gadgetman1

This evening, my wife & I went out to eat & then went to pick up something from Lowe's Home Center. When we got back in the car & started heading to our next destination, we heard a loud & variable squealing noise coming from the back seat area. It was REALLY noticeable & not normal. I had no warning lights on the dash, so I have no idea what caused it. The noise stopped after a minute or two & never returned. I grabbed a quick video to hear the noise, so there is nothing to see. Any ideas what the hell this car is doing?

ggebhardt

I am afraid that I can not hear this sound you are talking about in your video.

I do notice that both driver and passenger seat fans are on high. These fans make way too much noise on high, I always set manually on low or medium if at all.

The sound you heard is likely coming from the seat fans of which one is located right behind your shoulders. Turn your seat fans on manual and to high and see if that was what you heard. After a while when the temp goes down, the seat fan speed will also if on auto.

jr4div2

Sounds like a wind leak/whistle coming from your sunroof. Looks like a panny roof, correct? Ours had a seal come loose in our sunroof that we could actually see. Well, got jammed and would not let the roof close. After it spent 3 freakin days at the dealer, they told us that there was some seals that had bad adhesive and would not hold properly and would come loose. Ours was the first they had seen. They had to order new seals because the ones they had in stock were all bad. Talk to your dealer.

gadgetman1

Forget about what is on your screen in my video. The noise wasn't coming from the sunroof. It was coming from the back seat. I was in the driver's seat, focusing the phone towards the back & over the front seats. The noise is variable & can be clearly heard on the video.

ggebhardt

Sure it was not you seat fans on high. They can be quite shrill and with two of them on high . . . . your video shows both in seats in "auto". First time I heard the seat's fans on high, I also thought the noise was coming from the back seat.

gadgetman1

My seat fans are almost always on high since it's 100 degrees here everyday. This noise was something new that stood out from everything else. Yes, it very well could be a seat fan, but I can't replicate the noise so far. I know what you mean by the seat fans being noisy, but at least these work. My last vehicle had terrible seat fans & all kinds of other serious electrical issues throughout the vehicle. It was not a Lexus & hopefully went to the crusher where it belonged.

ggebhardt

I hope you find out what is going on. Not a lot of things the make noise under the back seat. There is a bank of batteries and maybe a fan to vent them. The only way the battery would make noise is due to a thermal event and you would know if that happened from the smoke and would want to exit the vehicle. I would also think warning lights would be going off in the dash if having a battery issue.

Hope you find it.

PeeVee

Does it squeak when when the vehicle rocks a bit left to right?

My is fixed. They changed the railing of the sun roof in the roof and insulated some more with felt.

No more squeaky sound since.

My dealer said that they fixed a few like this.

gadgetman1

this had nothing to do with the sunroof. The camera lens was pointed at the sunroof in order to capture the sound coming from near the back seat. My best guess is it was a seat cooling fan or a battery cooling fan malfunctioning. This was not a body squeak, it was variable & changed in pitch & loudness, then went away.

ranyw

There is a fan that cools the battery that is located under the backseat. To me it sounds like a ball bearing in the fan was having some issues.

PeeVee

Looks to me that it is the fan for the seat ventilation.

The speed (hense the pitch) is relative also to the fan speed of the climate control system. If you set the fan speed of the vent with air conditioning at max and the seat ventilation also at max, you will clearly hear it.

gadgetman1

Yes, that what I'm thinking. This was a new loud sound that has never been present before. I still think there is something wrong with my battery charging system as the battery is often lower than it should be & my mileage is not what it should be. I'm just watching it right now & hoping this car is not a lemon like the last one was. It was not a Lexus.