malachii Posted October 22, 2004 Share Posted October 22, 2004 Hello all, I've been driving my new legacy for about 3 weeks now and I'm loving it except for ONE thing. The terrible whistle that occurs when driving 40 mph+, from the driver side mirror. My feeling is that in a $30,000+ car I should NOT have to put up with that. Of course the whistle is much worse with the window down. My wife complains about it as well. I know it's the driver side mirror because when I put my finger/hand in the area between the car body and the mirror, the whistle goes away. It also goes away if I fold the mirror in either direction. I tried the reported weather strip solution, but that did NOT work. I even tried electrical tape around the gap. That is NOT the problem. It seems to be the shape of the mirror. Because the passenger side does NOT do this, I have hope that this can be fixed. Obviously it's possible for these mirrors NOT to cause this problem. Anybody have any ideas why this would happen? When I had it in at the dealer for my first (gratis) oil change at 1000 miles I told the dealer about it. They said that the cause was the black panel in the window area that the mirror is stuck to. They say they adjusted it, but nothing has changed. I will complain to subaru if this is not rectified soon, but I'm certain that complaining alone will not get rid of this problem anytime soon. I also need to be proactive about this myself. Any thoughts are appreciated. And turning the stereo up is not an option. Thanks, Mal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
D-2.5-GT Posted October 22, 2004 Share Posted October 22, 2004 to be honest with you, i have had the car almost 3 months now, and i don't even notice it anymore...and at first it drove me nuts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
axis008 Posted October 22, 2004 Share Posted October 22, 2004 Someone remedied that by putting a piece of foam inside the space. -ben Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drift Monkey Posted October 22, 2004 Share Posted October 22, 2004 WTLW ;) [url]http://legacygt.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1865&highlight=window+whistle[/url] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
malachii Posted October 22, 2004 Author Share Posted October 22, 2004 DM, I started a new thread on purpose to get fresh ideas. Axis, I mention in my message that I tried the weather strip idea with no success. In fact, I know for sure that the problem (for me) is NOT the space/gap because I sealed it with electrical tape as well with no success. So the basic question again - what could make the driver side mirror whistle, but not the passenger mirror? Perhaps it's a question of alignment? Thanks, Mal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
axis008 Posted October 22, 2004 Share Posted October 22, 2004 Sorry, I didn't read your thread thoroughly. I'm not sure what could be the culprit. You say the passenger's side doesn't do it, while the driver's side does. But you also mention that it could be the shape of the mirror. If this is the case, the passenger side should do it too, right? Regardless, I really hope you can find a solution to this problem. I thought the problem was remedied with that piece of foam, but I guess yours is a little more complex than that. Good luck. -ben Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
05USdmGTgUy Posted October 22, 2004 Share Posted October 22, 2004 I've worked at a subie dealer for 6 years, and they had this problem a few times on the 00-04 outbacks as well. WHat are mechanics usud to do for the older ones was tighten some sort of adjustment on the inside if you take the mirror off. Dont know if that will work for ours, but mine does it alot and it bothers me. Will have them try to fix it soon and update. Mike.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
c_hunter Posted October 23, 2004 Share Posted October 23, 2004 Interesting issue, let me add some info. They probably adjusted your gusset plate, here's info on the gusset from when I installed a new one on my wife's Forester: [url]http://members.cox.net/craig.hunter/gusset/[/url] Unfortunately, a leaky gusset would generate standard "static" type wind noise (as if you had the window cracked open ever so slightly). It would not make a whistle. The driver and passenger side mirrors are normally at different angles, so they can differ in wind noise. I believe the passenger side is more normal to the wind, so it is usually the noisier one (again from a pure wind noise perspective, not necessarily a whistle). I have the same problem, and plan to experiment when I have some spare time. Step one would be to tape over every possible gap, screw hole, seam, etc to see if some sort of cavity flow is causing the noise. If it goes away, you can slowly remove tape until the nois returns to pinpoint the source. Step 2 would be to tape various sorts of flow "trips" on areas on and around the mirror, to see if adding turbulence eliminates the noise. If so, it may be possible to have a single stragetically placed "trip" that woule eliminate the noise. A trip can be anything that sticks up (at least 1/8 to 1/4 inch) and disrupts the surface flow. You can think of dimples on a golfball as trips, for example. Because mirrors stick out into the airstream, they tend to have fresh (laminar) flow, which wants to peel off the mirror and make noise. Turbulent flow (such as what you get a few feet past the leading edge of the hood) is more resistant. Craig Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sirhecubus42 Posted December 9, 2004 Share Posted December 9, 2004 Not to resurrect an old thread, but I just wanted to add brief comment. I'm pretty sure that the whistling noise has to do with the installation of the mirror, not with its shape per se. I believe this because when I bought the car, there was no noise from the driver side mirror (and I drove with the window down quite a bit). Six weeks later, a deer ran into my driver's side door. The turn signal lens on the mirror was cracked (among other things), so I had to get it replaced with a new unit (which is about $300 by the by). Now, with the new mirror I have this same whistling sound which starts around 45 mph or so. Pretty annoying. I'll probably loosen it up and see if there's enough play to reposition it a little bit. Stupid deer. I asked for its insurance information and it just ran off. :-P Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest *Jedimaster* Posted December 9, 2004 Share Posted December 9, 2004 WOO WOO Whistle Tips!!!1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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