Just picked up in 2004

how do you know the 12 volt isn't charging?
if your looking at the display screen that's for the main battery pack..
theres not much on the right side to make noise, the power inverter and cvt are on the left (drivers side)
go to auto zone and get the error codes from the computer

 

I didn't quite understand the description of the HV charge display. It isn't the car's goal to charge the battery to the top of the range. It's normal for the charge level to stay close to the middle most of the time, but it will go to the top after descending a significant hill and fall to the bottom after a significant ascent.

If you can record audio/video of the sound you are experiencing, that would be helpful.

 

Could be a bad wheel bearing...

 

sounds like the battery pack is bad from the age and miles or the with the grinding noise it could be the transmission and the battery isn't recharging...hope you didn't pay a lot, Id sell it as fast as possible..I have a good running 04 and cant get $3500 or an offer close too it. good luck

 

What does "right side" mean? Driver side or passenger side?

So what does this mean? You raised the front of the car on jack stands and with the front wheels hanging down, depressed the accelerator pedal until the speedometer read 60 mph? If so, that is not helping the longevity of the constant velocity joints.

I doubt that motor mounts are the problem.

That is likely since you said that the noise occurs only when the drivetrain is under load. It would help if you describe the nature of the noise: is it a rattle, a squeak, a vibration, or ???

 

I think the most common way to share videos here is to post it to Youtube and then link to it.

 

exhaust leak?

 

Sounds like and exhaust leak to me. Take a look around the headers and see if you spot and blow by. I would also pull the spark plugs and see if they have ever been changed. I've had older vehicles that would idle fine, but would not fire under heavy load so all you would hear was compression. Is the engine throwing any error codes? Most auto parts stores (napa, oreilly, autozone) will read engine codes for free.

 

Possible, but unlikely. My money would be on a very mild exhaust leak. Not enough to trip the O2 sensor, but enough to be loud under heavy load. Follow the exhaust all the way from the headers to the muffler and see if you can spot it. Or on a cold morning start it up and see if you can see any exhaust steam coming from somewhere other than the end of the tailpipe.