Ok, I am going to give it my best shot. Suddenly the other day while driving, a high pitch even squeal is coming from the passenger side down low area. Ok, here's the hard part to explain.

The squeal or high pitch tone only happens when the air dials (AC/HEAT) are turned OFF. When I turn on my AC, for example, the squeal stops. Weird. We thought the blower motor has something to do with it. But it happens when the blower is OFF. When I turn the blower ON, the squeal stops. At first, the squeal was intermittent. It can still stop, but only for seconds at a time. It doesn't matter about excelleration or just standing still (the car, not me lol)

We took the blower out, cleaned out all kinds of debris, leaves, etc....put it all back together and the squeal persists with bloer OFF.

In other words, it only happens when the car is turned on....moving or not. And, so far, nothing is malfunctioning. The entire system, AC/Heat/Vents, power steering, etc etc. ALL Work GREAT.

It's the kind of high pitch tone that will drive you batty. Fortunately right now our weather is very hot, so I can use the AC (no squeal)

Anyone have even a remote idea what the hell this is?
Many many thanks.!

Cissy

 

Cissy....where have you been? Haven't heard from you in ages!

I'm guessing it's the belt, tensioner....or both.

 

Aren't the flappers for the ac/heat ducting actuated by vacuum ? Maybe one of those lines is leaking and making a noise.

 

Hey guys im relatively new to the forum i bought a 2006 coupe this past feb and im loving it so far.

The noise your describing is the EXACT same noise i heard yesterday. For me it would happen when both the A/C and Fan were off or when the A/C was running. If you run just the fan with out the A/C there will be no noise.

After about 3 hours of investigating and pulling apart we had located the source of the sound. We had removed the whole panel that the glove box is attached to which requires removal of the side panel where the passenger side airbag control is, and also the bottom panel which gives you access to the cabin air filter.

Behind the glove compartment panel you will see the fresh air duct door which opens and closes depending on your settings on the A/C. Im honestly not sure of what the name of the part is but it seems to be some kind of vaccum. We attempted to remove it with no luck but in messing with it the sound suddenly disappeared. There seems to be a leak coming from there. And a little tweak made it go away def not a permanent fix.

Im hoping the noise stays away was good all day today. I don't wanna imagine what they will charge to replace the part.

Hope this helps i know how annoying that noise can be!!

 

Jaimelda
I believe you hit it staight on. I do have the idea if taking her apart again. We were hoping that when we removed the vents things, pulled the blower motor and then reassembled, it might go away. No dice.

I shall show my husband what you wrote. It truly does sound like a vacuum leak and I can hear the "flapper" door open and shut as I turn the *****.

I hate the idea of taking all that apart, but maybe it will work for us like it did for you.

I thank you so much. I really thought NO ONE had this problem.

I am gratful!!!!

Edit*** I want to add that we have the shop manuals for our 2004. We found the name of the part: Recirc Air Switch-over Valve. They clearly show a picture of it with the vacuum hose attached. Now, you said you tweaked it. What do you mean? What did you tweak? The vacuum hose?

Also, just out of curiosity, did you need to turn off the airbag key thingie?

 

I beleiave you are right, Greenie. We are going to check that out!

Thank you!!

 

Danimal!!!! Howdy doody! I haven't been here for so long because she's running great! I still love to drive her all the time, every day. I've been really lucky .... until this high pitch tone LOL.

Nice to see you too!!!

 

Jalmeida. Forgive me for misspelling your name! I am so grateful for your response. We'll get to it this weekend most likely. I will post what we find

Thanks again!

 

Are you at all getting anything that sounds semi like crickets? I get that from time to time like a cricket sound coming from what you are explaining above.

 

Cissy,

No problem hope it'll solve your issue. In regards to tweaking it we were actually attempting to undo the clips that seem to be holding it there and were unsuccessful. But in trying to pry open the clips it seemed to have tweaked it just right to get rid of the sound like I said not a permanent fix but, now with a name of a part if it returns at least hopefully we could order a part and replace it.

With the airbag key i left it on the on position and just unplugged the wire from the back. But I've notice that the light remains on with the airbag key in the on position so I'll have to take a look into that. Might just need to be reset.

Hopes this helps!

 

BP, no I haven't heard any chirping or cricket sounds. When checking the vent area, we did find dead bees and leaves, but no crickets.......yet lol

 

It helsp a lot, thank you!!!!! I do have directions about removing the recirc valve if you want them. They have it as 4 steps....easy to type out. I may even provide a picture if I can. Let me know!

 

Ya that would be great if you could do that.

Thanks

 

Ok, give me some time so I can see what I can do about the picture

 

Removal of Air Switchover Valve

1. Remove the glove compartment (you already know how)

2. Disconnect the vacuum lines (1) from the recirculation switchover valve.

3. Disconnect the recircluation switchover valve harness connector from the recirc switchover valve

4. Remove the recirc switchover valve.

Of course, to replace, reverse procedure. They make it sound so easy! I hope this is what you were referring to.

 

Thanks that will def help if i need to end up replacing it so far though ive been lucky with no noise.

On the side of the valve you should see a red plastic behind the black plastic supports this is where i was really tweaking with a screw driver noticing a difference in the sound, if you wanna give that a shot hopefully itll work.

Good luck and let me know how it goes.

 

BP

Havent hear any cricket type sounds but you might wanna pull your cabin air filter out. When I pulled mine out i had a pile of leaves sitting on the passenger side floor, maybe that help with the sound. After a good cleaning of the filter.

 

Jalmeida
We fixed ours too. Our vacuum hose plastics seem to be a different color. What we did is pushed up on the green hose to give it some slack. Then tied it to the bracket. This way it has room to "move". We think that's what happened to ours. Pics below. I hope this pics make sense. Your hoses may be a different color. We didn't see any black nor red thingies

If you take your's apart again, I would allow the vacuum hoses to be tied so there's slack. This may not make sense the way I am typing it! LOL

 

Cissy

Putting some slack on the hoses sounds like a plan if I have to undo it again I'll give that a shot thanks for the pics.

And by the way i noticed a c5 Z06 in your pic beautiful car. Have a 2002 black on black Z06 down here in Florida both cars are a blast to drive!!

 

That's my husband's car. I've never driven it! LOL.

Well, crap, the noise is back. I wonder if there is a recall on this? Probably not. I used to have the site where you put in VIN to see if there are any.

Anyway, back to the drawing board. At least we know what and where it is......in fact, when he was "tweaking" it, he could make the noise even louder, softer, whatever....and eventually stop.

::sigh::

Thank you!