High pitched static-like squeal

It’s a 2011 SR5. Just about everything stock. just over 180K miles


It's definitely an electronic noise, not the alternator, or brakes or a bearing. I know what those sound like. It's coming from inside the cab, even with the radio turned off. Just started the other day. All the gauges are working properly and it's running and driving the same as it always did. I just replaced the battery, which was so dead that it wouldn't even start with the charger on it. Would only read 10.31 volts. New battery, and it fired right up, but that first day after, the stereo was acting funny, like it was only running the passenger front and driver rear speaker, or no sound at all. Then this morning on the way down to Denver, after driving for about forty minutes, I got a couple big blasts of static, which continued even after I turned off the stereo, which then after a few seconds turned into the crackly, high-pitched squeal that I got to listen to all the way home. Did I somehow cook the stereo trying to charge that dead battery?

 

Is it the stock stereo?

I can't imagine how charging the battery would fry it.

 

It’s got to be a short somewhere. Does it happen with all the speakers?

 

It is the stock stereo and I can only hear it coming from the front.

 

That’s about how long they last.

 

Any idea on how to disable it? is there a fuse I can pull?

 

I have an update if anyone is interested. I took it down to Denver this morning and had a chance to really listen and the screech was coming only from the front drivers side speaker. After couple minutes with a screwdriver and crescent wrench, I popped that unit out and the entire problem went away with the speaker. How in the hell I was getting output from that speaker with the radio turned off is probably going to remain a mystery. The stereo actually was working for a while out of the other three speakers on the way home. So if you guessed that the stereo head unit had gone for good, that's the most likely culprit.