It drives me nuts to see you guys getting frustrated over things like noises and the such. I wish I could help you more but without being able to hear it first hand. As we were talking about before if it is indeed a frequency that is on the higher end of our listening spectrum.

Not to make excuses but;
Allot of technicians have limited hearing due to hears of working in a large noisy shop for years has decreased their hearing capabilities. If you can take a ride with the manager once you find a way to consistently reproduce the noise it will make it easier to show others.

I have seen the exact thing happen in my shop where an audio engineer complained of a noise several others could not hear.

StevetheTech ~ you've been very helpful and I understand certain frequencies aren't heard by everyone, i just wish they tried a little harder to find out what i'm hearing.

When technicians call Infiniti tech assistance we are supposed to call back an close the file, but in all honesty I have only done that once and I think it is 1 more than anyone I know. The system is flawed and is in need of an overhaul but it does work, if the technician and the service writer take the initiative to follow through.

We can speculate for days (using this thread as an example ) on what the noise could be. Without knowing exactly where it is coming from there isn't much that can be done with this, and you should not have to diagnose this yourself that is what warranty is for.

Being able to replicate the noise is one of the most difficult task we (as technicians) face is adapting our personal driving style to yours (as an owner) to get whatever is happening to happen. Some noises are only present while using a feather touch on the gas while the car is in overdrive at its lowest speed (43mph), personally even when I am driving "normally" the car is still in third gear at 50. If you get the car back without a satisfactory diagnosis we may be able to try a few things.

Stay positive.

However, it IS annoying, but what can we do?

My loaner this time is a G37x. It also makes the noise, BUT under slightly different circumstances. First of all, it doesn't have Bose, or Nav, its a bog standard G. However, this one makes the noise whether your foot is on or off the accelerator, so long as the engine is revving at more than 1,000RPM. If you coast up to a set of traffic lights, with your foot on neither the gas or the brake, gradually slowing down, it continues making the noise, until you slow right down, and the RPM drops below 1,000. As you accelerate away from the lights again, no noise until the RPM gets above about 1200 and then its there.

This is different to the EX in that on the EX tapping the accelerator, regardless of the RPM has the effect of producing the noise.

Just thought I'd share that one.

Loaner cars are usually base Gs due to the fact that the dealer has to lease them from Infiniti and people often abuse them to astonishing levels in their ~1.5 years of normal service. Some dealers use different models to give owners an opportunity to try other models but many go with a special stripped model G that still retails somewhere in the mid thirties, despite being bare bones they still have the same power plant and drivetrain that is common throughout the whole model line.

SG77 ~ i bought my car in august 08 and have taken it into service a few times since then and they have never replaced the fuel pump because it was never an issue but i took my car in yesterday for a few things including this high-pitched noise (that they couldn't fix), but this time they replaced my fuel pump even though that wasn't one of my problems so looks like there is a newer part and they are checking them as they come in.

fyi, my loaner g35 doesn't have the noise.

I'm about done with the car and am either special ordering a 2010 RX350 or a LX570.

Even though the noise has not been resolved, Infiniti corporate refuses to do anything because the dealer put down that the ECM was the source of the noise and they did a couple things to supposedly take care of the issue. While I have the resources to pursue a breach of contract suit, I just don't care anymore and refuse to spend any more time on this. The likelihood of me buying a Infiniti/Nissan product in the future is slim based on the way this whole situation has been handled.

My advice for those of you who plan on keeping the car... keep taking it in and have them look at the car for the issue. Be sure it is noted on your repair orders.

Once you meet the requisite number of instances to qualify for the lemon law in your state, go online, find a free lemon law lawyer, check them out with the state bar to be sure they do not have any complaints or disciplinary actions, retain them and sue Infiniti. I sued them, they settled and I walked away with some money. Took about two hours of my time.

In your complaint and demand letter, you could include things like the fact that the source of this issue has not been identified which presents a safety risk for you and your passengers, it could be an indication that a critical function of the car is compromised and could result in a failure or fire(can't be refuted because no one knows the source), it spans multiple platforms (EX, G Coupe, G Sedan) and the number of times the car has been in the shop is not consistent with the advertised, claimed and perceived quality of the brand.

Maybe if enough people sue Infiniti, they will step up their game and actually fix this issue instead of blowing it off.

Your other option is to email Mark Igo to complain. He is the GM of Infiniti USA and can be reached at one or all of the following email addresses:

mark.igo@infiniti.com
mark.igo@nissan-usa.com
mark.igo@infinitiusa.com

Funny enough... took the car in today for the two recall items and the noise is even worse in the G37 loaner I drove.

My only contibution to the thread is that I find the intensity of the tone is worse with the climate control ON. The radio makes no difference.

