Prius (2004-09) :: Electric Whirring Sound When AC Compressor Starts Running
Sep 30, 2013
I have a 2009 Prius with about 56K miles on it that I absolutely love. Now I know from reading in the forums an my own experience that when the A/C compressor starts running you hear an electric whirring sound. My question is... is it a cause for concern when the sound it makes seems different -- the pitch sounds lower to me now. The A/C still works fine, but I didn't know if this changing sound means the compressor was on the way out.
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I'm trying to add some 134 to the AC to see if it will work at all. it slowly stopped last year. I got a charge hose and a can of just 134a. When I attached the hose the gauge pegs on the high pressure side. I know I'm on the low pressure side and the compressor isn't running. It starts and stops. Should the pressure be that high with the compressor not running?
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My 2008 Prius has started making a noticeable soft whirring sound whenever the engine is running. You can hear it both inside and outside of the car. The sound lasts exactly 30 seconds, then pauses for 4 seconds, than repeats . When the car is turned off, the sound can be heard for about another 10 minutes before it shuts off entirely.
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My girlfriend just picked up a 2007 Prius Touring, 78,000 miles, original owner. It was a private sale and I took a look at it for her. I'm just learning about the Prius and stuff to look for, but everything looked good on it to me. After purchasing it she noticed a noise coming from the drivers side dash. I searched here and saw that dash rattles are common, but this sounds more like an electric buzzing/whirring noise. The duration of the noise is always about 2 to 3 seconds in length, then it stops. There doesn't seem to be any common factor for when it occurs. Is there anything electric on the drives side dash (far left side, closest to the window), that might be making this noise? It's not super loud, you can't hear it if the radio is on.
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So every once in a while, my A/C starts to sound like it's struggling. The force of the air gets stronger and weaker, and it starts to make a whirring noise (much louder than it should be). The temperature is fine, it's just the blowing air.
It will continue like this for weeks or months, then eventually when I start the car (particularly if I'm in my parking garage at work for some reason?!?! - could be a coincidence) the A/C won't blow at all. If I hold my hand near the vent, I can feel cold air - but it's just sitting there, not getting blown into the cabin.
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I have this weird noise that comes from the engine compartment and you only hear it when the A/C compressor is running and the gears are engaged while braking. It sounds like a low whirr that goes on for a few seconds. I noticed that if I shift into neutral and engage the brakes while the A/C is running the sound does not come on, also if I have noticed that there is no noise if the A/C is OFF. Could that be the compressor? the idler pulley? the belt tensioner??
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I ventured into the garage late last night and heard a whirring noise like an electric motor coming from my Prius. I didn't have my smart key with me. I checked the doors to see if any were ajar. The whirring kept going. After a few minutes, it stopped.
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While driving, hear a whirring sound, happens about every ten seconds, lasting for about two...after getting home, shut off engine and this sound continued. Turned on, turned off, still continued. When off, occurs about every 20 seconds.
Continued for the 10-15 minutes I was in the garage. Opened the engine and definitely coming from under the Synergy Hybrid box.
Went out four hours later, and quiet. When I opened the door, sound went on again, lasting for 20-25 seconds....It then stopped and started again, occurring every 15-20 seconds, lasting for about 3 seconds.
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I have a concern about not hearing the whirring sound after shutdown anymore. I know that the sound comes from a small electric-pump that pumps 3 liters of coolant into a thermal container (to keep it hot) everytime I turn the hybrid system power OFF. When the power is turned back ON, the coolant is pumped back into the engine.
I've noticed that after I got an oil change and tire rotation at Pep Boys the sound is no longer there after shutdown or power up. Then after a couple of days I took the car to the dealer to fix the tire rotation (because Pep Boys didn't do a good job at rotating the tires, there was a woo woo woo sound while driving) and the dealer also did a multi-point check, but they didn't say anything was wrong with the car.
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It's been cold, but I've been driving. When I park and power down, I'm hearing a high-pitch sound...like a fàn...it lasts about 10 seconds.
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We are only one week in to owning our 2006 Prius! Question is why does it sound like a motor whirring sound after turning it off? It only lasts 20 to 30 seconds, just wondering if this is a normal sound?
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I have a "05" Prius problem that I'm stumped on. I have 165k miles. I am the original owner and have maintained this car really well and it really runs incredible. I just started to hear a strange new whirring/winding sound coming from the front when driving. When accelerating it goes quiet. When I let off on the gas it starts whirring. Between 40-45 MPH if I let off on the gas it will whir but then when I drop below 40MPH it does it intermittently. It almost sounds like it is attempting to slow the car down . I've looked over the forum and other sites and hear about other sounds like this (ex: A/C motor), but nothing that matches my symptoms. I can say this, it in no way affects the performance of the car, just very annoying. If it is serious I would like to jump on it right away and try for 200K .
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My "05" Prius has 164K, I'm the original owner and I have had great success with this car. I know some owners talk about the loud whining humming sound from the A/C unit which I am aware of but this newest sound is different and after 4 hours with a Toyota tech all they can come up with is an A/C compressor going bad. I only hear this sound after I reach 40MPH+ and then decelerate. It then winds down with the speed of the car sometime intermittently. If I accelerate it goes quiet.
