It still holds about 60% of the battery charge. It was one of the smallest laptops of those days, so the battery is small.

Why do I keep it around? I use it to play a 1993-era game Empire for Windows that I am still addicted to. Its 256-color mode refuses to run under Windows 98 or XP no matter what I do. 16-color mode runs but it's ugly. I still run MS-DOS 5.0 & Windows 3.1 on this laptop.