Occasional constant beeping from bonnet area?

[NightPHEVer]

Strange thing happened a couple of times in the last two days. PHEV (2014 GX4h 'clear light lenses') was plugged-in to Rolec and fully charged - so Rolec had blue light on (the light 'clunks' to green if it's charging). Small, red 'charge' light indicator on dashboard was flashing on and off (I reckon it's usually either constantly on if it's charging, or off if it's fully charged, don't recall seeing it flashing before) and there was a constant beeping from somewhere under the bonnet (or dashboard). The beeping was fairly quiet. It normally beeps around five times in the same way after the vehicle is locked. When I opened the door the beeping stopped. Then it did the same thing later when the vehicle was unlocked, but not plugged-in to the Rolec. Again, upon opening the door the beeping stopped. Vehicle appears to operate normally otherwise.

Anyone experienced this, or better still know what it could signify?

UPDATE: It's just done it again (when not plugged-in to Rolec) - this time I noticed the mileage and yellow triangle were illuminated on the display in front of the steering wheel and the 'P' button in front of the gear selector was also illuminated. It continued to beep whether the doors were locked or un-locked. I can't really tell from exactly where the beep comes from - could be dashboard area, but it always stops when I open the door.

 

[raymie]

overdue for service perhaps?

 

[NightPHEVer]

No not that, was main dealer serviced in November - it's only actually done 6000 miles since new. I've concluded by further observation that the beeping is something to do with the immobiliser/alarm arming itself. It beeps 8 times when the vehicle is locked and the beeps coincide with the flashing of the red light on the centre of the dashboard which I guess indicates that the immobiliser/alarm is working. So I conclude the beeping noise is from the dashboard not the 'bonnet area' as I originally thought. I expect the alarm might be going wonky - not an unusual phenomenon in my experiece of alarm systems of the past.
Mind you, it's be fine today - maybe moisture or condensation in a switch somewhere? Let's hope so.

 

[NightPHEVer]

Still sometimes doing this - last time while plugged-in to the Rolec but fully charged, the red charging symbol on the dash was flashing on and off, but no other dash graphics were illuminated. Continued to beep when Rolec charger was un-plugged but symbol stopped flashing. Then after a few minutes beeping stopped. Random! Still appears to have no detrimental effect on anything though. Perhaps I'll take it to my local dealer for investigation.

 

[Muddywheels]

Think this happened to me yesterday - went out to car and heard a faint slow beeping - red charger plug symbol on dash was flashing but couldn't see any fault messages and stopped when I started vehicle but not when I unlocked and disconnected charger - hadn't driven day before but left charger connected since last used :?

Not sure if relevant but do others recommend disconnecting charger once charged if left standing or leave connected :?:

 

[NightPHEVer]

I leave my charge point (Rolec 32amp) connected all night and only disconnect it when I'm about to leave in the morning. Especially relevant if you're using the cabin pre-heat in the winter (as I've just been reminded on another post). Mine still randomly does this beeping, usually now when the PHEV is unlocked but not in use. There's also a slight 'thunkity-thunk' noise from the electrical gubbins - similar noise to when you press the power switch, with brake pedel depressed when prepearing to move off - just before it starts beeping. Nothing is 'live' though, still in the power totally off position, despite the 'thunkity-thunk' noise which might suggest that something is live.

It's definitely the same beep which always goes about 5 times when you lock the doors. Whether it eventually stops of its own accord I can't honestly say - I think it might as it's very rarely doing it when I go into the garage in the morning.

I've got to go to the local Mitsubishi dealer very soon to get a new windscreen fitted and my air con checked, so I'm going to ask their opinion.

 

[Regulo]

Not sure if relevant but do others recommend disconnecting charger once charged if left standing or leave connected :?:

As far as I can see, once the charge has been terminated by the PHEV signalling to the charger that it's full, the charger will go into the standby condition, with the main voltage contactor disconnected. In that condition it's in the same state as any other bit of electronic gubbins on standby, using very little current awaiting a call to action. Can't see a problem with leaving it like that. Longest I've left mine connected after a charge is 4 days, while I recovered from "man-flu".

 

[Muddywheels]

I'm coming up for a year ownership now and always leave charger connected when parked at home too as it automatically shuts off when fully charged and if I preheat would rather use mains

We've had a few power cuts recently - presumably they will reset charger so it then tries to recharge vehicle which is already fully charged - I read in handbook that charging should be avoided when battery is close to full ie after short trips :?

 

[jaapv]

Is the car not signalling "key still in vehicle" or "trying to lock with a door not shut"?

 

[Muddywheels]

It was locked and had been a couple of days

The red charge plug symbol was flashing so it was something to do with charger

 

[NightPHEVer]

Actually, further to the previously mentioned 'thunkity-thunk' noise that I'm pretty sure occurs before the beeping starts (I've only heard the beeping actually start twice whilst I happened to be standing next to the vehicle), from the electrical gubbins, I've just noticed that it make the same 'thunkity-thunk' noise when I plug-in the Rolec cable into the car socket. So that would indeed suggest something to do with the in car charger? But what exactly do the 8 beeps after the doors are locked signify though? Presumably everyones PHEV emits these 8 beeps when the doors are locked?

My PHEV has been randomly doing this occasional beeping for a year now though, without any detrimental effect on anything - as far as I'm aware. If I open the door and close it the beeping sometimes stops, but not always.

