Toyota RAV4 Wind Noise

Comments

• wwest Member Posts: 10,706

  July 2008

  "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".

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• sdc2 Member Posts: 780

  July 2008

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

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• tidester Member Posts: 10,059

  July 2008

  it is basically an infrasonic whistle
  
  If it were infrasonic then you wouldn't hear it.
  
  tidester, host
  SUVs and Smart Shopper

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• wwest Member Posts: 10,706

  July 2008

  Hmmm...
  
  Then it could be infrasonic....
  
  Do we actually hear it or do we really only feel the air pressure waves...??

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• sdc2 Member Posts: 780

  July 2008

  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).

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• tidester Member Posts: 10,059

  July 2008

  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

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• wwest Member Posts: 10,706

  July 2008

  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".

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• tidester Member Posts: 10,059

  July 2008

  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

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• dantieman Member Posts: 1

  September 2012

  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.

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• fredy3 Member Posts: 27

  October 2012

  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:

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• lizzie07 Member Posts: 6

  October 2012

  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.

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