[aesthetic.rake]

We jumped on the freeway the other day in our 08 Outback 2.5 4eat and noticed a strange buzzing at speeds above ~70 mph. It doesn't happen at speeds below that. The buzzing sounds electronic, coming from behind the gauge cluster or so on the drivers side. No amount of pounding, or holding onto parts of the dash or cluster seem to make a difference.

Once you've reached a speed where the buzzing happens, it's still very random. It's not like the buzzing starts and stays on, it's completely intermittent. And annoying. haha.

I did some research here and on google looking for answers and have tried a couple "fixes." First, I made sure the fuel lines coming through the firewall weren't touching each other. Next, I zip tied the wires down in the kick panel, even though the sound didn't seem like it was coming from down there. Nothing changed anyways.

The noise sort of reminds me of the buzzing sound 80's cars made when the car was running, and you opened the door.

Anyone face this before? I'm about to pull the cluster and see if anything is rubbing up around there but the fact that it only happens at a certain speed and above, and intermittently at that, makes me wonder if it's in fact a noise caused by vibrations.

 

[plain OM]

Check the "rubber" seal around the windshield (outside). The wind might be causing it to vibrate if it's not fitting properly.

If the seal might be suspect, place painter's removable masking tape along the window edge so that it seals against both the glass and the car body (top and sides) thereby covering the seal. See if the buzzing stops (as long as the tape stays in place!).

 

[1 Lucky Texan]

try the wipers too.

 

[aesthetic.rake]

Alright.. as suggested, I taped the windshield seal all the way around. We hit the freeway and no noise! Yay!

Then we thought we'd be clever, and slowly remove pieces of tape until the noise came back--in an attempt to isolate the "leak."

60 miles later and not a stitch of tape left on the car--still no noise.

****

Guess it's fixed? :8: Hahaha

I hate intermittent problems..