It does seem to mostly occur when I'm in the proximity of the vehicle with the keyfob about my person though. Although whether any beeping occurs when I'm not in the proximity of the vehicle, (what noise does a falling tree make etc...) of course I'm unable to say. Could it be alien life forms trying to make contact? Perhaps in the PHEV they've finally discovered a 'vehicle' through which they can at last communicate. My PHEV DAB radio suddenly changed from Radio 4 to Radio 1 yesterday - and then eventually changed back again!

 

[Yoran]

Doesnt this indicate that the charger flap is not properly closed? I had beeps like that plus a message on the dash when that is the case.

 

[NightPHEVer]

Nope, not the charging flap. There is an electronic on/off switch behind the flap which is presumably the source of the warning if the flap is left open. It was actually going through one of its beeping phases today when I went into the garage, so I opened the flap and prodded the open/close flap switch several times, had no effect on the beeping. I didn't have the keyfob on me at the time so I left it beeping to see if it does in fact stop of its own accord - and it does, went into the garage about an hour later and it had stopped. So who knows how often it does this, could be every night for all I know.

Again, in this beeping session the dash yellow warning triangle, mileage and next service milage were illuminated, along with the push-button 'P' symbol in front of the 'gear' lever, which was glowing green, like it does when the vehicle's on charge. It wasn't plugged in on this occasion and the batteries are fully charged.

I did ask my Mitsibishi dealer if they had any experience of this phenomenon but they didn't. So the mystery continues....

 

[AndyInOz]

OK...

If this is happening when you are "going into the garage" I have an idea.

When I come home, If I put the car into park, and leave it turned on, and get out to open the garage door, then

(a) If I leave the car door open, the car beeps continuously, to tell me the door is open.

(b) If I close the car door, the car beeps to tell me that the key fob is outside of the car, and the car is still turned on.

(That message includes an exclamation mark on screen in a yellow triangle)

The illuminated green P just means your car is in park.

So...

(a) See what happens if you turn your car off, before getting out to open the garage door, or
(b) Leave your key-fob in the car when you get out, or
(c) Close the door, but not all the way.

I'm really hoping that you're not pulling up, putting on the hand-brake and leaving the car in drive, that would be dangerous, and I wouldn't be surprised if the car over-rules you under those circumstances, and puts the car into park.

Andy

 

[NightPHEVer]

Well I wouldn't say it was that simple - the 'beeping' isn't one of the many and sundry 'loud', warning type beeps that as you point out will occur as a result of open doors or leaving the car while it's still in 'park' but not switched off, this is a very quiet beep - the same beep that occurs 8 times when you lock the car (well, it does on mine, I can't confirm that the Australian model does this of course) which comes from somewhere in the dashboard. It's also never been possible to 'make it happen' it just starts doing it - usually quite a long time after the car has been used, or the doors have been unlocked but the car not used.

The green illuminated 'P' does indeed indicate that the car's in Park, but this particular instance of illumination of the 'P' occurs when I'm not in the car whether it's locked or unlocked, and the power is switched totally 'off'.

I can assure you I'd never leave it in 'drive' when I'm not in it! I'm not sure if it let's you either - I'll have to try. I did actually recently see an old lady in an automatic Mercedes leave it in reverse with the engine running, put the handbrake on and get out of the car! The reverse lights remained illuminated so I'm guessing it was still in reverse.

 

[vs2]

If you don't use the vehicle for 24hrs the car will charge the 12v battery every day at 1400hrs whether it is plugged in or not and you will notice the beeping sound plus the other things mentioned.

 

[NightPHEVer]

If you don't use the vehicle for 24hrs the car will charge the 12v battery every day at 1400hrs whether it is plugged in or not and you will notice the beeping sound plus the other things mentioned.

Well I like the sound of this, would make sense - a very plausable revelation - where did you get this information (no mention in the owner's manual that I could find), how come you haven't told us this before, how come nobody else has noticed this? So many questions. It'll be a relief if you're right about this as I've been wondering why for over a year now! Bit of a worry that my Mitsubishi dealer didn't know though. Having said that they didn't seem to know much about the possibility of the batteries being air conditioned either. Although I've yet to get definitive confirmation that they are. Perhaps you know about 'air conditioned' batteries to vs2? Don't keep it to yourself if you do....

 

[Regulo]

If you look at the fuse chart, fuse No9 in the sub fuse block is for the "Drive battery fun motor". I think they mean "fan motor", but perhaps our drive batteries need a bit of fun, now and then.

 

[NightPHEVer]

Fun does sound more fun than fan doesn't it? A reasonably clear indication then that the batteries are cooled via air con when needed, as the Australian technical manual states. It does seem very unlikely that different country spec. vehicles would have a different system, as batteries would get just as hot regardless of where in the world they are used. Maybe I shouldn't have mentioned this in this particular thread, should I put this in my other thread 'how cold should air con get?'

 

[vs2]

Page 84 for the 1400 charging. Cooling and heating can be activated automatically for the drive battery.Some good reading in this doc.

https://lookaside.fbsbx.com/file/PHEV%20Outlander%20Technical%20Highlights.pdf?token=AWyJ8h7qJZiP5kM_RMqN8xiwxFPSkSXuW9NwLVVvI2p4r_Zl3hACaJ-0pfXnQ4W1qax06Ekyr4PZRvtKwRgGHJE0Q_PPVsU2Dd3xQ9dCNzyMvHLk_ouUVUtiFrP_K06Vlm-VEiIl6uVRYjSoHJ5t4Sn_