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Comments
This "noise" factor is similar to blowing air across a bottle and getting the humming sound.
I test drove the Pilot, Rainier and Highlander and chose the Highlander.
1st - I love the quite smooth drive of all the vehicles. That Explorer (truck base) was about to rattle my guts out. Not smooth at all and very noisy.
There are a couple things I'm disappointed in tho. Highlander seems to not to have enough power when you put on the gas, like it hesitates. I asked repair guy about it and they said nothing was wrong with it. But the Ford has power and TOOK off when I'd apply the gas. Once the Highlander gets going - it flies. But I hate that hesitation! 2nd, I was told the Highlander had Auto door locks and that the headlights stayed on 20 secs. at night after I get out. "NOT". I find this ridiculous! Something SO simple to add to this vehicle, but they didn't! I drove a Corolla for a day and it had auto door locks and no hesitation with take off. After 6 years of driving a really nice car with auto door locks and all the wonderful safety features, now I feel like I have backed up to a ghetto car! I have to NOW remember to lock my doors when I get inside and I'm having a very difficult time doing this. I will have traveled 10 miles before I realize I haven't locked my doors. For a woman, we NEED this safety feature. So I have to train myself to learn to do this as soon as I get in the car. It will take me some time after 6 years of not thinking about it. I chose the cloth seats over leather. My Explorer had the leather and in the summer it got so hot and winter it would freeze me to death until the seat heaters kicked in which took awhile. So sitting on cold leather is a shock and you’re very uncomfortable for awhile till the heater kicks in. So I love the cloth seats, this summer they are so comfortable to sit down and not have to worry about being burnt.
I do think if Highlander could add the auto door locks and auto head lights and give it a bit more power, they would almost have the perfect car. The front seats aren’t quite as comfortable as the Explorer, I’m having a hard time getting a comfortable adjustment and passenger seat doesn’t have the lumbar and not as comfortable as drivers seat, so I hope I don’t have to take a long trip in it. The arm rest needs to be a bit wider and longer. The door seems further from the seat, so if you are a very wide person – you have arm rest on both side, but if you are small – you have to lean to one side to rest an arm. I’m being so picky! LOL I wish I could design a car – it would be a woman’s car and have our storage we want, comfort and safety.
Without the radio I noticed a loud wind sound coming around the car, but noticed someone posted about that and I may ask dealer about it to see if it can be fixed with something.
The Rainier’s inside lay out was pitiful! Rainier had no storage room and the 2 drink holders - one was in front of the gear lever, so if you put it in Park - you have to move the cup! DUH!
I love all the cup holders in the Highlander and Pilot.
The Pilot needs to not be so cheap inside. I felt it was stripped down Highlander. I really wanted a luxury car like the Lexus, but couldn't afford paying over $40,000 for a car and Highlander came pretty close.
In my 68 and then later my 72 Ford station wagons lowering the rear liftgate glass slightly would always solve the problem.
This NOISE can get so loud in my 01 RX300 it becomes extremely painful to my eardrums.
But I may, just may, have an answer soon about how to at least reduce the volume of this noise. Last week my RX had been setting out in the hot sun and the interior was like an oven. I started it up, turned on the A/C to max cool and the blower to high with "fresh" airflow enabled with the intention of letting it cool down somewhat before we got in.
As I walked away I noticed that I could hear a very definite "fluttering" noise emanating from the drivers side rear quarter panel at approximately the same frequency as the helicopter type noise.
For a very obtuse reason I happen to know that the cabin airflow exhauster port is located just inside that quarter panel just behind the rear bumper "bulge" as it wraps around toward the wheelwell.
For much the same obtuse reason I happen to have a spare RX300 exhauster port laying here beside me as I type this. It has a total airflow opening of about 12 square inches but what seems to be more important it has a light and thin rubber "baffle" to prevent reverse airflow.
Using a small fan as a test we discovered that the fluttering noise I heard is the result of some sort of mechanical resonance of the exhauster port assembly which causes the baffle to flutter from open to close at a fairly low frequency.
So is this baffle the root cause of the helicopter sounds in Toyota and Lexus vehicles being so excruciatingly painful?
Stay tuned.
This coming weekend I will open the bumper bulge area and remove the baffle portion of the exhauster port and then run some tests up and down the road with only the rear windows lowered.
Just read in a Consumer Guide review that the Honda Pilot took regular gas, but it was "recommended" that premium be used in the v6 HL.
Thanks for the replies.
