Noisey Ol' Bimmer!

[TheWolfman]

Soooo....

Whilst driving my '84 320i Baur yesterday it started screaming at me...well,more of a whine actually...the kind not to dissimilar to what your girlfriend might make when you tell her that you 'need to work on the motor'.

This is the second time that this has happened since owning my beautiful Arktisblua lady (the car, not the girlfriend) and is a complete mystery to me what it could possibly be...it sounds like it's coming from behind the dash somehow and is very very odd indeed....anyway,rather than me trying to explain it here's a video of it happening in real time:



(Disclaimer - I was not taking camera footage with my phone whilst in charge of a vehicle obviously.... )

Any ideas??!

[Brianmoooore]

Do you have a genuine BMW alarm fitted?

[TheWolfman]

Not as far as I'm aware...although the car did have the GlassSmash Mic sensor thing which wasn't connected to anything...

[Brianmoooore]

If you had the BMW alarm, it would be an obvious rectangular box with a horn set into it , located under the bonnet. When the internal battery in the sounder fails, it can produce a low whining noise from the sounder.
Difficult to diagnose the noise online, since I have no way of telling how loud it is.

does it vary with turning the steering wheel? If so, check the power steering fluid level.
Do you have an OBC in place of an analogue clock?
I'm assuming it's making this noise when the car is stationary, since I can't see a reading on the speedo.

[TheWolfman]

No the car was moving at the time,but only about 5 MPH, I was meandering through the car park to Tesco's Petrol station.The noise itself is pretty audible ,as I say though..only the second time I've experienced it.I'm pretty sure it's not the steering fluid as the steering doesn't seem to affect the noise.

I will have a check for the Factory Alarm but I'm pretty sure it's not there as I installed an after market one myself....

[Brianmoooore]

Do you have an OBC in place of an analogue clock?

[TheWolfman]

Most definetly not... thats one thing I'm sure of at least!

[Contours]

Maybe someone fitted a lights on buzzer alarm and its earthing. Sounds similar to one I fitted to mine. Definitely an alarm siren anyway.

[TheWolfman]

You sound pretty certain of that Contours, and the more I think about it, the more that possibility makes sense...it does sound very similar to some old piezo style buzzer.Looks like i'm going to have to go on the hunt...

[Brianmoooore]

There's nothing else electronic fitted as standard to an E30 that can make that kind of noise.

[TheWolfman]

I know,It sounds really wierd.Sounds like it can't in anyway be mechanical, but literally sounds like it's coming straight from the cluster,I'll have a look in the steering column maybe as there was definitely some kind of alarm fitted at some point and maybe this is a remnant of that.Thanks for pointing me on the right direction guys and easing my worries about it being some crazy mechanical/electronic fault.

[TheWolfman]

Soooo.....today I've finally managed to work out what that bloody noise was.....turns out it's the indicator relay of all things.Makes a whiney sound when it's kind flicking really quickly between on and off.Mystery solved.

[boiliebasher]

Hahaha! Congrats mate