[JohnnyCanuck78]

Hi all, I’ve searched all over and can’t find an answer to this. So with covid and a lockdown here in Ontario, I’ve been meeting up with friends for parking lot coffee meets. While sitting there in the car, after about 15 -30 minutes, I hear a beeping sound. It sounds like an old school watch alarm or one of those small digital travel clock alarms. Very electronic sounding beeping. It is like, beep beep, pause, beep beep, pause, beep beep and then silence.

So when I have arrived at the parking lot, I turned the car off by hitting the start button twice. Then to turn all the lights off, I’ve opened and then closed the door. As that stupid seat belt extending thing comes out, I’ve put the seat belt on to make it retract, then taken the seat belt off. The car is a 2016 435i. Only had it for about a month.

The first time I heard it, time was 8:15pm. The next time, it was 7:45. It sounds like it is coming from the passenger side, possibly glove box area. I’ve looked under the passenger seat and in the glove box for a watch, or some other electronic device that may have been left by the previous owner, and nothing. It’s not a loud alarm, pretty quiet, and I have not heard it while driving. Not sure if that’s just due to having the stereo/road noise and maybe I can’t hear it, or if it is something that is only triggered by being in the car with it turned off and unlocked or something like that.

I mean it’s not a big issue or anything, I’m just curious what the heck it is. Both times I have heard it are the only times I’ve been sitting in the car for more than 5 or 10 minutes with it turned off, so no idea if it is sounding at other times.

Any thoughts or anyone else ever hear the same thing?

[bellguy]

I know my 2019 440i after sitting in it a few minutes with everything off and doors closed makes electronic noises from it seems behind the glove box, think it’s the car shutting flaps etc on the air vent systems going into sleep mode.
My previous 340i did the same so I am fairly sure that’s what you are hearing.

[Desertnate]

I hear those vent noises too, but I don't think I'd mistake them for the beeping noises the OP mentions. Also, mine are a steady sound for a second or to as the servos close the flaps, not a distinct cycling tone like a watch/clock alarm.

OP: Just an odd thought. I wonder if the previous owner lost a watch or small timer/clock behind an interior panel or in some other hard to reach/see spot.

[bellguy]

I must have not ingested the info properly, as no you would certainly know the difference from a beep to the cycling of the aircon vents.
Very strange but i find it hard to believe a watch or clock could be lost/hidden anywhere without it rattling etc when driving, having said that i suppose anything is possible.
When/if you find the cause please let us all know as i for one am intrigued as to what it could possibly be lol.

Wonder if at some point there has been a small travel clock IN THE glove box when it was stuffed full and has gone over the rear of the box and behind the lower dash ?

[Desertnate]

Originally Posted by bellguy

Very strange but i find it hard to believe a watch or clock could be lost/hidden anywhere without it rattling etc when driving, having said that i suppose anything is possible.

Do you have children? Any thing is possible when they are involved. When mine were small I was continually amazed how small items which were lost inside the car for months would one day shake loose from somewhere and re-appear.

Wonder if at some point there has been a small travel clock IN THE glove box when it was stuffed full and has gone over the rear of the box and behind the lower dash ?

This is exactly what I'm thinking, or similar, like it fell into another area during a repair and was no longer visable/reachable.

[visionaut]

Maybe it’s the interior alarm motion sensors? Or the tilt sensor alarm? Not going off but activating/operating? To prove it’s not, you could try additionally switching them off the next time you’re going to sit in it with it all off, and see if you still hear the beeping.

Check your engine bay up by the local battery connections (which is right forward of the glove box) for added wiring or devices that might be the culprit.

[bellguy]

Originally Posted by Desertnate

Do you have children? Any thing is possible when they are involved. When mine were small I was continually amazed how small items which were lost inside the car for months would one day shake loose from somewhere and re-appear.



This is exactly what I'm thinking, or similar, like it fell into another area during a repair and was no longer visable/reachable.

Well if this is the case hopefully the battery will run out soon so it doesn't drive the OP nuts lol

And yes, I have children and now grandchildren:-)

[dmaxdmax]

Hold a section of hose to your ear and use it as a stethoscope to isolate the source of the sound.

Do you have any enemies?

[JohnnyCanuck78]

Yeah it’s definitely not vents or anything like that. If it’s not anything anyone else has heard, that makes me think it’s not a BMW thing and is more likely some kind of electronic device or watch hiding somewhere. I guess it’s time to really dig around under the seats to see if I can find anything. I gave a cursory look, but I can’t 100% say there isn’t anything there.

[learntocode]

Check under the driver seat and passenger seat.. there's airway ducts you could inspect.

I remember driving my car, would hear something sliding back and forth.. turns up to be a coin that got stuck in there.

[bagpipebrewer]

We are having the same thing I believe. Start car after 10 seconds a wew wew wew alarm sound goes off near the glove box. Wanted to know if you ever fiqured it out. Thanks

[Centr77]

Originally Posted by JohnnyCanuck78

Hi all, I’ve searched all over and can’t find an answer to this. So with covid and a lockdown here in Ontario, I’ve been meeting up with friends for parking lot coffee meets. While sitting there in the car, after about 15 -30 minutes, I hear a beeping sound. It sounds like an old school watch alarm or one of those small digital travel clock alarms. Very electronic sounding beeping. It is like, beep beep, pause, beep beep, pause, beep beep and then silence.

So when I have arrived at the parking lot, I turned the car off by hitting the start button twice. Then to turn all the lights off, I’ve opened and then closed the door. As that stupid seat belt extending thing comes out, I’ve put the seat belt on to make it retract, then taken the seat belt off. The car is a 2016 435i. Only had it for about a month.

The first time I heard it, time was 8:15pm. The next time, it was 7:45. It sounds like it is coming from the passenger side, possibly glove box area. I’ve looked under the passenger seat and in the glove box for a watch, or some other electronic device that may have been left by the previous owner, and nothing. It’s not a loud alarm, pretty quiet, and I have not heard it while driving. Not sure if that’s just due to having the stereo/road noise and maybe I can’t hear it, or if it is something that is only triggered by being in the car with it turned off and unlocked or something like that.

I mean it’s not a big issue or anything, I’m just curious what the heck it is. Both times I have heard it are the only times I’ve been sitting in the car for more than 5 or 10 minutes with it turned off, so no idea if it is sounding at other times.

Any thoughts or anyone else ever hear the same thing?

Have you eventually found the sound source? The same story happened yesterday in my 530e, and I'm trying to find the cause of this sound.I'll be very greatfull for a hint!

[Shinigami]

I wish we could upload a video. I recorded a beeping sound coming from my dash as well. Less than a minute after start up it beeps/chimes 10 times and then randomly while driving. I got a good video of it but it will not load. Mines a 2017 320i and I’ve turned off all of the speed limit warnings and there’s no selection to allow me to shut off the hourly warning that’s mentioned by some. Only owned this car for about a week and has 82k miles

[vanechand]

I may be late to respond, but I am capturing my case nonetheless.

After driving my car for a few minutes, I started getting this annoying beep noise today. The noise mainly came from the center of the dashboard. Did everything (HVAC On/Off, Media On/Off, Reboot Screen, Belt Engage/Disengage, etc.) people in various forums mentioned to debug the root cause but no luck. The beeping noise continued even after parking and locking the car and suddenly I realized that the culprit could be something with the battery installed. In my case, it was the EZ-Pass transponder that was beeping. I removed it from the car and drove the car for some time, and no beep at all. Yes! That EZPass is still beeping because there is no way to change the battery.