Toyota RAV4 Wind Noise

2008car

I have loud wind noise when the rear windows are rolled down. Its like a decompression and recompression of my ears. Is this normal. Its a new Rav4 08.

I'm not sure how to explain it but you can not roll down the windows with out hearing the noise.

Its a fast pu pu pu pu pu pu pu pu sound.

This happens when i start hitting 40 miles an hour on the freeway.

Is this normal?

wwest

"Is this normal?"

Absolutely,...SOP..!

Think of blowing a whistle..

When you roll down that window "at speed" it's like blowing across the top of a coke bottle, except at 40 MPH the airflow across the bottle top is much higher and the back of your car has a LOT more volume, so the "whistle" frequency is really LOW, in the range of a helicopter blade.

Cracking a front window as little as 1/2" will usually alleviate the "noise".

sdc2

Yep...it is basically an infrasonic whistle. The RAV does it pretty bad, but I have heard it in many other vehicles as well.

tidester

it is basically an infrasonic whistle

If it were infrasonic then you wouldn't hear it.

tidester, host
SUVs and Smart Shopper

wwest

Hmmm...

Then it could be infrasonic....

Do we actually hear it or do we really only feel the air pressure waves...??

sdc2

The beat of this effect is less than 10 cycles per second...it is generally assumed that people cannot "hear" sounds below 20 cps and based on my audio experience even this is optimistic. But you can definitely feel it in your head and ribcage. There is a slight bit of noise associated with each beat, I am unsure if these would be considered harmonics, or more likely just produced by turbulence around the window edge (a more perfect whistle would have sharper edges at the opening).

tidester

I am unsure if these would be considered harmonics

That would be a good bet. It's quite easy to get a flute to produce harmonics when you up the amplitude a bit. And if the amplitude of the oscillation in the RAV4 is great enough to feel then you're probably above the threshold to produce harmonics.

tidester, host
SUVs and Smart Shopper

wwest

But then there is the "vibrations" effect the air pressure waves cause on the interior materials and surfaces.

That might be, predominantly, what we "hear".

tidester

Possibly but I don't think we've actually established whether the "sound" is infrasonic and more input from the OP would be helpful. It could just be audible low frequency sound. In any case, it's probably just the ubiquitous "helicopter" effect with sound being produces with pressure changes occurring at the window opening.

tidester, host
SUVs and Smart Shopper

dantieman

I just bought a rav 4 2012 and am very unhappy with the same noise. Dealer says its normal, but to me it is unacceptable. Taking the car back.

fredy3

Good Day
This wind sound noise is normal to most off all automobiles car . This is an aerodynamic issue that can not been fix by the car manufacturers . The only thing you can do is open the front windows left and right just a little while the back windows are fully opened , that will eliminate that helicopter low sound.

I had other car type with the same issue.

Maybe the defletors window installed will eliminated that noise but personaly I dont like these deflectors.

I just Buy 2 weeks ago my second new Rav4 2012 Sport V6 Letther option etc .. FANTASTIC CAR !! :shades:

lizzie07

Yes, this is normal. I also have a 2008 Rav 4. If you roll down the front window just a little, this will alleviate what you are hearing. I had this happen with my previous car as well.