High pitched noise from heat pump?

Maybe, air in the system.

 

is it louder than the a/c in your last prius? they are all pretty loud.

 

WHAT?????

 

I've had my Prime since July, in NC.

I traveled last week to my daughter's place in NY, and experienced my first sub zero weather (car has been kept in min 40F degree garage to date, and driven in weather to a low of about 20F).

So this was the first time I'd experienced the sub-15F degrees heat pump threshold. I also noticed at some point a high pitch whine apparently coming from the HVAC system. I can't recall if it was when the heat pump was active (that's my vague recollection), or if it was during sub-15 HV operation.

I left the car in NY while I'm in Europe for a couple of weeks (in Scandinavia - land of EV's!), and I'll have to pay more attention when I get back and drive it home, to see for sure when the whine occurs. Though I doubt NY will be in as deep of a freeze then.

Maybe I'll go up to visit my brother on Lake George before I head back south - they were 20F below last week! Good testing ground .

Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.

 

have you run it by the dealer?

 

I might when I get back from Sweden next week, if it happens again. Though back in NC I bet it will never get cold enough to happen, and be impossible to reproduce. Plus I doubt my dealer has ever had a Prime in the shop before, so they will likely be clueless...

 

I live in a very cold place and the same exact thing happens in my heating system. The noise will stop after a while, and it doesn't always happen when the heat is on, but it's fairly regular and it seems harmless.

I think the noise was louder and more frequent when I first got the car in mid-November. I think it's subsided somewhat.

 

My 2020 Prime does the same thing in very cold weather.