kevins_garage

When driving your R with the one or both rear windows down (all the way or partially) and one or both front windows down (all the way or partially), do you hear a whistling or chirping sound coming from your rear windows?

I have googled this and got a hit or two that seemed to indicate others have experienced this and one fix was to replace the rear window and/or door seals with an improved design.

I talked with a few local dealership SA's and they (as they almost always seem to do) claim they haven't heard of this issue before.

I get it pretty bad at times and other times it's not that bad or almost non-existant. It is not the same as the air pressure imbalance that occurs when you roll down just the rear windows. I am well aware of that. This sounds more like birds chirping or a whistling from the wind blowing over the window seals or something in just the right way. I'm wondering if there is an actual issue that can be fixed or if this is just a quirk of this vehicle and not worth trying to address.

If anyone has any comments, please post...

R. Reyes

Do you have the pano roof? I have the same situation and solved it by retracting the screen partially and opening the rear quarter windows.

OldMBGuy

This is a seriously annoying design flaw in the 2006 and is very common in that year. It was partially fixed in our 2007 in that it only occurred at higher speeds whereas in every 2006 that we drove it happened at relatively low speeds. I would have thought that DBAG might have totally fixed it by now, but I guess not.

In the end we just lived with it because in the 2007 it only really happened above 45mph or so, and we just closed the windows once getting up to speed.

In hindsight, this should have been a warning sign that the R-class was not engineered for for prime time when we noticed it on our 2006 test drives.

Your dealer SAs are either very new to the R-class or are denying any knowledge because they know they can't fix it, it's a very common problem with the early ones.

R. Reyes' suggestion also works.

kevins_garage

Yes - pano roof.

I've tried different things, but there are times when they are pretty bad and other times where I just get an odd chirp here and there.

I'll have to start keeping track of different combinations of things to see if I can identify when it is at its worst/best.

W203Ramos

lots of quirks you learn to live with....had it happen on my '08 and now '12, but my wife loves this car......"happy wife happy life"...... keep the windows rolled up

MSC2254

Wow! I can't believe I logged on here to do a search and/or post a question about the annoying whistling/chirping that my new (to me) R350 is doing with the windows down, and this was the very top post!

I've isolated it to the rear window seals. Pano open, pano closed, rear vents open, rear vents closed: Doesn't matter. The sound comes from the window seals, at almost all speeds. If I have a kid stick her finger between the seals to change the shape of the channel, the sound stops.

So it seems possible that a redesigned/different seal might solve the problem. I wish there were a DIY fix, though.

Driving with the windows up is not an acceptable solution, because sometimes, you just gotta turn the radio up and cruise......

user 823908234

Exactly the same with our 2007. Annoying, to say the least. We don't usually have the rear windows open, but might 'crack' them a little to eliminate the side-blast when driving with front window(s) open. When cracked just an inch or so, it's quiet.

I've been wanting to ride in the second row to mess with it, but MSC2254 has answered that question! We don't have a kid available, though.

jonathan94596

Hi all. I'm on my second R and this is unchanged in 2012 from 2008. It's harmonics to be sure. I love the post about the kids fingers in the strips. Think of a flute and air crossing it creating music. We pay 70K and get bird songs. It's the shape of the car, volume internal and internal dimensions that create the perfect air flow for bird calls. I suppose a redesigned window track might help. It's not the bottom though so removing the "channel" when the glass is down partially may be an engineering feat. It was very gratifyign to find this post. Such a really odd problem. Happens all the time so it's very hard to imagine it was not discovered during the design stage of this car. And that comment about dealers not being "aware" of a problem. Absolute Bull. They never are are they?

PeteInLongBeach

Strangely, I've never heard mine do this. I will try it on my way home tonight (although I'm sure I've driven with the windows open before).

starbound01

This is an interesting post. I've never heard it but I wonder if the windows have been down. Wife prevers the A/C and I don;t drive it often. It would be an interesting experiment

PeteInLongBeach

Well, it turns out mine does it too, but the windows have to be down significantly at speed. It doesn't bother me any more than the general wind noise from the windows being down, and I never drive the car like that very long at speed. That's what A/C is for.

Seems like a pretty minor "issue"...