On a side note I've also started noticing a lot of rattles on the passenger side and under heavy acceleartion it sounds like the exhaust is about to fall off. I hope I didn't buy a total lemon.

I'm taking it in for service so we'll see if the Canadian Infiniti dealerships have worse or better hearing than our USA cousins.


Modified by echo999 at 5:01 PM 5/22/2009

Good luck - keep us posted!

Cheers,
David

When did you buy your EX and what model do you have? AWD I take it???

I think that I am finding a link here between some items that I am doing much research on.

Has anyone noticed that if you put the car in the ON position and go around to the passanger front side there is a really high pitched sound similar to what you hear inside the car. I can only hear it in the ON position not when the car is running and no sound in the ACC position.

Please let us all know what the dealer finds out.

Something else I noticed when walking around the car outside is that when the camera is on and the sonar is beeping, you can hear it outside. It seems like there's actually speakers on the outside of the car, I guess to warn people that you might back up soon.

I am thinking that since the system is drive by wire, it might make some noise in that area. I am not sure. I did not research this yet. I can this weekend.

Thanks
Ron

Thanks Ron. Well that blows my theory out of the water with the temp change. The drive by wire system, should have no bearing on the weather. I am not sure what noise you are refering to. I need to think about this one. Maybe someone else will know.
Anyone???

I think it means you have your windows down and the music up, hence you can't hear it anymore?!

So I took those sample wav files posted earlier and I played back the 15,000Khz wav file converted to mp3 from the CF Card and he can hear that even at the lowest volume setting. So why in heck he can't hear the real sound is beyond me since I think they sound nearly the same.

I've accepted this sound will never be fixed since only 0.1% percent of the entire human population has hearing good enough to hear it so why would Infiniti invest time and money to fix a problem that only a handle full of owners can even hear. I'm now wearing an earplug in my right ear whenever I drive my car. It works and its about as cheap of a solution as I can find (short of ripping the dashboard apart and finding the sound myself).

One thing I have noticed is that if I sit in the passenger seat and have someone else drive the sound is 2-3 times louder if you listen into the glove box vs the foot compartment. I'm certain this sound is coming from somewhere behind the dashboard and not the door speaker; or any speaker for that matter.

maybe i'll just move to somewhere warmer then

thanks guys but when the weather was much cooler i heard the noise much louder even with the radio on and the heat on....

There is not much behind the glove box. Maybe the heater core, fan blower motor or even the Expansion Valve valve is making this noise. I had a Lexus that the EVAP valve was making this noise. Once changed, the noise was all gone.

I can't think of anything else that would make a noise back there.

Good luck. Let us know what the dealer finds, if you take it there.

EDIT: Expansion Valve not EVAP.

Modified by cjre1 at 10:05 AM 6/10/2009

Thanks
Ron

I meant to tell you about the Expansion Valve, is a valve that controls the AC compressor in simple terms. It is a complicated process. It is the EV or the Orifice Tube that makes the noise.

I have my valve replaced and the noise went away, however, your car is too new to be this, unless if dirt is in the line or the vavle is bad. I have seen this if the Freon is low, this valve will also make a noise as you described.

thanks again

Let me know what they find out. It can be a simple problem or a complex problem. They might not even duplicate the problem. Those are the dealer famous words, ask anyone. "Can not duplicate customer concern". I love to see those on the service records.

If the noise is determined to be coming from the ECM and you can hear that and the G37 is even worse. I am at a loss as to which part of the IC within the ECM is causing the noise. Since you have driven a completely different car and it exhibited the same concern to you. I would love to hear your EX, to see just what you are hearing. Are you positive that the noise you are hearing is in the 15kHz range? That seems pretty low for the amount of people that have listened to it.

A Lexus may be the way to go if a silent numb ride is what you were looking for.

Although the interior squeak and rattle wise is pretty quite there are engine noises and depending on the road surface some transference of road noise through the sport inspired steering rack and suspension setup. There are a few <5 noises that have been prevalent noises that have warranted the attention of a technical service bulletin.

While your case is rare and one of the first I have seen escalate to this point I would again like to stress that a noise that cannot be heard by the majority of diagnosticians and managers involved in your case, will not cause your EX to burn or fail. You may say that that statement cannot be proven but at this point it is speculation in either case. I understand your frustration and throwing in some key words should get you the shock value you were going for. While I appreciate you sharing your negative experiences with us and I feel for the unique set of circumstances you are dealing with I want to stress to the other owners that your EX is not going to spontaneously combust or have a wheel fall off.

If there were a way I could personally change your perception of this car I would do it. I fear that you have already gone beyond the point of no return.

