While I am driving and talking through the bluetooth,my wife says there is a lot of background or road noise.She said it seems very sensitive to sounds.I can hear her fine while talking although she is at home usually where it is quite. Is there anyone else getting complaints while talking. 2013 limited .
I have 3.6R base and use my Bluetooth all the time to call my patients before going to their homes. No one ever has a problem hearing me, and most of my clients are senior citizens.
My wife and kids have never even asked if I am on the Bluetooth. I've asked my wife, and she can tell no difference between hands free with the Bluetooth and using the phone.
If you've got NAVI, you may have a setting in the menu somewhere, to control both input and output volume. Turning up he input volume will give the mic more loudness.
I don't have NAVI but my Bluetooth seems to work fine, provided I keep the windows closed.
If you haven't already, maybe try deleting the phone from the BT system in the car, then delete the car from the phone's BT menu too, then re-pair it. I've found that re-pairing devices solves any BT problems I've had with other devices.
Where the microphone is placed, near the map lights, the mic panel can actually pop off w/flathead screwdriver. There is quite a bit of room in there above the mic that seems like a great acoustic chamber for road noise..I put cotton batting into the open area above it and it seems to make huge improvements in excess interference from above...YMMV, but I think it made a difference.
Complaints about noise when I'm using Bluetooth phone through my '13 Outback, no nav system, is intermittent. I think it happens most when it rains or snows. It's not background noise, i.e. road noise, but a very loud hum or buzz on the receivers end. I never hear it in the car.
Some days I will call home and wife + kids can talk to me, and other days it is a loud humming sound that they can barley hear me. It is so loud, I have to deactivate bluetooth from my phone and call using my cell phone in my ear.
I know it is intermittent because I called home 2 days in a row, and they thought on the 2nd day I had already went to the dealership and had it fixed.
Other than the cotton batting, does anyone have any dealership experiences to share? Any one of them fixed it yet?
I do have NAVI, I'll look through that very confusing menu tomorrow...
I have a 2013 Outback Limited with the HK audio and have the same problem as John_H. The loud humming on receiver's end is intermittent and I have not been able to associate it with any specific weather or road condition. When it happens, stopping the car and restarting everything also doesn't help. But next day the problem vanishes and everything is back to normal. I drive on the same route everyday at approx the same times, so its harder to find what might be causing it. If anyone has a breakthrough, please let us know!
I have the same very intermittent problem--it's almost always when Iphone to Iphone. Buzzing or high pitch hum and people complain that it's very hard to hear. I end up just shutting off BT on my Iphone and using it--as a phone.
Next day it's better.
I have the exact same issue.
When wife calls me from her iphone and she is on the road there is a loud humming noise in the background.
Took it to the dealership and they said they could not replicate the issue. Of course they couldn't. Like they are actually going to go through the effort of pairing their phones and taking it on the road and having someone on site answer a call from them. What was I thinking?
Anyway, I have deleted the iphone, reset the BT to factory, re-paired the iphone but still the same issue. Gets so bad that I have to have her turn off BT and just use the iphone speakerphone when she talks.
Also, if the fan on the HVAC system is at anything above the lowest speed, it causes high background noise that is heard on the other end of the call. Turning down the fan speed while on the phone has solved it for me.
I have a 2014 Outback bought in August 2013. I had a phone paired and it worked fine for three years. I changed phones and tried to pair after 6 months without having a phone paired. In testing I discovered the same noise/buzzing sound problem on the receiving end as others have mentioned. If headlights OFF, almost unnoticeable. Once headlights ON, so was the buzzing. Upon further experimenting, the sound is heard in the engine block area and when the ignition is at ACC or START. The buzzing stops after turning off and a relay? is heard clicking. The headlights do not appear to dim but turning them ON certainly impacts the issue.
I took it to the dealership and the service manager thought it a electrical ground/feedback issue. At the moment everything is working that I can tell but have an appt at end of the month. Has anyone resolved this issue? Bad/failing battery? Something doing a current draw?
This has been a constant thorn in my Outback experience which has not yet been resolved. It is phone agnostic and very annoying since I hate talking on the phone and driving if not completely handsfree. Luckily I don't hold conversations on a regular basis but this is driving me nuts.
Hopefully someone finally has a resolution because for sure SOA will not resolve it.
I have just bought a used 2013 Subaru Outback and I'm getting told that when driving at night and using Blutooth, the call receivers are hearing a high-pitched squeal and cannot stand talking to me, unfortunately. It happened last night, then disappeared testing it during the day, then tonight, again, the same high-pitched squealing feedback complaints from people I called. Has anyone discovered any solutions?
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