play_gate

My 06 Auto Sedan has used 476 litres to travel 6769km so far this year - average 7.0 litres / 100km. Why do I keep such careful track? Because my beloved drives a Territory.

how come is that? When looking to buy my Rolla, I first hired a hatch then drove two more demonstrator hatches from the dealer. All came with a soft rattling sound from the rear, like plastic against metal. I've read elsewhere that maybe this is because unlike the sedans, the hatches are built in South Africa. I tend to think it's all the flaps and bits of moving upholstery hanging down behind the rear seats. Anyway, I ended up buying a sedan. No more rattles. Still lots of road noise, so I don't think the trunk is insulating me from rear wheel road roar. Try saying that four times.

My 06 Auto does the same thing. Every day on the way to work I can usually pick within ten metres where it will change up to fourth gear. Although now the weather is getting colder, Rolla lingers a little longer before changing up. I just assumed this was a cold start setting designed to protect the engine, rather than a fault.

White 2006 Ascent Automatic Sedan upgraded with Genuine Corolla floormats. 14000km and two punctures.

Well the dealer had a look during the 5K service and said nope, no whining noise there. So I took him for a drive whereupon he said yes, actually there was a slight sound. But not to worry, this wasn't a problem - every car generates its own unique sounds and it's still under warranty anyway. Feeling somewhat uneasy, I began trawling the web and the nearest I could find to my complaint was a suspected case of a faulty final drive assembly in a 1994 Camry. The diagnosis given there was a bit more serious: "it's not going to break suddenly [...] It's just going to get slowly worse [...] The problem is an improper gear mesh between the ring gear and pinion gear in the differential. Make sure your dealer writes his diagnosis on your service slip, so that you have proof that the problem started during the warranty period. [...] Replacing the gears in the final drive is a big job" (see http://www.cartalk.com/content/columns/Archive/1997/August/05.html for the full page). So next time think I'll be taking the dealer for a drive and getting him to document this "unique sound" - just in case.

Thanks all for your feedback - I'll follow up with the Dealer at the 5K Service. Regards, Play_gate.

Thanks Saiya, I tried recording the sound but couldn't get it clearly. Too much road noise. It's like a high pitched whistle in C# like a tuning fork. Always at the same speed, always the same pitch. My dealer doesn't seem too worried (but I bet they'd note it in a trade-in valuation <_< ).

Hi, I recently took delivery of a brand new Corolla Ascent with automatic transmission. Rolla is fine, except for a high-pitched whining sound cutting in sharply at 60 km/h before fading out again. Informed the dealer at the 1,000k service - they recommended I monitor this until the 5,000k service. The sound has grown no better or worse, just slightly more annoying as I wait for it every time. It grows slightly louder under harder throttle. My daughter treats it as a built in speed alert. Was wondering if anyone had heard anything similar and what they did about it?