Has anyone entered their car and been greeted with a very loud and fast ticking noise coming from the control panel near the air conditioning controls? Several times during the past week I have gone out to the garage and opened the driver's door only to be greeted with this disturbing noise. The noise stops after about ten seconds and all systems operate normally. Any thoughts will be appreciated.

Gene

 

Gene, mine continually talks with ticks and whirs and other unknown tongues. I accept it as the price of technology.

 

Sounds to me like the CD drive is skipping.. Try cleaning your nav disc..

 

I'm with JDN.

My car allways trys to have a conversation with me, but I can't understand the language.
Seriously, I don't think that's something to worry about. s JDN said, the price of technology.
I heard some similar from somewhere behind the idrive screen, but bove the cd and nav drives and never had problems with it.

 

I too hear the noises and am not concerned.....that is until I hear a new one.
I have heard others ask about these noises and received no satisfactory response. I recommend right now that we collect this information anecdotally in the forum for everyone that is curious about it. I have no answers right now, but several unknown motors under the car run for a half second when opening the door after a sleep.
We can hear the seat motors and steering wheel adjustment motors as they respond to a button press. Door locks are solenoids. They are different-sounding actuators from motors. The seat motors sound like servo's and not steppers to me, but the unknowns might be steppers? Other opinions? With more diagnostic listening, we might be able to identify the purposes for these motors.

 

Anyone heard the cooling fan sound coming from the trunk (inside left hinge area) yet? I'm pretty sure it's cools the power amps for the L7.

I agree with Flowerfred the the noise Fly Army is hearing is most likely related to the Nav DVD. It usually spins up on wakeup -- even if the car wasn't in sleep mode.

Now if we could explain the random buzzing and whirring coming from under the car when you unlock or open a door...

 

I have heard all sorts of clicks,whirrs and ticking from the intrument panel,

glove area and both rear wheel wells. I'm told by the dealer this is anything

from CPUs to OBDs for the FTM system. I've heard them from day 1

and have had no problems with them. Although, It would be nice to be able to

check error codes like the dealer using the bay in the driver footwell area.

 

Sorry I forgot to register in above . Does anyone know if the main engine cooling

fan turns on periodically contributing to the noise?

 

Yep.
One time after a long trip where I had the music real loud for the last 45 minutes.
When I stopped and opened the trunk I heard that fan too and was surprised. But in the same moment I remembered a post where somebody explained the controllers and devices in the trunk. It instantly put a big smile on my face... The fan stopped after about 15 seconds.
I am thinking the same... power amp L7... Pretty sure that's what it is...

 

I didn't confirm it but I'm certain my fan was running last night -- 5 hour drive with the L7 at the pain threshold almost the entire time!!