To address noises in general.
As a group, and with a few exceptions, we try to fix all types of noises whether they are originating from the engine or interior. There is no training or advise that can really be given to teach someone how to trace down a noise. This is really a matter of individual perception and not a learned skill. There have been times where I have had to spend a few hours with an owner hunting for noises, we try one thing, road test, try something else road testing, and that is being able to hear the noise. If the investigating bodies cannot hear the noise and do not have access to the appropriate acoustic research devices. It is really humbling to people like me who are used to getting noises in the first two tries. Noises are the single most difficult thing to describe adequately to another person in enough detail that the third party can write down well enough for a technician to decipher. Given the extended game of telephone that takes place in the chain of communication within any dealerships' service department the odds are not so good that a unique noise may be resolved the first time.

You have to remember... this isn't a pet project where it's OK for customers to have to keep going back to the dealer to have issues identified and resolved. It's a car and while it isn't at a high price point, if Infiniti is saying it's #1 in satisfaction in its class on the site and my car is an outlier, I'm going to call them on it and make them fix the issue until the law provides me with another alternative.

My guess all the people here are hearing the same issue and yes... it's a higher pitch/freq which means the noise is directional and explains why it cannot be heard if someone is sitting in the passenger seat. It isn't the fuel pump. It's something electrical in nature...the fuel pump delivers the same amount of fuel regardless of engine speed so that wouldn't be affected if the car was accelerating. This has more to do and sounds like an electrical circuit is loading when the car is accelerating.

The other reason why I took it upon myself to sue Infiniti was due to the lack of response from them for an issue that's being reported across multiple platforms. This could be something as simple as the speakers (dealer didn't want to try replacing because they didn't want to take the door panels off) or more complex like a grounding issue... which I had with a 2004 FX45. Lot of folks bought grounding kits back in the day for the FX due to a similar issue. So maybe this is more of a design flaw with Infiniti's in general.

In the end... I wish I didn't have the problems I did... I wanted to like this car but it's been a complete pain in the a** to own.

Numb ride etc... are typical fanboi responses and you should be above it. I buy good cars, I hoped this was one and for me it wasn't. Lexus builds a great car and plenty of info out there supporting that statement.

BTW I'm balancing my Lexus' numb ride with a 2009 M3 Sedan (since I need the back seat space for an infant seat which the EX clearly didn't have).

Edited by moderator, no links to that place.

Someone posted there 7/10/2009 "tech line says that they (Inf) have received multiple calls about the issue, and that it is a noise introduced by the ECM and that they ARE working on a fix, and that it should be out within 3 weeks."

He later said that there's a temp fix... "They will apparently wrap the ECU in some sort of noise-deadening insulation", but the TSB with a better fix isn't out yet.

I also saw reports of a whistling sound on Muranos: http://forums.nicoclub.com/zerothread/334667 that they say was fixed by TSB NTB08104 related to the "throttle control actuator". I'm not sure if that's the same noise we're hearing though.

Quote, originally posted by sg77 »

A lot of people are reporting this problem on the G37: Edited by moderator, no links to that place. Someone posted there 7/10/2009 "tech line says that they (Inf) have received multiple calls about the issue, and that it is a noise introduced by the ECM and that they ARE working on a fix, and that it should be out within 3 weeks." He later said that there's a temp fix... "They will apparently wrap the ECU in some sort of noise-deadening insulation", but the TSB with a better fix isn't out yet. I also saw reports of a whistling sound on Muranos: http://forums.nicoclub.com/zerothread/334667 that they say was fixed by TSB NTB08104 related to the "throttle control actuator". I'm not sure if that's the same noise we're hearing though.

Any news on a TSB yet from Infiniti. I'm taking my car in for routine service and my dealer keeps asking me to bring whatever news I hear about this forum.

For the record: I hear the noise coming from the front passenger side, virtually at all times, regardless of what may be turned on or off (a/c, stereo, cruise, etc.). I can hear it when revving the engine in neutral, and I can hear it even when coasting without touching the accellerator. When the engine is warm, the sound mostly goes away when the car is at rest (I originally thought I only heard it while the car was in motion, leading me to think it was mechanically related to the front passenger wheel); at first start-up in the morning, however, it is quite loud when revving in neutral.

Fortunately, I leave the sound system on most of the time, so I can't hear it, but sometimes I want silence and this is worse than finger nails on a chalkboard!

Hopefully we get relief soon -- anyone?

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories...shtml

or http://www.noiseaddicts.com/20...nager/

My girlfriend just got a 2009 EX AWD with nav/bose and it's driving her crazy; she says it sounds like the tone on these links. She can hear it in my 09 G37 too. I can't hear it in either car but can hear these tones.

The dealer has the car now and can't hear a thing. While I'm not optimistic, I appreciate everyone's comments on these threads and will be sure to follow up with any progress.