LOUD!!! "whistle"

Not exactly what you might call a whistle, but like some giant bottle with someone blowing across the top to make noise. And I mean really LOUD!!! Like an air horn on the big rig I used to drive.
Here's the scenario....
Driving to the coast yesterday. The winds are blowing 30 mph gusting to 40-45 at times. A crosswind from the right. I'm going down the highway at 75 mph (the posted speed limit), the wind is almost direct crosswind from the right, and every time the gust hits at just the right angle and/or speed, there is a horrific noise, seemingly from below the drivers door. Talk about annoying!!

I thought the front plastic cap might have come off the running board or something like that. But it's all intact. Anybody have a clue as to what it might be?

 

Does it sound like this?

https://www.tundras.com/threads/driving-on-highway-on-a-windy-day.3937/

 

Yes! Very much like that. Thank you. Sure sounded like down lower than the windshield, but that's sure close to the sound all right. Might have to have that windshield moulding looked at.

 

Ya have them look at it. Since I've changed the moulding on mine I haven't heard a sound on a windy day. Very happy.

 

I went out and looked at the moulding. Can't seem to pull it up around the windshield at all. But at the bottom of the windshiled, the moulding epands into a big flap that covers a fender or hinge bolt. That flap is not held down at all and would be free to flap, vibrate, or whatever. Could well be the culprit.

 

With mine it was that lip in of the moulding, and the wind would get in there and make that awful noise.

 

Yeah, I saw the picture you posted in the other thread. But when I went out to check mine, I couldn't see that lip and couldn't pull it away from the glass at that point at all.

 

Oh! Than maybe it's that big flab than, bring it in see what Toyota says.

 

The flap is also loose at the point indicated at the arrow, not attached at all, and could well also vibrate in the wind. I'll get it checked out.
Or I'll use a little "hunnerd mile-an-hour" tape on it.

 

All righty!! It's now five full years later. I gave up for a while. But I went back to the problem a few weeks ago.

This "howl of a problem" has been addressed in several threads over the past few years, and I thought it best to update this in my own thread. I have found the source of the annoying howl at speed in heavy crosswind/headwind situations. Some have said it was the windshield moulding, and that a newer style had fixed their problem. I could not get mine to stop even with the newer style moulding. I tried everything, thinking the mirrors were making the noise, holes in the door frame where wires passed through. Sealed up everything I could think of, to no avail. I finally gave up a couple years ago, and figured I'd have to live with it.

Anyway, the source of the howl in MY truck is the gap between the front fender and the truck body. It's caused by the wind blowing across it at the right angle and right velocity.


For the past three weeks, I've been running in some pretty strong winds with some Gorilla tape 3/8" strips covering the gaps on both the driver's side and passenger side. No noise. The usual wind noise, but not a hint of that annoying howl.





I ordered some 1/4" screen spline from Amazon and it came today. I've pressed it into the gap on the drivers side. Wanted white, which is made by this company, but is really hard to come by. So I settled for gray.



So it's now installed on the driver side, pressed in, and will hopefully stay put without any need for an adhesive.


Marks are tape residue, gone now.


Gap on the passenger side turns out to be much tighter, so I could not get the spline to press in the exposed portion of the gap, but I did press it into the part at the back of the fender. That might be all that's required, or I might have to go buy some smaller spline.


So that's it, folks. I'm 99 and 44 100ths percent sure that it will cure the noise problem for good.

 

Thanks Mike. Any updates? I do feel like that is the area exactly where my Tundra "music" is coming from... I am hoping for some good news so I can try this to my truck... I have a silver truck, so this grey color may just work out great. Cheers!

 

Still a little attempt at the howl (barely audible) when doing 80 with a gusty crosswind, but it never seems to be able to follow through. Just a weak "toot." But even with that, I'm still looking further. The wind noise overall is much less than before.