High pitch whine?

I just picked up a 2016 EV+ lease, and when driving at highway speeds I notice a high pitched (9-10Khz or so) whine.

It doesn't seem to be the backlight inverter on the infotainment center (sound persists when I turn the display off)
It doesn't seem to be engine whine (volume changes under load, but frequency is the same)
It isn't the stereo system (It persists when I turn it off)
It doesn't seem to happen at lower speeds (40 mph and under)
It's happened during the day and at night

This may be a deal breaker, to be honest. I don't think I can handle a 30m commute int the morning and evening with a tinnitus ringing every day.

Is this a common issue? I don't think it's me being over sensitive--my i3 I just returned had engine whine at low speeds, but it wasn't an issue for me. Also, my wife notices it as well. Are there fixes? I fear I tell this to the dealer, and they'll "try to fix it" until I'm well stuck with the car but not actually be able to do anything.

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Yes, we've had this discussion before - Do you hear the high pitch sound?
I don't hear this sound. Don't know if that's me, or that only some Soul EVs do it.
I do hear other (not Soul) EVs and especially EV buses making the whine though.

Here's some advice from that earlier thread.

mtndrew1 said:

.... My particular Soul makes the same noises every else's car seems to make. Namely the synthetic low-speed exterior sounds, the high-pitched whine at speed which can be heard reflecting off of buildings with the windows down, and cooling pumps/fans when charging.

As a litmus test, have you tried driving another Soul EV and seeing if it's specific to your car or a trait of all Soul EVs?

Click to expand...

I did test drive another car and didn't notice it then, but it was a short ride and I might have just missed it.

I noticed it as well at first and I said the same thing. However now owning the car for a few months I don't really think of/hear it anymore. I know the sound is there but with stuff usually going on in the cabin (family, friends, music...) it does not bother me as much... if at all.

Huh, I'm more interested in if anybody has had it fixed rather than just living with it.

My hearing is relatively important to my line of work and I really don't want to notch out that tone through repetitive exposure.

unplug the speaker in the front left wheel (inside the front cover).
you loose the "reverse beep" and the "warning key" when you left the car.

strangely, all my sellers unplug this on the demo-car ... :mrgreen: i have discovered this sound when i run in my street at low speed (below 20 km/h).

I'm not sure it's that exactly, but I'm pretty sure there's two things making noise.

I downloaded a spectrum analyzer (spectrumview) on my phone, and I see two tones:
- one at ~11000Hz
- one at ~6300Hz

They're way down, but definitely above the noise floor, fixed frequency, and varying amplitude. The 6300 is most pronounced when the car is under load. The 11Khz one is present pretty much all the time.

The first one is suspiciously close to 11025, which is 1/4 of 44100, and a very popular audio sampling rate for low rate audio. I wonder if they're using some crap audio amp for this pedestrian notification circuit and it's picking up the sampling rate.

The other...I have no idea what it might be related to. I drove another car they had on the lot and used the same spectrum analyzer and noticed it also had the 11KHz tone, though it seemed quieter, and didn't seem to have the 6.3KHz tone.

Anyways, they're looking into it with Kia engineering, supposedly.

And, FWIW, I did the same analysis on the loaner car and my wife's mini van and these tones weren't present, so it isn't a phone induced noise.

this sound ?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eqPjWTO5co8

It's hard to say, but the thing I think the video was talking about was much lower pitch, and I didn't notice it until I was going 45mph or even faster.

Go to this site: http://www.szynalski.com/tone-generator/

and listen to 6300Hz and 11025Hz. Those are the two tones that are sticking out from the background noise. It's like ringing in your ears, not a "hum" or "quiet note of organs".

Ask for a geometry of the vehicle.
you must have a tire problem.


Perhaps a brake PAD problem like the Electric Ioniq rear axle ... ?
(vibrate at a speed, replace by a more tender ... like the Hybrid Ioniq original brake rear PAD).


What is the pressure of tires ?

I assume completely inflated. I noticed it the day I took possession of the car.

Anyways, it's at the dealer now. They're looking at it and supposedly talking to KIA engineering.

It's not the problem sound reported in this thread but I did like this advert from Italy.

https://youtu.be/y12_XGcLfkU

Also

schnort said:

Go to this site: http://www.szynalski.com/tone-generator/
and listen to 6300Hz and 11025Hz. Those are the two tones that are sticking out from the background noise...

Click to expand...

I can confirm that my car does not whine at these frequencies, and I too would be really annoyed if it did.

Sorry schnort, I didn't mean to just live with it per say... Regardless, I hope your issue gets fixed and you become a happy Soul EV customer.

Remember that the motor turns with a variable AC wave and the electronics have to produce this from DC. That is likely the source of at least one of the sounds you hear. The other one could be from other PWM sources powering other parts of the car. These might be the culprits of the lower frequency sound you are hearing. I can hear the high pitched sound sometimes if I happen to think about it. It is right around the same frequency of the tinnitus I hear most of the time.

schnort said:

Go to this site: http://www.szynalski.com/tone-generator/
and listen to 6300Hz and 11025Hz. Those are the two tones that are sticking out from the background noise...

Click to expand...

I can hear this at very specific speeds and torque produce by the resonator of the motor in the reducer.

Most of the time, i don't hear this tones.

This sound is a "normal" sound of an electric traction system.

I have used bicycle and bike with electric motor (and small car with 2x 4kW motors in parallel torque control = 700A in motor wires vs. 3200A in the Soul EV) ... it's produce the same kind of sound but with lower frequencies because of the "not so expensive" control of the current in the controllers.

Note : i don't listen music when i drive. My GPS system is always OFF.

GizmoEV said:

That is likely the source of at least one of the sounds you hear. The other one could be from other PWM sources powering other parts of the car.

Click to expand...

I remember a owner (of Soul EV, but this happend on others branches of cars) that it has a loosed ground wire in the 12v supply and this ... poor connexion of ground generate noise like that.

a small painting was present on the screw base of the ground connexion ... simply that.

Well, I've been told that they're ordering the part.

And also told to bring back my loaner so that KIA US (not the dealership) can pay for a rental, which probably means that this won't be in tomorrow or the next day or any time soon sort of thing.

It will be very interesting to find out which part it is that needs replacing. There's things like the motor controller and the DC-DC converter that are likely to have oscillators in them. Coil whine is very common on computers, probably the same phenomenon going on here.

Yeah, I'm going to do my best to get details on what is getting replaced.

So the service manager said it was the 'charge manager' or something like that (he wasn't really well versed, and I wasn't taking notes).

They ordered parts and it's back ordered....for up to 6 months.

They called KIA USA and supposedly got it promised by the end of the month, so I'm in a rental paid for by KIA until then.

The dealership said they couldn't unwind the lease or switch me to a different car because KIA had already taken ownership and registered the car, but if it wasn't resolved in a month that KIA would probably initiate a buy back.