Cars making a whining sound around the climate controls. Nothing changes by turning air off/on or defrosters, same sound still happening.

Here’s a video of the sound it is making. I noticed this last winter also....seems once cold weather comes it happens again

 

Can you help give some details about your vehicle year and model?

Maybe it's the servo motors on some GS models. There's a TSB floating around on this.

 

sorry 2014 GS350 AWD. 70,000 miles. I have a video but no idea how to post it on here

 

Check this out:

https://www.clublexus.com/forums/gs-...t-working.html

 

If you can upload the video to YouTube and then share the link here, that would be by far the easiest way.

If it is a sound like a CD/DVD trying to eject or a ticking noise, my guess it's a defective fan in the head unit. If you can share the video, it may help us give better advice on what it could be.

Here are some topics you should read over if my suspicion is correct that it is a defective fan:
https://www.clublexus.com/forums/gs-...se-rattle.html
https://www.clublexus.com/forums/gs-...oise-help.html
https://www.clublexus.com/forums/gs-...l-whining.html

If it is indeed a sound like I described above, I would call Lexus Corporate at 1-800-255-3987 or e-mail them a support ticket (https://www.lexus.com/contact). Make sure to reference Lexus Corporate Case# 1901112018. They are well aware of this problem and I would like more other folks to include their experience so that perhaps Lexus will issue a formal TSB on this.

I recently went through the trouble of replacing the defective fan (I actually replaced 2 of them) within the head unit, similar to how @peasodos, did in those topics. I'm still ironing out an issue, but I might post a topic to help address this soon for anyone that wants to DIY it rather than pay Lexus $2K+ for replace the entire head unit.

Hope this helps,

~ Im2bz2p345

 

I updated the original post and included a video of the sound now

 

Sounds like it's trying to eject a CD. What you would need to do is remove the head unit from the dash with the main harness plugged in and put you ear to it to pinpoint if it's a fan, the cd drive, or something else entirely.

 

I pressed the CD eject button while the whining was happening and CD eject made a completely different sound. I guess I’ll have to remove the unit once I have time

 

Sounds like a CD is stuck.

 

Try inserting a CD and report back.

 

ive never once used a CD in this car. And the sound is intermittent so I’ll have to try next time it happens

 

Try it anyway... see what happens, see what it sounds like. You can also try a DVD.

 

I experience this very same problem during winter as well, and while it is annoying during car startup, once the car gets running it goes away. Really needs to be very cold out for this to occur though.

 

yes exactly. After running for about 15 minutes it stops. Happened last year also only during the coldest days. Did you ever figure out what it was?

 

Sounds like you guys are experiencing the same thing as me if occurs only in the cold and goes away after the engine/interior warms up: https://www.clublexus.com/forums/gs-...l#post10415148

Fix is to open up the head unit to determine the cause, but it's likely the one of the 3 small fans in there. Check out the topics that I linked in my post above (post #5).

~ Im2bz2p345