[camfused]

I wish to preserve some of the noise, maybe cut in half or so, and not eliminate the speaker via a resistor. I tried wrapping the thing with two layers of carpeting, and duct taping that on. My daughter says it is a little less, but it seems to be just as loud to me.

a) Is the spraying with foam my best solution?
b) Has anyone tried sticking a knife in the thing and destroying the cone? I am afraid it will sound pretty darn bad (and just as loud) if I try that, but don't know anything about speakers.

 

[JFox562]

The device appears to come apart. Has anyone attempted to take it apart and see what is inside. Maybe there's a solution inside.

Here's a "What If".
What if there is a speaker plugged into the system, lets call it a circuit board, inside the cube that is required for the vehicle to detect, but the speaker connection can be unplugged without the vehicle reacting.

Or are these tabs just for a mounting bracket?

 

[camfused]

^^^^ I tried to open it (the speaker end) and the tabs just broke off, but it still did not budge.

I see what you mean, but the load of the actual speaker may be important to that circuit board too.

I am on my way to the hardware store to get some spray foam. I am going to try to just encase the whole thing in foam (except the mounting bracket, and socket). I'll report later.

 

[Colonel]

When I first did mine I put foam weather stripping between the top of the speaker and the grill. Then wrapped tight in duct tape and then wrapped again in black tape to make it less inconspicuous.

Then @managerman did his removal technique (resister and connector) and I did that instead. I want no stupid sound...LOL.

 

[gpsman1]

I'd love to know if it is a speaker, and only a speaker.... then a small resistor could cut the sound in half.

If it is a tone generator and the wires are just power supply, then we could build or buy a different 12v or 6v or whatever sound box. Heck our doorbell runs on 6 volts (4 batteries) and while it came with a menu of sounds it lets you upload any .mp3 you want.

 

[Colonel]

I'd love to know if it is a speaker, and only a speaker.... then a small resistor could cut the sound in half.

If it is a tone generator and the wires are just power supply, then we could build or buy a different 12v or 6v or whatever sound box. Heck our doorbell runs on 6 volts (4 batteries) and while it came with a menu of sounds it lets you upload any .mp3 you want.

Why will you not open up your own? It takes less than ten minutes to get at it. JEFox and I have both confirmed you cannot disassemble it because the tabs are way to fragile and it looks like its glued together as well.

 

[gpsman1]

I might but the wife has the car during all daylight hours! ?

 

[camfused]

...
I'd love to know if it is a speaker, and only a speaker.... then a small resistor could cut the sound in half...

Yeah, I thought about that. If I remember electronic stuff correctly, you could put an 8ohm (I guess) resistor in parallel to that speaker and it should take half the load. You would want to put in a hefty one, like managerman did. This way you would still get some sound.

Some sound is important for me, since I don't want noisy Toyota people, or maybe someday state inspection people, or maybe some scum lawyer, to say, hey you have no sound.

Anyway, I ToughStuff foamed mine to death. Looks like a prop from the Blob movie now. I am going to wait until tomorrow before I try it, to give the foam a chance to cure all the way.

 

[JFox562]

First of, I do not have a hybrid so my suggestion was based upon the posted picture elsewhere in this thread.

Second, if it is connected to a speaker directly, the coil of a speaker is not designed to take a large load since that would heat up the coil and cause issues with the movement of the speaker cone. This is why I suspect there is a go between from the vehicle and the speaker inside the cube.

 

[PatsNotaGeek]

I think all the hate for the sound is funny, quite a few people told me they didn't even notice it until I told them about it.

 

[Ravvydoog19]

Funny how much people still post/complain about such a minor annoyance, even after they’ve done away with it.

 

[Colonel]

Funny how much people still post/complain about such a minor annoyance, even after they’ve done away with it.

Who is doing that? I see a lot of technical discussion and those that are saying the noise is "fine".

 

[camfused]

gpsman1, I think your questions are answered here: Managerman's 2019 RAV4 Hybrid XSE Build Thread, in that post.

 

[camfused]

Update: My spray foam mod seems to have worked. Volume is about half of what it was. I'll try it like this for awhile. I may just throw in the towel later and use a resistor instead, for a completely quiet solution. We'll see.

 

[Colonel]

Update: My spray foam mod seems to have worked. Volume is about half of what it was. I'll try it like this for awhile. I may just throw in the towel later and use a resistor instead, for a completely quiet solution. We'll see.

If it works for you...it works! :-D

 

[somms]

The device appears to come apart. Has anyone attempted to take it apart and see what is inside. Maybe there's a solution inside.

Here's a "What If".
What if there is a speaker plugged into the system, lets call it a circuit board, inside the cube that is required for the vehicle to detect, but the speaker connection can be unplugged without the vehicle reacting.

View attachment 150533

I own the non-hybrid but nobody has burned the calories yet to verify if the pair of wires input is @12VDC (indicating internal amp) or AC (indicating speaker-level) using a DMM!?

 

[gpsman1]

I own the non-hybrid but nobody has burned the calories yet to verify if the pair of wires input is @12VDC (indicating internal amp) or AC (indicating speaker-level) using a DMM!?

Apparently not.
That would have been the first thing I did. This is wife's car primarily but we share it on weekends and take long trips in it. We (she mostly) put 24,000 miles on it in year one.

Sigh..... looks like I will have to do the work. I hoped to have a game plan before starting because the wifie will only let me tinker so much. She dislikes the sound but also wants me to tinker the least possible.

 

[gpsman1]

gpsman1, I think your questions are answered here: Managerman's 2019 RAV4 Hybrid XSE Build Thread, in that post.

I did not see any info regarding my specific question, just what value resistor acts a dummy load. Which does not address:

What is the wire?
Speaker wire?
Or 12 v (or other volt) power supply?

 

[andaconda]

I did not see any info regarding my specific question, just what value resistor acts a dummy load. Which does not address:

What is the wire?
Speaker wire?
Or 12 v (or other volt) power supply?

This mod has been covered MONTHS ago.

NOTE: Mods may remove this post if they deem it inappropriate.

All right ... You've waited long enough ...

The wires send an ac signal to the round box (oxymoron.)
Not 12v dc supply voltage but variable ac.
Speaker (round box) has a resistance of 3.4 ohms. If you fire up the car with the speaker unplugged you'll get an error stating "proximity" failure on the dash.
In my case I couldn't find a 4 ohm resistor handy so, I used a 5 ohm 10 watt resistor as a dummy load.
I disconnected the speaker at the plug and jumped the resistor across the plug coming from the wiring harness.
Been working fine and silent for 8 months without any errors popping up.
Dealer didn't even notice that the car was silent when I took it in a couple of times for warranty work.

Apply procedure at your own risk.

 

[gpsman1]

Excellent. My attempt will be to decrease the sound volume without shutting it off. Without using foam.