If you read other posts here, and on MSN auto, Toyota has known about the problem since December,03, and refuses to correct it. The dealers can't fix it because it's a design or manufacturing problem. We've been complaining for two months to no avail. I'm about ready to turn it over to our attorney.
keep at it
"For a very obtuse reason I happen to know that the cabin airflow exhauster port is located just inside that quarter panel just behind the rear bumper "bulge" as it wraps around toward the wheelwell."
where is this? post a pix?
more detail?
are you saying its like a check valve that flutters?
Yes, exactly. There is a light rubber membrane covering the outlet flow, exhauster, port. If the cabin interior air pressure it greater than the atmospheric pressure near this outlet then the membrane will "open". If the atmospheric pressure is equal or above the vehicles cabin pressure the membrane will remain closed due to the force of gravity and/or reverse pressure.
At this point I'm guessing that the distance between the exhauster port opening and the directly facing exterior body panel, maybe 3 to 4 inches, is causing a low frequency resonance which results in an air pressure standing wave and thereby the membrane flutters "open and shut, open and..." at the low frequency you hear with just the rear window(s) down.
Membrane shown removed
maybe it needs a hole in it just big enought to soften its closing effect and reduce its effectiveness.
Will do more trials at higher speeds over the weekend but it's hard to believe that Toyota and Lexus would screw up this seriously and then simply let it ride for so long.
On the other hand some of the fault for that is likely mine since I have been saying that these pressure waves are somewhat normal historically.
How many of you have actually lodged a complaint with Toyota or Lexus about this?
Since I happen to have a "spare" exhauster port and if the pressure waves persist at higher speeds I may add another exhauster port on the opposite side. After removing the reverse flow blocking membrane, of course.
I know from my experience with the Ford station wagons that it didn't take much of an opening of the rear liftgate glass to completely eliminate the pressure waves.
Directly behind the red "street/parking" lamp that's mounted on the rear bumper wraparound "bulge" on the driver's side rear quarter panel. If you put the fan on high and flow on fresh with the vehicle closed up completely you can feel the air outflow behind the rear wheel at the bottom of the driver's side rear quarter panel.
On the RX300 you will also likely hear the fluttering that first called my attention to this.
LC & LX owners, HL and RX owners need your help. Many of these owners have posted complaints about the eardrum busting helicopter noise generated within the vehicle with a single rear window down and clipping along at hwy speeds.
From my own experience I know historically of this problem. My 68 and 72 Ford station wagons were subject to this effect but by simply lowering the rear liftgate glass slightly I could eliminate the effect.
I notice that the LC, and maybe the LX, have cabin airflow exhauster ports which are mounted above the "beltline", one on each side of your vehicles.
Do those exhauster ports and their "high mount" location allow enough cabin air outflow to prevent the helicopter sound in the LC and LX? Or are have you seen the same type of complaint?
For reference read:
Toyota Highlander Owners: Problems and solutions at post 1490 on...
still ask for a better description of where it is.
1. is it in the wheel well somewhere near the tire? yes no?
2. connected to the vent on the left when you open the rear hatch. there is a vent inside the car which has open slots - on the other (passenger side) the vent looks the same but is sealed up?
3. can you see it from outside the car or do you have to pull the lower fender edge out on the drivers side at the back?
02hl...
I don't comprehend your meaning. If anything freer outflow, a more open exhauster port, would lend itself to lowering the interior humidity.
Purpose of vents...
These vehicles are so well sealed and insulated the "fresh" mode of the climate control would have no functionality absent a method for exhausting some of the cabin atmosphere to "make room" for fresh incoming airflow.
I never use outside air as it is hot and humid
There is a large amount of air forced into the vehicle when the Hatch is fully opened and shut.
My 1989- 98 Olds had Two,one on each rear door frame. when you opened the door you could see the small black grills that covered the openings. They usually are on every vehicle some where to exhaust the stale air that accumulates inside. They draw the air thats coming in from the front through them to the out side.
The procedure is pretty straightforward. This is what I remember, but check the manual to confirm it. You have the odometer on the odometer setting rather than either of the trip odometer settings. You turn the key to the on setting while holding in the reset button for the trip odometer. Then the odometer sets itself to zero and flashes, then returns to the actual odometer reading.
After the thing is reset, I think after 4500 miles the maintenance required light is supposed to come on or flash for something like 12 seconds each time you start the car. After 5000 miles it is supposed to come on and stay on.
I don't think there's any way to shut off the light other than to reset the system. The technicians told me, too, that there's no way to program it for anything other than the 4500/5000 interval.
