blow352

Hey guys I was hoping one of you would know what is causing my car to produce whistling sounds. I think it may have something to do with the cold but I have never encountered this before.

- Sound starts at 22 mph and continues to 38mph then disappears
- Sound not present when idle, neutral + revving engine, parked + revving engine
- Sound seems to disappear completely once car is warmed up to 2 tick marks (4-8 minutes of local driving in 10 degree weather right now)
- Car is stock, washer + coolant levels normal, just completed 15k service 1.5 months ago

Also my brakes squeal until they are "warmed up" is this normal?

Thanks in advance for your help!

stillwaterS6

The brake squeal is normal. It's ice film on the pads. 2 hard stops fixes it every time. My Q5 did that and my S6 does it too. I am in Minneapolis.

Do you have loose trim? Could be wind noise.

gatorguy7

So nothing at 21 or 39 mph?

Jake-AudiUSAParts

That is what he said, specific ranges like this usually mean wind noise. It sounds like a door seal or something with one of the mirrors. Do you have anything on the roof like a rack or cargo bag/box? Could be something in the wheel well too, I have seen these sounds come from all sorts of random places and I usually employ a friend to ride along and crawl around the car listening for sounds. Obviously driving your car with another human crawling around un-buckled is not recommended so maybe have them sit in each seat, buckled in, and listen for your phantom sound. Good luck and let us know if you find it, noises can be very frustrating.

blow352

Thanks for the tip! I'll try the hard stops for the brakes. I did check for loose trim after I washed off all the salt yesterday, and she's in top shape.

Cleveland here, looks like snow for the rest of the week

blow352

I might try that, maybe even with a service tech in the car. No roof racks or cargo boxes. Haven't done any changes to the car recently to cause it, it was very sudden driving to work in the morning sort of thing and has stuck around. I'll keep you guys updated. I tried googling something like "cold whistling noise" and people found it came from tons of different places just like you said.

However, if it were purely wind noise I doubt it would go away in those ranges once the car warms up, like it does now.

gpinard

I have an intermittent whistling noise that shows up after I have driven the car for 5 - 10 minutes, lasts for a few minutes and then disappears. At first I thought it was wind noise or brake noise. I eventually traced it to the heater fan - when I manually turn the fan off, the noise goes away.

Dealer is going to replace the fan.

Mine is not speed dependant at all so this may be totally irrelevant to you - easy to check to rule it out.

nobbyv

For what it's worth, I had a whistling coming from the driver's door area on my B8 S4 that drove me crazy. It was most pronounced around 60MPH; higher speeds and other wind noise would wash it out. My dealer was great; they eventually traced it to a rubber grommet leading to the sideview mirror. At speed, the grommet would actually get "sucked" out of position due to the pressure of the air, letting the wind noise in. They basically superglued it in place (did the passenger side one too) and the noise disappeared.

My advise is try and locate at least the general area its coming from. Maybe have someone else drive so you can crawl around and listen at different spots. This will greatly help the dealer correct it for you.

Jake-AudiUSAParts

+1
The sideview mirrors tend to be the culprit a majority of the time, which is helpful since you know where to start your search. Most cars have some sort of trim covering the interior mount point of the mirrors and removing this trim before you go on your test drive will help narrow your search as the sound will most likely be louder with the trim out of the way. If you aren't comfortable removing the trim just have the technician do it before they drive the car. Good luck and keep us updated.

blow352

Thanks for all the tips guys. Unfortunately, figuring out the whistling sound is going to have to wait...until this gets fixed. =(

Tried to turn left from a stop near the bottom of a very icy/slushy hill and slid into the curb at around 5mph.