I've also tried speeding up to 40MPH and then move into neutral. It will stop the noise. I'm adding a video and I realize there is standard road noise but if you watch my energy monitor you will hear the noise whirring winding when the green arrows point back to the electric motor. Pay close attention to the viseo frames at 13 seconds, 22 seconds and again at 29 seconds. Turn up the volume. Of course inside the cab it is much more pronounced. I'm finding it hard to believe this is an A/C compressor. Sounds more like an electric motor whining/whirring. I'm concerned about driving my car for safety reasons.
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I recently got my(AMC Eagle '87) car running great again but now it doesn't want to start all the time! Sometimes it starts right up other times it take 5 tries or so. I turn the ignition and it sounds like it wants to engage and begin to crank but doesn't. It makes a sound like VRRR (like its about to crank) then just dies out and WHHHIIRRRRSSssss (getting quieter)... like something is just spinning. I did a couple tests on the wall mounted solenoid before getting rained out and it seemed to be getting juice flowing throw it. No difference in Ohms from testing the S Terminal and then the ground terminal. I also replaced my starter around 6 years ago. Does this seem like a starter issue? Bad solenoid? Bad cable? I really hope it isn't a flywheel issue!
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Prius owner. I have 200,000 miles on the car and have done nothing except change the oil, tired and battery. No other maintenance was performed.
While driving straight the front wheel seems to vibrate some and make a whirring/roaring sounds. When turning to the left the noise is greatly reduced. When turning to the right it still exists.
Any potential causes? Possibly the struts? They as well as all the front end components are original.
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I have two issues with my 2000 6.8L gas excursion. Neither seem to be causing any harm...
1st issue - While its raining, or even just really humid, on a cold startup, my truck runs rough. it almost feels like it wants to die, but doesn't. After about a 1000 feet down the road, it runs normal.
2nd issue - I've started noticing that almost always, I here a whirring type of sound coming from the back. It is not from the brakes, as they are new and the sound is best heard at a complete stop. The sound lasts for about 3 seconds and then repeats after a few more seconds. At first I thought it was the coolant circulating through the pipes that run to the rear heater unit, since the sound sounds a lot like fluid flowing through a pipe. However, my coolant level is normal and the system is tight and I have not had to add any since the only major overhaul in January. At idle, the engine sounds like it isn't idling at a constant rpm, but more like a slight up and down in rpm, but the amount is so slight, it doesn't register on the tach. The only other thing that comes to mind is the fuel pump. Is this sound a sound of imminent failure of the fuel pump? Or is it normal? The truck otherwise runs great at any speed and pulls my boat as well as I would expect it to.
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After the car is parked for a while, when you open the driver side door or just touch the door handle an electric motor starts running. After several seconds it stops. Sounds as though it is running a pump and building pressure or vacuum. Just wondering exactly what it is?
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I went out to my garage a minute ago and heard my C making a weird noise. Like a small electric motor running. I finally pinpointed the sound to the bottom of the car back towards the fuel tank. At this point I thought my fuel pump was powered up because it sure did sound a little like that. I was saying to myself at that point that I am sure glad the car is still under warranty. So I went to get the SKS fob to start it up, hoping the sound would just go away. While sitting in the car prior to starting it, it occurred to me that maybe I should remove the fuel cap first. While opening it a slight "whoosh" occurred blowing fumes in my face when removing the cap and the farting promptly went away. The tank is down to two segments level wise, it is cooling down this time of the day, but I did get back from a long drive a few hours ago, so I can't see how the fuel or vapors were expanding enough to release through a pressure valve. So if you car is farting, remove the gas cap first before panicking.
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I have a 2005 Prius with about 185,000 miles on it. I've noticed a water sloshing sound coming from the engine area whenever the ICE starts up and I'm accelerating from a stop. This sound does not occur when just running off the battery in electric mode... only right after the engine cranks up. After a few seconds the sound goes away until the next stop.
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I'm confused about my PIP. Every night, I charge my battery fully and have 11-12 miles of charge to consume during the day. However, I've noticed that at least 10-25% of the time I'm driving in EV mode, the EV indicator goes off and my gas engine just runs. It's not because I'm driving the car hard - it even does it when stopped at a light.
My only guess is that either Toyota wants the gas engine to run once in a while or else it's trying to charge the Hybrid battery (even though I'm not using it at that time). It's a really bummer because even though I'm rarely out of EV mode, I'm burning what seems like a fair bit of gas - after 300 miles of mostly EV, I'm down to half a tank of gas?
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For about 3 years, our SF (about 125,000 miles) has experienced the whirring/whining upon acceleration whenever the AC was running. I didn't do anything about this as the AC still worked well.
Just a few days ago, while running the AC for a "recharge" during our recent cooler weather, I realized that the AC was not cooling below outside ambient temperature, nor was the whirring present any more. I assume that the compressor finally seized. (?)
To keep repair costs low, and based upon the description above, where should I begin to look to see where the problem lies? Is it most likely a seized compressor/clutch? I am unsure if this is the issue, since even when driving with the AC turned to "Max", I now notice NO detrimental effects upon the engine/power output, which makes me wonder if the compressor actually seized. Wouldn't a seized compressor actually be very hard for the belt to turn, or possibly burn the belt?
I know the compressors and AC systems on these cars are notorious for dying too soon...
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