Been very cold here recently, just like everywhere else. I don't drive the RL that often, I try to drive it once a week to keep everything moving. Lately, after I start from my house, I will get a siren type howling from the dash, almost like the blower motor. I try to adjust the fan speed up and down to see if it changes but it pretty much stays the same, even if I turn the heater completely off. It doesn't last long then it will go away. It's somewhat irregular when it happens, I.e. no rhyme or reason. Any clues???

 

Get under your hood and find what side it's coming from.

 

does this noise occur around 30mph?

 

Sounds to me like it's at idle. I was going to suggest the differential if otherwise. EDIT: Went back and read this.
This was MattW's just before his differential blew up.

 

Ol MDubb... miss that guy... Shoot a vid OP.

 

You mean, CustoMatt?

 

Its definitely not like that video, I really don't feel like it's a drivetrain noise, more like something in the dash. It's tough to tell where it's coming from because so far, it's only done it while in motion. It comes on soon, like 15-20 mph, but on again, off again. Weird.

 

Check your transmission fluid level.

 

Prop shaft bearing? When mine went it made a kind of echoey "howling" sound (like blowing across the top of a bottle) and only at a specific speed and only when cold, and it was hard to localize but sounded like it was coming from somewhere in the dash behind the radio and HVAC controls.

 

I'm betting the prop shaft bearing as well if it only occurs over a small speed range and when cold

 

Crap. Is that expensive or hard to replace? I do most of my own work if its nothing major

 

Both.


I actually don't know how hard it is, but you have to replace the whole shaft which is carbon fiber.

 

Full pop retail on the shaft at Acura in Canada is nearly $3K - that's just for the part, it's actually a simple enough job to replace. Mine was done just under the wire for the powertrain warranty.

 

Mine has been making the noise for at least 4 years now
Don't have a lot of cold weather here, so not that annoying, but I don't know if anyone has reported an actual failure

 

Exactly.

 

Of course... I go out with it today trying to take a video and it drives perfectly normal with no noise whatsoever. I dunno.

 

bd1980 - if this is really a loud sound, it could very well be dirty power steering fluid, which would then only make that sound when it got cold and would go away once warmed up. This happened to me this year. I thought it was actually my alternator whining, but it sounded alot like a siren, in and out of the car, not a whistle or whirr like the driveshaft bearing/transmission made (i also had that noise). Anyway, a simple power steering fluid flush should take care of the problem and should be pretty easy to diagnose by a good mechanic. I think my guys charged me less that $100 to flush the power steering fluid. Just a thought!

 

I am getting this too and I think it has to do with the temperature. The last week has been something stupid like -10 C but feeling like -28 C and I get that noise until the car warms up which is less than 5 mins into my drive. Definitely has to do with the temperature

 

Here is a video clip I took back when my car had the prop shaft howl when cold, before I had the shaft replaced under warranty. It would only do this when cold (-5C or lower, in the video it was -17C) and only when driven for the first few minutes and only at a precise speed as you can see in the clip.