My service technician told me you can't always tell if the reset procedure works. But in my experience it was clear that it worked. So Omygosh, if you tried the reset procedure, and it worked as the manual describes but your light still is on, you should have them check it. It could be a short circuit, or there may be something defective about the computer chip that controls this part of the odometer.
1. Factory Front Floor mats – weigh 3.5 pounds each in the 94. Weigh 2.25 pounds in the 04 – very thin in the 04.
2. Rear view mirror is on a metal post on the 94. It is glued onto the W/S in the 04. Will probably fall off in 5 years.
3. Gas cap only has two lugs on it such that to put it in the door holder, you have to line up the two lugs with the holder(dumb) the 1994 gas cap fits in the holder any which way. Toyota probably saved all of 10 cents on this one.
4. Fuel release lever is 1/2 the size of the 94 (smaller on 2040)
5. Passenger side window switches are smaller.
6. I did not have a keyless remote in the 1994 but the 2004 remote is very sensitive, when I put it in my pocket it frequently beeps the lock or unlock function. Toyota screwed that up – very little button movement will set it off. My mom’s Buick you have to push it down almost 1/8 inch. Least the Toy has a chirp noise – the Buick and most Fords blow the horn. Bad in a city.
I remember owning a Mitsu a while back, man lots of problem.
Since you have kept your 01 HL for a few years, you probably know how good or bad it is. Wondering a few years later, how's your experience with Endeavor.
trade in and
parts availability
My Highlander cost $30,000.00 I have 30,000 on it and can now get $20,000. I still think I will take the Endeavor.
Bought for my children a 2002 4-Runner Limited and a 2000 Rav-4 we love them can not say the same the same about our Highlander or a 2003 Camary SE we bought last year. My son and daughter-in-law reside in rural New Hampshire and take the 4-Runner and Rav-4 everywhere by necessity. These vehicles have close to 75,000 on them with no real problems. I have the Highlander which I dislike because of the brake system and the Camary SE because of the suspension system.
I also believe that Mitsubishi's service is far superior to Toyota's. We have tried three Philadelphia area Toyota dealer service departments and are extremely disappointed.
But only time will tell regarding the true integrity of the Endeavor.
Given that I'm not harming my engine and the fact that the oil companies profits have increased by 50 percent Im not about to pay any thing more for a gal of gas than is nessary.
Also, is it possible to get my car replaced under the lemon law if I bought my car in VA last year, but I now live in CA? Would I have to go through the dealer I bought my car from or can I go to my local dealer?
Are you talking about the same car (highlander) you wanted to replaced under the lemon law? If so, what other problems you have with that car? If not, I think you need to do more research on lemon law in VA since there is where you bought your car.
I had the rear garnish on the tailgate replaced 2 times because the rubber gasket was getting pulled out at the top left corner somehow.
I had the weather striping on the inside of the drivers side door replaced 2 times.
I had the door panel for it adjusted 3 times because the weather strip wasn't touching the glass so there was a lot of road and wind noise.
The driver's door also has a loud vibration that comes and goes. I had it checked out 4 times already but they keep saying everything looks normal.
My transmission makes kind of a rattling or clicking sound if you accelerate slowly up to 2nd and stay in that gear. I might be the belts.
The car also hesitates and jerks under hard acceleration from 1-2nd gear and 2-3 gear. On the high it's as smooth as silk. You can't tell it's upshifting, unless you gun it for a lane change. Then it hesitates again and takes off.
There's also a rattle from the center console and from the front dash area above the clock. And the driver's seat keeps making a squeeking noise. I haven't had these 2 rattles and squeeking noises checked out yet.
I've had my car checked out at 4 different dealers and they say most of the problems are normal.
thoon, what year is your HL? you said they told you your steering column was binding?
Mine doesn't steer to my liking either. If you tilt it as low as it will go and lock the tilt lever its harder to steer. On the highway in a curve it tries so hard to correct it self back to center you have to keep a firm grip on it.
Over all I really enjoy driving it except for the steering. I wish it steered like a lexus.....
You will note that the seriousness of the problem (such as likely to cause injury or death) has a large bearing on the issue. It used to be that the car had to be out of service for a total of 30 days before a claim could be made. Most of your problems do not make the car underivable, just unpleasant.
Can someone please help?
something like holding the button while roof opens then closes the sides open then slides close. then let go of button.
...and then it is initialized for one press operation.
It is supposed to be part of the dealer "prep".
Seeing how the dealer didn't do this I'll bet you still have 38 psi in your tires as well...might want to check this and correct to 30 psi